Posted on 09/13/2004 4:24:38 AM PDT by wdkeller
Despite all the talk of homeland security, sneaking into the U.S. is scandalously easy—and on the rise. Millions of illegal aliens will pour across the U.S.-Mexican border this year, many from countries hostile to America. TIME looks at the damage, the dangers and the reasons the U.S. fails to protect itself
The next time you pass through an airport and have to produce a photo ID to establish who you are and then must remove your shoes, take off your belt, empty your pockets, prove your laptop is not an explosive device and send your briefcase or purse through a machine to determine whether it holds weapons, think about this: In a single day, more than 4,000 illegal aliens will walk across the busiest unlawful gateway into the U.S., the 375-mile border between Arizona and Mexico. No searches for weapons. No shoe removal. No photo-ID checks. Before long, many will obtain phony identification papers, including bogus Social Security numbers, to conceal their true identities and mask their unlawful presence.
The influx is so great, the invaders seemingly trip over one another as they walk through the old copper-mining town turned artist colony of Bisbee (pop. 6,000), five miles from the border. Having eluded the U.S. border patrol, they arrive in small groups of three or four, larger contingents of more than a dozen and sometimes packs of a hundred. Worried citizens who spot them keep the Bisbee police officers and Cochise County sheriff's deputies busy tracking down all the trespassing aliens. At night as many as 100 will take over a vacant house. Some crowd into motel rooms, even storage-compartment rental units. During the day, they congregate on school playgrounds, roam through backyards and pass in and out of apartment buildings. Some assemble at the Burger King, waiting for their assigned drivers to appear. Sometimes stolen cars are waiting for them, keys on the floor. But most continue walking to designated pickup points beyond Bisbee, where they will ride in thousands of stolen vehicles, often with the seats ripped out to accommodate more human cargo, on the next leg of their journey to big cities and small towns from California to North Carolina.
The U.S.'s borders, rather than becoming more secure since 9/11, have grown even more porous. And the trend has accelerated in the past year. It's fair to estimate, based on a TIME investigation, that the number of illegal aliens flooding into the U.S. this year will total 3 million—enough to fill 22,000 Boeing 737-700 airliners, or 60 flights every day for a year. It will be the largest wave since 2001 and roughly triple the number of immigrants who will come to the U.S. by legal means. (No one knows how many illegals are living in the U.S., but estimates run as high as 15 million.)
The only way the rag would report on the immivasion is to make it a hit piece on Dubya. Though I agree our immigration policy is straight from the lunatic asylum TIME is still a rag.
Unfortunately, both Reps and Dems want this. The Dems want the illegal votes and the Reps want the cheap labor and inflated "growth" statistics (actually, any administration in power wants the latter).
I live near DC and am astounded at the number of (obvious) new arrivals I see--no doubt many of these are here illegally. And why not? Few will challenge them and those who do will likely be prosecuted or ridiculed. The Authorities sure don't seem to care.
Growth is generally a good thing, but achieving it through massive immigration is wrong-headed and potentially dangerous. Doing it through higher productivity gains is far more preferable. Conditions are already very crowded around here, and getting worse all the time. At what point do we say enough? If we continue on our current path, we will end up sacrificing our quality of life at the altar of growth.
How can you trust the facts of a partisan rag?
i haven't voted "for" a candidate in a long time-find i am voting against one: currently, that'd be AGAINST kerry.
Your government sanctioned Alien Invasion in progress...
And you think the situation will get better by voting for someone else???
Tell me your kidding, right? LMAO
Better to take what we have and steer it to the right than to take the alternative and wind up in a ditch!!!
ping
There were fewer Mexican embassies.
The Mexican consular card wasn't accepted as legal ID everywhere.
I also don't recall Clinton babbling about legalizing every illegal alien in our country almost every time he opened his big mouth.
Clinton started well on this one, then changed or folded presumably under pressure/contributions of the cheap labor lobby and the leftie identity groups it took over or "engged."
Early on Kerry mouthed off some ridiculous plan nearly as bad as Bush's but then shut up. One of the few smart moves of his campaign.
I also believe that a majority of the Republican Party and a sufficient number of Conservative Democrats would have fought Clinton tooth and nail, if he had.
Bubba was too busy getting a b.j. to do anything else including fighting terrorism or enforcing the INS laws!
Besides everything changed on 9/11
so if you think the Traitor would improve the situation then you have not been paying attention!
as I have already pointed out, when the car starts pulling to the left, ya don't want to continue in that direction, ya want to steer it to the right or you'll wind up in a ditch!!!
Good points. I think it's also a "balance sheet" agenda - the obsessive drive to cut the "cost" of labor. Certain jobs can't physically be outsourced overseas, so in order to keep cut the domestic cost of labor illegals are insourced. Looks good on a balance sheet, but the broad effects on the economy are harmful to the many. But the "many" aren't organized and don't and can't match the campaign contributions given by the short term profiteers.
Doing it through higher productivity gains is far more preferable. Conditions are already very crowded around here, and getting worse all the time. At what point do we say enough? If we continue on our current path, we will end up sacrificing our quality of life at the altar of growth.
"Growth" for some. Quality of life is already declining, Repubs supress those statistics, Demos won't touch them because when they have they get the question "why is that happening?"
Probably right. But then, who's policy is it that has made him vulnerable? The answer is staring at him in the mirror.
Bush could have said, "look, it's the law, and I'm a law and order Republican" -- especially after 9/11. Instead, he has said, "I don't care if 12 million people are breaking a laundry list of federal laws -- I'm gonna reward them with amnesty and a road to citizenship!". When was the last time he advocated giving amnesty to millions of American citizens for violating 20 or 30 federal laws on a daily basis?
Yup. TIME is doing a hit piece on Jorge. But when you stand in the crosshairs, don't complain that someone pulled the trigger.
A Republican congress won't fight him.
A Republican congress will fight Kerry tooth and nail.
"Republican congress will fight Kerry tooth and nail."
sorry, Charlie but there is no way that dog will hunt...
That BS might sell over at the DU but we're not buying it here. LMAO
Why not? Once Bush is reelected, why should he care what we think? What are we gonna do, dis-elect him if he pushes amnesty through?
The only referendum that counts is the vote. And he knows it.
LOL - I hear 'ya.
Even 'ol Satan himself gets it right sometimes.
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