Liberty's Hammer

by Reed Hill

  "Oh I don't know, Charlie," Brodie said. "I tend to think Mac has a point." In his ten years active duty, several of which included Afghanistan deployments with the 10th Mountain, Brodie knew how powerful the U.S. Army could be when it chose to exert force against an enemy at levels close to its potential. If the bureaucrats and pencilnecks stayed out of the decision-making, the U.S. military could be a dominant, dangerous and nearly irresistible fighting force. At least it had been ten years ago when he got out. "If the government wanted to put this down, I think they could."

  Maybe things had changed enough that we weren't as capable as used to be. Maybe it was all testosterone crapola and they were never as shit-hot as they all thought. He didn't think it was all bull. The Army certainly had not turned out to be what he expected, particularly compared to the glorified vision he had from childhood and a new plebe at West Point. Of course, it was all gung ho and balls to the wall when he was at the Point, but still, looking back now, the signs were there for the social petri dish that the U.S. military was becoming. The softening of stances toward gays in the ranks created controversy from his time as a plebe and continued until he got out in 2007, despite the fact that every officer he had ever spoken with on the subject insisted that no good would come from it other than to help homosexuals feel more accepted.

  Women were serving in combat units in support roles during his time in Afghanistan and, despite him being uncomfortable with it, they all pressed forward and did their jobs. Just three or four years ago, women were given permission to compete for all jobs in every branch. Three-fourths of the females at the Academy couldn't do a single pull-up and they want to be SEALS and Delta Force operators? It seemed wrong to Brodie, but the earth didn't stop spinning over them being allowed to try it. None had made it yet to his knowledge, but they were given the opportunity and he guessed that was all right. He kept in contact with a handful of friends who were still active duty and from their reports, morale seemed fine and there had not been a rash of allegations over rape or sexual harassment from what they knew.

  The world was changing and he thought that maybe he needed to come to grips with the possibility that he was just a dinosaur. He didn't feel out of step in his world of family, God and country in the hills of central Texas, but maybe he was compared other folks in other places. When he thought about his visits to Boston, San Francisco and New York, much less the few times he was able to get a seventy-two-hour pass to Frankfurt, London or Paris, they did seem worlds apart life in the valley. Those places were very different from life on the ranch, and while he had no regrets about his choices, he didn't think he would push Sam or Jack toward the military like his father did him, and certainly not Lauren. He couldn't help feeling that it really was a profoundly different world than even just ten years ago.

  "Tell you what." Brodie broke the silence, looking around the table. Ben Murkowski looked like he was asleep, but the others turned to look at him. "I'm going to head back to the ranch and anyone who wants can come with me. I'll get Sara going on some breakfast and we can turn on the TV and the shortwave and monitor things."

  He saw some nodding heads and Kirk Thompson, mewled, "Oh I could go for some of Sara's blueberry waffles."

  "Those of you who need a nap can crash on a couch if you don't want to do it here," Brodie said. "I'm of a mind to knock some of the dust off a few toys, but I don't think we should blow this out of proportion and go running for a bunker."

  "Easy for a guy with a remote ranch with a fortified barn to say," mused Finnegan. "Some of us ain't so lucky."

  "Well come on over and enjoy. I don't have a couch that can contain that gargantuan physique of yours, but I can guarantee you that there will be flapjacks and bacon involved."

  "Sold," Finnegan rapped his palm on the table, "to the man with the bunker and the wife who will cook breakfast for us."

  "It's a barn, not a bunker," Brodie smiled. "Okay then. Who else is coming over?" There was a slow chorus of "me" from pretty much everybody around the table. "Somebody nudge Ben and see if he's coming," Brodie said. "At least I can give Sara a headcount even if the warning was short."

  Mark Simmons elbowed the sleeping accountant, and said, "Ben, we're leaving." Ben looked around dazed and started to get up from the table, and promptly fell on his face.

  "Somebody better drive him," Finnegan said, shaking his head. "I think he needs a nap."

  *****

  Federal Bureau of Investigation - Strategic Information and Operations Center

  J. Edgar Hoover Building

  Washington, D.C. - July 5th, 2017 - 5:54 am

  "I realize that we have serious situations developing. I'm running four CIRGs right now. This latest one is red hot and it's a goddamn domestic," Kevin Margolis hesitated for a moment as his escalating tone had just about reached the point of shouting.

  He could not get anyone with authority in Homeland Security on the phone, and CIA Operations insisted they had no interest or responsibilities in the area. CIA Intelligence had not returned either call he had made at all. This is what frustrated Margolis most about government. It reminded him of when he had a question about his cable TV. It's possible to get the question answered or problem fixed, but it was going to take hours on the phone with fifteen different people, none of whom actually wanted to solve the problem and were actively looking to pass it off to another department. That's what the federal government sure had seemed like to Margolis over the past four or five years – the world's biggest buck-passing institution. And in their line of work, that was scary and damn dangerous.

