A National Party No More.
Zell Miller.

While we are tightening security, we need to face the reality of dealing with the more than ten million illegal aliens in our country. Each year, 400,000 are entering our country. This is a huge and dangerous problem and no one in a position to do anything about it wants to do anything about it. Not the executive branch, not the legislative branch, not diplomats, not business, not labor, not educators, not farmers, not religious leaders, and especially not Democratic or Republican lawmakers. It is a bipartisan dereliction of duty. No one wants to do anything because no one wants to lose a few votes. It has become a high stakes contest between the leaders of both parties to see which one can pander the most. They should muster up the will to send illegal aliens back to where they came from. Instead both parties stumble all over themselves to grant amnesty.

Our borders are so open to the illegal immigrants that their enablers in the United States had the unmitigated gall to demand the installation of water fountains along the way so the illegals won't get thirsty. Of course, like a fawning concierge, the INS responded. Not only do they have water to drink but also what are called "rescue beacons" so that if these illegals need help they can just press a button to summon it.

The Canadian border is four thousand miles long and the Mexican border is two thousand miles. We have about one border patrolman to about every ten miles. What kind of security is that? In one area alone, the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in Upstate New York, some 4,000 illegal aliens cross the St. Lawrence River each year and are smuggled into New York City. We should send National Guardsmen to stop this illegal traffic on our borders. We send them to faraway places like Kosovo and Afghanistan to make these countries safer. What about us?

Legal immigration? Certainly. It's what helped to make this country great. There are immigrants waiting in line to come into this country and they are obeying the law. Give them a chance to become American citizens, instead of the illegals who have made a mockery of the American Dream.

Illegal aliens cause monumental problems within our framework of social services. We are spending millions on their healthcare, schooling, criminal incarceration, and other entitlements that could be used to improve the life of American citizens. False IDs are easy to get and in most of our large cities, the local police are forbidden to ask them about their immigration status. It is illegal according to many local ordinances and even a special order (#40) from the INS. This has been the case in Los Angeles since 1979 and two months after 9/11, New York Republican mayor Michael Bloomberg put out this lunatic statement: " People who are undocumented do not have to worry about city government going to the federal government." Of course, he was only continuing what former Democratic mayor Ed Koch had put in place years before.

Unbelievable! We should be doing just the opposite. Anyone here illegally should be put in jail, his or her property forfeited, and immediately deported. An existing federal law calls for heavy fines for employers who knowingly hire illegal, but it is ignored. It should be strictly enforced. In fact, the federal government should require all employers to verify U.S. citizenship or lawful presence for each job application by a telephone or central database maintained by U.S government.

Although the overwhelming number of illegal aliens are not criminals and have absolutely no connection to terrorists at all, the few that do are some really bad actors. Don't forget that three of the September 11 hijackers were here illegally as were those who made the first attack on the World Trade Center. Lee Malvo, the young Washington D.C. sniper is not only an illegal alien but also one of the many that had been in federal custody and released. Just like Maximilians Esparza from El Salvador, who had been arrested in both California and Oregon and stopped twice and released by the U.S. Border Patrol. He had raped two nuns and strangled one of them with her rosary beads. The list of examples is endless. Someday our grandchildren are going to reap the results of this madness and wonder what in the world this nation and its leaders were thinking.

The list of what INS does not know is longer than the list of what INS does know. For example, it cannot tell you where the million "students" given a visa to attend college are actually enrolled in college or even where they are. Neither do they know how many criminal aliens are in jail or prison nationwide. They are supposed to be immediately deported after being released but they aren't. Think what it is costing our financially hard-strapped states to keep them in custody. It is hundreds of millions of dollars, which they cannot afford. And when it comes to the cost of illegal immigration, we can't even take into account the displacement of American workers from their jobs. (page 157)

Stroud and Hall.
Atlanta, GA. 20003