Our borderline security
It remains to be seen whether intelligence reform legislation will produce substantive improvements in our national security. Republicans and Democrats alike certainly hope so, as do we all. But Congress and the White House failed to approve other reforms passed by the House of Representatives that would have ensured heightened border security and the ability to control immigrant documentation and identification, which the 9/11 commission recommended.
The debate over intelligence legislation, thanks to Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner and Duncan Hunter, did succeed in raising the level of a critical political and public dialogue on the importance of securing our borders and our ports and the need for our government to control the flow of immigration into this country.
However, more than three years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it may seem ludicrous to many that we have reached only the stage of dialogue and debate instead of concrete action. While it is critically important that we have the best intelligence possible about the radical Islamist terrorists who would destroy this nation and its citizens, no amount of intelligence and improved analysis and communication can prevent an individual terrorist or group from entering our poorly protected ports and insecure, porous borders.
Intelligence is not a substitute for border security. They must go hand in hand. The new Congress will take up the issues of border security and immigration policy reform, and true national security depends upon the House and Senate doing so as quickly as possible.
No excuses. Every homeland security, intelligence, and defense department official acknowledges publicly that the United States will again be hit with another terrorist attack--that it's not a question of if, but when. It's inexcusable for our elected officials and our government to procrastinate further in their responsibilities to protect nearly 300 million Americans. Our border security today is nonexistent: An estimated 3 million illegal aliens will cross our borders this year. No leap of imagination is required to fear that a handful of terrorists could be among such a large group of people.
Economic interests are dominating the discussion of immigration reform. Big business, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and organized labor both seek open borders--business to exploit the cheap labor that is provided by illegal aliens and labor organizations to add to their membership rolls. Incredibly, much of organized labor in this country, including the AFL-CIO, supports open borders even at the expense of its current members.
But while big business and labor groups are the beneficiaries of illegal immigration, the true costs are borne by taxpayers and working Americans. The immigration crisis has spread well beyond our borders to almost every state, but citizens in border states know all too well the drain on their economies.
Between 1996 and 2000 alone, Arizona's illegal alien population grew by 150 percent, and that trend has continued. According to a report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, illegal immigration costs Arizona taxpayers about $1.3 billion every year, a nearly ninefold increase that occurred over the past decade. Only a fraction of these costs are offset by the estimated $257 million a year that illegal aliens pay in state taxes.
Since our federal policymakers have yet to formulate a clear vision to keep illegal aliens from entering the country, concerned citizens and state legislatures are fighting back against the consequences of a growing immigrant population. The state of Arizona on Election Day passed Proposition 200, which bars illegal aliens from receiving state and local benefits, among other things. "People are demanding that their elected representatives do something about an issue that concerns them very much," says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "The specifics of Proposition 200 are really less important than the message of its passage."
We'll have to wait and see whether that message spreads to some other border states. California, home to the nation's largest illegal alien population, faces an even greater predicament. A separate FAIR report concluded that illegal immigration costs California taxpayers $10.5 billion a year, including nearly $8 billion annually to educate the children of illegal aliens.
Whether securing our borders against terrorists or against economic burdens, our elected officials must put national security ahead of economic special interests and political advantage.
This story appears in the December 27, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.