Press One For English

So when was the last time you flew on a plane? Did you get to the airport at the recommended 1 hour before flight time? Was there a long line at the TSA security gate? Did you wear your special "air plane" shoes? Fun times! Single file line. One at a time. Emptying your pockets into that little plastic tray or bucket. Taking your shoes off and placing them in another tray. Walking through the door framed shaped metal detector. Forgetting about the pack of gum you have in your shirt pocket to help "pop" your ears on the flight while chewing it. Having the aluminum foil around the gum setting off the alarm on the metal detector. Backing up. Dumping your gum in yet another little plastic bucket so it can now be x-rayed. Walking back through the giant door frame without any alarms. Now you sigh a big sigh of relief. You made it. After 45 minutes of standing in line, all your personal property in several different plastic trays, standing there sock footed, you are now ready to begin your journey to the appropriate gate of which your flight is departing. Just for fun, go to http://www.tsa.gov/ and count the items that you're not allowed to carry on to a plane with you. I counted 73. I'm sure there are more.





An article in The Arizona Republic dated November 11, 2007, briefly describes the measures they will be taking at the Super Bowl in Arizona as far as security goes. It states that a 16 month planning effort was made and outlined by the Arizona Tourism Safety and Security Conference in Scottsdale. Included were 40 Police Chiefs, Arizona Department of Public Safety, the FBI, and Federal Emergency Management Agency. All this to discuss how to keep 70,000 fans that will be attending the game and 150,000 visitors the week of the Super Bowl safe. Officials would not reveal how many people are involved in security because that could be useful information to terrorists they said. We do know this, fans will enter through a secure 300-foot perimeter around the stadium and must pass through metal detectors. This information comes from Brady Castro who is the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee Vice President of Operations. He goes on to say, and I quote, "...it's like getting into the airport."





You can also go to the Six Flags' web site and find this: in keeping with our family-friendly atmosphere, and for health and SAFETY reasons, Six Flags strictly ENFORCES a dress code. Park admission may be denied if clothing is deemed by management to be inappropriate.





Thee Dollhouse, a gentleman's club in Raleigh, NC. vows that a strict dress code is enforced; hats, jeans and t-shirts are not allowed. How many times have you gone to a Denny's and seen a sign on the front door that reads, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service"? Most clubs or bars these days REQUIRE you to be 21 years old to get in. And how do these clubs and bars protect themselves? They check I.D. at the door, or border if you like. To take it a step further, there are some clubs that will wave this magic wand all over your body to check for weapons. You know, those hand held metal detectors. They are protecting their "borders".





I can understand why the hassle at the airport. Nobody wants another 9-11. As frustrating as it is to check on to a plane, we now live in a world that requires this type of extra security. Is it fool proof? I don't think so. But I do think it's sad when Denny's, clubs and bars, amusement parks for families, and even topless bars have tighter security at their borders than the entire country of The United States of America has at its border. Had we had tighter borders, enforcement of laws that are already in place, 9-11 would have NEVER happened. Was 9-11 not tragic enough? What will it take to wake our corporate America runned politicians up? Let's just pretend that there was a person of middle-eastern dissent trying to board a plane with one of the forbidden 73 items and this person got a little out of hand and tried to force themselves past security. And let's just pretend that this person was able to get by security or cross the border into the airport. And let's pretend again that 2 TSA security personnel shot this person in the buttocks to stop them and bring them down. These security personnel would be veered as "hero's" for saving the lives of hundreds of innocent citizens. But in "real" life, let 2 border security officers shoot a known drug smuggling illegal immigrant crossing into this country illegally in the buttocks, they get 10 and 11 years in prison. Doesn't add up does it? Why the cover up? Why are our laws not being enforced and when they are, why are we throwing our border protectors in prison for doing their jobs? Why does Denny's have stricter rules as to who gets across their borders than our own country does when it comes to our nations borders?



I will end with an email that a friend sent to me. It is called "The Bird feeder". Some may have already seen it, but it goes like this: The Bird Feeder:


I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food. Soon the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue. Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, and the table...everywhere. Then some of the birds turned mean: They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And others birds were boisterous and loud: They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill the feeder when it got low on food. After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore. I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be...quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal. Now let's see...our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen. Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor; your child's 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't speak English; Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to press "one" to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than "Old Glory" are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.
Maybe it's time for the government to take down the bird feeder.

