Impeachment

by Mark Spivak

  “That’s not good.”

  “These are the same people who told me a year ago that the Angels of Democracy were harmless.”

  “Well, the problem with them is that they’re not actually breaking any laws.”

  “Right.” Atalas opened his eyes. “You know, when I was a kid, I used to go to the movies every Saturday. The FBI would be hunting the bad guys. And I remember that the G-men always seemed to swoop down at the last moment and make the arrest, with J. Edgar Hoover in the lead.”

  Bassen grinned. “Hoover was a piece of work.”

  “Undoubtedly. But the irony of this is that I’m supposed to be the most powerful leader in the world, and nobody can give me a straight answer on anything. I’m actually started to feel sorry for George Cane.”

  “Don’t get carried away.”

  “In a sense, I’m worse off than he was. He could actually blame bad intelligence for the invasion of Sumeristan.”

  “I doubt that he received bad intelligence on that. He probably made it up.”

  “Probably so. But there’s one thing I can tell you.” The President spread aerial photos of the detention camps on the desk. “Did your kids ever go to summer camp?”

  “A long time ago, yes.”

  “Well, mine did too. And when I look at these pictures, there are a number of things missing. There’s no baseball diamond. There’s no soccer field or archery range. There’s no swimming pool. These aren’t supposed to be summer camps, Curt. And you don’t need to be a G-man to figure that out.”

  “Of course they’re not. With all due respect, sir, I’ve been around politics longer than you have. And there’s obviously a pattern here. There’s some connection between the Angels of Democracy and whoever built these camps.”

  “Agreed. But since nobody can tell me what it is, it really doesn’t matter.”

  “Well, there’s that study commissioned by the Democratic National Committee that establishes a link between the Angels of Democracy and the Hafts.”

  “I’ve read it. But it doesn’t connect the dots between the Hafts, the Angels and whoever built the camps.”

  “This whole immigration operation was planned by someone, and it cost a huge amount of money. It had to be backed by somebody like the Haft brothers. No one else would have the resources to do it.”

  “Curt, I’m tired of blaming everything on the big bad Hafts. The question is, what do we do about these camps?”

  “We have to allow the detainees to be transferred there. I don’t see how there’s any choice.”

  “And you don’t think this is a trap?”

  “It may well be. But I don’t see how we can continue to keep them in the border jails. The press is eating you alive. And the problem with that, as you know, is that sooner or later appearance becomes reality. People listen to this stuff every day on the news, and that’s the version that becomes true for them.”

  “I’m not sure I see a downside to transferring them to the camps.”

  “I can’t think of one either, except that they can’t stay there forever. We have to move more quickly on getting these people processed.”

  “We’ve got the judges lined up. We’re setting up the tribunals. You just can’t do these things overnight.”

  “I’m aware of that. But if you could announce some kind of schedule for accelerating the hearings, that would help.” Bassen paused. “Have you thought, sir, about the possibility that you might have to throw in the towel and begin deportations?”

  “No way.” Atalas shook his head. “The Hispanic community would go crazy, and groups like Criollos Unidos would carve me up ten ways from Sunday. You think I’m perceived as indecisive now? Just wait until the deportations begin.”

  “Listen, there’s a criminal element among the detainees in those jails—everybody knows that. I don’t see how anybody could object if you isolated the group that had felony records back in Mexico, put them on buses and sent them on their way. It would probably be perceived by most people as a positive step in the right direction. Even folks like Criollos Unidos couldn’t complain about something like that.”

  “Hmm,” mused the President. “That’s a good thought. I’ll put that in the back of my mind. And I agree, it would probably work.”

  “It would—but only if you do it in the near future.”

  Chapter 28

  On Sunday, July 20, The Washington Post printed the following text in a box on the front page above the fold:

  Exclusive Interview with Jasper Marshall, Leader of the Angels of Democracy

  Our correspondent on the Mexican border, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Peter Schoenfeld, recently became the first reporter to obtain an interview with Jasper Marshall, the founder and leader of the Angels of Democracy. We are running the story in our magazine section, since it contains personal observations that transcend pure news. The interview has been edited for space, with repetitious material omitted, but is faithful to the spirit of the conversation between the two men.

  Special to The Washington Post

  I recently became the first journalist to secure an interview with Jasper Marshall, the guiding force behind the current refugee crisis on the Mexican border. For the past three months, Mr. Marshall and his Angels of Democracy have been assisting the U.S. Border Patrol in apprehending illegal immigrants. Some 40,000 of those immigrants have been housed in county jails until recently, when they began to be transported to facilities donated by a group calling themselves Citizens for a Concerned America.

  The interview was several months in the making, and coordinating it required extensive follow-up with Marshall’s lieutenants. Simply put, Jasper Marshall has been a busy man. He has been spending his time supervising some 2,000 field agents in five different locations throughout Texas and Southern California.

