Thread: Border Security Not Politically Correct

http://www.news-register.net/edit/story ... _edt02.asp

Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Time: 10:17:04 PM EST

Border Security Not Politically Correct
News-Register

At this moment there are roughly 35 million immigrants in the United States, and about one-third of them are here illegally. Yet policymakers continue to ignore, and in some instances go to great lengths to patch over, the significant costs of illegal immigration.

A pair of wire service stories underscore policymakers' myopia.
The first concerns a surely well-intentioned federal program that attempts to track children of migrant workers through the education system. The federal Office of Migrant Education attempts to ensure that school records follow children of migrant farm workers, including many whose families are here illegally.

Advocates surely would say, and we would tend to agree, that children should not be punished for the actions of their parents. But parsing this story through, we find all manner of costs imposed upon law-abiding taxpayers by illegal immigration: Schools that must accommodate, with bilingual education if necessary, non-English-speaking children of illegals. Social services agencies also intervene, again at cost to taxpayers. And in the department of ostrich-like behavior, it is not uncommon for schools and other local agencies impacted by illegal immigration to be forbidden, by law, from sharing information about illegals with immigration authorities.

The second story is even more worrisome. The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study, conducted under the auspices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting the rise of a particularly nasty form of drug-resistant tuberculosis among "foreign-born" Californians. The study delicately avoided asking whether any of the patients involved, whose treatment costs run between $200,000 and $1.2 million apiece, were here illegally. Of course many were. Politically correct sensitivity to illegal immigrants and their advocates apparently trumps the CDC's mission to protect the rest of us from something called MDR-TB, whose victims, according to the study, are exceedingly unlikely to complete treatment regimens and are twice as likely to transmit TB to others than other TB patients.

One sensible means to reduce the spread of such a dangerous disease would be to, of all things, secure our borders. But the CDC's investigator, in keeping with the touchy political correctness surrounding illegal immigration, dismissed the obvious solution at a press conference releasing the study. "If we hope to accelerate progress and guard against resurgence of TB," said Dr. Reuben Granich, "we must employ innovative public-health strategies - not border closings."

No one has suggested actually closing the border, only patrolling it and actually enforcing our nation's immigration laws. Such is the wackiness of the immigration discussion, or lack thereof, that a CDC official would suggest Americans wait for unspecified "innovative public-health strategies" to be developed rather than directly attempt to reduce the flow of infected people into the United States.

Ignoring or papering over the problems imposed by illegal immigration is not bliss. Congress and the Bush administration have a responsibility to take action, but little as yet has been forthcoming from Washington. Meanwhile, the social welfare and health costs of illegal immigration continue to rise.

[EOT]

Gee, I never knew the answer was so very very simple!

It's not politically correct to police the borders and keep out invaders. Now they tell me! I've spent lots of sleepless nights pondering this quagmire. Tossing and turning, tossing and turning. Would have thought it was much more complex an issue than just being politically incorrect!

I'm going to be politically incorrect, ya'll :P , and double-check the doors before turning in. That's the way to keep invaders out. Lock the doors/borders and put Killer in the yard. :P Nobody gets past Killer. :P