BOULEVARD, Calif. (Border Report) — Members of a group calling themselves the “Border Vets” felt it was their duty to spend part of their afternoon in the mountains east of San Diego pounding metal stakes into rocks and stringing razor wire.
They were trying to seal a gap in the border barrier where migrants have been entering the U.S. in recent months.
“It’s really serious for everybody here that we protect our nation. The holes that we can find (in the border wall), we’re going to go ahead and get the razor wire and do our best to defend our country,” said Kate Monroe, a retired Marine. “Whoever it is you’re waiting to do this for you, they’re not coming. It’s going to be people like us, people like America’s veterans.”
Monroe said the “Border Vets” do this type of work routinely, and it’s something they will continue to do.
The Border Patrol says the public is not allowed to alter, modify or fix the border barrier, and only agents and contractors are allowed to do so.
However, Monroe and the others say while it may be Border Patrol policy, the agents they encounter don’t stop them from putting up the razor wire, and are, for the most part, happy with the help.
Monroe says nothing is going to prevent the group from doing this work, although she acknowledges that smugglers likely will take down their work eventually.
“That’s not going to stop us or deter us from coming here,” she said. “If we can stop them for one day, one hour, one week, we’ve stopped more people from coming into our country.”
Monroe stresses that the group is not against the immigrants who are seeking a better life, but she worries about single men of “military age who are coming here.”
“They’re not coming from the other side of the fence, they are flying here from God knows where.”
And Monroe believes many people agree with the work they are doing.
“The sentiment here in San Diego seems to be, ‘Good, I’m glad you’re going out there and getting it done.’”
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