Friday, the National Border Patrol Council published George Weissinger’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Myth or Reality commentary. Take a look:
In 2003, I wrote an article about the illegal alien problem shortly after the legacy INS disappeared, and Homeland Security created the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) Unit. I was cautiously optimistic that the problems encountered by the INS might be fixed by the new agency. Unfortunately, the immigration problem did not improve. On the contrary, it got worse and we now have a country divided on just what to do. In analyzing the illegal alien problem all these years, I find that both sides of the fence counter each position with positions that might easily be based on myths.
Myth 1- Illegal aliens are all hard-working people who are more contributors than drainers on our society. They do the work that no one else wants to do.
Myth 2 – Illegal aliens are simply immigrants/migrants, and should not be referred to as illegal aliens. They are all immigrants.
Myth 3 – It is impossible to enforce the immigration laws inside the US, and we do not have the ability to remove 12 million people from the US.
Myth 4 – Building a fence will secure our borders.
Myth 5 -The pending comprehensive reform bill is not an amnesty bill.
Myth 1 – I looked at my own research on the foreign born inmates in our prisons and jails and found that between 1992 and 2003, the legacy INS located 897,706 criminal aliens in institutions inside the US. 81% of these inmates were from Mexico. Most of these inmates were destined for deportation proceedings, or subject to deportation. Unfortunately, this does not mean INS eventually removed them from the US, as a recent news item revealed, indicating that over 600,000 fugitives and alien absconders are still out there.