I returned yesterday from my favorite city in America, San Diego. I lived there for near ten years and try to go back annually. I have a nice deal where I have business in town every August.

I must say I was struck by several things. First, SD is a military town like no other, NAS North island, Point Loma Subase, Naval Station, and the Naval Amphibious base are all within close proximity to downtown. MCAS Miramar and Camp Pendleton are in the northern part of the county. Everyone in SD has a link to the military and it shows, a majority of stores have signs thanking the sailors and the jar-heads, and offer discounts. Granted this is just good business, but it also is done of the peoples freewill. Most people in SD have some connection to events playing themselves out in Iraq and Afghanistan, whether it's a friends son, a co-workers daughter, or a spouse. The town knows that we must continue the fight and not run like we did in Somalia and Beirut, the stakes are just to high.

The second thing I once again became aware of was the porousness of our borders and the ineptness of the Border Patrol. Here's just two examples from the past week.

First

After spending a month in a Tijuana prison, a relieved but visibly shaken Adrian Rodriguez held his wife's hand tightly yesterday as he walked across the border a free man.

A few hours later, the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection held a news conference to announce tighter inspection procedures for vehicles such as the car Rodriguez bought at an auction of vehicles seized by Customs.

Rodriguez, of Chula Vista was arrested July 15 after he took the car to Tijuana for repairs. Inside the car, which U.S. inspectors had previously confiscated for drugs, the mechanic found a secret compartment filled with marijuana

The car was sold to him at auction by the Border Patrol and they have since checked other vehicles and found more drugs they missed earlier.

Next:

The announcement came one day after a 12-year-old Mexican girl was found in a van at a federal storage facility in Otay Mesa. She spent nearly two days alone in the van after it was seized at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C., said the additional inspections began late last week, but he did not say what led to the action, other than that "it was necessary."

I agree that they have had their hands tied on occasion:

A controversial order that largely barred 1,600 San Diego-based Border Patrol agents from stopping suspected illegal immigrants on city streets was rescinded yesterday by officials in Washington, D.C.

The directive, issued in an Aug. 8 memo from San Diego sector chief William T. Veal, had provoked widespread fury among the agents and touched off a public outcry after the memo was leaked to the media earlier this week.