Posted on 08/04/2002 12:35:11 AM PDT by sarcasm
YUMA, Arizona - The U.S. Border Patrol plans to set up eight more signal beacons in remote desert areas where illegal immigrants have died or become stranded while crossing the Mexico-Arizona border.
The beacons, 30-foot (9-meter) towers that when activated by a desperate border crosser will send a distress signal to the Border Patrol, will be located around the 2 million-acre (800,000-hectare) Barry Goldwater Air Force Range southeast of Yuma, patrol spokesman Mike McGlasson said.
The first beacon went in Friday with another to follow during the weekend. Patrol officials are selecting sites for the rest, McGlasson said.
"We're trying to cover the most dangerous areas of our part of the desert," he said.
The patrol's Yuma Sector, which covers the border in southwestern Arizona and part of California, began operating six other beacons last March between San Luis, Arizona, and the Gila Mountains.
One of those signal towers was responsible for the June 14 rescue of three men who had become separated from their group while crossing the desert, McGlasson said.
Border Patrol agents rescued the men about 20 minutes after they pushed the button to activate the beacon and also found the other people they were traveling with, he said.
The group had become dehydrated while walking in the 109 degree-Fahrenheit (43 degree-Celsius) heat and required minor medical attention, McGlasson said.
The solar-powered beacons are covered in mirrors and topped with fist-sized flashing strobe lights. The mirrors and lights, which blink every 10 seconds, are meant to help guide lost illegal immigrants to the beacons and can be seen from miles away during the day and night.
McGlasson said officials designed the beacons after a group of 14 undocumented Mexican immigrants died of exposure in the vast, barren desert in southwestern Arizona in May 2001.
If they want to get here that badly, they should carry their own water.
Carolyn
Medical problems were taken care of by "home methods" and sometimes this proved deadly. This inner society did not do things to get themselves noticed by any of the "La Migra" so they wouldn't get tagged for the return trip back across the border.
Large ticket items like cars, appliances, tv's are bought on the 'barter' system and by exchange of some cash.
The families all worked the fields and asked for little other than to be left alone.
I think there is a way to make this "amnesty" work, but not by a blanket, no look, no see approach. Each illegal has to be taken idividually to see what contribution they can make to society and a decision made from there.
"God... has formed us moral agents... that we may promote the happiness of those with whom He has placed us in society, by acting honestly towards all, benevolently to those who fall within our way, respecting sacredly their rights, bodily and mental, and cherishing especially their freedom of conscience, as we value our own." --Thomas Jefferson to Miles King, 1814. ME 14:197
"Shall we refuse the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe? The Constitution, indeed, has wisely provided that for admission to certain offices of important trust a residence shall be required sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to every one manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortunes permanently with us?" --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Annual Message, 1801. ME 3:338
"Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular." --Thomas Jefferson to Hugh White, 1801. ME 10:258
There are already provisions. If they go through the legal immigration process, then they're "legal immigrants."
If they don't go through the legal immigration process, then they're "illegal immigrants."
Seems fairly simple.
No doubt the immigration laws here are bad enough, but those in other countries such as Mexico lend themselves to be impossible to use to get to this country. The time it takes is impossibly long and the desperation of these people is life and death.
Again, I say, as long as they are here already, why not sift through them, seperate the wheat from the chaff and move on. It would be less expensive than rounding them all up and shipping them all back.
Rounding them up and shipping them out would be less expensive than paying for their health care and the education of their children.
Hmm....sounds like Germany in the 30's and 40's. What should they wear to indentify them as illegals?? The Star of David is already taken.
You're right.
Let's use this standard: The ones who broke the law to get here have to go back, the others can stay.
I'm not sure exactly what you are getting at with this statement, but coming to the US is not a matter of life and death. Mexico is not so corrupt and these people are not so poor that they can't effect changes in Mexico. They just don't want to. Almost every illegal alien I catch is sporting jewelry, the current style in clothing, pagers, cell phones, etc. They are well fed, in good shape and ignorant.
I can imagine the mocking of the "compassionate conservatives". It would never be lived down.
I don't have any better answers.
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