  We met at the Angels of Democracy headquarters near Brownsville. Jasper Marshall entered the room alone and greeted me with a firm handshake. He is a pleasant and personable man who uses his genial manner to deliver a message that is radical and disturbing at times. Underneath his geniality, I sensed a quick intelligence and a genuine desire to help humanity, even if a number of people disagree with his methods.

  Q. Mr. Marshall, the current refugee crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border has stimulated a great deal of interest in the Angels of Democracy. Please tell us a little bit about the group, how and why it started, and what its aims are.

  I founded the Angels of Democracy about 12 years ago as a volunteer organization dedicated to improving life in America. In our mission statement, which has been quoted numerous times in press reports, we say that our primary goal is “to function as Good Samaritans and assist law enforcement to reach a better state of safety and security for our families, neighbors and friends.” We can examine the details, and I’m sure you’ll ask me about them, but that’s it in a nutshell.

  How many members are there?

  We currently number around 3,000, many of whom joined within the past year. The original core of the group comprised around 800-900 members.

  How many of those are volunteers?

  Most of the original members were people donating their time and services. The majority of the recent recruits are being paid, which we think is fair given that their work is full-time.

  Where does your funding come from? You know, there are people who have analyzed your operation from the outside and have estimated that the amount of money needed to support current activities on the Mexican border would number in the millions, perhaps the tens of millions.

  The bulk of our operating budget comes from donations. We’ve been very fortunate in attracting generous people who share our beliefs and actually put their money where their mouth is.

  Given the scope of your border project, you must have some very large donors.

  We have both large and small donors, and ev
erything in between. With all due respect to you, some of the people looking at us from the outside are members of the press who do not share our belief system. If someone is confronting a large and sustained body of opinion that conflicts with their own beliefs, the first thing they’re likely to think is that there’s a conspiracy afoot. For many people, that’s the only way to explain the tidal wave of feeling on the other side of the fence, the only way they can accept it.

  The fact is that many citizens in this country feel frustrated and disenfranchised. These people are usually portrayed in the press as militia members, gun nuts, or recluses on the order of Ted Kazcynski. And I have no doubt that some of them are, but I also think that number is very small, a tiny minority. But it’s comforting to people in the mainstream to paint those who disagree with them as dangerous lunatics, because that gives them a basis for dismissing their opinions. If you look back through history, you’ll see that there’s a pattern for this. Up until a few centuries ago, it was still acceptable to burn heretics at the stake.

  I trust that none of the Angels of Democracy have been burned at the stake thus far?

  No [laughs], but I’m sure there are people who would do it if they could.

  What do you have against illegal immigration?

  Only the fact that it’s illegal, that the people sneaking across the border from Mexico are breaking the law. This is the point that always seems to get lost in the discussion. If you want to get technical about it, they’re not immigrants at all—they’re criminals. I think you referred to them before as refugees. The Geneva Convention on Refugees restricts the use of the term to people who emigrate because of fear of persecution based on their race, religion or political opinions, things of that nature. That’s not the case here.

  Don’t you think that some of the immigrants crossing from Mexico are coming to the U.S. because they’re afraid of the climate of violence created by the drug lords?

  For some of them, yes. But it’s up to them to tell us that. We have a procedure for those people to apply for asylum, which would probably be granted.

  You seem to have made quite a study about this.

  Well [laughs], I think you’re saying that for a guy who spent most of his working life managing a Home Depot store, I’m surprisingly well informed. And that’s really part of my point: there are many citizens out there who have taken the time to educate themselves about our system of government, and yes, they’re very well informed, despite the fact that they may have worked at unskilled or blue-collar jobs. Appearances are sometimes deceptive.

  I love Home Depot—I’m in there almost every weekend, working on one project or another. But you have to admit that very few people in your situation get to the point where they are leading a movement.

  I have no idea whether I’m leading a movement. Here’s what I think I’m doing: accepting donations from like-minded citizens and using that money to assist the U.S. Border Patrol in apprehending people crossing the border illegally. As of today, we have something like 40,000 detainees sitting in jail. These are people who normally would have slipped through the cracks and evaded the authorities.

  I gather you don’t subscribe to the theory that these immigrants are doing jobs that U.S. citizens wouldn’t take?

  They’re primarily doing low-wage jobs, but there’s no way to tell whether U.S. citizens would do them or not. All we know is that these jobs exist, and when illegal immigrants show up to apply for them, the jobs haven’t yet been filled.

  There’s a group called the Concerned Citizens of America that has volunteered the use of three tent cities to house the detainees, and the process of transferring them has already begun. Are you familiar with this group?

  I’ve heard of them, but I’m not familiar with them. But I think what they’re doing is a humanitarian gesture that should be applauded, rather than viewed with suspicion. We seem to have lost sight of the fact that it’s the responsibility of the federal government to secure the border, and it’s certainly their responsibility to care for detainees in a humane way.

  A lot of people are curious about your background, not to mention your politics. Do you mind if I ask?

