Two stories leaped out at me showing just how, in the wake of 9/11, we have really cracked down on our border security.
In the first story, an illegal alien from Guatemala paid a smuggler $5,000 to sneak him across the border near Tijuana. While crossing, he was shot in the foot. Naturally, he sought treatment at an emergency room.
In Framingham, Massachusetts, 3,000 miles away.
In the second story, we see yet again how alert and cautious our border patrol is. A man, Gregory Despres, tried to cross into the United States at Calais, Maine from Canada last April 25. One minor hitch: he had with him a homemade sword, a knife, a hatchet, brass knuckles, and a chainsaw. And the chainsaw had what appeared to be bloodstains on it. Naturally, our fine, outstanding officers arrested this Leatherface wannabe on the spot.
Whoops, no they didn’t. They turned him back and notified Canadian authorities.
Rats, got it wrong again.
So what, did they do? They confiscated his weapons, took his fingerprints, and then waved him through.
And then in a twist that nobody could have foreseen, the next day (April 26) a gruesome double murder was discovered in Despres’ home town. And by an astonishing coincidence, one was stabbed to death and one was beheaded.
Luckily, on April 27, police in Mattapoisett, MA found him wandering down the highway in a sweatshirt with red and brown stains (suspiciously blood-like). He’s now awaiting deportation back to Canada to face murder charges.
Yup, I feel SO much safer in the increased security since 9/11.
Actually, I understand that Despres is an American citizen and that the border police held him for questioning for 2 or 3 hours while contacting the Canadian Police. Since the bodies had not been discovered at that time there were no warrants out for him and the border patrol had no legal reason to hold him. I also inderstand that it was quick police work that did trace him by his auto plates once a Canadian warrant was issued.
Regarding the previous comment, Michelle Malkin lays it all out:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002679.htm
Separated at birth?
Quick police work? The man had no auto.. he was walking across the border.
Just Me: are not citizenship and presence in the country (U.S.) points of value, things to be appreciated well?
Citizenship and presence here SHOULD be difficult. They should be a challenge — and have been until recently — whereby people who want citizenship do what is required to gain it.
There’s a lot in life I think I *should have,* but so far, most of it requires a lot of planning, study, and hard work. And, as with citizenship, you have to play by the rules to maintain most of anything that you work hard for even after you have it: do things legally, be a good citizen and neighbor, take care of yourself and be responsible to and for those who depend on you and who you depend upon.
The whole notion that “people should be able to come here to work” is wrong. I voted for Bush and respect President Bush, don’t misunderstand me here, but one of my pet peeves with him is this cavalier attitude that “people should be able to come here to work” like it’s a simple, breezy thing that “should” be possible.
Possible, yes, but not as a given, as an indulgence. If someone wants citizenship, wants to immigrate and to (therefore) “work here,” then they should do what is required.
The whole “I just want to work here” (so I can do whatever I can and want to inorder to get here to do that) attitude is exactly what’s caused our current problems.
People in other nations need to take the idea more seriously, and if they want to immigrate to the U.S. and ‘work here,’ then do so legally.
And, Mexico and their culture is largely responsible for the disintegration of respect for the U.S. immigration laws. Some from there are ‘hard working’ and all that, yes, but it doesn’t justify their illegal means in getting across borders and all the falsehood that accompanies that afterward.
~I think I’d like a mansion in Mexico City. If I arrive there in the middle of tomorrow night and walk into the front door, they HAVE to let me stay. And give me room and board. After all, I can work hard.~
It’s ridiculous reasoning.
“The Land of the Free”
DOES NOT MEAN
That “everything is free.”
I think that’s where many in other countries go wrong: assuming that “it’s (the U.S.) a free country” and that illegal behavior is rewarded. The two issues do seem to merge into the personalities of most who engage in illegal immigration. I read the same thing by most who pirate and steal proprietary goods on the internet: “I want it, someone else has it, I can get it so I will — and someone please help me take it.”
It’s entirely the wrong type of ethics that the country needs in new citizens.