Seal our borders

By Joseph Farah

I have to laugh when I hear about Iran and Pakistan and other nations around Afghanistan sealing their borders.

The United States should be sealing its borders as part of a defensive effort in this war on terrorism.

Here’s why: A reader tells me about an illegal immigrant friend from El Salvador who returned to the U.S. after a nine-month vacation. (Pretty nice lifestyle, huh? I wish I could take a nine-month vacation.)

She crossed the border this summer in a coyote-led group with 12 “foreign” men. By foreign, she means not Hispanic, not Anglo. She described them as tall, dark-skinned, dark-haired with facial hair. They were more nicely dressed than the other illegal immigrants. They did not speak Spanish. One spoke English with the coyote. (Coyotes, for the uninitiated, are people who make a living transporting illegals across the southern border.)

The Salvadoran woman paid $5,000 to be escorted into the states. But she overheard the Arabic-looking, English-speaking traveler say the 12 foreigners paid $25,000 each. This came up in complaints about traveling conditions and sleeping accommodations.

The 12 were given priority when they crossed the border into the Arizona desert. The reader reported what she found out about this incident to the FBI.

“My concern is that they will not take this seriously,” she said. “I hope that they follow up and advise our administration of the need to seal our borders to make it more difficult for intruders to enter on foot.”

I’m with her.

I can’t believe I haven’t heard this mentioned by anyone in Washington. But, then again, these are the folks who have been oblivious to problems at the borders for years. These are the people who, just before the terrorist attack Sept. 11, were prepared to grant a sweeping amnesty to illegal aliens already living in the U.S., thus encouraging even more border crossings.

I am not, however, in favor of using the military to shut down the border. That’s not the job of the military. It’s the job of the Border Patrol – a well-trained, if somewhat demoralized agency that should be doubled, tripled, quadrupled if necessary to achieve the goal.

The goal is zero tolerance for illegal crossings – for as long as this national emergency lasts. And, frankly, I see no reason to lift enforcement after that. We’d only be inviting a future terrorist attack, more illegal drug imports and more illegal human trafficking.

If Washington doesn’t agree with this assessment now, it should have the courage to repeal the immigration laws, declare an open border and let the chips fall where they may. Stop the charade. Enough is enough. Stop pretending we care about enforcing our laws.

Until our lawmakers and law enforcers take this simple, common-sense action, I will not believe we are serious about a war on terrorism. End of story.

Our borders are like sieves. It’s time to reassess our policies of lax enforcement and turning our heads.

Most people living in the southwest know the problems that open borders create for them – even if Texan George W. Bush is oblivious.

That terrorists have illegally crossed our borders is a given. It’s simply a question of how many. Some have actually been caught – which is almost miraculous in itself, given the limited resources of the Border Patrol.

And we shouldn’t overlook our northern border, either. Though the flow of illegal human traffic is much lower there, so is the risk of being caught.

Not all terrorists fly commercial airliners into the United States. Some of them walk. Some of them drive. It’s time to find them, hunt them down. And the only way to do that is to beef up enforcement.

It’s long overdue. If Congress and the president won’t consider enforcing the existing laws now, they never will.

America got a wakeup call on Sept. 11. How will we respond? Will we re-examine our lax security? Or will we risk another attack – perhaps one much bigger, much deadlier?


Don’t miss Joseph Farah’s exclusive report “Jihad in America” in the November issue of Whistleblower magazine, WorldNetDaily’s monthly offline publication. Order your subscription now.

Joseph Farah

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union. Read more of Joseph Farah's articles here.