Kathleen has a unique message for many markets.

DESTRUCTION FROM WITHIN
THE HIGH COSTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
NG DOLPHINS

The 'global village' will never again be the same. Barbarians (terrorists) living in the 'village' with us do not good neighbors make. Unfortunately, it appears that these terrorists, masquerading as human beings were and are living in our midst. How the heck did they get here? How do we get rid of them, or at least drastically reduce their threat?

They got here through legal and/or illegal means. Investigations will show that these terrorists interfaced with or avoided our immigration laws, procedures and personnel at one time or another.

How do we get rid of them? We must do what is best for citizens and legally aspiring citizens of the United States. In the long run our global neighbors will also benefit. As with most profound, compelling and fundamentally important things in life it can be simply stated. It's called tough love. It means doing the politically uncomfortable thing by fixing illegal immigration problems.

Americans and their elected officials do a lot of things right. However, having the courage to demonstrate 'tough love' to solve some very significant problems has not been one of them for a few decades now. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 we reaped the seeds of political avoidance i.e., the destructive forces of illegal immigration.

Immigration policies are many. The topic of whether or not these policies in themselves are well structured and effectively implemented warrants its own column. However, it is clear from reading congressional testimonies of various oversight hearings that the complications and burdens of illegal immigration create not only a separate set of problems; but makes monitoring and improving existing policies/procedures absolutely impossible. It also makes being thorough with what looks like legal documentation an impossible task much of the time. Terrorists' take full advantage of a system they know only too well.

Finger pointing is not nice, but where illegal immigration is concerned and its role in facilitating terrorism and numerous other problems, the index finger must be pointed at elected officials with very few exceptions. One of the exceptions, however, is retired U.S. Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming. He tried very hard to get colleagues engaged in a serious way. Utah Representative Chris Cannon is another. They are two of a relative few who have been willing to publicly work on this problem regardless of the next election.

Congressional oversight hearings are only one of the paper trails that clearly document the desperation of the average American citizen and communities that have tried again and again to get the message across to law makers. The message is and has been: illegal immigration is out of control and you must do something about it. Congressional oversight hearings should be only the beginning of problem solving. Too often they are only a 'place to vent' for those oppressed, and a way for others to seem genuinely concerned to constituents. Too often—the momentum and 'photo op' stops there.

One only has to read local town papers across the nation to find numerous examples of the public looking to their elected officials to fix the problem. I'm not referring to only folks living along our Canadian and Mexican borders. Many, many states such as Utah, Indiana, Pennsylvania all have sounded the alarm.

An easy look at the extensive efforts of citizens and local officials to bring the federal government to focus on its responsibility in this regard can be found at: www.numbersusa.com. Take a blood pressure pill beforehand!

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has testified that for every three illegals that get across the border, they catch and return one. This means that two others make their way into the 'interior' of our nation. Interior enforcement is a category of immigration work that seldom makes the newsprint. It deals with trying to find and control illegals once they get across the border. The word is out within the 'global village' that if you can make it past the border in the United States you are free. The potential illegals know that we don't have the infrastructure to find or return them.

Addressing problems of illegal immigration will greatly assist national security and intelligence efforts. To ignore its impacts on these areas makes that job harder, and ourselves more vulnerable.

If we don't get these illegal immigration problems turned around and under control, we'll never have time or resources to improve the legal immigration 'glitches' and the terrorists will be so entrenched that destruction from within our borders will be guaranteed. Who's country is it anyway?

Permission granted to reprint in full or part with full credit given to author.