Washingtontimes.com
One indisputable conclusion from reporter Jerry Seper's recent five-part series in The Washington Times, "Border War: On the front line against illegal immigration," is that the nation's border-enforcement strategy along the 1,940-mile U.S.-Mexico border clearly is not working. Since the federal government implemented a new strategy in 1994 focusing on deterrence, detection and arrest, the illegal alien population in the United States has increased from an estimated five million to between nine and 11 million. As many as two million illegal aliens per year succeed in their efforts to penetrate the U.S.-Mexico border without being caught and expelled.
As Mr. Seper reported, the 1994 deterrence strategy increased resources at strategic locations along the Southwest border, seeking to deter illegal activity where it had once been plentiful. The strategy was intended to reroute illegal aliens and drug smugglers — who are responsible for supplying 80 percent of the cocaine and 50 percent of the heroin consumed in the United States — to more remote border areas where harsh terrain and weather would make illegal activity far more difficult.
Posted by Suzanne at October 8, 2002