Thread: Bush Administration Says It's Curbing Illegal Immigration

http://www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=5317484&nav=2FH5

Bush administration says it's curbing illegal immigration


WASHINGTON The Bush administration says a border crackdown and help from National Guard troops is deterring thousands of illegal immigrants from crossing into the U-S.

The Border Patrol says, compared to last year, about 20-thousand fewer illegal immigrants were caught crossing from Mexico this summer.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says he's not ready to "declare victory." But he tells reporters the progress is "encouraging."

He also says the "catch and release" policy for many illegal immigrants is over. Chertoff says nearly everyone caught trying to sneak into the U-S is held until he or she can be returned home -- with the exception of Mexicans.

Chertoff says the new "catch-and-detain" rules don't apply to Mexicans because they're almost always returned immediately.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Because apprehensions are down, doesn't necessarily translate into fewer trying to get in. It could mean than more are crossing over the border undetected. According to some Border Patrol agents, they are having to "baby sit" the National Guard troops (since they are unarmed) and it's pulling them away from their border duties. The BP agents were told to stay within 5 minutes of the Guard troops at all times. I don't blame the Guard for that, just the Bush administration that sent them to, uh, near the border, without protection.

Bush administration says

What else needs to be said.

It's a good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read this or else I would have chocked

Whatever comes out of the mouthes of the Shrub administration, believe the exact opposite.

Right, Dman. Just switch it to the opposite of what he said and then you'll have it right. It's not that hard. I think most Americans have learned how to do it.

I'm with you guys.

Some national guard troops and a few well publicized round-ups does not give the warm fuzzies that this problem is yet being tackled in any serious fashion by this administration.

The reason they don't deport them right away is because of the cost. Who says they have to be put in a plain? Put them on the border and let them go back home the same way they came.

Those who came legally with a tourist visa and overstayed, they have to have money, make them buy their own ticket.

Chertoff says the new "catch-and-detain" rules don't apply to Mexicans because they're almost always returned immediately.

Yeah - you guys 'got it' - take what the administration says, invert it, and believe the result.

OK, call me one sarcastic SOB...
Let me offer my own translation into real people's language:
"We are pre-positioning Mexicans to facilitate the subsequent repeated attempt early the next morning..."

Yeah, why not fly 'em back into Central Mexico - say Mexico City.
Expensive, but maybe worth it?


Opinion: I like the idea - let 'em buy their own ticket home and with some of the proceeds we can do as I suggest above... ^

http://www.nytimes.com

August 24, 2006
Illegal Border Crossings Dip, and Official Cites Security
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced on Wednesday that tough border security measures championed by the Bush administration had significantly reduced the number of illegal immigrants entering from Mexico for the first time in several years.

Mr. Chertoff pointed to recent apprehension figures to bolster his assertion, saying that the number of Mexicans captured in June and July had dipped to the lowest level for that two-month period since the fiscal year 2002. The number of non-Mexican immigrants apprehended during June and July, he said, dropped to the lowest level for that period since the fiscal year 2004.

Mr. Chertoff attributed the decline to President Bush’s decision to deploy National Guard troops on the Mexican border and to an expansion in the number of beds in detention centers, which has in recent weeks allowed immigration officials for the first time to detain nearly all illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico until they can be deported. Illegal immigrants from Mexico are typically returned soon after capture.

Those efforts, he said, have discouraged illegal immigrants from trying to enter the country.

“The message, I think, is that what we have done is beginning to work,” Mr. Chertoff said at a news conference. “Although we’re not ready to declare victory — we’ve got a lot more work to do — it is encouraging and it’s something that ought to inspire us to continue to push forward on all of these different fronts.”

Critics of the administration’s immigration policy challenged Mr. Chertoff’s statements, saying the decline in apprehensions was a poor measure of determining whether immigrants were entering the United States. Illegal immigrants, they note, may simply be evading detection by avoiding heavily patrolled areas.

They also noted that Mr. Chertoff’s announcement came as Republican politicians were gearing up for Congressional elections in November. Many conservative voters have been demanding tougher border security. And Mr. Bush, who has been pressing for legislation to legalize illegal immigrants, has been sharply criticized by Republicans who argue that he has failed to do enough to secure the border.

Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington research group, characterized Mr. Chertoff’s announcement as an effort, in part, to rally support for Mr. Bush and for Republican Congressional candidates by promoting the government’s border security efforts.

“What does it mean to have fewer apprehensions?” asked Mr. Camarota, who favors a tougher crackdown on illegal immigration. “We just don’t know. The really important thing is how many get through, and nobody knows that.”

“I think this should be interpreted as positive baby steps,” Mr. Camarota said of the Chertoff announcement. “It’s a modest increase in enforcement so the president can get his legalization plan for illegals. That’s what he wants. And this provides political cover.”

Mr. Chertoff plans to continue to carry his message to Texas on Thursday, where he will tour the Mexican border with two Republican lawmakers, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, who have proposed legislation that would require the president to certify that the border was secure before allowing a temporary guest worker plan.

Mr. Chertoff will visit a detention center and address the governors of American and Mexican border states. Two governors, Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, a Republican, and Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat, urged the federal government on Wednesday to improve border security.

They called for a cross-border task force to step up law enforcement and push for stiffer penalties for building tunnels that funnel people and drugs between the countries.

At the news conference, Mr. Chertoff asked Congress to pass a bill to create a temporary worker program that would provide a legal mechanism for foreigners to work in the United States and ease the flow of illegal immigrants.

He said a comprehensive approach to immigration, recognizing the economic motivations driving immigrants to enter the United States illegally, would be the most successful. Officials argue that a temporary worker program would slow the flow of illegal immigrants — more than 50,000 were caught in July — by providing foreigners with a legal way to get jobs here.

“Let’s register them; let’s track them,” Mr. Chertoff said of the immigrants. “Let’s collect taxes from them, and let’s just be sure that we know who they are because they have secure identification.”

The possibility that such legislation will be passed before the fall elections, however, seems increasingly remote.

In May, the Senate passed legislation that would tighten border security, create a guest worker program and ultimately grant citizenship to most illegal immigrants after they pay fines and back taxes and enroll in English classes. The president supports this approach.

But House Republicans, who passed a bill in December that focused solely on toughening border security and immigration enforcement, decided to hold hearings to rally support for their approach before working with the Senate on a compromise.

Several hearings are being held in districts where Republican lawmakers are engaged in competitive races for the House, and some lawmakers and advocates of immigrants fear that immigration has become little more than a weapon in the battle over fiercely contested House and Senate seats.

Cecilia Muñoz, a vice president of the National Council of La Raza, an immigrant advocacy group, said, “The question is whether the desire to effectively reform immigration laws is greater than the desire to use this issue as a political football.”