National guard members on border

[Neil D]

[:"blue"] by Joel Barker

Staff Writer

President Bush addressed the nation on the issue of illegal immigration on Monday. Despite a 31 percent approval rating, according to the USA Today/Gallup poll, Bush hopes he can gain public support for his ideas and proposals regarding this matter.

Though illegal immigration has been a prevalent issue for many years, it has recently gained steam. In Chicago alone, there have been two massive immigration marches of over 300,000 people.

The House of Representatives recently passed HR 4437, a bill which makes illegal immigrants criminals in the U.S. Another provision of the bill is that anyone providing aid to illegal immigrants can be charged with a felony, regardless if it is even giving them water or food.

Many feel this bill has caused numerous tensions to flare and has caused Congress to become bitterly divided, especially within the Republican Party.

As a result, Bush addressed the nation. His speech was divided into five parts. The first point was that “The United States must secure its borders.” He went on to say that during his presidency, border security has increased in their budget and manpower. However, he conceded that there is need for much improvement.

Bush plans to bring in new surveillance equipment, add more manpower, and increase the sizes of detention centers in order to protect the border. He also addressed his recent order to move part of the National Guard to the border in order to assist with border security for one year.

He reiterated in his speech that even though he is sending 6,000 National Guard troops to the border, “The United States is not going to militarize the southern border.”

Bush stated that he was in favor of a temporary guest worker program. Put into simplest terms, a guest worker program would allow foreign workers a path toward citizenship. In order to do so, immigrants must show that they already have a job lined up in America and do not plan to stay in the U.S. indefinitely. Theoretically, this would give foreign citizens hoping to come to the U.S. a legitimate way to enter the country, rather than trying to sneak over the border.

Thirdly, Bush recognized that there is a huge problem with American businesses. He reaffirmed that businesses must be held accountable, but he largely attributed the problem to the hiring of illegal immigrants to documentation fraud.

To end this part of the problem, Bush proposed that new identification cards need to be issued to every legal foreign worker in the U.S. “This would leave employers with no excuse for violating it. And by making it harder for illegal immigrants to find work in our country, we would discourage people from crossing the border illegally in the first place,” Bush said. [/]

Whatcha think? Is this a good idea or a badin?

[Dr. Shane]

I think it is kind of whimpy. 1. there isn't enough. 2. It should be the active Army and not the National Guard.

What really needs to be done is build a fence in nontourist areas and hire 30,000 more border patrol.

[melvin mccarty]

Wonderful idea Shane...hire 30,000 Mexicans to patrol the border. lol

mel

[Neil D]

Let's see...30,000 army along our borders between Mexico and the US...Shoot, why not just invade Mexico and turn it into another state...At least we could give it just laws and do something about the unrest there...:+O

[Dr. Shane]

Since I actually live on the border I may have a different prespective. If Mexico would patrol its side of the border, like Canada did, maybe we could handle it the same way we do our border with Canada. However Mexico actually encourages its citizens to cross illegally into the US.

[Dr. Shane]

If one reads the Constitution of the United States they will find that Congress is empowered to raise up an Army to protect our borders. Why is that such a strange idea?

BTW: In Mexico the Army sets up random check points to stop people and search their vehicles for drugs and guns. No warrents needed. Imagine the outcry that would happen in the US if the US Army did the same.