April 05, 2007
What's the Biggest Prob @ the Southern Border?

By Debbie Schlussel

When it comes to illegal aliens seeping in, which do you think is a bigger problem at America's southern border--a lack of real commitment and resources to stop the hemorrhaging . . . or an aggressive weed?

Well, most of us who know anything would say the former. We know that the President and the Republicans are more beholden to big business that wants cheap labor and that the Dems are more beholden to the future consituency of that cheap labor.

But for Michael Chertoff and the Department of Homeland Security, they think it's a weed that's the problem. And--gosh darn it--they're going to stop those illegal weeds from growing into the country and obscuring our borders.

Is Carrizo Cane the Real Reason Aliens Are Swarming Our Borders?

While we can't deny that the Carrizo cane plant--which grows stalks up to 18 feet-helps illegal aliens hide from plain view, the plant is not the problem. It's the least of the problems. The probelm is that Congressmen and bureaucrats who pretend they care about stopping our illegal alien problem are gung ho to stop the weed, but not so gung ho to actually stop the aliens hiding behind them or to prevent them from getting instant amnesty.

That's why the Department of Homeland Security is paying the Department of Agriculture $1.5 million per year, according to USA Today to get rid of the cane plant. Bugs from Spain are the only supposedly sure cure to kill new shoots and mature stalks.

I'm sure that the Ag Dept. will be very successful at killing the weeds, far more so than we ever will be in stopping illegal aliens. And that's the problem. They are focusing on these minimal tangents to make us think this is an incremental step in the right direction to stopping the alien problem. But stopping the plants is really just a drop in the bucket.

I'm all for doing anything that will make it harder for aliens to hide and for Border Patrol agents to do their jobs. But I'd bet that $1.5 million that once they eradicate those weeds, the unsecure border problem at America's southern limits and the illegal alien problem within it . . . won't change one bit. The progression of both these problems won't be slowed--weeds or no weeds.

It does, however, makes for a nice science experiment. And a nice export (the bugs) for Spain.

Calling all horticulturists and entomologists. You, too, can get your piece of the bloated Homeland Security/"safe" borders pie.

Gee, I wonder who the Ag Dept. will contract with to put the bugs on he plants? Hmmm . . . maybe those people who "do the jobs that Americans just won't do."

Posted by Debbie at April 5, 2007 03:03 PM

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