READERS BACK VOLUNTEER MINUTEMAN
PROGRAMS AT NATION'S BORDERS

July 17, 2005

EDITOR'S NOTE: Reader comments this week are on the question "Do you think the Minuteman efforts to bring improvements in border control and reduce illegal immigration are helpful activities, or does such activity present unjustifiable risks?"

SUPPORTS EFFORTS

I support the efforts of the Minutemen to slow the stream of illegal aliens coming into the United States across our Texas borders.

I lived in El Paso for 20-plus years and I know the cost to society and the Texas taxpayers.

For example, if any illegal alien who comes across the border has a baby born in the United States, the baby becomes an American citizen. Taxpayers in El Paso pay for a hospital and provide medical care to illegal aliens. (Most is given for free.) Taxpayers in El Paso provide bilingual teachers and classroom space for illegal aliens. Welfare checks are going to people that live in interior Mexico. (I have seen this!) Certain residents of Mexico are eligible for Social Security benefits. Many vehicles are stolen daily and taken to Mexico for resale. The police force has to spend more of its time chasing down illegal criminals.

Please do not get me wrong - I am not against legal immigration, I am against illegal immigration.

If the Border Patrol cannot put enough people on the border to stop the illegals, then why shouldn't law-abiding citizens who are willing to spend a few days or weeks of their time be allowed to patrol our borders to help keep those illegals on the other side of the border?

Royce C. Hayes

Flint

NEED MINUTEMEN

Do we need Minutemen on the border? Yes, si, yep.

Due to the failure of Congress and the administration to really understand the need of closing our borders as shown by the limited number of Border Patrols, we need volunteer Minutepersons (that's men and women) patrolling our borders - at the moment, with Mexico. As soon as the border with Mexico is controlled, the need will shift to Canada.

The Germans and Israelis have expertise in controlling borders. Our Border Patrol should enlist their help.

Royce Ballew

Tyler

COULD HELP

I really do think the Minutemen would help. We have way too many illegal immigrants in the United States. I mean, just look - we have an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants in Texas.

So I don't see how the Minutemen could hurt. The way I see it, they would be doing a big service to our state.

Frankie Hughes

Tyler

APPROVES OF MINUTEMEN

Yes, I approve of the Minutemen.

I think it's a sorry state of affairs when private citizens have to do something that the federal government should have done long ago.

All one has to do is look around this area to see that we are literally being overrun by illegals. I guess the deaths at the World Trade Center were not enough for the federal government to secure our borders.

Gary Atchley

Ben Wheeler

WEEPS FOR COUNTRY

It is readily apparent that our leaders in Washington, D.C., do not care about our absolutely porous borders, north and south.

They want to have work programs, give citizenship to illegal aliens, let them get driver licenses (will they have insurance?) and all manner of ideas that are lame-brained.

I have been broadsided by a van full of illegal aliens who had no insurance and were in a borrowed van. They were arrested and turned loose while the wrecker was towing my wrecked car away and giving me a ride to work.

Yes, I am in favor of Minutemen guarding our borders because our senators and representatives will not act on the problem for any number of reasons. I suggest also that everyone from Florida to California learn to speak Spanish.

It is my firm belief that Washington is full of politicians who have sold us out to their own self-interests. They are largely incompetent, many are corrupt and most do not have to answer to taxpayers at the local level.

I weep for our country. The only true patriot in Washington is Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who is the only one who reads and understands the Constitution. (Politicians) swear to uphold the Constitution, but their words are empty and without resolve to do what they swear to do.

Jack Ludwick

Tyler

GUARD HOMELANDS

Why do we need protection by Minutemen at our borders?

Could it be that the reason that the Minutemen are necessary to assist our Border Patrol is because U.S. soldiers have been sent by our government to "protect" Iraqi and Afghanistan?

It appears that our troops are more needed here at our borders than any other place in the world. Consider the recent tyranny in London, and our own New York World Trade Center, and one can see that our government needs to rethink who it should be protecting. These brave soldiers are our sons and daughters who signed up to guard our homeland.

