Hermanson: Dust or no dust, build the border fence
inmaricopa.com
By BRENDA HERMANSON-GARZA
August 24, 2011 - 1:51 pm

Some say, as does Henry Wade, that the border fence will just collect dust and that a fence does not work. Well, it does work. Since Yuma County built a fence, it has attained a 96 percent reduction of illegal border crossings in that sector.

Wade says that we want to hide behind our fence and that we are afraid of our neighbors. Is he kidding? First, the United States of America and its citizens are not afraid of anyone and we are not hiding from anyone. It should not be our duty as a country to allow just anyone to come to this country and get jobs, not pay taxes, get a free education, get the same health care and not be a citizen of the United States.


Maricopa Republican Club President Brenda Hermanson

Wade says that the border fence will collect dust while schools remain underfunded, but look at what we are spending on illegal aliens. The economic and social consequences of illegal immigration are staggering. On average, 10,000 illegal aliens cross the border every day. This adds up to more than 3 million a year. One third of them will be caught and about half of them, about 3,500 per day, will become permanent US residents.

Currently, there are about 9 to 11 million illegals in the United States, double the 1994 level. Illegal aliens have cost billions of taxpayer-funded dollars for medical services. Dozens of hospitals in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California have been forced to close or face bankruptcy because of federally mandated programs requiring free emergency room services to illegal aliens. Taxpayers pay half-a-billion dollars every year incarcerating illegal alien criminals. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads in part “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside.â€