ILLEGALS - "RETURN EVERY ILLEGAL" - MICHAEL CHERTOFF SECRETARY, HOMELAND SECURITY

Michael Chertoff the Secretary of Homeland Security testified before Congress that the, "catch and release, " practice would be no more, "Return every single illegal......NO EXCEPTIONS!" Chertoff was testifying before a Congressional hearing dealing with the illegal alien problem that last month alone returned only 30,000 of the 160,000 who illegally crossed our borders and Chertoff announced that this would come to an end! Chertoff said significant progress can be made within one year and this is the policy of the Bush administration. Thank God! This does not solve the problem completely but it is a significant beginning to solving the problem of illegal immigrants. Major steps still need to be taken in the handling of the illegals that are in the United States regardless of the amount of time that they have been in this country. Chertoff also stated that the border patrols will be beefed up tremendously to gain control of the borders but enforcement through patrols is only half of the problem...after all we have extremely large borders with both Mexico and Canada. Erecting a fence similar to that constructed by the Israelis along the Palestinian border would go along way toward border security but ONLY if enforcement of immigration laws, such as Chertoff has stated and patrols that prevent the fence from being breached and/or destroyed coincide with the building of such a fence. In addition technological means such as droid planes and electronic security should be greatly increased, but all of this again will be to no avail if the manpower to enforce added security is not there! It is good to hear that finally the voice of the people is being listened to concerning this national security problem. Our borders have been so unprotected that frankly I am surprised that we have not experienced a terrorist attack that exceeds that of September 11 with the use of a smuggled nuclear or dirty bomb device over our vulnerable borders. This may be an indication of the success of the War on Terror, meaning that the Islamic terrorists have been stripped of their capability to perform such a disgusting act and taking advantage of our lack of border security. With that said, we cannot take the chance that this may be the case because the terrorists are still determined to destroy the United States and our borders have to be protected against such possibilities. The steps that Chertoff outlined today ONLY deal with illegal immigration and not total protection of our borders. This is not a situation that can wait for the slow wheels of Congress to address, this is something that Homeland Security MUST address immediately and if using the National Guard or the United States Military is the answer to protecting our borders then so be it. Now is the time to act and protect this blatant vulnerability to the security of our nation!

Ken Taylor