Secure the border

Rick Perry:

A famous poet once wrote that “good fences make good neighbors.”  However, this author did not have to deal with the realities of homeland security where a wall is only as strong as it is fortified by law enforcement personal.  Building a wall along the entire Texas-Mexico border would not only be cost prohibitive – in the range of billions of dollars – it would create a false sense of security.  And unless the federal government is willing to put enforcement personnel all along such a barrier – something it has refused to do for decades along a border without fencing – it will be no more successful at keeping illegal immigrants out of Texas than the Rio Grande River.

Strategic fencing in high-population areas makes sense.  But I would like to see the federal government invest resources in increased border security operations like Operation Rio Grande rather than build a 1,200-mile wall.

With joint law enforcement operations we have managed to reduce crime in areas patrolled by border sheriffs by up to 60 percent during surge operations.  With fixed wing and rotary assets in the air, more law enforcement boots on the ground, and a stronger boat patrol presence along the Rio Grande, we have virtually shut down drug and human smuggling activity during intensive operations.  The success of these operations is the reason I will be asking the legislature for $100 million to secure our border.

As I have said repeatedly, you can’t have homeland security without border security, and there is no sense in reforming immigration laws if we cannot enforce them.  And I have said equally as often that immigration reform without border security is meaningless. 

Divisive language on the subject of border security and immigration reform is simply not constructive or useful in solving the problem.  We cannot be a nation that is anti-immigrant because we are in fact a nation of immigrants.  In fact, foreign-born citizens are some of the strongest supporters of tougher border security measures.  Clearly, something has to be done because our hospitals, schools, and other service providers are being flooded with illegal immigrants at a great cost to taxpayers.

But to me neither amnesty nor mass deportation is the answer.  The first unfairly rewards those who broke our laws, and the latter is not only unrealistic and unenforceable, but it would devastate our economy.  That’s why I support a guest worker program that takes undocumented workers off the black market and legitimizes their economic contributions without providing them citizenship status.

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There is more.

I think enforcing immigration laws will result in more self deportation which is better for the immigrants and fr the US.  This has happened with workplace enforcement and with housing laws that effect illegals.  The current administrations focus on only criminals who are illegals does not give any incentive for self deportation.  To stop the flow of illegals there has to be a consequence for coming here, otherwise we will never stop it.