Who Left the Door Open?
Articles
Despite all the talk of homeland security, sneaking into the U.S. is scandalously easy—and on the rise. Millions of illegal aliens will pour across the U.S.-Mexican border this year, many from countries hostile to America...
In a single day, more than 4,000 illegal aliens will walk across the busiest unlawful gateway into the U.S., the 375-mile border between Arizona and Mexico...
It's fair to estimate, based on a TIME investigation, that the number of illegal aliens flooding into the U.S. this year will total 3 million—enough to fill 22,000 Boeing 737-700 airliners, or 60 flights every day for a year. It will be the largest wave since 2001 and roughly triple the number of immigrants who will come to the U.S. by legal means. (No one knows how many illegals are living in the U.S., but estimates run as high as 15 million.)...
From October 1 of last year until August 25, the Border Patrol estimates that it apprehended 55,890 people who fall into the category described officially as Other than Mexicans, or OTMs, With five weeks remaining in the fiscal year, the number is nearly double the 28,048 apprehended in all of 2002. But that's just how many were caught. TIME estimates, based on longtime government formulas for calculating how many elude capture, that as many as 190,000 illegals from countries other than Mexico have melted into the U.S. population so far this year. The Border Patrol, which is run by the Department of Homeland Security, refuses to break down OTMs by country. But local law officers, ranchers and others who confront the issue daily tell TIME they have encountered not only a wide variety of Latin Americans (from Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela) but also intruders from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Russia and China as well as Egypt, Iran and Iraq...
The Border Patrol, by nature an earnest and hard-working corps, is no match for the onslaught. From last October through August 25, it apprehended nearly 1.1 million illegals in all its operations around the U.S. But for every person it picks up, at least three make it into the country safely. The number of agents assigned to the 1,951-mile southern border has grown by only somewhat, to more than 9,900 today, up from 8,600 in 2000...
...apprehensions of illegals in Arizona have soared from 9% of the nation's total in 1993 to 51% this year.
The limits of compassion are also being tested on the Tohono O'odham Nation. About twice the size of Deleware, the tribe's reservation shares 65 miles of border with Mexico... The undermanned tribal police force helps the Border Patrol round up as many as 1,500 illegals a day.
Popular belief has it that illegals are crossing the border in search of work. In fact, many have their jobs lined up before they leave Mexico. That's because corporate managers go so far as to place orders with smugglers for a specific number of people to be delivered...
For nearly 20 years, it has been a crime to here illegal aliens. Amid an earlier surge in illegal immigration, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which provided that employers could be fined up to $10,000 for every illegal alien their hired, and repeat offenders could be sent to jail...
When questioned about the figure of 3 million illegal aliens per year reported in the article, journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele replied in the October 25, 2004 issue:
Although the figure of 3 million illegal aliens is an estimate, it is based on government formulas and interviews with border-patrol agents and other law-enforcement authorities. Anderson's reference [in a letter to TIME] to 350,000 illegals comes from Census Bureau data, which are widely acknowledged to be seriously flawed.
(TIME subscribers can read the full article. Non-subscribers can read the full article at KFI AM radio).
