Suddenly the government thinks the Mexican border is a mess

I see in the news this morning that the United States government thinks the Mexican border is dangerous. What? Has Washington been sleeping like Rip Van Winkle and now suddenly they are awake and aware of the situation? "U.S. Faces Grave Threat in Drug Wars. On Saturday, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar, 32, was killed in California's Imperial Sand Dunes recreation area, run over by suspected drug smugglers as he was laying down a spike strip to stop their fleeing Hummer -- Aguilar's death has drawn attention to escalating violence.

"Mexican military efforts to crush heavily armed drug-smuggling operations in five cities along the U.S.-Mexico border pose a 'grave threat' to U.S. authorities and a half-million Americans in the area, according to former U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials. 'What we face is more of a challenge than law enforcement can be expected to cope with,' said Kent Lundgren, chairman of the 800-member National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO). 'The best solution is for the U.S. military to assume armed positions along the border ... and use whatever force is necessary to control the border zone,'" the Washington Times writes.

"On Jan. 12, Mexican Brig. Gen. Rigoberto Garcia Cortez said the Mexican military and other personnel had surrounded five border cities in the lower Rio Grande Valley — Matamoros, Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Miguel Aleman and Nuevo Laredo — in response to gunfights between Mexican police, military forces and heavily armed drug smugglers."

Mexican Army Soldiers seized 300 guns from municipal policemen in the city of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, to check if the weapons were legal or had been used in crimes.

McCain tries to convince Conservatives that he realizes where he was wrong and has done a 180 turn on amnesty. That just a crock, lies told to try and gain votes.

His admission of the shamnesty failure is grudging and bitter. While he now tells conservative voters what they want to hear about the need to build the southern border fence, he takes a contemptuous tone toward physical barriers ...

For all his supposed newfound enlightenment about what most Americans want – protection against invasion, commitment to the rule of law, meaningful employer sanctions, an end to sanctuary cities, enforcement-by-attrition plus deportation reform, and an end to special illegal alien benefits that invite more law-breaking – The Maverick remains a Geraldo Rivera Republican. Like the ethnocentric cable TV host who can't string a sentence about immigration together without drowning in demagoguery, McCain naturally resorts to open-borders platitudes when pressed for enforcement specifics. (more and at Michelle Malkin)

Read the full "Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at the Secure Borders Open Doors Advisory Committee Meeting", but here's a few comments:

We are moving forward in a number of security improvements. One, of course, that we’re very happy about is the reform of the Visa Waiver Program, which we got Congress to pass last year. That’s going to give us the capability to start to include some additional countries in the visa waiver country, hopefully some in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world. And yet we’re doing it in a way that increases our security through the Electronic Travel Authorization Program, which I’m happy to say, because we had an appropriation late last year, we are now able to move forward on and get underway.

We are also now collecting 10 fingerprints under US-VISIT. [snip]

It would shock, amaze, and probably dismay a lot of Americans to learn that it has been customary over the years to allow a significant number of people to enter the United States from Mexico or Canada simply by saying, “I’m an American citizen,” and then getting waived through. [snip]

The second thing we’ve done is we’ve looked at the 8,000 kinds of documents that have been presented to our border officials as a way to get into the country – library cards, baptismal certificates.

In the past, Chertoff has mentioned his concern about weapons of mass destruction and dirty bombs coming across the Southern or Northern borders. There may be some good news on that:

The researchers at Purdue University have been working with the state of Indiana to develop a system that will use a network of cell phones to detect and track radiation to help prevent terrorist attacks with radiological “dirty bombs” and nuclear weapons. (more)

In Michigan:

Yesterday, legislation in the state of Michigan took effect that forbids anyone not in the U.S. legally or permanently from getting either a Michigan driver’s license or state ID.

During a press conference on Monday, Michigan’s Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land said,

“From now on, we will not accept foreign birth certificates, just passports. No matter who comes in, they will have to go through the proper process, and our anti-fraud department will go over the documents, which is something we have always done.” (more)

On the cost to Americans from illegal aliens on HEALTH CARE ALONE:

Data on health care costs for illegal immigrants are sketchy because hospitals and community health centers don't ask about patients' legal status. In California, a 2004 study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform put the state's annual cost at $1.4 billion. Similar studies in Colorado and Minnesota in 2005 came up with much smaller estimates: $31 million and $17 million, respectively.

One thing is clear: Undocumented immigrants are driving up the number of people without health insurance. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 59% of the nation's illegal immigrants are uninsured, compared with 25% of legal immigrants and 14% of U.S. citizens. Illegal immigrants represent about 15% of the nation's 47 million uninsured people — and about 30% of the increase since 1980.

"If you want to do something that will have a meaningful impact on the problem of the uninsured, then you must talk about undocumented immigrants," says James Smith, a senior economist at the RAND Corp. (more)

Latest OVERALL Presidential Candidate Ratings On IMMIGRATION -- How Good Are The Promises of Each Candidate to PROTECT Workers, Communities and Taxpayers FROM OVER-IMMIGRATION?

EXCELLENT -- None

VERY GOOD -- Mitt Romney (28 points)

GOOD

RON PAUL
(24 points)

MIKE HUCKABEE
(24 points)

POOR -- RUDY GIULIANI (7 points)

BAD

JOHN McCAIN
(5 points)

JOHN EDWARDS
(5 points)

HILLARY CLINTON
(4 points)

BARACK OBAMA
(4 points)

Look at full ratings in 16 categories at Presidential Candidate Ratings website.

Others:
New Border Crossing Rules, Islamanazi

Government Sues to Build Fence ; Candidate Statements on Illegal Immigration; from The Virtuous Republic

Oh the Irony, Mexico is Having Problems Re-Absorbing It's Citizens; Church and State, are they really separate?, Miss Beth's Victory Dance

Phoenix Sanctuary Policy Drives Community Appeal to Sheriff Joe Arpaio

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email brianbonner90-at-gmail-dot-com and let us know at what level you would like to participate.

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