Monday, April 18, 2005

"Border is right problem, 'Minutemen' wrong answer"

I haven't really been following the "minuteman" project controversy. USATODAY weighs in on the issue in an editorial. Their conclusion: while illegal immigration is a real problem, these ad hoc citizens' border patrols can't solve the problem.

That seems obvious. Their real intent is to apply political pressure to the President and Congress, to embarrass them by showing that independent citizens are willing to make more of an effort to enforce immigration laws than the federal government. The President's approach (which USA Today supports) is to give more of a carrot (the "guest worker" program, for example) to encourage legal immigration. Maybe. At some point, though, does enforcement also have to be beefed up? And don't forget that the Mexican government directly abets illegal immigrants, helping them to avoid interdiction. Should Bush be applying diplomatic pressure to President Fox?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

USA Today was wrong. They are not looking at the facts. On Larry Elder’s show Wednesday night Larry said that the minutemen had reduced criminal immigration by 75%!. Or the rate of criminals crossing the border was only 25% of what it had been before the Minuteman Project! Sounds very positive!


Rod Stanton

Anonymous said...

Who knew last year that Bush was a liberal? If he would stop kissing the a-s of the ACLU we could stop this threat to American security. Vigalantes indeed!
The Minutemen cut criminal crossings by 90%! If W is really concerned about the War on Terror he should add stafe to the border. A lot of staff!
And I voted for this liberal!
Angus macFergus

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