Immigration, Part II: Why we must secure the border

Now that the "comprehensive" immigration bill appears to be dead, the aftermath seems to show that our government still doesn't get it. It was not about racism, as some would have it. It was always about trust. The American people, seeing an obviously flawed bill, did not trust Congress or the Executive to do the proper enforcement. They did not for the last twenty years, so why would they be expected to do so now? It was clear that the resources to implement the law as written did not even exist, and were not going to be deployed. It was going to be another amnesty without security.



A couple of news reports the last couple of days have caught my eye, and they dovetail nicely into why we still need action on border security



First, there was the release of the National Intelligence Estimate. One of the assessments according to the AP story was:

"Of note," the analysts said, "we assess that al-Qaida will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), its most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the homeland."

So now al Qaeda is seeking to infiltrate Iraqi al Qaeda into the US for attacks on our citizens.

The other story from ABC leads as follows:

"The FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M., that agents say is bringing "Iraqis and other Middle Eastern" individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico.................."

This fits with another ABC report from July 10, 2007:

"Senior U.S. intelligence officials tell ABC News new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the United States, or may already be here..........."

In other words, we know that Iraqis and other Middle Easterners are being smuggled into this coutry from Mexico.

We have the knowledge that they want to attack us and that our border is porous enough that they can do so.

The next question has to be: "Why does not the Congress and the Executive put more interest on border security?" A full implementation of existing law would be very helpful, but the effort drags.

A strong border security bill with proper appropriations could still be passed by this Congress, but there appears to be no interest on the part of the leadership of either party to attempt to do so. Can we ever trust them to do right? Don't answer that question!