Border Security Should Be a Priority

One of the most significant results of the election last November was the decisive 56%-to 44% passage of Arizona’s Proposition 200 to bar taxpayer benefits to illegal aliens and require proof of citizenship in order to vote. Nearly half of Arizona’s Latinos voted yes. The voters delivered this powerful mandate despite the fact that Prop 200 was opposed by the entire political establishment, all politicians of both parties, and most business groups and churches. It seems there is a deep divide between “we the people” and those who are running the country.

The people of Arizona know the costs and the consequences of allowing illegal aliens to invade our country. Every day, more than 4,000 illegal aliens walk across the border between Arizona and Mexico. No one presents a photo ID. There are no searches for weapons, or shoe removal, or inspection for diseases. The illegals then ride in stolen cars or meet assigned drivers to take them all over our country. Three million entered the U.S. just in 2004.

Arizona ranchers along the border bear the brunt of this invasion. The illegals discard empty bottles and soiled clothes, turn the land into a vast latrine, and leave behind revolting mounds of personal refuse. Night after night, they cut fences intended to hold in cattle and horses, steal vehicles and saddles, and poison dogs to quiet them.

Our current open borders practices allow illegals to come into our country, commit crimes and return home with little fear of arrest or punishment. Last year, our border patrol in Tucson stopped 9,051 persons crossing into the country illegally who already had criminal records in the U.S. That means, they committed crimes here, returned to Mexico, and then were trying to enter our country illegally again.

We hear a lot of talk about homeland security. Shouldn't that start with border security? We need increased staffing for our border patrol, aerial surveillance, modern technology, and U.S. troops to stop the invasion of our country by people entering illegally.

Most of these illegal arrivals are Mexicans, but the most worrisome ones are OTMs (Other Than Mexicans). They come from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Russia and China as well as Egypt, Iran and Iraq. The border patrol caught 55,890 OTMs last year. Nobody knows how many were not caught and simply melted into the U.S. population.

Last year, President George W. Bush offered “the millions of undocumented men and women now employed in the United States ... a new temporary-worker program that will match willing foreign workers with willing American employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs.” That’s what’s called amnesty. In Mexico his statement was widely interpreted to mean that once Mexican citizens cross illegally into the U.S., they can stay and eventually win permanent residence, so a race to the border began.