Border War

Yesterday, The Minuteman Project began in ernest, with hundreds of volunteers spreading out at quarter-mile intervals in the Arizona desert along the U.S.-Mexican border. Their stated goal is to function as a neighborhood watch along the most-vulnerable part of the U.S. border. Arizona Monthly said in November that "the most important nexus for international jihad outside of Pakistan and the Middle East has been Arizona," in their cover article "Al Qaeda Among Us."

1.1 million illegals were captured along the 2,000 mile southern border last year, with half of those captured coming through Arizona. Among the majority millions of illegals that crossed successfully last year were violent Central American gang members and 25 suspected Chechen terrorists in July that to this day have not been captured.

The national MSM/DNC has predictably taken the side of the illegal aliens. The NY Times is running an article this morning by Eduardo Porter claiming (with no supporting hard facts and evidence that can be described as circumstantial at best) that illegals pump "as much as" $7 billion into Social Security each year. Porter completely, and in my opinion dishonestly, avoids mentioning the tremendous burden illegals place upon social services programs, such as the $200 million each year illegals cost hospitals in New Jersey alone.

Interestingly enough, local media is hardly as monolithic as their national counterparts, with some news organizations already claiming some success, and another claiming that the Minutemen are exactly that; a militia doing exactly what Article 1 of the Constitution requires, "suppressing insurrections and repelling invasions."

In 2004, the equivilent of 160 12,500 military divisions simply walked northward across the U.S.-Mexican border to disappear into our country's interior. Opposing them is an apathetic federal government, a complicit media, an overworked Border Patrol, and now, the militia
the Constitution intended.

The Minuteman Project is firing a very public media shot across the bow of an apathetic, perhaps complicit, White House and Congress. Hopefully this negative exposure will force the government to shore up our borders.

I'd hate to see another 9/11 take place because terrorists were able to walk unmolested across the border. I can only hope President Bush and Congressmen up for reelection in 2006 have that same concern.

Update: As mentioned above by the NY Times reporter Eduardo Porter, illegals put a maximum of $7 billion into Social Security. Riehl World View comes through with data to show that illegals create a net loss of $10 billion a year that the U.S. taxpayer has to make up for, putting $16 billion into the system in taxes, and taking out $26.3 billion. Read the whole thing. You won't find this in the Times.