When weighing the political cost of allowing terrorists to enter the country unhindered against that of slowing the influx of cheap labor - why is it that some come down on the side of labor?
Posted on 03/25/2005 9:03:21 AM PST by Ramonan
Concern is growing at the top levels of government about the US-Mexican border becoming a back door for terrorists entering the United States. While Al Qaeda infiltration across the nation's southern border has been a constant concern since 9/11, US officials cite recent intelligence giving the most definitive evidence yet that terrorists are planning to use it as an entry point.
As a result, a number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers - mainly from border states - are pushing to tighten checkpoints and other ways of monitoring the porous 1,400-mile boundary. The subject will also be central to President Bush's summit in Texas Wednesday with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin
The other is through a loophole in the system to separate the large number of illegal Mexican migrants, who are automatically turned back at the borders, from citizens of other countries who are allowed in, pending immigration hearings. These others are referred to as "other than Mexicans," or OTMs, by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They come from other Latin American countries as well as other parts of the world, many of them designated by the government as countries of "special interest." In 2004, some 44,000 OTMs were allowed into the US.
Representative Ortiz, though, disputes many of the DHS numbers. He says he regularly hears reports of much higher figures from border patrol officials from his district in Texas, which includes the border-crossing area of Brownsville.
"In the Brownsville sector alone, border patrol officials reported they caught 23,178 OTMs crossing through August 2004," Mr. Ortiz says. "Of those, 16,616 were released."
Ortiz also points out that another loophole is entering Mexico through Brazil, where a visa is not required to travel to Mexico
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
ping
.......Florida-Canadia-US-Mexican border as a terror risk ?
I'm sorry, but you're going to have to come up with a better excuse than "the terrorist could smuggle a WMD over the border and kill ten's of thousands" before we cut off the spigot of cheap labor from Mexico.
Better border control. Simple as that
Any true terrorists with half a brain would enter our country through the 4,000+ mile border we share with Canada where there is virtually nothing to stop them.
A day late and a dollar short.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
As long as we're sitting there pretending that millions of Mexicans are criminals -- while at the same time employing them and paying for their education -- there's no way we'll be able to get a handle on the border.
Anti-immigration "conservatives" are the biggest obstacle to passing legislation against illegal immigration.
All of the open borders RINOs like McCain, Cornyn, Hatch, Hagel and Flake are making sure to chime in with their cynical "I'm tough on the borders" soundbites. In a few days they will be telling us the only solution is to let them all come in legally as either guestworkers or with greencards.
If we "just knew who they were" all the problems would be solved. Suddenly our hospitals would be solvent again and our prisons would empty out and all the kids in our schools would suddenly be able to speak English.
If only they were legal then they could bargain for higher wages and despite the fact that we flooded the labor market with tens of millions of unskilled workers everybody's wages would go up.
If they would just let them come out of the shadows. /sarc
The problem for this government is that it also wants to avoid disrupting the flow of cheap labor into this country. So, the challenge for this government is to find ways to prevent terrorists from crossing our borders without disrupting the flow of cheap labor. That's not an easy thing to do and the policy carries with it big political risks.
"Anti-immigration "conservatives" are the biggest obstacle to passing legislation against illegal immigration."
not.
You're going to be flamed but then again some people can't handle the truth so all they have left are cheap attacks.
Gee, they must have asked all of those 16,616 "OTMs" if they were terrorists, and when they said "NO", they were released. I guess the other 6,562 must have admitted to being terrorists...
Our homeland security funds at work.
The reason it is called illegal immigration is because there are already laws against it.
Illegal = against the law
What is needed is not new legislation but enforcement! I'm certain that the anti-immigration conservatives would do nothing to hinder enforcement.
When weighing the political cost of allowing terrorists to enter the country unhindered against that of slowing the influx of cheap labor - why is it that some come down on the side of labor?
If that's the case then why did President Bush say on Wednesday that he plans to pressure Congress to further loosen immigration law?
Hello, and welcome to noon on 9/11/2001.
Jeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...
greed/money/greed/money/treason
Why must you insist that Business is your enemy? We can easily have security AND legal immigrant labor, but you are so blindly opposed to hispanics coming to the US that you would rather cling to the current dangerous situation.
I'll take your word for it that enforcement was your point. But I've re-read your post about 5 times and the main thing I get out of it is that you are saying that "anti-immigration conservatives" are somehow blocking passage of laws against illegal immigration.
There is a substantially less developed network of illegal alien smugglers, criminal gangs, and document forgery specialists serving the Canadian illegal alien industry. Moreover, Canada is not know for the sort of 'bribery as justice/dollars for documents' legal system as is Mexico, so there are less opportunities for terrorists to get into Canada in the first place.
