Posted on 04/24/2006 11:04:35 AM PDT by delacoert
We were 5,000 feet up in the mountains along the border California shares with Mexico at 2 a.m., freezing in 30-degree weather with the wind howling in our faces. Eight shivering young men, illegal aliens in their late teens and early 20s, sat on the cold ground in handcuffs, grateful to be caught. One of them pleaded with a Border Patrol agent to find his girlfriend, Maria, who was still stuck on one of the cliffs.
Illegal aliens, like the ones I saw in handcuffs, continue to enter the United States from the Mexican border at the rate of 8,000 per day. Today we have 11 million illegal aliens in the United States.
Illegal immigration presents a huge problem. At my town hall meetings in Marion County, probably 80 percent of the questions I've received have been about illegal immigration. That's why I decided to spend a week along the southern border to see firsthand how bad the problem was -- and what Congress could do to fix it.
Last year, our Border Patrol agents arrested 1.2 million illegal aliens attempting to enter the United States from Mexico. Significantly, 155,000 of those arrested were from countries other than Mexico. They included illegal immigrants from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. This poses a "very serious" national security problem, according to CIA Director Porter Goss. I spoke with Border Patrol agents who'd apprehended suspects on the terrorist watch list.
One night while I was riding along with the Border Patrol, two illegals from Pakistan were captured. One convicted sexual predator was caught trying to cross; so were wanted murder suspects, drug dealers and smugglers.
President Bush says we must enforce our immigration laws. It's not happening. One of the most important of these laws makes it a felony, punishable by three years in prison, to smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S. for financial gain. These alien smugglers, also known as "coyotes," get paid $1,500 per illegal alien they help cross the border.
During my trip to the border, Border Patrol agents told me they've arrested the same coyotes 20 to 30 times and the U.S. attorney from San Diego refuses to prosecute them, unless there's a death involved.
The pathetic failure of that U.S. attorney to prosecute alien smugglers who've been arrested 20 times is a demoralizing slap in the face to Border Patrol agents who risk their lives every day.
If the job of a Border Patrol agent sounds dangerous, imagine the risk to people who actually live along the border.
I sat down in the living rooms of four different families who own ranches along the border. One couple, Ed and Donna Tisdale, documented on home video 13,000 illegal aliens crossing their property in one year alone. The Tisdales had their barbed-wire fences cut by illegals, running off the family's cattle. When their dogs barked to scare off intruders, the dogs were poisoned.
On a routine walk around his property, one of the other ranchers I met with collected piles of garbage from Mexico that illegal crossers left in his yard.
Still another rancher told me about numerous break-ins at his home while his family slept, as illegal aliens tried to find food and clothing. One morning, his daughters had gone out to feed their pet bunnies, only to find them skinned and taken for food by illegal aliens trying to escape to a nearby highway.
Meanwhile, the economic impact of crossers who are successful is catastrophic.
Illegal immigration costs taxpayers $45 billion a year in health care, education and incarceration expenses. The cost of the estimated 630,000 illegal aliens in Florida is about $2 billion a year, meaning every family in Ocala and across my congressional district pays a hidden tax of $315 each year -- and still faces depressed wages because of illegal immigration.
So how do we fix the problem?
First, we need to crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. Jobs are the magnet drawing illegal aliens across the border, and the U.S. House of Representatives has acted to make it mandatory for employers to check the paperwork of new hires or face stiff penalties if they don't.
Now it's up to the Senate to act.
Second, we need to complete construction of the double fence for 700 miles along the border near populated, urban areas. San Diego saw a steep reduction in crossings, from 500,000 to 130,000, when the double fence was completed there.
Third, where mountains and rugged terrain make completion of a double fence impossible, we need to have a "virtual fence." Congress needs to appropriate more money for infrared cameras that enable agents to see the entire border.
Finally, we need more Border Patrol agents. Although Congress has tripled the number of Border Patrol agents since the late 1980s, more are still needed.
One million immigrants come to America legally each year, and my staff members spend the majority of their time helping those who want to come to our country to work hard and play by the rules.
We're protected from dangerous people entering the country at our airports: ID's are checked against the terrorist-watch list, and baggage is screened.
Who's doing checks on the 8,000 people who arrive here illegally every day?
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Republican U.S. Rep. Ric Keller represents Florida's 8th Congressional District, which covers much of eastern Marion County. He lives in Orlando.
Illegal immigration costs taxpayers $45 billion a year in health care, education and incarceration expenses.
The problem is what taxpayers pay for illegals.
The problem is what taxpayers pay for illegals.
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Well, that is just part of it, and the number is OVER $100 BILLION now, nationwide, for all cost impact to the taxpayer and consumer. Of equal damage, is the impact to our system of laws, our Constitution, our soverignty, the meaning of citizenship, and the egregious destruction of a government that was once a "government for and by the people".
government for the illegals, by the illegals.
...government for the illegals, by the illegals.
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...government for anarchists, by anarchists. One in the same.
Agreed. The $45 billion figure in this article is low-ball. I've seen estimates of well over $200 billion.
And you're also right that the damage extends well beyond the monetary alone.
But it still all goes to support my aggravation at those that want to misdirect the debate to the lie that deporting illegals is bad thing economically because they work for low wages.
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