Where have you gone, Asa Hutchinson?

Asa Hutchinson, former under secretary at DHS—he was the director of the Border and Transportation Security Directorate—came to visit PODER's editorial board two years ago at our Miami Beach offices. Hutchinson was relaxed and very good natured. During the almost two hour session, we fed Hutchinson Argentine empanadas and we talked about the challenges the newly formed agency faced: the politics of security and of course, the border itself. Hutchison outlined the administration's position against militarizing the border. Let's hope he's on the right side of history on this one. Below, an excerpt from that May 2004 interview.


PODER: Is it feasible to militarize the border, or is it even desirable?

Asa Hutchinson: It would be problematic from a resource standpoint because our military is stretched thin. Right now with their commitments in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Indonesia, the present commitments out there would make it very challenging to say “we want you now to protect the vast expanses of our southern or northern border.” And, from that standpoint, that’s not a traditional
military role.

"Economic migrants

should be dealt with

from a law enforcement

standpoint."

Secondly, this administration supports not militarizing the border but using traditional law enforcement for that purpose. And the reason is these are not criminals, they are not by and large terrorists. They are economic migrants, and they should be dealt with from a law enforcement standpoint. It’s what law enforcement is trained to do versus the military.
They don’t need to be shot.