Border Security

If effective border security is missing from any immigration reform bill, it will not solve the problem long-term. You should read Robert Freer’s article to find out why that is the case.

By Robert E. Freer, Jr., President of The Free Enterprise Foundation

In a column about a year ago, somewhat piquantly titled with the inscription at the base of The Statue of Liberty offering refuge for the world’s “Huddled Masses Yearning to Breath Free”, we ended by noting that the moral high ground that stems from the open borders we share with our immediate neighbors must be curbed to meet the post 9/11 reality. “The sense of nationhood begins with the ability to control our borders effectively. Without this we can’t begin to provide the opportunities that have characterized our country for all.”

Since then The Senate and The House of Representatives have passed starkly separate bills. Conference has been delayed while the political forces align. The President has indorsed the Senate version which provides for beefed up border security but limits its penalty to a stiff fine for those illegals already here; The Senate version also contains various bureaucratic hurdles for these immigrants including the applicants’ necessity to demonstrate his/her mastery of English and a requirement to return home years from now for final visa issuance when their turn arrives. The effect of the bill would be that it will greatly extend the period before which any illegal immigrant here now can become a citizen.

House Republicans point out that a rush to citizenship isn’t the issue. Border security is, and the Senate bill does not have its priorities straight. Whatever “guest worker” program is ultimately considered, they insist right now any law must first effectively close the border to illegal entry. The President’s response to this is to authorize dispatch of National Guard troops to our southern border with Mexico for non law enforcement support of our border authorities. About 6000 have already been dispatched, and still the “huddled masses” come in record numbers.

It is like the postal refrain that “neither rain nor snow, nor sleet nor... can deter…” these immigrants. They are unstoppable in their determination to reach freedom’s home. Proving that Democrats are not the only party with a split personality, the House Congressional leaders’ adamant insistence that Border security comes first is met by The Senate sticking to its position that a balanced bill must include a guest worker provision that does not require the 12 million illegals here already to leave. Faced with this lack of unanimity within the majority, The House Conference Managers are slow walking the scheduling of a Conference with the Senate.

There is a very real possibility that while we fiddle, our string may run out. The race for president in Mexico between a big government leftist and a free market capitalist has pitted poor versus affluent and northern province versus southern in a Mexican version of old fashioned New Deal politics. It also threatens to become the Mexican version of our 2000 election.

While Felipe Calderon, who wishes to continue the free market reforms of President Fox and remain aligned with the U.S. has a 1% margin of victory as we approach 98% in poll returns, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his supporters refuse to concede . Street violence and a lengthy period of recount and challenge may occur. Regardless of outcome any prolonged uncertainty is likely to set thousands streaming north to avoid the gathering storms at home and the tightening of the border they see coming in the North. And an Obrador victory would seriously compound the consequences.

The lesson of history is that the failure to control our border creates internal pressures that ultimately can lead to the destabilization of our Republic. Border First! Resident Illegal immigrants second! That has to be our watchword. Our Roman ancestors were beset with a similar dilemma for their “peregrini” and ultimately could not control the hordes at their borders and succumbed. Today, in the interest of those immigrants already here as well as those to come, Robert Frost’s dictum that “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors” must be our watchword.

Under existing authority, planning for a fence and other obstacles to keep illegal entrants out has progressed to a point at least sufficient to supply the data on which some fencing around San Diego has already been authorized. Non government sources estimates for a “fence” effectively closing the 1951 miles of our border with Mexico run anywhere from shy of a billion dollars to north of 8 billion dollars depending on how elaborate an obstacle we decide to construct.

Passage of a border security bill that carries that fence to a reality is of the highest priority now. The issue of the 12 million that are here does not require the same level of immediate concern. Competent enforcement of existing law can permit the focus be kept in line with that portion of the House bill that creates effective border security. Surely we can accomplish this goal.

Copyright © 2007 by Robert E. Freer, Jr. All rights reserved

About the author: Robert E. Freer, Jr. is President of The Free Enterprise Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor, at The Citadel and elected in 2005 to be their first John S. Grinalds Leader in Residence. A regular contributor to the Mercury, He can be reached by E-mail at The Citadel . Copies of his earlier columns can be found The Free Enterprise Foundation.

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