Wake up, politicians and citizens of America. Let's bring our sons and daughters home to guard their homeland.

The reason that Islamic revolutionaries are successful is they lack a conscience. Our form of "justice and peace" is lost on the murderous and self-righteous al-Qaida terrorist. Let us all come together and demand that our politicians have a conscience when they sacrifice our soldiers. We must not waste precious lives trying to save people who have no conscience and think a suicide bomb is a religious answer.

LaVerne Ludwick

Tyler

BORDER DANGERS

Do I approve the Texas Minutemen patrolling the border to reduce illegal immigration? A resounding yes. A similar group was very successful in stopping such activities in Arizona last April and such a program should work in Texas.

After all, under our form of government, we the people are the ultimate government, and if our elected representatives refuse to do anything to protect us from foreign invasion, we not only have the right but the duty to protect our country. I am at a total loss to understand why, nearly four years after 9/11, our borders are still open and unprotected.

I am equally unable to explain how our government officials cannot understand that if thousands of Mexicans and hundreds of pounds of illegal drugs can pour across our border virtually unchallenged on a daily basis, then so can Arab terrorists.

As a lifelong Republican, I am very disappointed that President Bush, having been governor of Texas, must be aware of this problem, and yet he refuses to take any meaningful action to correct it. I can only conclude that he doesn't care.

I'm afraid our nation will have to suffer another attack on the scale of 9/11, with a subsequent determination that the perpetrators came across the Mexican border, before our government officials will do anything meaningful. I feel they are more concerned with being "politically correct" than protecting our citizens.

If anyone doubts the dangers we face from having open borders, ask the American Indians what happens to people who fail to protect and secure their borders.

Stephen Thompson

Tyler

NOT AN IDEAL WORLD

In an ideal world, we would not need security along our borders. But this is not an ideal world we live in, so measures need to be taken to secure our borders.

The few Border Patrols we have can not begin to take care of the miles and miles of border we have with Mexico.

I am all for the Minutemen helping to patrol the border. The most they can do is to help stem the tide of illegals coming across our border. We are never going to stop them until we develop the spine to make coming over here not so attractive.

That means stopping all the handouts. If they put so much effort into taking back their own country as they do taking the risk of coming over here, Mexico could be a fine and productive place to live. It wouldn't be easy by any means, but more than worth the effort. Mexico has abundant natural resources that could more than sustain the population.

If the illegals would put the thousands and thousands of dollars they pay coyotes to smuggle them over here into means to take back their country from the drug cartels and corrupt government, there would be no need for Minutemen to help patrol our borders.

But as it stands now, we need all the help we can get. Bring on the Minutemen.

Linda E. Montrose

Frankston

HELP IS NEEDED

Yes, because governmental resources are inadequate to stopping the illegal invasion and the sheer number of illegal aliens streaming across the U.S. border overwhelms our hardworking U.S. Border Patrol.

Therefore, help from volunteer organizations like the Texas Minutemen L.L.C. and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp. in Arizona are vital to reducing this threat to our national security and reducing the billions of dollars it is costing U.S. taxpayers every year.

The Minuteman-type volunteer organizations have to operate under a set of rules that ensure dedicated, reliable people are performing legitimate detection and reporting activities in full corporation with the U.S. Border Patrol units.

There are no "unjustifiable risks" as long as the volunteer Minutemen cooperate with the U.S. Border Patrol and work out their communication and control procedures together.

The bigger risk to our nation is the 3 million illegal aliens crossing into the U.S. from Mexico this year. The surge of non-Mexican illegals from countries such as Syria, Iran and Iraq has increased from 30,147 in the 2003 fiscal year to 44,617 last year - a 48 percent increase.

According to a March 15 article in your paper, "Immigration Policy Called Lax," "intelligence suggests that al-Qaida has considered infiltrating operations into the United States through Mexico..." Hello, London, have you seen any risk lately?

Norman G. Wallace

Flint

©Tyler Morning Telegraph 2005

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