  I’m an independent, because I believe in examining each candidate’s position carefully before coming to a decision, and I think that process is easier if you don’t subscribe to a set political ideology. I’m from Pasadena, married, and have two children who are grown. As I said, I spent most of my working life managing a Home Depot store.

  What were the Angels of Democracy doing for the first ten years or so, before you began your activities on the border?

  Exactly what we’re doing now—assisting law enforcement in keeping the peace. We functioned as volunteer and unpaid security at any number of public events, ranging from rock concerts to political rallies. We do not claim to have police powers, and frankly wouldn’t want any. We only get involved if we see a crime being committed, in which case our role is to detain the criminal until the proper authorities can arrive. I know we’ve been described as a militia group, but nothing could be further from the case.

  Well, you seem like an eminently reasonable man. So I have to ask you, as a reasonable man, what’s the right thing to do with all these immigrants piling up on the border? Should they be deported?

  I think we should follow the law. The President has said that they deserve hearings before being deported, which sounds fair. I believe he feels that some of the detainees may be asylum seekers, even though they didn’t identify themselves that way and apply for asylum.

  I’d like to go back to something you touched on earlier, when you asked what I have against immigration. My own ancestors were immigrants, going back three or four generations, and I’d bet that yours were as well—that’s the case with most Americans. I think the President made this point in his last speech. But I’d also bet that your ancestors came here legally, as mine did. And I think we sometimes overlook the fact that America still accepts more immigrants than any nation in the world, close to a million each year. But those are people who have followed the law and come to this country legally.

  If the current rate of arrests continues, we could have more than 100,000 people detained at the border by the end of the year. Many members of the public already view the situation as a humanitarian crisis. Do you feel even slightly responsible for that?

  Not at all—that’s like saying that police are responsible for crime, or that doctors cause disease.

  Let’s look at the facts. Most estimates put the number of illegal immigrants at around 600,000 annually. Roughly half of them come across the Mexican border. Up to this point, we’ve been apprehending a small fraction of those people. So I’d say yes, it’s entirely possible we could have 100,000 in custody shortly.

  Just looking at it from a logistical standpoint, what are we going to do with all those people?

  I have no idea. I’d say it’s the responsibility of our elected officials to figure out what to do with them. That’s a responsibility they’ve largely been able to evade so far, because they haven’t been willing or able to catch them.

  I’d like to go back to the finances of your operation for a moment. Paying the salaries of 2,000 field agents is an enormous expense, not to mention their uniforms, equipment and vehicles. Where’s all this money coming from? You must have some huge donors.

  As I said before, we have any number of donors—large, small and everywhere in between. It’s true that an operation like this costs a lot of money, and we’ve been very fortunate that there are many like-minded citizens who appreciate what we’re doing.

  I mentioned uniforms a moment ago, and I’d like to ask you about that. Most press reports describe your outfits as an adaptation of the Medieval Knights Templar.

  That’s correct, yes. We sometimes say that we are descended from the Knights Templar—not in any literal sense, but in terms of the way we view our role i
n society.

  What is it about that particular group that appeals to you so strongly? Many Americans are probably unfamiliar with them and what they stood for.

  The Knights Templar was a Medieval monastic order that flourished in Europe for more than a century, around the time of the Crusades. They eventually grew into a rich and powerful organization, but the Knights themselves were heroic figures. They took vows of both poverty and chastity, and they dedicated themselves to helping their fellow man. Eventually the authorities turned on them and destroyed the order, primarily because a number of governments were in debt to the Templars. We’ve essentially patterned ourselves on the noblest aspects of the order.

  Do you view yourselves as being guided or inspired by God?

  I think it would be a terrific world if everyone were inspired and guided by God. But in the sense that you’re asking the question, the answer is no, not at all.

  How do you see the future of the group? What will you do when your current work on the border winds down? I imagine you’ll have to lay off a number of the new hires.

  I can’t say what the future holds, any more than you can. But we’d certainly hope to continue being useful to humanity.

  Mr. Marshall, it’s been an interesting conversation. Thanks for your time.

  Thank you, I enjoyed it.

  Chapter 29

  “This is Fox News. Thanks for joining us this evening. As you can see, we’re looking at a backdrop of the Senate chamber, where a vote will begin shortly on H.R. 3422, popularly known as the Restoration of Democracy Act. Let’s go down to the Senate floor and check in with our correspondent on the scene. Chuck, what’s the atmosphere like in the upper chamber tonight?”

  “It’s highly charged, John, because we haven’t seen a piece of legislation like this in many years, if ever. As you know, this is a bill that repeals most of the provisions of the Supreme Court’s so-called Democracy Unchained decision. That case declared campaign contributions to be the equivalent of political speech. It lifted most of the restrictions on donating to campaigns, saying that those restrictions violated the First Amendment. Since then, we’ve seen huge donors come forward in both ends of the ideological spectrum to take advantage of the situation, creating the impression in many voters’ minds that the large donors were essentially buying elections.”