Posted on 08/06/2002 3:07:24 PM PDT by Tancredo Fan
Millions of Mexican Illegal Aliens Endanger U.S. Security
NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2002
WASHINGTON The millions of Mexican illegal aliens in the United States endanger national security by creating a demand for false identity documents and smuggling networks that could also assist terrorists, experts said Tuesday.
The three experts, speaking at a panel hosted by Nixon Center and Center for Immigration Studies, also said that amnesty for Mexican illegal aliens in the United States should not be considered until immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexican border is strengthened.
Robert Leiken, a guest scholar at Nixon Center, said that Mexican illegal aliens themselves did not pose a terror threat. But operating in the shadow economy, they help to undermine the rule of law in the United States and in Mexico, he said.
"Mexican immigrants are not a direct threat to homeland security," Leiken said. "The real problem is that a large illegal population creates an active market for illegal documents."
Leiken said that helping Mexico guard its borders should be one of the most important items on the U.S.-Mexico foreign relations agenda, especially in light of Sept. 11. Another critical aspect of control should be increased immigration law enforcement within U.S. workplaces, he said.
"Earned legalization must be sufficiently stringent as to discourage illegal immigration, something the 1986 'amnesty' failed to do. That is why the program must be linked not only to shared U.S. and Mexican border responsibility but also to regularly enforced employer sanctions," he said.
George Grayson, a professor of government at the College of William and Mary, said that the Mexican Ministry of the Interior needed to improve the reach and the behavior of its border agents.
His 2001 study of the conditions for illegal aliens at the Guatemalan-Mexican border showed that more than 100 criminal organizations continue to move migrants across the frontier, at times through the assistance of corrupt border officials.
Middle Eastern, African, and Asian aliens are among the many passing through from Central America, creating a U.S. security threat, the experts said. Despite recent enforcement reforms and crackdowns by the United States and by Mexican President Vincente Fox, illegal immigration continues steadily, they said.
'A Sieve Blasted by Buckshot'
"The Mexican-Guatemalan border is a sieve blasted by buckshot. There are more than 200 clandestine crossing points," Grayson said.
Post-Sept. 11 border security has been a major consideration to the Bush administration. The president's 2003 budget contained money to double the size of the U.S. Border Patrol and major increases in Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Under Bush's plan for a Department of Homeland Security, all border and port security would be handled in one agency and the administration anticipates far greater control over who enters or leaves the country. The annual legal quota for Mexican immigrants is 75,000. Before Sept. 11, Fox and other Mexican officials requested that the quota be raised to 250,000, even if the Mexicans were permitted in only as temporary guest workers.
An amnesty program for the millions of illegal Mexican workers in the United States was a key Mexican request at a February 2001 presidential summit between Fox and George W. Bush. But since Sept. 11, amnesty and legalization programs have taken a back seat to border enforcement, the experts said.
In his remarks, Leiken also said he believed more Mexican illegal aliens should receive legal spots in the United States to reduce the pool of illegals.
But Steven Camarota, director of research at Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that is often critical of open immigration policy, said he thought U.S. policy should focus on reducing the number of Mexican and low-skill immigrants.
Taxpayer Subsidy to Cheapskate Employers
His research showed that Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal, were costing U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars a year though their use of public assistance. He thinks their benefit to the economy is small.
"In effect, Mexican immigration acts as a subsidy to businesses that employ unskilled workers, holding down labor costs, while taxpayers pick up the costs of providing services to a much larger poor and low-income population," he said.
I have a hard time taking any article seriously that in any way legitimizes amnesty. There are no circumstances that would justify rewarding people who have broken our laws to come here. Tell me what validity an oath would mean from these folks? What does a strengthened border do to change this?
Chalk this up as another fuzzy logic diatribe on illegal immigration. You can't say you are against illegal immigration on the one hand, then make comments that support amnesty on the next.
How about the "there are a lot of illegal immigrants we can get to vote for us if we give them amnesty and promise them handouts" oath?
If this striks as great a discourse with you as it does with me, make sure you vote for true CONSERVATIVES and stop paying attention to Reuplicrats and Demicans, which are harder to differentiate between from election to election.
The only thing an illegal alien has earned is a one-way trip back home. Sheesh, when is the US going to stop coddling these people and enforce the law?
Also, L.A. County is proposing a new 3-cent tax per square foot on each structure in the county to help "fund" the hardpressed emergency rooms across the County. Well, when the idiots at the GOP call me this October to help them out I'll have to tell them I sent my donation to the County to pay for the illegals the GOP is allowing to flood into our nation.
I expect this rubbish from Clinton, not from Bush and that is why he is the greater dissapointment.
Breathe...Relax...Aim...Squeeze...
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Help Mexico? They are encouraging it. Cracking down on American business's employing of these tax exempt workers would not hurt.
No folks, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. We will have to deal with "immigration" from Mexico from here on out. It's too late to do anything that will affect this problem. Even securing the border at this late date, (no political will to do even this too-little, too-late action), would provide little relief. I hope that all you lovely folk will learn to enjoy the drawbacks of not having enforced our borders for the last 30 years. The Dems will be the majority party in less than a generation, and we will have our own "PRI" experience for the rest of the century, maybe less than that if we are extremely lucky.....
Absolutely not. Mexico cannot be helped. Protecting ourselves from Mexico is what DC ought to be doing. That country should be completely isolated.
They are encouraging it.
Cracking down on American business's employing of these tax exempt workers would not hurt.
Try convincing the one-term wonder of that.
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