By Mary Alice Murphy

The Silver City-Grant County TEA Party Patriots heard from a retired Border Patrol officer at a Tuesday evening meeting. He is vice president of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers. Jeff Everly's topic was the border situation.

"After I served as a Border Patrol officer, I joined the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE," Everly said. "I retired in 2011 after 27 years in the two agencies. Now I'm a private investigator."

He alleged many of the illegal aliens, as he called them, who are coming across the border are trans-national criminals. "We have the cartels in many U.S. cities. I have dealt with 14-year-olds, who had done many beheadings with a machete. Some of these folks are coming across the border to support the cartels. As the problem grows, more of you will have to deal with the issue. NAFBPO is an advisory group, with well more than a millennium of experience."

An audience member asked what was the real reason for the U.S. to give automatic weapons to the cartels.

"The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, allegedly wanted to track guns," Everly said. "I think their intentions were good, but they lost control. I have let drugs go, so I could track them, but I never lost them. I trained one of those officers who was killed—Brian Terry.

"We do not accept money from anyone to do what we do," Everly said of NAFBPO. "We are old, crusty Border Patrol agents who survived. We are trying to effect change among ordinary people. We get tired of talking heads giving out bad information. Border Patrol officers are very specialized. We learn Spanish, the law, and all different kinds of law enforcement practices. We contribute to the security and stability of the U.S.A. We strive to educate people about the border situation."

He said, when he was in immigration, he served to check for communicable diseases, prostitutes, drug addicts and other types.

Everly said the 14th Amendment was passed to give citizenship to slaves and Native Americans. "It was not to give citizenship to anchor babies. These are children born to foreign nationals in the U.S."

"We call for secure borders and oppose legislation to allow illegals to remain in the country," Everly said. "What about those who want to come to this country and do it the proper way? We support meaningful employer sanctions. We support a guest worker program, once the needs have been demonstrated. Guest workers must be limited to what they do, what they benefit from under the immigration law and the program must be tightly controlled."

NAFBPO has submitted a comprehensive immigration enforcement and reform policy to Congress. Step 1 is to secure the borders, including between the ports of entry. "Officer strength is nearly adequate at the projected 20,00-officer level. We're there. We have current and anticipated technology, but we also should know how to track footprints. We must assure adequate spaces to process and detain all those arrested. Illegal entry should be a felony."

He alleged that half of the illegal aliens enter through the ports of entry, either surreptitiously or by fraud. "We in this country train 90 percent of our terrorists. We need more people looking for small nuclear devices that are smuggled into the country. We need to increase the force of ICE devoted to immigration enforcement." He cited many times that he was ordered to let illegals go, when he had cause to hold them. "We need to seek out and remove any aliens found illegally in the U.S., not just the criminals, as well as investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud, including U.S. citizens and lawfully admitted aliens."

He said he has arrested probably 4,000 restaurant owners, many of whom not only hire illegals, but also fail to get a permit to serve food. Everly noted that smugglers charge millions, even billions of dollars that all go to the cartels. He said Russians, Arabs and others foreign nationals come to the U.S., stay in fancy hotels, have their babies and go home with anchor babies, who have U.S. citizenship.

He continued to list the many points in the organization's A Proposal for Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement and Reform. The entire document can be read at nafbpo.org by clicking on the red button in the list on the left side of the page.

One of the major problems is that the U.S. does not, as many other countries do, track people when they enter or have an exit matching system. Another problem are sanctuary cities, which impede or fail to cooperate with ICE. Several can be found in New Mexico, including Las Cruces, Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

NAFBPO does not support amnesty. Everly said the accurate cost to the economy of amnesty, as determined by the Heritage Foundation, is $2.6 trillion over 20 years.

Before he went to other slideshows, he said his organization exists to support immigration laws that protect national security and sovereignty, while protecting American jobs and social programs, protecting public safety and protecting public health.

"NAFBPO believes that that the existing statute, although 58 years old, is an adequate framework for its purpose, needing only modifications along the lines we have set forth in our CIER," Everly said.

He said that several fires in southern Arizona were set in Mexico to burn into the U.S. and be a diversionary tactic for illegals to cross in another area. Everly also noted that between 1999 and 2010, more than 6,000 "special interest aliens" had been caught coming from 19 countries. "Jihadists thrive in Latin America. We could stop the influx with more criminal punishments."

He showed slides of bodies that had been dismembered and/or beheaded, likely when still alive. The audience was warned when graphic slides were to be shown.

For more information on the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, visit nafbpo.org.