FWIW. This was on Lou Dobbs yesterday.
Turning now to our illegal immigration crisis, our border security crisis, the government accountability office this month sent an astonishing reports to the United States Senate, exposing the lack of immigration enforcement in the workplace.
The GAO determined that workplace enforcement is a low priority for the government. The agency found that in 1999, the INS devoted only 240 agents to work side enforcement. That was then about 9 percent of their staff. Shockingly, seven years later, only 100 agents, just 4 percent, are tasked to address the issue.
With reports like these, the Government Accountability Office aims to improve federal programs, ensure that government work and accurately represents the will of the American people. David Walker heads the GAO, as comptroller general of the United States and joins us here tonight. Good to have you with us.
DAVID WALKER, UNITED STATES COMPTROLLER GENERAL: Good to be with you Lou.
DOBBS: This is an astonishing report. To lay out this fact, what is your reaction? You have got a pulse, you have concerns like any citizen as well as your role. How do you explain this?
WALKER: We have a serious problem with illegal immigration. The fact of the matter is we are not enforcing existing laws adequately. We are not dedicating enough resources to it. We're not leveraging technology enough. And as a result, we have a lot of situations where people who are not legal are able to gain employment and that is serving to draw more people in to the United States because of the economic implications.
DOBBS: Your office also released a report in March stating that the immigration benefit fraud is a very serious problem in the country. Do you believe the U.S. citizenship and immigration services is capable of administering a so-called guest worker amnesty program of any sort, of the scale being discussed.
WALKER: They'll have to impose a lot more controls, leverage technology at a lot greater extent and we'll have to use a lot tougher enforcement mechanisms if we want any system to work. We were supposed to have tough enforcement after the last reform act in 1986 but haven't had it.
DOBBS: The idea that border security is an issue, almost five years after September 11, the Department of Homeland Security, I have to tell you, honestly, millions of Americans, I wonder, how can we call it a Homeland Security Department when we're not securing our ports, not securing our borders.
WALKER: It is a huge undertaking. There is no question that we are going to need more resources in the form of human resources, financial resources. We'll need to also use technology to a greater extent. But we're going to have to have enforcement as a key part, especially on immigration. You and I can walk around any city in this country today and there are places where you can go every day and see illegals congregate and yet nothing is being done about it.
DOBBS: Let's go to some other issues that sometimes I think many don't associate with your office and your role in the federal government. Looking at the federal debt, the national debt, the trade debt. We're talking trillions of dollars, unfunded liabilities, for Social Security, for Medicare, for Medicaid. What in the world does Congress say when you tell them, folks, this is no way to run a government?
WALKER: Well, many people know that we have a serious financial problem. But they don't realize how serious. We have gone from $20 trillion in total liabilities and unfunded commitments five years ago $46 trillion.
DOBBS: Can you say that again?
WALKER: From 20 trillion to 46 trillion in five years and it is going up every second of every minute of every day because we're still running debts at or near record rates. Demographics are working against us. Interest costs are compounding against us because we're a debtor, not an investor.
DOBBS: Is there, I won't say it that way. Are there any number of senators in Congress who are actually paying attention to what you and your office and your great staff are doing? Are they responding in any way?
WALKER: Well, more people are paying attention now. Congressman Wolf recently proposed that there be a bipartisan tax and entitlement reform commission to try to jump start this effort. We clearly need to do something. We need to do it soon because time is working against us.
DOBBS: Dave Walker, controller general of the United States, good to have you here.
WALKER: Good to see you Lou.
DOBBS: Thank you for the good work you and your people do in the federal government. We don't often get to say that.
WALKER: Thank you very much.
If we can't enforce our laws in the US, how do you
propose we enforce laws in Mexico when we merge?
Tex, you are jumping from "A" to "Z." Ain't nobody merging with anybody. It's true that some kind of North American Union stuff is inevitable eventually.
But, and it's a big butt, nobody knows what form the political end of the union is going to take. In the EU, Italy doesn't enforce laws in England.
That's why we're all so testy on these threads. Nobody knows "Who," "What," "Where," "Why," "When," or "How Much." Study the links, and the so far hypothetical post-NAFTA political plans for the North American Continent will scare the pants off you. But until we get the straight information, there's no use panicking over what right now is just the gleam in the eyes of the wonks on these "working groups."
Call your congressman. Let's find out exactly what's going on. Maybe then, we SHOULD panic!
I saw that interview also and I wish Lou would've pinned him down more as to how they've determined there's so much illegal immigrant benefit fraud going on......I believe the #'s are just so massive they don't want the American people to know just how bad their own gov't has screwed them to lavish so much on people who really deserve nothing from us. I'd sure like to find out more on this fraud issue.......any ideas where that data could be found because I don't think the GAO will have much to say on the whole matter.