Thread: "We have to take pressure off border"

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_3960826

'We have to take pressure off border'
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times


Comprehensive immigration reform would relieve the pressure on the borders, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said Tuesday in El Paso.
Gutierrez said security is "job number one" but "we have to recognize that we have to take the pressure off the border. It has to go beyond securing the border."

Gutierrez, who visited the cargo facility, agricultural laboratory, the passport control and vehicle inspection areas at the Bridge of the Americas, mentioned employer enforcement and a guest-worker program with tamper-proof ID card as solutions to lighten the burden of border enforcers.

Gutierrez is touring the border to push the Bush immigration overhaul proposal, whose details are included in the Senate immigration bill passed last month. The bill was expected to be reviewed in conference committee soon, but lawmakers
in Washington, D.C., are predicting that the vast immigration overhaul legislation may be dead this year.

Gutierrez, a Cuban refugee who became a U.S. citizen in 1966, also spoke about concerns about local enforcement agencies apprehending undocumented immigrants.

"That's exactly the problem that's going to surface if all we focus on is border enforcement. We'll have these incidents where local governments make decisions that should be done by the federal government," he said.

A guest worker program will take pressure off border?

Same old same old.....They will feed the surf's any smoke screen to sell us on CHEAP LABOR.

Local law enforcement should be included as a part of the solution...if we are going to end CATCH AND RELEASE, let's do it NATIONWIDE, not just at the border. Let local law enforcement check ID's and immigration status, let them detain and deport those here illegally.

Couple this with REAL job site enforcement of the laws we already have on the books, and stop claiming employers are not to blame when accepting FAKE ID's...they know what they are doing, and the federal government knows that they are doing and continues to wink and turn the other way. Further, pass a quick small law that clears the way for the Social Security Administration and the IRS to share the data they have on FAKE ID users, instead of letting them hide behind a supposed right to privacy....criminals have no right to privacy, users of false ID's should be identified by Social Security and IRS so that appropriate agency can track down the violators and prosecute them.

A tough stance on these important issues would show we as a nation ARE SERIOUS about stopping the flow of illegals, and deporting those here illegally. When they know we are serious, the tide will turn to a trickle, and many already here will self deport themselves rather than risk criminal prosecute in a get touch atmosphere.