When weighing the political cost of allowing terrorists to enter the country unhindered against that of slowing the influx of cheap labor - why is it that some come down on the side of labor?
Posted on 03/25/2005 9:03:21 AM PST by Ramonan
Concern is growing at the top levels of government about the US-Mexican border becoming a back door for terrorists entering the United States. While Al Qaeda infiltration across the nation's southern border has been a constant concern since 9/11, US officials cite recent intelligence giving the most definitive evidence yet that terrorists are planning to use it as an entry point.
As a result, a number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers - mainly from border states - are pushing to tighten checkpoints and other ways of monitoring the porous 1,400-mile boundary. The subject will also be central to President Bush's summit in Texas Wednesday with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin
The other is through a loophole in the system to separate the large number of illegal Mexican migrants, who are automatically turned back at the borders, from citizens of other countries who are allowed in, pending immigration hearings. These others are referred to as "other than Mexicans," or OTMs, by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They come from other Latin American countries as well as other parts of the world, many of them designated by the government as countries of "special interest." In 2004, some 44,000 OTMs were allowed into the US.
Representative Ortiz, though, disputes many of the DHS numbers. He says he regularly hears reports of much higher figures from border patrol officials from his district in Texas, which includes the border-crossing area of Brownsville.
"In the Brownsville sector alone, border patrol officials reported they caught 23,178 OTMs crossing through August 2004," Mr. Ortiz says. "Of those, 16,616 were released."
Ortiz also points out that another loophole is entering Mexico through Brazil, where a visa is not required to travel to Mexico
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
ping
.......Florida-Canadia-US-Mexican border as a terror risk ?
I'm sorry, but you're going to have to come up with a better excuse than "the terrorist could smuggle a WMD over the border and kill ten's of thousands" before we cut off the spigot of cheap labor from Mexico.
Better border control. Simple as that
Any true terrorists with half a brain would enter our country through the 4,000+ mile border we share with Canada where there is virtually nothing to stop them.
A day late and a dollar short.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
As long as we're sitting there pretending that millions of Mexicans are criminals -- while at the same time employing them and paying for their education -- there's no way we'll be able to get a handle on the border.
Anti-immigration "conservatives" are the biggest obstacle to passing legislation against illegal immigration.
All of the open borders RINOs like McCain, Cornyn, Hatch, Hagel and Flake are making sure to chime in with their cynical "I'm tough on the borders" soundbites. In a few days they will be telling us the only solution is to let them all come in legally as either guestworkers or with greencards.
If we "just knew who they were" all the problems would be solved. Suddenly our hospitals would be solvent again and our prisons would empty out and all the kids in our schools would suddenly be able to speak English.
If only they were legal then they could bargain for higher wages and despite the fact that we flooded the labor market with tens of millions of unskilled workers everybody's wages would go up.
If they would just let them come out of the shadows. /sarc
The problem for this government is that it also wants to avoid disrupting the flow of cheap labor into this country. So, the challenge for this government is to find ways to prevent terrorists from crossing our borders without disrupting the flow of cheap labor. That's not an easy thing to do and the policy carries with it big political risks.
"Anti-immigration "conservatives" are the biggest obstacle to passing legislation against illegal immigration."
not.
You're going to be flamed but then again some people can't handle the truth so all they have left are cheap attacks.
Gee, they must have asked all of those 16,616 "OTMs" if they were terrorists, and when they said "NO", they were released. I guess the other 6,562 must have admitted to being terrorists...
Our homeland security funds at work.
The reason it is called illegal immigration is because there are already laws against it.
Illegal = against the law
What is needed is not new legislation but enforcement! I'm certain that the anti-immigration conservatives would do nothing to hinder enforcement.
When weighing the political cost of allowing terrorists to enter the country unhindered against that of slowing the influx of cheap labor - why is it that some come down on the side of labor?
If that's the case then why did President Bush say on Wednesday that he plans to pressure Congress to further loosen immigration law?
Hello, and welcome to noon on 9/11/2001.
Jeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...
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