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On March 24, 2009, the Obama administration announced the Southwest Border Initiative—a series of steps to crack down on Mexican drug cartels by deploying additional personnel and technology, increasing information sharing, working closely with the Mexican government, and improving federal coordination with state and local law enforcement authorities.

In the first year of the Southwest Border Initiative, DHS seized the following at the Southwest border:

1. $85.7 million in currency—a 14 percent increase over the same period the previous year;
2. $29.7 million in southbound seizures—a 39 percent increase over the same period the previous year;
3. 1,425 firearms—a 29 percent increase over the same period the previous year; and
4. 1.65 million kilograms of drugs—a 15 percent increase over the same period the previous year.

Sounds great.  So problems like the following shouldn’t be happening anymore, right?

August 13, 2005. Border emergency declared in New Mexico. CNN reports New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has declared a state of emergency in four counties along the Mexican border that have been “devastated” by crimes such as the smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants. The declaration said the region “has been devastated by the ravages and terror of human smuggling, drug smuggling, kidnapping, murder, destruction of property and the death of livestock. … “[It] is in an extreme state of disrepair and is inadequately funded or safeguarded to protect the lives and property of New Mexican citizens.”

Fast forward to Arizona, 2010, and you’ll find the terrors of New Mexico being repeated.  That’s why AZ and several other states are using their 10th Amendment rights to legislate their own illegal alien laws, because the federal government has been derelict in their constitutional duty to protect the states.

The threat of terrorist penetration is particularly acute along our southern border.  In 2005, for example, 1.1 million illegals were apprehended while trying to cross our 2,000-mile border with Mexico.  The Department of Homeland Security reports that about 996,000 of these individuals were Mexicans crossing the border for economic or family reasons.  DHS refers to the rest as “other than Mexicans,” — or “OTMs.”  Of the approximately 100,000 OTMs apprehended, 3,000 to 4,000 were from so-called “countries of interest” like Somalia, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, which have produced or been associated with terrorist cells.*

The U.S. is the only nation expected to tolerate blatant disregard for our immigration policy.  That’s got to change.  If we want to control illegal immigration at our southern border, we should consider implementing the same restrictions Mexico puts on aliens in its country:

Mexico bars foreigners if they upset the equilibrium of national demographics
applicants for visas have to be physically and mentally healthy
they must show they can provide for themselves financially (bank statements) and provide for their own health care
clean criminal history
may not have contempt for national sovereignty or security of Mexico
illegal entry is a felony
document fraud results in imprisonment; so is marriage fraud
avoiding deportation is serious
illegal re-entry after deportation results in 10 years imprisonment.

I hear the jails down there aren’t too nice; neither is the food.  So whaddya say, Mr. President?  What about a really big fence AND some harsh rules that are actually USED!!!  I think the combination would be a great big deterrent to illegal immigrants, drug runners and some terrorists.  IMHO.

* Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Chairman Richard G. Lugar
Opening Statement for hearing on
North American Cooperation on Border Security
July 12, 2005

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