Border Enforcement Improves?

Our Borders are like a Sieve. And like a ship with a leak below the water line, the flood of illegal immigrants is sinking our ship of state. Depending on whose estimate you prefer, there are between 10 and 20 Million illegal aliens in this country. This has placed a tremendous burden on our social programs, and because we know many are illegally registered as voters, as Texas discovered when they sent out Jury Duty Notices to registered voters (see my post Photo IDs For Voters - We Need This), they are effecting our Democratic processes.

According to some census data, as reported in the New York Times, Minorities are now the majority in many locations.

In a further sign of the United States’ growing diversity, nonwhites now make up a majority in almost one-third of the most-populous counties in the country and in nearly one in 10 of all 3,100 counties, according to an analysis of census results to be released today [July 9, 2007].

The Times article does not differentiate legal from illegal immigrants, but the inference can justifiably be made that much of the minority increase is the result of illegal aliens.

This a problem and the best solution has been proposed before, but not by either the President or Congress, at least until now. The best solution is to secure the borders while deporting illegals as they become known (especially through the courts), along with large fines for employers who knowingly or negligently hire illegal immigrants. We don't need a big "round-em-up" program. We just need enforcement of current laws. Most will leave voluntarily when benefits and jobs become unavailable. There is no excuse for allowing illegals who commit crimes to remain here. Likewise, there is no excuse for any employer who continues to hire illegals.

Finally the Bush Administration has announced plans to implement this best solution - According to this AP article (U.S. Seeks to Curb Illegal Immigration).

A crackdown on illegal immigration will have to go forward without help from Congress, the Bush administration said Friday, asserting that an executive-branch-only approach is better than doing nothing.

According to the article, the Administration is going to increase efforts to deny entry to an expanded list of international gang members. The bigger effort will be the enforcement of fines for employers who hire illegal immigrants.

The administration rolled out a proposed rule that will mandate employers to fire employees unable to clear up problems with their Social Security numbers 90 days after they've been notified of such discrepancies in so-called "no match letters." Employers who fail to comply will face possible criminal fines and sanctions

President Bush failed in his attempt to push an Immigration Reform Bill through Congress earlier this year. This legislation was defeated because the majority of Americans objected to the Amnesty provisions for the illegal immigrants already in the US. However, Congress did authorize additional monies for Border Security.

Some lawmakers have kept up efforts to tighten the border. Last month, the Senate added $3 billion to a homeland security bill and devoted the money to U.S.-Mexico border security.

Congress got the message that most Americans do not favor Amnesty, because it has already been tried and it didn't work. Maybe the President has gotten the message too.