Industry Focus
Border Security: At What Price?
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Jan 01, 2015
Aside from security on campus or in the K-12
environment, there is nothing more passionate
than border security. Border security
elicits conversation about immigration, and about
today’s White House initiative to protect 5 million undocumented
immigrants from deportation.
At the root of this conversation should be the fact
that there are rules and means to enter this country
legally to gain citizenship and work opportunities.
There is security at the border for a reason: that being
to halt undocumented immigrants from entering this
country illegally.
Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) said that the president’s
unilateral plan on immigration reform to grant
amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants is both “misguided”
and it is “clearly an overreach of the office.”
To me, this type of thinking on the part of the president
flies in the face of security at the border. These
millions of people made it past the secure southern
border, and now, years later could be part of an amnesty
program that flaunts security. We should not be
rewarding people who break the law. There are legal
means to enter this country, and those laws must be
respected, especially with regards to the Constitution.
While we are a nation of immigrants, we should
remain welcoming to those people who want to come
here under the legal and appropriate circumstances. My
ancestors were immigrants who came to this country
from Denmark. They came here knowing the law and
what it would take to become citizens of this country.
How do immigration issues stack up against border
security?
By granting amnesty before reforming the system
and strengthening security at our borders, the White
House is creating problems, not fixing them. The Constitution
charges the president with the responsibility
to ensure the laws that Congress makes are faithfully
executed.
Voters during the mid-term elections sent a strong
and sincere message to the president and to Congress.
That mandate was that we want Washington to listen
to us. Acting with a personal agenda is not what the
American people want.
Securing our borders requires that we allocate the
resources, surveillance technology and manpower
necessary to ensure that those people crossing our
borders are doing so legally. By starting here, millions
of unlawful immigrants will not be able to infringe
upon every legal citizen’s right to pursue the American
dream.
You can’t talk about border security without mentioning
Texas Gov. Rick Perry. I live in Texas as well,
and believe that the governor has been a leader on
border security while the federal government has faltered.
Perry has put more boots on the ground to secure
the border, and has been more willing to use the
latest technology and targeted operations to dramatically
reduce all crime along the border.
“We cannot have homeland security without
border security,” Perry said. “Texas’ increased law
enforcement presence in the border region is all the
more necessary as the federal government continues
to ignore the very real issue of border security in favor
of political posturing on immigration.”
Without border security, immigration reform is a
fruitless exercise.
The governor said that the president’s announcement
of executive action granting amnesty to millions
of illegal immigrants in the United States makes a
mass migration scenario more likely than ever before.
The Lone Star State has a state-led operation—
dubbed Operation Strong Safety—in the Rio Grande
Valley. Since its beginning, federal authorities’ weekly
apprehensions of illegal aliens have dropped dramatically;
nearly 73 percent.
“The problem at our border is much greater than
the current crisis involving unaccompanied children
illegally entering the United States,” Boozman said.
“Our borders are far too porous. We must secure out
borders. We must stop allowing individuals to enter
the country illegally without recourse. We must hold
those who break the law accountable.”
“No immigration reform policies we pass will be
effective until we secure the border.”
History has proven that amnesty only perpetuates
a cycle of illegal entry into this county. This was true
in the 1980s, and has proven true under this administration’s
decision to prosecute lawbreakers, and when
not to. Last summer, because of the administration’s
refusal to enforce the United States’ immigration
laws, at least 60,000 unaccompanied children made a
perilous journey through our borders.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who is the chairman
of the Committee on Homeland Security, said
that the administration has increasingly lax enforcement
policies and a perception of amnesty that has
become a powerful magnet that encourages more illegal
immigration.
“This year (2014), the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended
479,000 individuals along the Southern Border
but less than half were deported,” McCaul said.
“Those who remained were given notices to appear
before an immigration judges, with a court date years
away, and released into the country. We know that the
majority will never check back in with authorities.”
Border security needs an actionable plan to include
the use of drones, wide-area surveillance systems, sensors
and other technologies that can monitor the border
and given Border Patrol agents better, faster and
critical information to help them secure the border.
This article originally appeared in the issue of .