It's All A Big Numbers Game

Well, I haven't been adding much over the past few days and I am sorry. The main reason is because I have been collecting my thoughts and doing some heavy surfing on the Internet. Some of the hardest information to find is anything related to illegal immigrants. Reason being, there is no government agency that is keeping records. No records as to an "actual" head count of illegal immigrants. No records on the cost of illegal immigrants to the legal tax payers. All we have are estimates. Every thing I found on this are words like "estimates show"...or "we believe that the estimated number to be"...and on and on. Let me tell you something folks, how ever you would like to word it, we are in some serious trouble! What I am really trying to find out are things like, actual population figures. How many illegal immigrants are in our school districts? How many illegal immigrants are bedded up in our hospitals? How many illegal immigrants are in our city jails and in our state prisons? How many un-registered sex offenders who are illegal immigrants are in our neighborhoods?


I have found that these are some of the hardest numbers and figures to obtain. I have a huge problem with that too. I pay my taxes. Part of my hard earned money goes towards the schools, hospitals, and jails in my city. I should be able to get these figures just by picking up the phone and calling my city hall, mayor, state Representative, my congressman. But what I have found is that is not the case. I have sent email after email to my senators and congressmen, but I all get in return is a basic, computer generated form letters. After several late hours at night, I FINALLY found a report that gave me some sort of idea as to what I was looking for. It wasn't the best, nor the most accurate.


What I found was a report called "The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments". This was a report done in December of 2007. It's a report done by the Congressional Budget Office that was requested by the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee. It's a report that focuses on the estimated costs that certain state and local governments incur for providing various services, especially those related to education, health care, and law enforcement to illegal immigrants. Or as this paper describes them as, unauthorized immigrants. Funny play on words don't you think? You don't hear our government saying things like "unauthorized drugs" do you? No. They say "illegal drugs". Things that make you go, "hummmmmm".


Now, with that in mind, I want to share with you some of the things that I found interesting in this report. Most of what I am about to write comes from this same report. So, when you see the term, unauthorized immigrant(s), trust me, that is not coming from me. I call 'em like I see 'em. ILLEGAL immigrants. Or, ILLEGALS for short.


The report states that there are no comprehensive records that document the number of unauthorized immigrants currently residing in the United States; as a result, the size of that population must be estimated by indirect means. The Department of Homeland Security, (which is a joke in itself), estimates that there are 11.6 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. That was as of Jan. 2006. Researchers at the Pew Hispanic Center estimated an unauthorized population of between 11.5 million and 12.0 million as of March of 2006. So, for the sake of this blog, let's just round it to an even 12 million, what do you say? Do you REALLY know what the number 12 million equates to? Let me throw some figures at you to try to give you a little idea. The total population of Dallas County is 2.3 million. The total population for the ENTIRE state of Kentucky for the year 2006 was 4.2 million. The population for the ENTIRE state of Illinois in the year 2006 was 12.8 million. The 2006 population for the COUNTRY of Ireland was 4.1 million. The total population living in the COUNTRY of Cuba in 2006 was 11.2 million. Sorry for all of the numbers there, I just wanted to give you a little bit better of a perspective of what we are dealing with here. Back to the report.


Using a model developed by the former I.N.S., Pew estimated that as much as one-half of the population of unauthorized immigrants (4.5-6.0 million people) were admitted legally, with visas or border crossing cards, but overstayed or otherwise violated the terms of their authorization; and the remainder of that population (an estimated 6-7million individuals) entered the United States illegally. (just one of the very few times this report used the word "illegal") The report goes on to say that state level estimates are subject to even more uncertainty than estimates of the total size of the population. Historically, most foreign born residents, including unauthorized immigrants, have settled in a few states. In 1990, almost 75% of the total foreign born population and almost 90% of unauthorized immigrants lived in six states: California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas. The population is not defined in the same way across reports. Because the estimates looked at different populations of immigrants, few of them are comparable. For example, although most estimates looked only at unauthorized immigrants, others did not differentiate between unauthorized and legal immigrants. Some included all foreign born residents, regardless of their immigration status, and some included children of unauthorized immigrants who were born in the United Sates (even though those children are U.S. citizens). If the U.S. born children of unauthorized immigrants had been included in the estimates, the costs of certain programs, particularly education, would be much higher. Using data from the Census Bureau's March 2005 Current population Survey (CPS), Pew analysts found that of the appproximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in 2005, 5.4 million were adult males, 3.9 million were adult females, and 1.8 million were children under the age of 18 years old. An additional 3.1 million children of unauthorized immigrants were U.S. citizens, Pew estimated. (These stats are avaliable at http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/61.pdf ) Among Pew's other findings: Members of unauthorizaed families were typically much younger and less educated than members of families composed of legal immigrants and U.S. citizens. The unauthorized population included 7.2 million workers, typically employed in lower wage occupations in the agricultural, construction, and service industries. Analysts at the Urban Institute reported that in 2004, unauthorized immigrant men were less likely to be unemployed than native born men (4.6% compared with 6.5%) and unauthorized immigrant women were more likely to be unemployed than native born women (8.2% compared with 5.2%).


