Thread: No Border Fence Can Deal With This Problem

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Thursday, April 03, 2008

No Border Fence Can Deal With This Problem [Andy McCarthy]

Almost half of our millions of illegal immigrants do not sneak unlawfully into the country; they enter legally and overstay their visas. Nearly seven years after 9/11, while we now track who enters, we are still not tracking who leaves. At the Counterterrorism Blog, my buddy Bill West, a former top immigration official, tackles the related issues of visa overstays and the Visa Waiver Program:

[i]In recent days there have been news reports relating to the CIA Director expressing concerns over terrorist operatives emanating from al-Qaeda camps in the Pakistani badlands who are Westerners traveling with European passports, able to enter the United States via the Visa Waiver Program with otherwise “clean’ backgrounds who would not raise suspicions of US security personnel. There is also a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study just out that faults the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) US VISIT alien entry and exit tracking system for being nowhere near ready to implement its departure control structure.

The two supposed immigration control systems, Visa Waiver and US VISIT, are key elements to the nation’s immigration process. Visa Waiver allows citizens of some 27 countries, primarily Western and Northern European nations (but that list is about to be expanded to several East European countries), to enter the US as temporary visitors for 90 days without any visa screening application process outside the United States. The Visa Waiver program was initiated in the 1980s to facilitate international tourism during a time when terrorism and national security were far lower concerns on the border control radar screen.

The US VISIT system captures digital fingerprints, photographs and documentary information of aliens entering the United States at ports of entry and registers them in the immigration database and cross-matches the data against security threat and criminal databases. US VISIT was implemented in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. After much “fine-tuning,â€

The fence will not stop those who overstay their visas, BUT denying them jobs, social services, housing, etc will do it.

This is why we need internal enforcement.

My plan:

1. Bring the troops home from Iraq (150,000 on the ground, 300,000 in the theater?)
2. 50,000 on the border guarding it.
3. 50,000 on the border building the fence.
3. 50,000 on the ground for internal enforcement.

4. Prior to being removed from the country, all illegal aliens must spend time
A. at the border cleaning up their used clothes and empty water bottles.
B. at hospitals providing janitorial services equal to the dollar value of free medical care they recieved.
C. at schools providing free janitorial services equal to the value of the anchor baby's education.
D. at jails providing free janitorial services equal to the cost they burdened the system with.
E. at any other public service they received funds for that I've missed.

Most of us realize a quality border fence (double-layered) is not the answer all on the issue of border security. However, I do believe most of us feel it is a very important part of the puzzle that can't be overlooked!

BUILD DUNCAN HUNTER'S DOUBLE-LAYERED FENCE NOW!!!!