'The border fence is a joke': Filmmaker crosses from US to Mexico dressed as Osama bin Laden as Border Patrol says 'we can't be everywhere at once'

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor, Mailonline16:41 11 Aug 2014, updated 17:04 11 Aug 2014

James O'Keefe, known for guerrilla documentaries targeting liberals, says US Border Patrol was nowhere to be seen when he crossed border twice
The conservative firebrand wore a bin Laden mask to show the national security implications of unmonitored borders
A Border Patrol official said agents who ought to be on the 'front lines aren't even on the front lines anymore'
Texas sheriff showed how a section of border fencing ends abruptly, providing easy access for immigrants to sneak in from Mexico

A flamethrowing American conservative activist raised eyebrows in the U.S. on Monday by releasing a video of himself crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico into Texas, dressed as the late al-Qaeda terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Guerrilla documentarian James O'Keefe's footage comes at a time when Americans are engaged in a national debate about border security. Tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America have entered the U.S. illegally in recent months, drawn by a confusing White House policy that appears to offer amnesty for those who make it safely.

In Monday's video release, O'Keefe focuses on the implications for national security: He illegally crosses into Mexico twice and returns – first in street clothes and again in army fatigues, wearing an Osama bin Laden Halloween mask

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Not really Osama: James O'Keefe donned a Halloween mask to show that U.S. Border Patrol is stretch too thin to arrest terrorists coming across the border from Mexico

The video stunt is the latest online expose from the same filmmaking activist who brought down the liberal group ACORN with a video showing its employees agreeing to help a purported pimp run a human trafficking ring and evade income taxes

O'Keefe talked to a Texas sheriff who conceded that illegal immigrants can enter the U.S. by moving a metal fencepost and walking around a few strands of barbed wire

The official White House website includes a claim that 'today border security is stronger than it has ever been.'

But O'Keefe told MailOnline that his stunt proves the federal government's policy is lax and needs a dramatic overhaul.

'President Obama is trying to deny the obvious,' he said.

'We proved that border security is national security. The fence is not complete. The border is not secure. In fact, the video shows the border fence is a joke.'

'The primary responsibility of the commander-in-chief is to protect the homeland,' said O'Keefe. 'With a single trip to the border, we proved that President Obama and Congress have failed miserably and are misleading America.'

A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official told MailOnline that his agency's forces are stretched to the breaking point.

'We can't be everywhere at once,' the official said Monday. 'This is typical of what you'll find in Texas.'

'The guys who are on the front lines aren't even on the front lines anymore. They're dozens of miles inside the U.S. How can we catch the bad guys if we never see them until they're standing on American soil?'

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to make public comments about U.S. policy.

Reporter crosses US Mexico border as Osama bin Laden

O'Keefe, though, was more than willing to have his name and face associated with Monday's episode.

He is famous for shuttering the liberal pressure group ACORN with a 2009 video sting showing the organization's workers helping a prostitute and her pimp plan a human trafficking operation and evade income taxes.

He also raised eyebrows in 2012 by pretending to be U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at a polling place and being offered his ballot without an ID check. Holder had famously opposed a policy of requiring voters to show photo IDs on Election Day.

But this week his attention was focused on Mexico, saying in his six-minute film that 'this border is not secure. No one is on watch.'

If bin Laden can cross into the U.S., he says, 'anybody can cross. ... Do you feel safe?'

MORE...

O'Keefe told MailOnline that he has fielded questions about whether the Mexican government is lkely to charge him with a crime for illegally entering from the U.S. in order to film himself coming back across the sliver of river that separates the two countries.

No one, however, is asking him about the possibility of repercussions from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

'I don't know what the Mexican law is and frankly I don't care,' he said. 'All I know is nobody was there protecting our national security.'

Guerrilla filmmaker: O'Keefe told MailOnline that his video shows the U.S. is kidding itself to believe its borders are secure

President Barack Obama boasted in May 2011 that the border fence separating the US from Mexico was 'basically complete,' and boasted that his policies had 'strengthened border security beyond what many thought possible'

In a 2011 speech at the border, President Obama claimed that his policies had 'strengthened border security beyond what many thought possible.'

'The fence is now basically complete,' the president claimed.

But Hudspeth County, Texas Sheriff Arvin West showed O'Keefe how his county's 98-mile stretch of border territory includes a secured fence that stops abruptly, as though construction crews ran out of materials one day and walked off the job.

'That's the dead end of it right there,' West says, pointing to a crude barbed-wire fence that continues on to mark the border.

'If you think four strands of barbed wire is securing the border,' he explains, 'then I guess it's secure.'