BORDER INFLUENCES

Anyone who has read the Commander’s essays knows that I have long considered the United States borders to be a long neglected, festering issue. It is my opinion that the economic problems facing our great nation have their roots flowing from the numerous issues directly attributable to our long neglected political hot-button…immigration.

Having lived about four years within a few miles of the Mexican/Arizona border, I know this subject first-hand. On more than one morning, I walked into my fenced back yard and found illegal travelers filling their plastic water bottles from my garden hose. They were as scared by our chance confrontations as I was, and fled immediately northward across the vast desert.

Our politicians refuse to objectively address this complicated subject because they want every single vote they can attract. Both Republicans and Democrats have long blatantly misused legal and illegal immigration to their benefit. Obviously this is an emotionally charged issue, but I know from personal experience that the agricultural communities along the entire southern border have long taken advantage of the Mexican workers. The Agricultural political action committees have been most effective in protecting their self-serving positions. I have seen many Mexican farm workers being worked like dogs, and living under less than humane conditions. There must be a middle ground on workers rights and living conditions, but the all-powerful farm lobby refuses to compromise to reach a fair solution.

In recent days we have witnessed horrid stories about Mexican drug gang violence along the southern border, but this is nothing new. Yes, the problem is escalating, and American citizens as well as U.S. Border Patrol personnel are getting killed. That is why the politicians are starting to express concern, typically after the fact. Only last week did our new Homeland Security Secretary suggest a study group to look into the border violence question. It is my opinion that Janet Napolitano, the ex-Governor of Arizona, is unqualified to solve this problem.

Many administrations have failed to address immigration, including George W. Bush’s, and it thus far has not even been mentioned on Obama’s agenda, because it is a political hot-potato. Our government’s failure to address immigration and propose a realistic plan to solve the inter-related issues has directly impacted our current economic crisis.

The growing financial obligations in the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California all have their foundation in the immigration fiasco. Here are some shocking statistics:

1. State governments spend between $11 Billion and $22 Billion on welfare to illegal aliens each year.

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and many cannot speak a word of English.

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent on education for American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. That’s $1.1 Billion Dollars a year.

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & Social Services by the American taxpayers.

9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages is caused by illegal aliens.

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white, non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children are going to add a huge additional crime problem in the U.S.

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 Million illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border. An additional, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens entered from terrorist countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U.S. from the Southern border, per Homeland Security Report.

12. The National Policy Institute estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion, or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.

13. In 2006, illegal aliens sent home $45 Billion in remittances to their countries of origin.

14. The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly one million sex crimes are committed by illegal immigrants in The United States.

The total cost is $338.3 Billion Dollars A Year!

Should you question any of these statistics, I have a number of reference websites available to verify the data.

Thus far, I have heard few politicians discuss the cost of our immigration dilemma, because they do not want to jeopardize the illegal immigrant vote. The answers to this matter are not simple, but most complex. Certainly the corruption of the Mexican government is something we must recognize, but we cannot permit their shortcomings to compound our economic interests. Our government should not permit Mexico to push their problems into our country, but they do just that by their neglect.

Your Commander is not against legal immigration, because I am a direct product of my Grand-Parents legal immigration from Germany, England, and Ireland three generations ago. It is legal immigration that made the USA the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave. This country continues to be the most desirous place in the world to immigrate.

I again urge our leadership to address the problems head on, and send U.S. military troops to the border immediately to combat growing border violence, and the flow of illegal drugs. We can seal off illegal immigration, and we must protect our citizens who live and work along the border before one more person is killed by the Mexican thugs. The citizens of Phoenix have found an answer to their local problem by voting Sheriff Joe Arpaio repeatedly into office. He enforces the law, and cuts the costs of confinement. God Bless Sheriff Joe.

This subject is so serious that it is endangering our national security, and it is adding a financial burden to our economy that is unsustainable. I suspect that this matter will be addressed only when it has reached crisis status, and then our all-knowing leadership will take advantage of addressing the crisis in a way that could significantly enhance their position. Is that not exactly what White House Presidential Advisor Rahm Emanuel repeatedly suggests?

Let’s not wait for more American citizens to get kidnapped, murdered or die from drug usage before our brilliant leadership responds. One has to wonder if our government truly wants to solve this situation.

COMMANDER GRANGER