Posted on 09/27/2004 11:40:43 PM PDT by Robert Lomax
The U.S. has no plans to deploy troops along the Mexican border to stanch the deluge of illegal aliens currently pouring into the country at the rate of 3 million per year, President Bush said in an interview broadcast on Monday.
"As the governor of Texas, I was very aware of this issue," Bush told Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly.
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"There is a long border, that makes it hard to control. We have beefed up places along the border to try to stop" the flow, he said. When told that his policy didn't seem to be working, Bush insisted, "Its working a little better.
"They're doing a pretty good job down in Arizona, which is the main border crossing. ... I think there's a thousand more border patrol agents along the border. Were modernizing border techniques, were using better surveillance methods to stop this crossing at the border."
The president contended, however, that illegal immigration was driven primarily by the economic realities of the region.
"If you can make 50 cents in the interior of Mexico and five bucks in the interior of the United States, you're coming for the five bucks," he explained.
"I happen to believe the best way to enhance the border is to have temporary-worker cards available for people," he said. "I think the long-term solution for this issue on our border is for Mexico to grow a middle class. That's why I believe in NAFTA."
When warned that "a lot of people are not going to like that answer," Bush told O'Reilly, "Well its a, a truthful answer."
An example: "Let's post a pair of guards every quarter mile! Yeah, yeah!" Well, there are 18,500 miles of frontier (1500 Mexico, 4000 Canada, and the balance coastal), which means we'll need 74,000 guard posts. To have one person on duty 24/7 requires having five employees, which means we'll need to hire 740,000 guards, not to mention support staff, prisoner pickup & transport, etc.
Most of these guys who are frothing at the mouth don't give a rat's democrat about the law. They just don't want their precious "white culture" diluted.
Pretty much - look at the way they scream and shout whenever someone proposes a federal citizenship card (a.k.a. National ID) for them, too...
This may come as a surprise to you but our prisons are full of illegals who did a lot more than "just looking for work". Try rape, robbery, murder, etc.....I'm sick of folks using that old , tired line about these poor, huddled masses dying to come here to work. My community is so full of these fat butt illegals sitting home watching Univision all day it's enough to make someone throw up.
If they are here illegally, we are responsible for their health care (via the ER), and any other expenses they incur. If they have kids, then we get to pay for those as well.
Are you for just opening up the border so contractors and farmers can a strady sdtream of cheap labor? Should we abolish any laws that say you may not hire illegal immigrants? Why? Just to make life easier on business and harder on the taxpaying citizens?
By the way, I'm from a family of 9 children.
Large families are cool with me; until I gotta pay for them.
Hmm. "dealt with" how? Imprisoned? On the U.S. taxpayer's dime?
all LEO working for any state or local government that receives federal funds must detain any illegal who has not timely applied for amnesty
It was unconstituitional for the Brady Bill to make similar demands on state and local LEOs; it'll be unconstuitutional for your proposal too.
deploy 50,000 reservists and national guard across the 2000 mile southern border. 10,000 soldiers on patrol at any given time means approximately 5 soldiers per mile.
Err, no, it's maybe one per mile. Or do you propose putting clerks and cooks onto the front line?
no matter how much the PC leftists bitch...have some balls and hold a steady course.
And when the rightists bitch about hearing "citizenship papers please!" from state and local LEOs?
Glad to see your cave to America's anti-sovereignty enemies is now complete...
I don't remember. Make sense there are some here now, but I think it's unlikely that there are thousands and thousands of Islamic terrorists coming in every year and they're sitting silently by just waiting for a signal. If they're here for an extended period, they have to work and eat and sleep and do all the other things necessary to stay alive, plus if they're terrorists, they're buying or smuggling bomb making materials and communicating and planning with one another, etc, and with our security tightening up, I think we'd be catching some of them.
Now how many do you think could have made it through either our southern or northern borders and what could they do once here...
How much damage could 100 do. 500? Even assuming they are operating in about the same size groups of 10-20 people per cell, how many terror attacks could they carry out? Even assuming they'll never be able to hijack another jet liner.
Do you think we should take a head count and figure out who's in the mosques, and in turn, in those folks' homes? Shouldn't we hunt them down, and make it near impossible to get here? Would 500 suicide bombers be acceptable? How about 100? How many were involved in the Madrid bombings before the Spanish election of a Communist? 50? A couple dozen?
They'd run out of Mexicans to send over in a couple of decades at that rate. :)
I see... You're wrong, of course; killing an intruder solely for intruding is murder.
But your proposal is that government machine-gun people caught near the border. Hmm. How is that different fromm, say, East German border policy?
No I am not in favor of opening our borders. I am in favor of requiring the Congress to do their constitutional duty to regulate immigration. I'm also in favor of eliminating liberal giveaway programs for illegals. But I'm NOT in favor of seizing assets or jailing employers or militarizing the border or building a wall across 1,500 miles of border or having a war against Mexico or against the Mexican people, etc.
Yeah, I know. But I think we're talking about two different problems here.
It IS possible. I live in Oregon. Northern OREGON for pete's sake! Yesterday I was out shopping. Home Depot, Lowes, Bi-Mart, Fred Meyer...
There was more spanish being spoken than english. We couldn't tell what country we were in.
It's getting worse, FAST. We're about to lose our whole damn city to these people... in OREGON.
At the rate of change, I'd give this country 5 years before we near a 50/50 population of US citizens and Mexican citiznes.
That number should scare anyone.
I don't think we should be seizing assets, but what is wrong with a punitive fine? What other way can you convince employers not to hire illegals?
having a war against Mexico or against the Mexican people, etc
I'd be happy to see a civil war in Mexico led by people who want to overthrow that damn corrupt government.
Nice try.
No need for that. The property owners whose land these illegals trash and whose families they terrorize as they pass through can deal with them. Or the desert can take care of the problem as we close down the easy-crossing parts of the border and funnel them into the desert areas... patrolling to keep the "do-gooders" from providing water and food to them. No need for government guns to do the job at all.
And if you fear for your life, as any REASONABLE and RATIONAL householder would, it is self-defense and NOT murder to kill an intruder. These illegals and their "coyotes" are and have been PROVEN to be threats to the very lives of the property owners along the borders.
I don't know how you're going to do all that without violating the constitution. I can remember a whole lot of people up in arms against the Patriot Act. Are we now supposed to just suspend the constitution althogether?
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