Former border patrol agent speaks on immigration



Zack Taylor was a border patrol agent and a supervisory border patrol agent for 26 years. Though he retired in 2003, he still lives in the same house in Arizona where he has only to look to the south to see the Mexican border.

With states and communities, including Kansas, considering tougher immigration laws, Taylor said he thinks they should look to his state for ideas. Some of the things Arizona has done include penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants, cutting illegal immigrants off from social services and tracking other ways illegal immigrants receive public benefits.

When asked about the effect Arizona’s laws have had, Taylor responded that they have noticed many illegal immigrants leaving the state. “In 2007, Arizona had one of the highest increases in food stamps. I think we were 10 percent over the previous year.

We expect that to drop dramatically in 2008,â€