Colorado Senator Ken Salazar created a stir with his speech on the floor of the Senate this week. I'd like to point out some highlights -
My own family migrated to Colorado in the 1850s—almost 20 years before Colorado became a state. We came from northern New Mexico and Santa Fe--a city we helped found over 250 years earlier, before there was a Plymouth Rock or a Jamestown. We pioneered the settlement of Colorado’s San Luis Valley, where we have farmed the same land for generations.
Also:
Solving our nation’s illegal immigration problems is a matter of national security.To that end, the first priority of immigration reform must be to provide for adequate and sensible border security and renewed federal commitment to enforcing our nation’s immigration laws.
The Judiciary Committee bill contains several provisions that will strengthen enforcement both at the border and within our interior.
It contains more than thirty provisions that will ensure the security of our Nation’s borders.
Among the numerous provisions, the bill:
Doubles the number of Border Patrol agents—adds 12,000 new agents over the next five years...
We've had large increases in the number of agents before. In 1990 we had 4,561 agents, in 1996 the number ballooned to 6,386, and 10,468 agents in 2000. Also, the number of illegal immigrants soared from about 450,000 per year in the early 90's to 750,000 in the late 90's.
So, by those numbers, if we double the number of border patrol agents, how many more illegal immigrants can we expect? Millions! I've uncovered Salazar's secret agenda!*
*In case you're new here, you should know that I'm kidding, and I'm aware of the logical fallacy in the above, and I'm fine with millions of Mexican and other immigrants. However, I am skeptical of government's ability to control the situation, barring police state tactics.
Posted by Walter at April 1, 2006 08:23 PM