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I have been saying this on my congressional campaign web site for more than six months. Open borders require Big Brother. If we don't carefully screen foreigners at the border, the government has no choice but to watch EVERYONE.

We are inevitably going to lose our freedom as Americans because the United States government will not carefully screen people entering our country. Our government is full of dangerous bureaucrats who believe entry into our country is a birthright.

We are not just going to lose our freedom. Future terrorism in America will kill many more than it already did on 9/11. Even our leaders have predicted greater death tolls from terrorist acts and still they do nothing about securing the borders.

But what would shutting our borders accomplish? It would eliminate all tourism revenue and make our international reputation even worse. And who will be the ones that do manage to sneak in? It'll become a bidding war and I can guarantee you that the well-heeled and well-financed terrorists will be the ones who will get in - despite our best efforts.

Plus it does nothing to stop domestic psychos like the DC sniper (Mohommad) or McVeigh. And what would stop al Qaeda from recruiting Americans (such as Mohammad or "the dirty bomber") to do its dirty work here? Is step two going to be cutting off all cross-border communications?

And seal our borders - easier said than done. We've got thousands of miles of physical border and coastline - even without consideration for Alaska, Hawaii and our protectorates. To top off that we import hundreds of billions of dollars worth of cargo each year. Are we going to inspect each ship and container or are we going to stop imports altogether. Don't forget the thousands of fishing and pleasure vessels that enter international waters and return everyday. Who is going to pay for all these inspections? Who is going to pay for the monitoring?

Life has inherent risk. It is unfortunate that much of it is artificially created by our fellow man - crime, terrorism, war, phsyical abuse, negligence, car accidents, pollution, etc... In my opinion nature does quite well enough by itself with hurricanes, drought, tornados, volcanoes, disease, insects, vicious animals and earthquakes.

There is nothing humanly possible to guarantee safety from any of these things. It is laughable to suggest that stifling freedom stops crime: look at China or the former USSR (crime free paradises they are/were - NOT!!!!) Stifling freedom for the sake of terrorism/crime is a stupid knee-jerk reaction by stupid politicians wanting to prove how "tough" they are.

It is a fallasy to contend that we have to make such a choice. Losing our freedoms and closing our borders are both unaccceptable and counter-productive. Take away the rights from the citizenry - they will revolt (thus domestic terrorism). Close our borders - the terrorists will only become more determined and eventually succeed. They will be aided by a even more severe domestic shortage of speakers of their languages and fewer friends of the US abroad.

I suppose a lot of people will disagree with me on this point but it is my contention that this is a false choice.