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Published: February 04, 2006 12:58 am

Presidential action lacking on immigration

One area President George W. Bush conveniently glossed over in Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech was the issue of immigration.

The president stated the United States needs to better maintain its borders while at the same time offering a liberal guest worker program for legal immigrants. However, the president offered no solutions to his own challenges.

This is the way it has been with illegal immigration since President Bush took office, and it has been a major shortcoming of his administration. There aren’t enough border patrol agents, illegals still swarm into the United States pretty much at will, human smuggling of immigrants is big business, and now it’s been revealed the Mexican army may even be helping drug smugglers get into the United States.

While the president has been in an aggressive mode on the war on terror, he’s been surprisingly complacent about one of the biggest risks of terrorism — unfettered access by illegal immigrants into the United States.

There definitely is a balancing act that has to be achieved when it comes to immigration. This nation was built on immigrants who came to this country for a better life and with an entrepreneurial spirit. The same is true for many immigrants that now want to come into the United States, but there also are too many illegal immigrants who come into the country for dishonorable purposes. It appears it is too easy for someone determined to do the United States harm to get into the country, mainly through Mexico.

We’d like to see some real and purposeful proposals from the president instead of rhetoric. We’d like to see the administration put some pressure on the Mexican government to crack down on illegal immigration.

One suggestion has been for the U.S. to seize assets of Mexican companies in the U.S. until the Mexican government addresses the issue from their side of the border. After 9-11, the president was willing to do this with countries associated al-Quaida.

Illegal immigration is a threat to the stability of the United States. Most Americans and legal immigrants applaud any process that helps streamline the ability of immigrants to achieve legal status in the country. But, the atmosphere is too dangerous to continue to allow the situation to go on as it stands now.

It’s time for action on this issue, Mr. President.