Border Crossings have dropped significantly since 2005 and by over 95% in Yuma. Over this same period, the Border Patrol has more than Doubled! So tell me, why are all of the Tea Party extremists agitating for more Border Enforcement dollars?Yuma, AZ Reports --A report released by the Center for American Progress claims that border apprehensions of illegal aliens along the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped by more than 70% in the last 10 years. Center for American Progress Director of Immigration Policy, Marshall Fitz says, "well we know for sure is that far fewer people are attempting to enter the united states without authorization. And for those who do attempt to cross, our border patrol is preventing or catching them at a far greater rate than ever before."
Fitz says more Border Patrol Agents and improved technology have caused the drop in illegal crossings. According to the report there are more than 21,000 Border Patrol Agents nationwide. More than double the number of agents there were back in 2004. Arizona alone has over 5,000 of those agents.
The report also said that as more fences and cameras have been put up, they've helped agents catch more crosser's. Showing a distinct difference in the infrastructure between the Yuma sector border in 2006 and 2008.
The report says the number of illegal immigrant apprehensions has dropped across the board from San Diego to Texas.
Here in Yuma, apprehensions were at their highest in 2005 with more than 135,000 arrests.
That number dropped to just over 7,000 in 2010.
Former Immigration Commissioner Doris Meissner and current Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute says the poor economy has also played a role in the drop, "what we're looking at now, with the change in the economy in the U.S. and the dramatically reduced flow because jobs are not available in the U.S. has brought us to a point where there is no net growth whatsoever to the illegal population in the united states."
However, not everyone agrees with the report.
Arizona Representative Jeff Flake is quoted saying, "anyone who thinks our border is safer now more than ever has obviously never been to the border or spoken with those who live and work along it."
Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney for Arizona on SB 1070 : "It's not touchy at all because we're the ones who sued them and won" - "We can have effective immigration enforcement, but we don't need to do it the way SB1070 did" - "I think on its face it's unconstitutional and it's dividing our community"
ReplyDelete"There's a lot of hate in our society. This country has come a long way, but we've got a long ways to go". -
Arizona Daily Sun -
U.S. attorney ready to pursue hate crimes -
By Eric Betz -
Saturday, August 6, 2011 -
http://azdailysun.com/news/local/u-s-attorney-ready-to-pursue-hate-crimes/article_f1496219-5f2d-5a79-bf6c-5857fd571e19.html
Some excerpts :
Federal prosecutors want help from the community to enforce new civil rights laws.
In a well-attended public forum held on Thursday at the Murdoch Center, Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, told local leaders and community members that he was anxious to prosecute crimes under recently passed hate crimes legislation.
"We want victims to come forward so we can enforce laws," Burke said.
Also on hand was Allison Bachus, the assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the Civil Rights Unit, who gave a presentation on the current status of civil rights law.
The U.S. Attorney's office handles cases ranging from misconduct by public officials to hate crimes and human trafficking. But until recently it had limited ability to punish bias-motivated crimes.
In 2009, Congress approved the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. It is named for a gay man who was tortured and murdered for his sexual orientation in Wyoming and a young black man who was dragged behind a truck and killed in Texas.
Before the new law, it was difficult to prove hate crimes, and they only carried a misdemeanor offense, Bachus said. The offense also had to happen while the victim was engaged in a federally protected activity, such as going to school or voting.
Now, federal attorneys can more easily prove a crime was motivated by prejudice and it's an automatic felony. Additionally, they can now pursue cases that local authorities don't.
"This is really serious stuff and it needs to stop, and the only way it's going to stop is if it gets enforced," Bachus said. "What's the good of having all these new laws if they don't get put into action?"
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No amount of border enforcement can assuage the unreasonable emotion that springs from racist and fear-based xenophobia.
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