Call for border fence exposes lack of knowledge

Minnesota Congresswomen and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has become the latest politician to call for an impenetrable fence along the entire length of the border with Mexico. "President Obama has failed the American people by failing to secure the southern border," said Bachmann. "I will secure that border and that will be Job One."

Statements like that may get some attention, but they are not practical. Don't take our word for it; take Rick Perry's.

The Texas governor has been called a lot of things, but he's hardly a mushy liberal. Yet even this tough Texan sneers at calls for a Berlin Wall-style border fence spanning hundreds of miles from Brownsville to El Paso.

The cost of a barrier like that would be staggering, certainly in the billions. Bachmann and others are silent about how they would pay for it.

Moreover, it is unnecessary. The Texas-Mexico border includes many miles of desert that are either lightly populated or devoid of any human presence. Illegal immigrants don't cross there. They make their moves along urban corridors.

Perry knows this because he is the governor of Texas. He knows the issue is more nuanced - like his support for in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants.

Secure the border? Absolutely - but in an intelligent way that puts our resources where they will have the most impact.

Voters should be wary of sound bites from candidates that fire up special-interest groups but lack logic. The next president will need real ideas, not gimmicks, to solve the challenges facing this nation.

It has to do with Perry to the extent that he offers the non-sensical notion that he’d support E-Verify once all the problems are worked out. But the only way to work many of the problems out of a system this huge is to use it and make corrections and improvements as they go.

About the only alternative to that is to do nothing and make no effort to determine whether someone is legally eligible to work in the US. And that’s exactly what all too many want to do: nothing. Many want no system that would accurately report who is and is not eligible to work in the US. That’s the real hold up on developing a reliable system, and I’m afraid Perry belongs in that group.

And I wonder why it would take so long to verify a valid SS#. I’ve received mail from SS and talked with them on the phone and never had a single moment of confusion about my SS#. They can enter my number and immediately see everything about my SS status.

My daughter works for one of the largest recruiting firms in the country. Due to the flaws in e-verify, it takes eight weeks from application to offer.

That is not the way E-verify works. You can only use it for new hires after they have been given the job. And you cannot dismiss them based on a no-match. They must be given an opportunity to challenge the no-match.

I suggest you learn more about the program before spreading any more disinformation.

E-Verify Gets High Marks from Employers in Customer Satisfaction Survey

Most employees are automatically confirmed as work authorized.

98.3 percent of employees are automatically confirmed as authorized to work ("work authorized") either instantly or within 24 hours, requiring no employee or employer action.

1.7 percent of employees receive initial system mismatches.

Of the 1.7% of employees who receive initial system mismatches:

0.3 percent are later confirmed as work authorized after contesting and resolving the mismatch.

1.43 percent are not found work authorized.

Of the 1.43% of employees not found to be work authorized:

1.3 percent of employees who receive initial mismatches do not contest the mismatch either because they do not choose to or are unaware of the opportunity to contest and as a result are not found work authorized. The E-Verify program closely monitors uncontested mismatches and actively reaches out to employers to ensure that they are aware of their responsibility to inform employees of the right to contest.

0.01 percent of employees who receive initial mismatches contest the mismatch and are not found work authorized.

0.14 percent of employees with initial mismatches are unresolved because the employer closed the cases as "self-terminated" or as requiring further action by either the employer or employee at the end of FY10.

Constructing and maintaining a USA/Mexican border fence/system of fortifications/etc. could be the public works program of the 21st Century. Sounds like a win-win to me.

It is. The Open Border suck-ups and the Perrista libs like to to say things like "Call for border fence exposes lack of knowledge" only because they feel they have no choice in order to try and make their candidate look informed or somehow more knowledgeable than he really is.

They say things like this because they are coming at this from a position of weakness on the issue and they also know the majority of Americans either currently support the notion of a physical barrier or will likely come around as more information comes to light on the subject. The Perrista's are getting more desperate with the release of each new national tracking poll released showing Perry becoming less relevant each day now. Seal the damned border NOW.

You don’t want to face the fact that your sainted people may not be the solid citizens you fantasize about.

No, but you clearly show how prejudiced you are. You are beyond concerned with immigration and do not realize that all Hispanics do not come from Mexico.

Not all legal Hispanics are anchor babies. There are Hispanics that have lived here from all parts of the world and have lived here for generations.

Had you researched it, you would have realized the NCLR includes Hispanic people. They hold their convention in different cities. One year it was TX, this year it's Las Vegas.

Talk about fantasizing, not all of this country's problems are a result of illegal immigration. It is not the only issue in this campaign. Now go talk to someone else about your issue.

Let’s assume it was that easy to build the fence even with all of the obstacles and reasons people have pointed out.

