Internal Enforcement is Essential to Border Security

People have to face reality, too, when it comes to laying blame—and taking responsibility—for the immigration problem. Although illegal aliens broke the law entering the country or failing to leave when their visas expired, this merely indicates that our borders are not secure enough. So let's just say accountability for the problem can be shared and move on to solutions. Everyone agrees we need to stop the inflow of immigrants with better border control, whether with walls or technology or both, and that we must try to expel all convicted felons.

There is no question that the presence of 12-20 million illegal aliens in this country is a shared responsibility. There are many employers who should have been jailed, many bureaucrats and administrator who should have been fired, and maybe some at the top should have been impeached.

Almost everyone agrees we need to stop the inflow of illegal aliens with better border control, whether with walls or technology or both, and that we must try to expel all convicted felons. Both should be top priorities. To support those priorities the government needs to design a process that moves illegals out of our country and back to their homelands. We don't know the precise details of how private enterprise could be used to accomplish this goal.

What we do know is that those who have entered our country illegally should never be eligible for a pathway to citizenship. It doesn't make any difference whether they are required to pay a $5,000 fine or a $25,000 one. They should never be rewarded by being allowed to become citizens even if they are prepared to wait many years to become citizens.

Every cheap labor and immigration advocate always winds up their arguments by saying we need to secure the borders and deport all the real criminals who hide among the illegal aliens. Both tasks are extremely difficult to accomplish. Despite the best efforts of the Border Patrol in the Tucson, Arizona region some 400,000 illegals manage to cross the border every year, more than a 1,000 a day. And these are just the ones who are apprehended. With that kind of volume and the attraction of a better life in America, what are the chances violations can be stopped solely with better border control. Conventional means are clearly not enough. Anyone who thinks so is living in a dream world.

So how do we stop border violations before another tragedy strikes the U.S.. Obviously this requires a multi-faceted approach and significant changes in procedures and the rules of engagement. Major improvements in border infrastructure and increases in staffing are a given or sine qua non. Procedures have to be changed so that those apprehended can be put to work on border improvements while their cases are being adjudicated. If they are repatriated, they must be admonished that if they return they will be treated as repeat offenders and sentenced to not less than two years at hard labor for the first repeat offense and five years for any subsequent offenses.

In spite of an apparent change in the "catch and release" policy, illegals apprehended near the border are usually given the choice of seeing an immigration judge or simply returning back across the border, only to be back in the U.S. 24 hours later. Clearly that policy is not working. It must be changed so that no one is allowed to simply reverse his border violation without penalty. Some time working on border improvements before they are deported might be a start.

Systematic, regular apprehension, detention and repatriation of a significant percentage of the illegals through internal enforcement is essential to border security. If an illegal thinks that once he escapes the immediate area of the border he is home free, other border security measures will continue to be ineffective. Those who think otherwise are being disingenuous.

Finally the suggestion that we can separate the hardened criminals among the illegals from the larger problem of all of the illegals defies belief. Perhaps we can get the miscreants to sew a scarlet letter C on their clothing so we can easily identify those who would do us harm and deal quickly and decisively with them. These criminals above all the others have no regard for borders and will be back in the U.S. before the ink has dried on their deportation orders. No one has produced a thoughtful solution to the problem of ridding our country of the criminal elements among the illegals. Lip service won't do it. Words won't do it!