ugust 24, 2005
Homeland Security Chief Tells of Plan to Stabilize Border
NYT
By ERIC LIPTON
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/24/politics/24border.html
WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 -Acknowledging public frustration over illegal
immigrants, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday that
the federal government's border control efforts must be significantly
strengthened.
"We have decided to stand back and take a look at how we address the
problem and solve it once and for all," Mr. Chertoff said at a breakfast
meeting with reporters. "The American public is rightly distressed
about a situation in which they feel we do not have the proper control over
our borders."
The unusually blunt assessment by the nation's top immigration official
follows border-related emergency declarations by the governors of New
Mexico and Arizona, who cited a surge in smuggling and violence
associated with a steady flow of illegal immigrants.
The strategy that Mr. Chertoff said his department was preparing goes
far beyond hiring more Border Patrol agents and installing more
surveillance cameras, infrared and motion detectors, and fences, initiatives
that are already planned or under way.
In addition to those apprehension efforts, the secretary intends to
bolster the deportation process so that an overwhelmed detention system
does not cause illegal immigrants to be set free instead of being sent
home. He plans to add beds for detainees, expedite deportations by making
more judges and lawyers available, and try to track down more illegal
immigrants who do not appear for deportation hearings.
Over the last decade, the number of Border Patrol agents has climbed to
about 11,000 from 4,000. The number of arrests of illegal migrants
along the border, meanwhile, a figure that had dropped after the Sept. 11
attacks, has surged in the last couple of years, and again tops more
than a million annually.
So many illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico are being
caught - 142,500 so far this fiscal year, compared with 39,555 in all of
2000 - that thousands are released within the United States before
deportation proceedings because there is not enough space at detention
centers.
"If you have not arranged for the beds, you have not arranged to remove
them, you are going to have to release them," Mr. Chertoff said. "That
is completely a waste of time."
(continued at link)
... "We have decided to stand back and take a look at how we address the
problem and solve it once and for all," Mr. Chertoff said at a breakfast...
They "solve it" by erasing the borders.
The scum.