Well, unless they enter Canada legally & then simply walk/drive across, say, the Canada/Montana border.
Your comment seems to suggest that we need the illegal immigrant labor in order to do the jobs that Americans won't do.
If that is the case, then why are there literally tens of thousands of these illegals across the country standing idly in front of Home Depots and Circle Ks begging for work?
Can you answer that? Sufficiently? If not, please don't bother me with any of your nonsense regarding cheap labor.
And as for this comment:
My Hispanic in-laws came to this country over 400 years ago, before this was a country. I have no problem with Hispanics in this country. As I said, you don't know me very well and I resent you making your accusations.
BUMP
Presumably (and that is a big word in this context) the government of Canada is working with the US government in sharing information about known terrorists and those suspected of terrorist ties and has a less corrupt governmental infrastructure than Mexico. But the Canadian border is an issue, no doubt, and the 'multicultural' paradise of many Canadian cities leaves ample opportunity for exactly what you describe.
I don't know you, I don't care to know you, and my comments were directed at your immigration-is-bad mindset, which you have reinforced, which precludes a workable compromise on the issue, which leaves us with the status quo.
Did you read the article? If not, I'll post the first paragraph again (and I'll alert you to the relevant passages using highlights):
Concern is growing at the top levels of government about the US-Mexican border becoming a back door for terrorists entering the United States. While Al Qaeda infiltration across the nation's southern border has been a constant concern since 9/11, US officials cite recent intelligence giving the most definitive evidence yet that terrorists are planning to use it as an entry point.
jackbenimble .... pal .... cactuspete and I look nothing alike, him being a cactus and all, and I being not a cactus, though prickly in my own right.
I read the article. Did you read my posts? I won't copy and paste them, I'll just let you read them again, if you prefer, and I'll even give you a little hint: do you think it would be easier to pick out a dozen terrorists from a million illegal border crossers or from a thousand?
Wow! I never thought of it that way. I guess the situation is so hopelessly impossible to correct that we all may just as well roll over and accept our fate. /sarcasm
No thanks, Johnny, I have a different view of my future.
The solution then is not to further loosen legal immigration restrictions hoping that terrorists will have a tougher time mingling with the (presumably) fewer people who would try to enter illegally as a result, but to place the National Guard at the borders to keep them all out. ...to the best of our ability.
Not so fast, Fast One. Lethal force is, if you'll pardon the pun, overkill.
We can close down the border without lethal force. A co-worker of mine helped do so back in the mid-80s in the Yuma sector while stationed at Ft. Huachuca.
It wouldn't take nearly as many troops to close the southern border as we have deployed in Korea right now.
We could pull two or three battalions out of any number of different areas worldwide so as not to hamper our committments elsewhere and close the border in less than 6 months if only our leaders had the political will to do so.
bump
Right, you and Mr. Mojo want to keep the Hispanics out, period. No to illegal immigration, no to legal immigration, waste billions trying and failing to hold back the tide as the labor shortage drags down the economy. Nice plan, if failure is your plan. You know it will (thankfully) never pass, right? Yet you still wouldn't favor any plan that involves Hispanics coming to this country in any fashion .... bizarre.
Your "labor shortage" assertion is the biggest stinking pile of BS imaginable.
Good point!
You are very right a drive thru Miami will show the slide into a toilet from once Paradise! Look these people and their ancestors ruined the place they are slithering from Then what exactly do you think they will do here Also in the old days you had to take a test and speak English to become a citizen I believe.Mexico?? who killed the Aztecs and squatted on their land?
Sir, please stop twisting my words. I have no problem with legal immigration from any part of the world.
I resent your statements to the contrary.
Oh boy. Are you wrong or are you wrong?
Then why did you so strenuously object to my suggestion that we allow legal immigration?
Well, let's see. I posted to you in posts 28, 36, and 45.
In post 28, I take you to task for characterizing me as anti-hispanic and for suggesting that we need illegal immigrant labor. Nope, nothing there to say that I strenuously object to legal immigration.
In post 36 I call you out for making a strawman argument. Nope, nothing there to say that I strenuously object to legal immigration.
And in post 45 I ask you to stop mischaracterizing my position vis-a-vis illegal immigration. Nope, nothing there to say that I strenuously object to legal immigration.
It would appear that you are having a hard time with practicing your reading and comprehension skills.
If Mexico is the back door, where is the front door?
You started out attacking the "cheap labor" and tried to stage the argument as some ridiculous choice between security and immigration. In post 36 you scoffed at letting Hispanics into the US, and suggested that was a fate so terrible that you were not prepared to accept it. How could I interpret that as anything BUT hostility toward legal immigration?
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