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Those on Both Sides of Immigration Debate React to Chertoff Address

Aug 19, 2006 10:44 AM PDT


By J.D. Wallace, KOLD News 13 Reporter

Where two countries meet, a struggle continues over border enforcement.

"The technology and all the mamby-pamby stuff that our government is proposing, the bottomline is they need to go to the American employer and say 'you can't hire people from Mexico and other countries that aren't here legally,'" said John Ladd, a ranch owner whose southern boundary is also the international border with Mexico.

"It only victimizes those who come across the border, criminalizes undocumented immigrants who come and only they're looking to criminalize employers? I don't think this is moving in a positive direction at all," said Anna Ochoa O'Leary, Ph.D., a member of Derechos Humanos.

That direction is one by Homeland Security to add new surveillance technology along the border and to strictly enforce immigration laws.

"We have dramatically increased this year the number of criminal cases brought against employers who are illegally employing those who migrate across the border without proper authority," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated at a press conference in Nogales Thursday.

As Homeland Security pushes for more surveillance and vows to enforce immigration law, it faces criticism, both from immigrant rights groups like Derechos Humanos that say it's making life tough for immigrants who want to work here, as well as from border enforcement supporters like the Minutemen and others who live along the border who say it's not doing enough to stop those trying to enter this country illegally.

"The amount of people that are involved in our society that are here illegally, it's mind boggling. I don't believe (Chertoff). Sorry, I'm a proud American and I don't believe him," Ladd said.

"I don't think it's going to work. You aren't going to find the people who want to do those jobs in the United States at the wages they want to offer," Ochoa O'Leary said.

As Homeland Security charts a course in border enforcement, plenty will watch where it goes.