J.E.#3B

The article “War on the Border” by Todd Miller is one that brings up several important yet interesting points. One of the points that is most interesting to me was the monetary budget of the Border Patrol. Since it’s inception in 1924, the BP has had an annual budget that averages “almost 18 billion dollars” (Miller pg. 2). This astounding amount is the main thing that stuck out to me. As Miller claims, the BP resembles more and more a standing army along the South West border. Aside from the monetary budget of the department, the people that serve as officers are interesting because they themselves are veteran of war. As the article points out, “almost one-third of agents have served in Iraq or Afghanistan” (Miller pg.2). These two factors set the president for blurring the lines between the border and a military zone. It seems like the combined efforts of the US governmental departments have maintained the military zone and with it have proliferated animosity towards Mexican-origins people or those that appear as such. In sum the article is correct in naming the US/Mexico border as a military zone.