DHS Says Border is More Secure Than Ever; Doesn't Mean More Can't Be Done
Like most parents across the nation, the recent snow gave my kids a few extra days off of school. With frigid temperatures and ice covered roads and sidewalks, they spent most of their time inside, which in turn led to messy bedrooms.
After three snow days, just about every toy, including a few hundred Lego pieces, were scattered across my 7-year-old’s bedroom floor. I asked him to clean his room, and after some arguing and procrastination, he spent a good 30 minutes cleaning up most of the Legos, but the floor was still covered with Matchbox cars, magnetix, and other things.
When I asked him to pick up the rest of the toys, he proudly responded, “but my room is cleaner that it was before!”
Earlier this week, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano made a similar statement when she delivered a speech at the University of Texas-El Paso. She said the border was more safe and secure than it has ever been. Later in the day, DHS issued a follow-up press release detailing the department's efforts with words like “quintupled”, “expanded”, and “seized”.
Back to my son’s room ... he did pick up a few hundred Lego pieces, but that didn’t mean that his room was clean and more work couldn’t be done. Sec. Napolitano continues to use the same logical argument of my 7-year-old, and the pro-amnesty groups pounce on it in their support for "comprehensive immigration reform."
No one doubts the Secretary’s effort to secure the border. Her insistence that the border is more secure now than it has ever been may be statistically accurate, but that doesn’t mean “Mission Accomplished.” Throwing more money and more border patrol agents at the problem may change the statistics, but it will never end the constant flow of illegal border crossings.
This is why E-Verify is so important. On Thursday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Mexico's Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said Georgia's proposed E-Verify legislation is "poisoning" relations between the United States and Mexico. He emphasized the point that people cross the border illegally for jobs.
The Mexican Ambassador is 100% correct. Illegal aliens come here mainly for the jobs, and until the United States can put an end to the jobs magnet, illegal border crossings will continue.
By requiring E-Verify for all employers, the U.S. can slow, if not completely eliminate, foreign workers from crossing the border illegally. And once that's done, the Border Patrol can concentrate its efforts solely on the other border issues instead of diverting resources and manpower to stopping the flow of foreign workers.
Only then, can Sec. Napolitano say with confidence that the border is completely safe and secure.
CHRIS CHMIELENSKI is the Director of Content and Activism for NumbersUSA