Millions of Mexican Illegal Aliens Endanger U.S. Security
1 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.
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

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