Obama Fails the Border Security Test

The outcry over illegal immigration in border states notwithstanding, David Axelrod insisted President Barack Obama has taken as strict an approach to the issue as any other president "No administration has been tougher on enforcement," Axelrod said on "Fox News Sunday." "We have more manpower there than ever before- more equipment drones, helicopters, airplanes. We're doing this in a smart, more efficient way and we're producing better results."

The problem is the results are no where near adequate. After all Arizona still has 460,000 illegals within its borders. We measure effectiveness based on results. As I have written on numerous occasions, while improvements in staffing, infrastructure, and the rules of engagement at the border are important, they are bound to fail without vigorous internal enforcement and suitable penalties for both the illegal aliens and their employers. I suggested a minimum six month term working on border infrastructure for first time border violators and fines on an escalating scale for employers. But before that can happen we need to make E-verification mandatory across the board for all employers, public and private, and all employee, current and potential new hires.

I don't care if the president has done more. He hasn't done enough. Moreover, he has focused BP and ICE resources on what he calls the criminal elements allowing others to penetrate the border and flee to the interior with little chance that they will be apprehended, detained and repatriated.

Where he has failed is his lack of recognition that the Arizona law is what is needed, at least in all the border states and perhaps throughout the entire country. What he is claiming credit for is activity not results or accomplishments. Until the flow of illegals is reduced to a trickle and the numbers already here reduced to the minimum needed by our economy, Obama has to be judged a failure on border security. But he has plenty of company among the Democrats like Senator Schumer and Menendez and even some Republican turncoats like McCain and Graham. They are all failures when it comes to border security. What we want gentlemen is results, not excuses or claims of resource inputs that have had a minimal impact.

And then there is that old bugaboo, CIR, as if granting amnesty to 12 million illegals will be a deterrent to a whole new wave of border jumpers. Quite the opposite of course, it will be one of the strongest incentives for new border violations that will yield similar results from the last amnesty. One thing it will do is hide the 12 million from view except in the welfare lines and in the hard-pressed school systems and emergency rooms. In the longer term it will mean food shortages as the supply of arable land and water is reduced below the amounts needed to support the larger population.

Also the energy demand will not go down; it will increase as our population doubles. Similarly, the amount of pollutants,instead of being curbed,will actually increase in total output per year. Sounds like a real sensible policy, doesn't it? And the Hispanic American who support this nonsense are just shooting themselves in the foot. Instead, they should be consolidating their gains in education and economic well-being and recognize that more is not better when it comes to people of all kinds.