Secure the homeland
Chris Neugebauer of Littleton writes:
Sunday, February 24, 2008

As the sun sets on another day, nearly 1,500 additional illegal aliens have made their way across our country's porous national borders. Most of them are here to seek a better life, but how many will resort to a life of crime? Worse yet, are there individuals or groups among them that could possibly be here to do us much greater harm? One of the first priorities following the national tragedy of September 11th, 2001 should have been the securing of our borders and the enactment of a thoughtful and secure immigration policy. It has not happened and we are more vulnerable each day because of the unwillingness of our government to make hard choicesĂ–.and the reluctance of our population to demand action from our politicians.

We have increased the number of border patrol officers and finally started to build a fence, but only 700 miles of fence along our 2,000 mile southern border is planned, and right now barely one tenth of that has even been built.

It is estimated by our own Department of Homeland Security that 12 million illegal aliens currently reside in the U.S. and another 43 thousand enter our country each month. These numbers alone are staggering, but in the context of a post-9/11 world they are simply unacceptable.

The issue of illegal immigration has many important considerations that stir the emotions of those on all sides of the debate. These emotional issues, though, should not detract from our governmentĂ*s number one responsibility: the security of this country and the safety of its citizens. All arguments for a continuation of the status quo at our borders pale in light of the security danger posed by terrorists and their weapons possibly entering the US illegally with intentions of killing hundreds or thousands of our citizens.

This letter is a call to citizens of this community to demand that congress, the president, and our current slate of presidential candidates put the security of this countryĂ*s borders and, by extension, the safety of its inhabitants at the front of the national agenda. The means are available to fortify our borders and stem the flow of illegals, but our government needs to commit the money, manpower, and technology to accomplish it. Pick up the phone or write a letter to your elected leaders today and tell them they must enact an effective and enforceable border security policy NOW!
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