Calling for Troops to
Defend U.S. Borders

A group of House Members in June called on President Bush to station U.S. military forces on U.S. borders to stop illegal immigration and prevent foreign terrorists from sneaking into the United States. "It’s been nine months, said Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, "and the borders are no more secure today than they were on Sept. 11."

Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN) said, "Just since September 11, almost 500,000 aliens have entered this country illegally. We must use all necessary resources, and that unavoidably means using our military."

U.S. laws prevent the military from acting as local police. But that’s not what is involved here. The purpose of troops on our borders is to prevent illegals from coming into this country in the first place, and that is clearly constitutional. Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution states that the United States "shall protect each of them [the states] against invasion."

A recent Zogby poll reported that 68% of likely voters in the United States agree that "the U.S. should deploy military troops on the border as a temporary measure to help the U.S. Border Patrol curb illegal immigration." Bill O’Reilly of Fox News continually hammers at the need to assign U.S. troops.

According to retired chief Border Patrol agent Bill King, "There have been up to 120 incursions [of Mexican troops and police] in the last six years." In at least one case, the Mexicans fired on the U.S. Border Patrol car. The Mexican police who come across our border are probably assisting the smuggling of illegal drugs.

There have been many fatal accidents such as the one on June 25 when a van carrying 33 illegal aliens, trying to avoid an immigration checkpoint, was going the wrong way on Interstate 8 at 9 p.m. with its headlights off. The van smashed head-on into two other vehicles; seven people were killed and 31 injured. The U.S. taxpayers will pay the costs to care for the 31 people who were taken to California hospitals.

Our focus should not be just on the Mexican border. According to Rep. Tancredo, "We have had more identifiable terrorists come across the Canadian border." Since 9/11, the State Department has issued 50,000 new visas to foreign nationals from the Middle East (not counting Israel), plus 140,000 to people from South Asian nations, from Pakistan through India to Bangladesh.

The chairman of the House immigration subcommittee, Rep. George W. Gekas (R-PA), called a hearing to examine what the Immigration and Naturalization Service is doing about the 314,000 aliens who have committed felonies and have already been ordered deported, but whom our government says it can’t find. Gekas said it is "troublesome" that the INS seems to be ignoring the broad problem of illegal aliens. He added, "There are thousands among millions [of illegal aliens] who have exactly that kind of mindset to do harm to our country, to be or become terrorists."