  "Listen to me," he said to the assistant coordinator for border security enhancement, Department of Homeland Security, "we have certain evidence that we've had serious border breaches in at least seven locations on the U.S.-Mexico border including Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico."

  "I understand Mr. Margolis. You've told me twice now," said the young man the nasal tone. "I have transcribed your note and will leave a message for my Deputy."

  "I have already left a message for him. I know that Secretary Shalitino is traveling on the west coast. I need to speak with the Director of HSI as soon as possible." Homeland Security Investigation was the lead agency within DHS that held broad legal authority to investigate many national security issues from human rights violations to drug and arms trafficking. The HSI Director and the DHS Secretary were never supposed to be incommunicado at the same time, theoretically.

  "According to the information I'm looking at in the system, NIMS shows you have an active file open for 'border security'. Would you like to amend or revise that?" NIMS was the National Incident Management System, which provided a template to federal, state and local agencies track and manage incidents. It was a big, dumb, slow computer system that mostly auto-documented decision-making. It didn't actually help anyone solve a problem.

  "Have you tried HSI directly?"

  "Of course, but the duty officer, assistant Deputy HSI for Arms Smuggling Dean Keller, asked that I look into a satellite tasking for the area, and requested a copy of the intelligence and a summary for the Director's morning briefing," said Margolis.

  "Well that sounds reasonable. Please make a separate copy for Border Protection Enforcement please and send it over as soon as it's ready."

  "I think we need a drone to get in the air and get up some real eyes on the situation," Margolis said, "but I'm not authorized to do that. It needs to come from an Ops officer or military obviously. Keller originally directed me to look into this and it's almost like they don't want to know that I found anything," Margolis said.

  "That does seem odd. Well, is there anything else I can help you with?"

  "No," Margolis said flatly, "I'm sure there's not."

  "Thank you and have a nice morning."

  Margolis proceeded to have virtually the same conversation with the Deputy Director for Operations inside DEA, except it was his opinion that this wasn't a drug enforcement issue. Of course, that didn't stop him from
requesting the intel and a summary.

  Margolis hung up the phone hard and hammered his fist in the air at it. I swear to God, the next good contractor spot I hear about, I'm going to grab and never look back. He noticed that a handful of analysts were watching him, so he straightened his tie and headed toward the door, "I'm going to grab a fresh cup of coffee. Anyone need anything?" He didn't stop to listen to the responses and it didn't matter much. There weren't any.

  *****

  Governor's Residence

  Austin, Texas - July 5th, 2017 - 6:04 a.m.

  Callie stood and stretched. She hadn't been to yoga class in a week and her body was letting her know about it. She badly wanted to sneak off and find a quiet chair to catch a nap, but there was just too much commotion in the Residence. She had spent some of the past hour reviewing the case file for their court appearance scheduled for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, but she couldn't get her mind off this subpoena and what has caused it. The more she thought about it, the more wrong it felt. After a good twist to loosen up her back a bit, she slouched down in the very upright high-backed leather chair next to the fireplace, trying to relax a little in the few minutes she had to review some of her notes on the federal case.

  The more she thought about it, the more she believed that the federal government was basically holding a gun to the head of the state of Texas. Texas was simply attempting to halt the tsunami of illegal activities that came with what had devolved into an open border with Mexico. They were just trying to do something, anything really, and wanted the feds to get out of the way and stop interfering. Shouldn't there be a governmental Hippocratic Oath? When in doubt, just try to do no harm. Of course, the opposite was what occurred when the federal government tried to solve such a big problem.

  The DREAM ACT of 2013 was just such a case of the U.S. government trying to put out a fire with cans of gasoline. Under the guise of bi-partisan reform, a handful of Republicans were outmaneuvered by the Democrats. The bill as originally conceived would allow normalization of illegal immigrants only after "complete" border security was established. In committee, the language evolved into "substantial improvement" in border security and a last minute amendment changed it to "meaningfully upgraded." At that point, the cat was out of the bag and members had less than two hours read the bill before voting. The Dream Act became a disaster for the U.S. Just like she had read happened in 1986, the bill was de facto amnesty for twelve million illegals and another two million more had come across each of the past three years, with no end in sight. The drug cartel war had basically taken over southern Arizona in the past couple of years, and El Paso was basically, an open battlefield as well.

  The new Border Protection law was aimed at not only stopping the flow of illegal immigrants, but also the drugs, guns, prostitution and all manner of social ills that came with it. An estimated 15 million illegal aliens resided in the U.S., but Callie had seen Texas and U.S. ICE studies that showed it was probably closer to twenty million, about three-fourths of which were from Mexico. It was estimated that if all the Mexican illegal residents in the U.S. were deported, that the population of Mexico would rise by twenty-five percent instantly. She had always thought that deportation of illegal aliens seemed harsh, but the fact is that every border jumper commits a felony by doing so. It's a matter of the law, and in spite of the empathy she held for these people, especially those escaping desperate circumstances, the U.S. was a country that believed in the rule of law. What other country has illegal aliens wandering around freely demanding rights and public services? It was simply an amazing phenomenon, without precedent world-wide.