Now that I have totally filled your head with large population numbers, let's talk COSTS! Boy, where to start! Let's start with education.


Education is the largest single expenditure in state and local budgets. Because state and local governments bear the primary fiscal and administrative responsibility of providing schooling from kindergarten - grade 12, they incur substantial costs to educate children who are unauthorized immigrants. Most of the estimates that CBO reviewed DID NOT include costs associated with children who were born to unauthorized immigrants in the United States because those children are U.S. citizens. Again, if those children had been included in the estimates, their fiscal impact, particularly on education, would have been higher. In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that sates may NOT exclude children from public education because of their immigration status. See Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982) Current estimates indicate that about 2 million school-age children (5-17 years old) in the United States are unauthorized immigrants; an additional 3 million children are U.S. citizens born to unauthorized immigrants. According to the most recent population data released by the Census Bureau, as of July 2006, there were 53.3 million school-age children in the United States. Thus, children who are unauthorized immigrants represent almost 4% of the overall school-age population. Their numbers are growing quickly in some states, adding additional budgetary pressures. For example: as part of a larger study on the impact of unauthorized immigrants in Minnesota, the state's Department of Administration estimated that, during the 2003-2004 school year, the state and local governments in Minnesota spent between $79 million and $118 million to educate and estimated 9,400 to 14,000 children who were unauthorized immigrants. The agency also estimated that an additional $39 million was spent for children who were U.S. citizens but whose parents were unauthorized immigrants. According to census data, Minnesota state and local governments spent about $8 billion for elementary and secondary education during the 2003-2004 school year. The state estimated that its population of immigrant students, both legal and unauthorized, had almost doubled from about 9,000 to more than 16,000 between 2000-2004. (stats on this are available at www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/issues/immigration ) On the basis of population estimate developed by the Pew Hispanic Center, analysts at the New Mexico Fiscal Policy Project reported that, for the 2003-2004 school year, total spending in New Mexico at the state and local levels for 9,200 unauthorized immigrant schoolchildren was about $67 million. The Census Bureau reports that state and local expenditures for elementary and secondary education during that period in New Mexico totaled almost $3 billion. Of the estimated 40,000 unauthorized immigrants currently living in New Mexico, 95% are believed to be recent arrivals, having lived in that state for fewer than 10 years.


Now let's talk medical expenses. Because unauthorized immigrants are less likely to have health insurance, they are more likely to rely on emergency facilities or public hospitals for treatment of non emergency illnesses and other health related problems. In 2000 and 2001, researchers from the RAND Corporation and the University of California surveyed immigrants in Los Angeles County and found that 65% of those respondents who identified themselves as unauthorized had no health insurance in the two years preceding the survey. (available at http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/24/6/1640 ) In a separate study, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that in 2004, more than 50% of those children who were themselves unauthorized immigrants and almost 60% of adult unauthorized immigrants were uninsured. Moreover, 25% of those children who, by virtue of their birth, were U.S. citizens, but whose parents were unauthorized immigrants, also lacked health insurance. (available at http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/46.pdf ) The federal government requires health facilities that receive federal assistance to provide a certain level of service to residents, regardless of their immigration status. The amount of uncompensated care provided by some state and local governments is growing because an increasing number of unauthorized immigrants are using those services. According to a report commissioned by the United States/Mexico Border Counties Coalition, in 2000,county governments that share a border with Mexico incurred almost $190 million in costs for providing uncompensated care to unauthorized immigrants; that figure represented about 1/4 of all uncompensated health costs incurred by those governments in that year. In 2006, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority estimated that it would spend about $9.7 million on emergency Medicaid services for unauthorized immigrants that year, and that 80% of those costs would be for services associated with childbirth. Recent estimates indicate that annual costs for unauthorized immigrants in Colorado were between $217 million and $225 million for education, Medicaid, and law enforcement. By comparison, taxes collected form unauthorized immigrants at both the state and local levels amounted to an estimated $159 million to $194 million annually.


