Consternation with the Administration? We Can Relate

This morning, on the MSNBC program "Morning Joe", investigative reporter Lisa Myers made pointed observations about the Obama administration's mania for controlling the news and squelching critics. She was speaking in light of the cascading revelations about the Justice Department's seizure of Associated Press reporters' phone records and about the IRS targeting conservative organizations for special scrutiny.

Said Myers: "This administration has a history of really coming down on people who talk to reporters in any capacity. I mean, if someone has the audacity to say something critical of Obamacare, they usually take it back fairly quickly or don't speak to reporters at all again, because there is such a focus on keeping the story line and the narrative the way the administration wants it. And sometimes these efforts can become excessive. And it may be that what we are seeing from the Justice Department is really the embodiment of that mentality."

At the Center for Immigration Studies, we can relate to this concern. For the past two years, as we have sought meetings with the Border Patrol relating to our annual trips to the border, our requests have been summarily denied. The Border Patrol has flatly refused to meet with us to talk about its work on the Arizona and Texas borders.

As a former reporter who began working with the Border Patrol about 25 years ago, I can say without hesitation that I have never seen it less cooperative with routine efforts to gather information. I believe that is because we have criticized the administration's claims that the border is more secure than it has ever been. I also suspect that this is the Border Patrol's way of expressing its displeasure with videos produced by CIS in 2010 (watch them here and here).