The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 7 of 14)

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If we truly want to have secure borders then a two-prong approach needs to be developed.

1) Enforcement. At the current time, there are 11,955 field agents in the Border Patrol. The average agent captures 142 illegals per annum. About 12 a month. The pols want to add 2621 more agents by 2007. If at the previous yield per FTE, that is only an additional 400,000 apprehensions. One could achieve the same result by taking the current headcount and upping the apprehension rate by some means by an additional 3 border crossers per FTE and save a cool $364 million a year.

The $364 million could be used to instead build the fence along the southern border. As the fence extends yearly the Border Patrol apprehension rate should inch upward as the density of personnel increases as the corridors for the border crossers shrink. It would take some five to seven years at this rate but it solves the problem of turning off the tap at its source.

2) Poison the Apple. Most of the crossers come here looking for work. If they cannot find work then most will self deport. Forget cattle cars -- that's fear mongering. Most, not being able to work, will simply go home the same way they came in. But it does require changes. First, make hiring an illegal a felony. First offense, probation. Second offense is jail time. No fines.

Second, modify the I-9 so that the only acceptable documentation is the SS card and your American passport. The U.S. passport does have a modicum of antiforgery measures built in unlike the SS card which has none. There is a process already in place to acquire one so no additional bureaus need be created. And the cost is no more than automobile registration. It may sound like an intrusion but no more so than what the illegals are costing us individually today.

p>Third. The tricky part. The 14th Amendment will need to be modified to state that a citizen born in this country must have at least one parent also born of this country or a naturalized citizen of this country at the time of their birth. This is the only way to cut off the anchor baby game. The 14th has served its purpose in its current form which was to assure that the former slaves were not stripped of their citizenship. That clearly is no longer a concern. It needs the proper modifications. br> -- John McGinnis br> Arlington, Texas /p> p> Jed Babbin replies: br> I agree in part, and dissent in part. There's no use talking about making any part of this a felony. The courts can't handle the burden, and it's no use making something a crime when you have no intention of enforcing the law. I agree that the anchor baby problem can best be solved by a Constitutional amendment, but that won't happen for years, if at all. We need to do something now. Right now. Enforcement is part of it, and I'm all for increasing the border patrol's numbers. But that's not enough. Our border with Mexico is more than 1,000 miles long, the Canadian border even longer, and to protect them we need to build barriers to crossing. That, too, will take years. We need to be doing a lot, right now, including putting more people on the border as you suggest. Add to that the best technology and the assets necessary to shipping people back without hearings, without trials, and without resort to courts and administrative hearings. People caught in this country illegally should be shipped back across the border forthwith. /p>

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