Arizona finally did it. They called DHS’s bluff, and actually DID SOMETHING about the US-Mexican border. it has nothing to do with racial profiling and nothing to do with discrimination — it has everything to do with America’s security against terrorism.
Everyone who is so shocked, appalled and worried – shouldn’t be. Everyone wants to prevent the next 911, they want to keep out drug traffickers….. and you cannot get that done with an open border to our south.
I say it over and over – PLEASE QUOTE ME – you can’t have homeland security with an open border! You can NEVER have homeland security unless you have security at the border first. This is a key risk assessment vulnerability that anyone doing a formal assessment would spot immediately.
What good is having a checkpoint on the I-5 interstate in San Ysidro if illegals can avoid the border crossings and run right into the U.S.?
Look at strictly as a cost issue – looking at the real numbers helps…
- Cost of maintaining our phony border controls $100 Million Dollars for 2010
(from the total ICE (U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement) budget of $5.7 Billion Dollars).
- The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) says that since 2005, 15% of domestic arrests are arrest of illegal aliens!
- Budget for DEA to combat Drug Traffic from Mexico – over $25 Million Dollars (just to add an additional 128 agents along the southwest border).
- The Southwest Border Initiative Virtual Fence Project – $800 Million dollars
- The Secure Fence Act – over $7 Billion dollars
AND OUR BORDER is still wide open. Federal agents trying to police the border do not have the proper support and are discouraging from killing murderous drug dealers and human trafficking mules.
If you look even farther – take the entire budget of the Department of Homeland Security, which is $55 Billion dollars. This money can largely be considered as wasted, if there is no control over our border with Mexico.
You see it all the time at companies out in rural areas – they have a chain link fence around the back of the property, but the fence has a 14 foot gap in it, and all it does is concentrate the intrusions right through the gap in the fence. It does not deter crime, it cannot prevent theft – because the fence is not secure, there is an open gap.
That analogy works with our borders, too. If you wanted to get into the U.S. illegally, would you choose to drive thru the checkpoint at El Paso? Through San Ysidro? Fly in from Mexico City and have to show a passport? NO – you would breach the border and just walk across someone along the thousands of miles of unsecured border. It is a no-brainer, even for a terrorist.
As a risk assessment expert, I am personally thrilled that Arizona has pushed the envelope and passed a bill that at least attempts to find a solution to our horribly expensive and totally ineffective southwest border controls. It might galvanize enough people to actually get something done about this open border policy.
Remember, you cannot have a secure country without securing the borders.