Trust But Verify -- Spencer Calls on McCain to Flesh Out Border Plan

 American Border Patrol – 8/28/08

Glenn Spencer of American Border Patrol posted a video on the Republican National Committee Web site that calls on the committee to adopt his Operation 20/20, a plan to secure the border.
( Watch // YouTube Version)
 

Text of video:

My name is Glenn Spencer.  I live in Arizona.  I have a ranch here – right on the border. This is Border Monument 98, in the middle of a major smuggling corridor.  These flags, three thousand of them, were put here by American Border Patrol, an organization, a non-profit, that I run. Each one of them has a message from an American citizen asking that our border be secure.

In the 1950s, President Eisenhower, a man who knew an invasion when he saw one, cracked down on illegal immigration and cut the number of apprehensions down to less than 35,000. Today, John McCain says he will secure the border before addressing the illegal immigration amnesty or comprehensive immigration reform issue. It is time that John McCain flesh out his promises. It is time that he define what he means.

When President Eisenhower cut the number of apprehensions across our border to less than 35,000, he had one tenth the border patrol agents.  He did not have the UAVs. He did not have the fences.  He did not have the technology. And, yet, he got the job done.

We believe that John McCain should reduce the number of apprehensions, or people crossing the border and getting past the Border Patrol to less than 20,000.  We believe he should also maintain the level for twenty months. This is what we call Operation 20/20.

We hope that the Republican National Committee will adopt Operation 20/20, a plan that will secure the border in a way than can be verified.

President Reagan said a nation without a border is not a nation.  President Reagan also said trust but verify.  We want to trust John McCain but we want to verify that he is keeping his promise.

American Border Patrol is a non-profit corporation that I run that I have run here on the border for six years.  We fly the border every month from Fabens Texas to San Diego California and document, from an aircraft, every inch of the border and what is happening.  I can tell you that the government is not keeping its promise.

We are prepared to do the same job under a McCain administration. We’re going to do the same job under any administration.  But the Republican National Committee must flesh out this promise by John McCain.  To do so would, I believe, help the Republicans maintain the White House.

Thank you.