No confidence in border security

AP/NY Times:

The public has little faith the government is adequately screening visitors to the country or could cope with an outbreak of an infectious disease, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.

Only one in five surveyed said the government is doing enough to scrutinize people crossing the border into the U.S., the poll found. Just two in five expressed confidence the government is ready for an epidemic.

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Skepticism about the government's ability to screen people at the borders was expressed most sharply in the poll by older people, whites, the lesser educated and rural residents.

Some of the harshest critics were people the administration normally would consider allies: Eight in 10 conservatives said the government does not do enough to check visitors, compared with six in 10 liberals. In addition, 87 percent of Republicans were dissatisfied, compared with 73 percent of Democrats.

''I hate to see our security compromised to the degree it has been compromised by this administration,'' said Robert Broyles, 60, an architect from Lewiston, Idaho. He said he twice has voted for George W. Bush.

Many conservatives and Republicans were the chief opponents of the immigration bill, a compromise between Bush and Senate leaders. It included steps for letting many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. gain legal status.

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I think the immigration bill made people feel even less secure about border security because of the reward of citizenship with minimal consequences for those who broke the law and in some cases such as past due taxes the law breakers got a better deal than citizens and in almost all cases they got a better deal than those who obeyed the immigration laws. That is not a way to deter non compliance. One step that would have made the process seem more fare is increasing the number of permitted immigrants and give priority to those who are already in the legal process.

There is also a fundamental disagreement with those who just give up and say things like "you can't deport them all." If you enforce the law, they will deport themselves if there is no work for them.