  Pragmatically, there was the problem of the enormous pressure that the illegal aliens were placing on the social services and welfare programs offered by the government. In researching the case against the federal government, Callie had made some eye-opening discoveries about the strain being placed on the state and federal programs by illegals. She had a picture of the illegal immigrant as honest, hard-working, and family-oriented and highly moral people who just lacked opportunities to succeed. The facts that Callie discovered revealed that picture for what it really was: a portrait of pure fantasy. It disappointed her to read the findings, as a progressive. The talking heads on CNN were wrong. As much as it pained her to admit it, the concept of the hard-working Mexican immigrant was simply a myth. Callie bit her lip, and fidgeted with the cross at the end of her slim, silver chain as she went over the summary. She considered the mind-boggling facts her case file showed:

  As of 2016, seventy percent of female illegal immigrants had children out of wedlock.

  Six out of seven illegal immigrant households (85%) used the federal food stamp program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP.

  Most recent studies indicated that illegal immigrant bloat the pool of unskilled labor and cause a 5.4% wage loss for American workers. This did not sound like a lot but the wage loss is much higher for Black Americans (6.1%), Hispanic Americans (6.7%), and devastates those without a high school diploma (9.8%).

  Fully one out of nine children in the U.S. public school children are illegal immigrants, at an annual cost of $13,500 per child.

  As of 2015, 51% of adult illegal immigrants in the U.S. have not graduated from any high school.

  A recent study estimated that the costs to educate undocumented children and US-born children of illegal immigrants would be $45 billion under President Denton's new proposal.

  Last year, $340 million, or about or about 30 percent of the uncompensated costs Southwest border county hospitals incurred resulted from emergency medical treatment provided to illegal immigrants.

  Illegal immigration has bankrupted the California Medicaid program and caused the state to close more than half of its hospitals with emergency rooms.

  More than three-fourths of illegal immigrants, 78%, are without health insurance coverage, and the cost taxpayers bear to cover them $1.1 billion

  The Center for Immigration Studies reported in 2016: "Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $46.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2012 and paid only $26 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of almost $20.4 billion, or $5,400 per illegal household.

  A Pew research study showed that illegal immigrants have an average income of $38,000 per year, and households in this income bracket pay only 6.4% of their income in federal taxes.

  The average household in this income bracket received $48,015 in benefits and paid $4,251 in Federal, state and local taxes - a net of negative $43,764. By comparison for the top 20% of income earners 92% of whom are white, the average household received $20,515 in benefits and services and paid $79,704 in Federal, state and local taxes - a net of positive $59,189.

  As of 2016, one-third of the residents of the federal, state and local detention and penal systems were illegal immigrants, which cost $3.2 billion per year to house.

  A US Justice Department report from 2015 estimates that the two largest Latino gangs in the country have a membership of some 120,000 to 150,000 with 80% of them being illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America and are active in 68 cities in 28 states.

  An IRS report from 2014 showed that $6.4 billion in payments from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) went to 3 million illegal alien households based on completely unverified children.

  A pew research survey of 14,000 Mexican immigrants in 2014 showed that those who entered legally, only one-third actually applied for full citizenship from 1987 to 2012.

  The bottom line was that the "path to citizenship" that was sold to the people as 'overdue' and 'sorely needed' to bring these noble people out of the shadows and into prosperity was a fraud – they were coming to make money and get the free health care, education, food stamps and subsidized housing. In many cases, they were violent felons fleeing the Mexican justice system.

  And as if that weren't enough, the problem of the illegal drug smuggling coming from Mexico was massive and growing. The law was an attempt to address this s
ituation as well. Despite the fact that eleven states had de-criminalized marijuana in the past five years, the illegal importation of cocaine, heroin and crystal meth into the U.S. was simply out of control, and the primary corridor of it was through the border with Texas. Mexican drug cartels dominated the wholesale illicit drug market by controlling 90% of the drugs that enter the United States. A 2015 study estimated that wholesale earnings from illicit drug sales range from $33.6 billion to $59.4 billion annually.

  Since the late 1990s, the five major cartels had been in a violent struggle to control the drug trade. The total number of documented killings in this war stood at over thirty-five thousand, but there were whispers that the total was closer to three times that figure. The Mexican government attempted to control the violence with the use of their Army and Navy. However, the country was simply rife with government corruption – fully one-third of Mexican police and drug enforcement officials were under investigation for criminal activity. Two past Mexican presidencies had allegations of corruption. Despite massive intervention, initiatives failed to eliminate the high level power people in the cartels.

  The drug cartels had essentially built private armies in the fight to dominate the drug war, as well as the government. This had gone on under the condoning eye of the Mexican and international community for the past two decades. Cartels continued to bribe national and regional politicians and intimidate, even murder, local mayors, town councils and police chiefs to gain local control.