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http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/immigration/

Securing Our Border

President Bush Is Taking Action To Increase The Manpower, Technology, And Infrastructure Needed To Secure The Nation's Border. Since President Bush took office, funding for border security has increased by 66 percent. The Border Patrol has been expanded to more than 12,000 agents, an increase of more than 2,700 agents, or nearly 30 percent. The President's FY07 budget funds another 1,500 new agents. Agents are being provided with cutting-edge technology like infrared cameras, advanced motion sensors, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Protective infrastructure, such as vehicle barriers and fencing in urban areas, is being installed. Manpower, technology, and infrastructure are being integrated in more coordinated ways than ever before.

The Administration's Border Security Strategy Is Getting Results.

Since President Bush took office, agents have apprehended and sent home more than 6 million people entering the country illegally - including more than 400,000 with criminal records. Federal, State, local, and tribal law enforcement are working together.
More than 600,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended through the Arizona Border Control Initiative last year - an increase of more than 50 percent over the previous year. The men and women of our Border Patrol have made good progress - but we have much more work ahead, and we will not be satisfied until our agents have full control of our border.

The Administration Is Ending The Practice Of "Catch-And-Release." The President has set a goal to end "catch-and-release" over the next year. Most illegal immigrants from Mexico can be returned to Mexico within 24 hours. Non-Mexican illegal immigrants present a different challenge. For decades, government detention facilities did not have enough beds for the non-Mexican illegal immigrants caught at the border - so most were released back into society. They were each assigned a court date, but virtually no one showed up.
The Administration is ending the practice of "catch-and-release" by increasing the number of beds in detention facilities by 12 percent this year; the President's FY07 budget proposes increasing that number by another 32 percent. The Administration is expanding the use of "expedited removal," which allows us to send non-Mexican illegal immigrants home more quickly.

We Are Making Progress In This Effort.

Last year, it took an average of 66 days to process a non-Mexican illegal immigrant. Now, the process is taking only 21 days. This has helped us end "catch-and-release" for illegal immigrants from Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua caught crossing our Southwest border. Since last summer, the total number of non-Mexican illegal immigrants released into society has been cut by more than a third. There is more work ahead, and the Administration will work with Congress to close loopholes that make it difficult to process illegal immigrants from certain countries and will continue pressing foreign governments like China to take back their citizens who enter our country illegally.

Strengthening Enforcement Of Immigration Laws In America's Interior

The President Is Providing Resources To Strengthen Enforcement Of Immigration Laws. Since President Bush took office, funding for immigration enforcement has increased by 42 percent. These resources have helped agents bring to justice smugglers, terrorists, gang members, and human traffickers. For example, through Operation Community Shield, Federal agents have arrested nearly 2,300 gang members who were in America illegally, including violent criminals like the members of the "MS-13" gang.

Better Interior Enforcement Requires Better Worksite Enforcement.

Last year, President Bush signed legislation to more than double the resources dedicated to worksite enforcement. We are working to hold businesses accountable and crack down on document forgery. Next month, the Administration will launch new law enforcement task forces in 11 cities to dismantle document fraud rings.

There is truth to some of this and some of it is smoke and mirrors.

President Bush has increased funding for border security, and Border Patrol officers have at least tested new equipment that uses new technology. The problem is that has had no effect toward securing the border. It has not worked, illegals and smugglers of all types are still pouring in. BP officers will tell you many of the smugglers have the same equipment they do so that is a wash. The fact that Bush has done this and it has not worked is why I decided we needed a major fence/wall/barrier on the border. The numbers of Border Patrol hired sounds good until you realize they lose many each year due to retirement, permanent injury or illness, and transfers to other agencies. The number hired has not noticibly increased the number in the field if at all. Bush himself said we needed more Border Patrol than that to begin with,and promised to hire more, but then did not ask for funding for the number of officers he said we needed. (This is important, because this is one of the reasons for the anger and mistrust toward him about the border issues.)

6 Million apprehended and deported sounds good, many would argue the accuracy of that number- the truth is it doesn't matter what the real number is, the border is not secure; so the truth is any illegal who is deported that wants to return does so within hours or days of deportment. Illegals have been caught again before the paperwork from their deportment is finished. Please note when illegals are caught for serious crimes the article will almost always say that person has been deported before and sometimes has been deported repeatedly. It does not matter how many are apprehended and deported if the border is not secure. The important number is always how many are here and how many are coming in, not how many are deported.

The part where this release talks about interior enforcement is also one of the reasons many are angry with President Bush. The truth is the Bush administration all but stopped interior enforcement and enforcement in the workplace. Someone has posted the chart of workplace visits and enforcement for illegals in the workplace. That chart shows how many visits and enforcements were done each year under the Clinton administration and shows what has been done under Bush. Workplace visits and enforcements were not much under Clinton, but fell almost to nothing under Bush. It is startling when you see the actual numbers, and I hope someone will post the chart on this thread. It clearly shows enforcement declined considerably under the Bush administration- when this release speaks of doubling the amount of enforcement, I am not sure doubling it even brings it up to what it was at it's worst under Clinton.

Border security and employer enforcement has been terrible under President Bush, that is why there was so much anger when he proposed his guest worker plan. Any guest worker plan becomes amnesty if there is no enforcement. If this administration cannot secure the border, no guest worker plan will work, there is no way to enforce it.
Anyone who is knowledgable about border issues knows that no plan will work without a secure border. Bush trying to implement a worker plan when his administration has failed at securing the border is the number one cause of the anger toward him on the border issues.

The anger over this issue comes from knowing what is happening and hearing something else from the President. The anger comes from broken promises. The anger comes from the fact that extreme violence on the border, and incursions from the Mexican military are ignored. The anger comes from our Border Patrol officers having illegals throw rocks at them, trying to run over them with vehicles, and being shot at, and then being told to hide as SOP when these things happen. The anger comes from too many concessions given to Mexico and its citizens, and too little consideration given to the citizens of the United States.

The anger comes from hearing our President and others say over and over that illegals are good hard working people and Americans are too lazy or too good to do the work the illegals will do. That is flat out wrong, dishonest, and insulting. Many illegals do come here to work, but many others come here to be involved in criminal activity and to take advantage of US taxpayer funded social services. Some US Citizens won't do the type of work illegals do, but many, many do that type of work every day. There are NO jobs Americans won't do and aren't doing every day. There may not be enough Americans for all the jobs- until we get a grip on the illegal situation we won't even know if we need workers from other countries. To say "jobs Americans won't do" is a slap in the face to every American who has ever done that type of work or is doing it now.

That's my 2 cents.

Rove, is that You?