Border Security and Immigration Reform - From a Center-est Perspective

As an Episcopalian and political Independent, I am experiencing great offense at the polarized political bickering engendered by Arizona’s new Immigration Law. Recently an article in the Washington Post by Eugene Robinson was brought to my attention; it is this article that moved me to write down my thoughts. He makes appeal for “Fact-based analysis” and then grossly under represents the complexity of the issues and also misrepresents the facts in support of his obvious political bios. The following are the facts as I know them from my experience living in Cochise County; one of the counties that have been more dramatically affected by cross border crime.

1, Violence and theft related to professional smuggling operations along the border have been on the rise in the last four years; despite claims to the contrary. Here in Cochise County people have been held hostage at gun point in there own homes wile smugglers (Coyotes) waited for the cover of darkness. Recently a local rancher, Rob Krentz, who is well known as a kind and caring individual, was murdered on his ranch by someone involved in these smuggling operations. Members of my congregation, and I myself, have endured smuggling related burglaries and auto theft. The claim that we do not need to do more to secure the border is utterly naive.

2, Border security and illegal immigration are separate, though overlapping, issues. There should be no doubt that most of the illegal immigrants are individuals, driven by poverty, to seek employment here in this country swinging a hammer, pushing a broom, etc. I have personally encountered many of these hard-working individuals. Because of the inaccessibility of work visas, they pay “Coyotes” to guide them over the border. This not only puts them in the hands of professional drug smugglers but of the cartel enforcers who garde the shipments. I have found it all too routine to read in the local news about another body found in the local desert or mountains; an immigrant left to dye by a “Coyote.” The local smugglers and their drug cartel associates are ruthless professional criminals, let us not be in doubt of this fact. As a Christian I see this present situation as one humanitarian crisis compounded by another. To solve this we must recognize that there are two separate issues at hand: the need for greater security and safety along our border and the need for immigration reform. Which means that our present polarized bickering between the “Left and the Right” (which I see Mr. Robinson contributing too rather than helping) must end.

3, If meaningful immigration reform were enacted, allowing real accessability to work visas, many dynamics of the present situation would be transformed for the better. First, workers seeking employment in the U.S. and the businesses that need these workers, would have legal access to each other. Let us not pretend that business in the U.S. does not need these workers. If immigrant workers were not finding jobs, their influx would have slowed to a trickle long ago. The next most obvious effect of this change would be to remove the drive for immigrants to seek out the services of criminal guides. This would be a genuine humanitarian victory from my perspective. Finally, the reform would also allow federal and local law enforcement to focus on interdicting the truly serious crime that threatens the safety of those (like myself) who live near the international border.

4, The conservative pretense that a new Arizona law against illegal immigration will help keep the border areas secure is nonsense. Such redundancy cannot do any more to inhibit crime than have the preexisting federal laws. This law will tie up limited local resources enforcing laws that federal agencies are already enforcing. It will require local law enforcement to look for probable cause in areas that are outside their training. Which will lead to racial profiling (even though this law was amended to ban such) simply because local law enforcement is not trained in this sphere in the manner of Customs and Border Patrol. From my perspective, this is nothing less than political posturing.

Finally one other fact bears noting. The liberal calm that the Mexican drug cartels procure their assault weapons on the U.S. side of the border is a genuine lie. Investigative reporters with Fox News debunked this claim months ago. The firearms that the Mexican government requested the U.S. government to trace represented only 10% of the weapons they had confiscated in their war with the drug cartels. The other 90% came from other countries and from their own military. Of that 10% only a fraction actually came from this country. Claiming that we have a responsibility to bear for feeding the violence in Mexico is utter propaganda.


Will we Americans ever put aside simplistic “group think,” “blame the other side” politics and pursue real solutions to our challenges?