It will take many years to build it.

Are you willing to wait that long to secure the border?

Perry’s solution would take a few weeks at most a few months.

It does not create a problem with your third biggest trading partner.

And it does not take Americans land away from them.
Including the Apache Indian Tribe.

It doesn’t violate the treaties between US and Mexico.

And the United States would not have to give up land to Mexico.

You think that people and Perry who believe this are open border idiots?

I am very strongly opposed to illegals crossing the southern borders of the USA, or any other border as that goes. I absolutely do not want any illegal drags on our economy. However. when this matter of a wall comes up I get remembrances of the infamous Berlin wall which Reagan demanded Gorbechev to tear down. In both situations I see people/humans wanting to go from some social hell-hole to a much better life. I can realize the feelings driving this behavior. There is a difference however in that in one case the people sneaking over the Berlin wall apparently had a generally welcoming society on the other side. In our situation this is not the case and I believe the immigrants do not on the whole improve the economic conditions of most citizens. The situation becomes a shoot out between opposing societal needs. My thoughts are that we should do what is necessary in a humane way sans a border wall to strongly discourage illegal traffic across the borders. For all those who do get across as illegals they should not be given any betterment of life beyond our own citizens. In addition to the extent of the amount that an illegal person/family gets USA public aid the government of that person’s/family should be billed for such amount for payment by any trade means available. Governments are responsible for the welfare of it’s citizens.

Perry opposes amnesty and numbersusa does not show that.

Here is what Numbers USA says about Perry and amnesty:

"Gov. Perry's position on amnesty remains unclear. During the Bush Presidency, Gov. Perry gave mild support to the idea of legalization. But he has spoken against Pres. Obama's various "administrative amnesties." He recently has defended his support as governor for Texas in-state tuition for illegal aliens (a form of amnesty). He opposes a congressional-passed amnesty as long as the border is not secure. He says once the border is secure, a conversation about amnesty can start. He does not make it clear where he would stand during such a conversation. On balance, we have to give him an UNHELPFUL, not sure whether he is closer to moving into a BAD or a GOOD rating.

■ When Gov. Perry was asked at the Republican debate on September 7, 2011, how to handle the 11 million illegal aliens living in the United States, he said: "[Once the border is secure] then you can have an intellectually appropriate discussion about immigration reform." Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/us/politics/08republican-debate-text.html?pagewanted=all

■ At the GOP Presidential debate on September 12, 2011, Gov. Perry for the first time stated that he opposed the federal DREAM Act amnesty: "I'm not for the DREAM Act that they are talking about in Washington D.C. that is amnesty." But he then defended his part in enacting a section of the DREAM Act (in-state tuition for illegal aliens) in Texas: "What we did in the state of Texas was clearly a states right issue. And the legislature passed with only four dissenting votes in the House and the Senate to allow this to occur. We were clearly sending a message to young people, regardless of what the sound of their last name is, that we believe in you. That if you want to live in the state of Texas and you want to pursue citizenship, that we're going to allow you the opportunity to be contributing members in the state of Texas and not be a drag on our state." Source: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1109/12/se.06.html

■ During his time as Governor of Texas, Rick Perry consistently supported allowing illegal aliens to pay in-state tuition at Texas' state colleges and universities. On July 24, 2011, he told the New Hampshire Union Leader, "To punish these young Texans for their parents' actions is not what America has always been about." Source: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110724/NEWS0605/707249985

■ In a September 2010 interview, Gov. Perry said the following regarding the Obama Administration's memo advocating an administrative amnesty for illegal aliens: "The idea that the administration unilaterally is going to be handing out citizenship to the United States is pretty offensive to people who stood in line for long periods of time to become citizens…so I think it’s a really bad idea.” Source: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2010/09/22/governor-rick-perry-on-the-report-of-a-new-amnesty-plan-for-illegals/

■ In A December 2006 editorial, Gov. Perry wrote: "But to me neither amnesty nor mass deportation is the answer. The first unfairly rewards those who broke our laws, and the latter is not only unrealistic and unenforceable, but it would devastate our economy. That’s why I support a guest worker program that takes undocumented workers off the black market and legitimizes their economic contributions without providing them citizenship status.... Along with millions of Americans, I think it is wrong to reward those who broke our laws with citizenship ahead of those who have followed the law and are waiting to enter this country legally. And like millions of Americans I do not support amnesty."

I define amnesty as "Any legislation that legalizes the status of those who broke our laws by entering our country illegally and allows them to stay is amnesty."

Based on Perry's statements, he is an amnesty advocate no different than Obama and McCain who are also against amnesty. They are using word games to disguise what they support. Source: http://governor.state.tx.us/news/editorial/10326

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