In addition to differences in the types of services that federal, state, and local governments provide and the extent to which the unauthorized population participates in those programs, the income that unauthorized immigrants earn and the taxes they pay also contribute to their net impact on state and local budgets. Unauthorized immigrants typically earn less than do native born citizens and other immigrant groups and, partly as a result, they also pay a smaller portion of their income in taxes. One study conducted by analysts at the Urban Institute found that in 1998, unauthorized immigrants in New York State paid an average of 15% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes; other immigrant groups paid between 21% and 31%. The average household income for unauthorized families is significantly less than that of both legal immigrants and native born citizens; therefore, that income is taxed at a lower rate than the income of other groups. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that in 2004, the average annual income for unauthorized families was $27,400, compared with $47,800 for legal immigrant families and $47,700 for native born families.


Well, that's it as far as throwing figures and numbers and stats at you. I just wanted to give you some sort of idea of the massive amount of illegal immigrants we are dealing with and the costs that they are creating for us. Even though some illegals do pay a portion in taxes, as you can see, their income is much lower therefore less is being taken out. So it is up to us, the legal citizens of the United States to foot the bill.


I guess what really bothered me about this whole finding was this, there are NO government studies being done as far as numbers and costs. This scares me because this is just an admission that we don't know who is in our country. This should scare you as well. We give BILLIONS of dollars to Homeland Security so I don't think that it is too much to ask, as a tax payer, that we know exactly who is in this country and why they are here. If they are here, then they need to be paying taxes just like the rest of us.


Again, I ask you to write or call your elected officials and ask them why it is that we Americans aren't given accurate information when it comes to illegal immigration. If you still don't think that this is an important election year we have coming up, think again. Three things come to mind: illegal immigration, National security, and taxes. I say taxes because I just wonder how long our government is going to continue to foot the bill for the estimated 12 million illegals that are here?

Who Do We Hold Responsible?

A 2005 U.S. Government Accountability Office study looked at 55,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records and found that they had been arrested an average of eight times. Forty-five percent of the arrests were on immigration and drug charges; 12 percent were for violent crimes. Let me repeat part of that, arrested an AVERAGE of EIGHT times!! Let that sink in for a minute. That was almost three years ago. I would like to see the numbers on that study today.

On Monday, September 17th, 2007, Phoenix Police Officer Nick Erlie was gunned down by Erik Jonani Martinez of Mexico. After the killing, it was learned that Martinez, an illegal immigrant, had been arrested twice before. In Feb. of 2005, Martinez was arrested on a probation violation stemming from a stolen car charge. Eight hours after that arrest, he was turned over to the Maricopa County Sheriffs office. In 2006, Martinez was arrested on a domestic violence charge.

On September 17th, Martinez was being pulled over by Officer Erlie on a jaywalking charge . It was then that Martinez shot and killed Officer Erlie. Martinez then carjacked a man before police ran him down, shooting and killing Jonani Martinez.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordan blames the incident on the U.S. Government for failure to secure its borders, even though Phoenix has declared itself as a "sanctuary city".

One year prior to this incident, almost to the very day, Houston Texas Officer Rodney Johnson was shot and killed in September of 2006 by illegal immigrant Juan Leonardo Quintero. Officer Johnson was shot four times in the head by Quintero. When Officer Johnson arrested Quintero and placed Quintero in his patrol car, Johnson failed to find a gun during a routine "pat-down" that Quintero was carrying. Even though Quintero was cuffed and detained, he still managed to get the gun that he was carrying and kill Officer Johnson execution style.

After the shooting, it was learned that Quintero was deported in 2004 after an indecency with a child charge. Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt blamed the U.S. Government by saying, "The subject was deported, and yet he came back, so if the government fulfilled their responsibility of protecting the border we would probably not be standing here today". Houston Texas has declared itself a "sanctuary city".

Not only does the lack of border control put average American citizens and law enforcers lives at risk, illegal immigrants lives are at stake as well. Case in point: two illegal immigrants, while burglarizing a neighbors house, were shot and killed by Pasadena Texas resident, Joe Horn. Joe had been asked to watch over his next door neighbors house while they were away on vacation.

Miguel Dejesus and Diego Ortiz, both from Colombia, were inside Horn's neighbors house when Horn spotted the two men in the house with a bag of loot that they were planning on taking from the home. Horn called 911 and reported the burglary that was in progress at the time. While on the phone with the 911 operator, the two alleged burglars were attempting to get away when Mr. Horn shot and killed both men.

After the shooting, it was learned that Dejesus spent six years in a Texas prison for drug dealing and then was deported. Ortiz was arrested by Houston police on a drug charge as well but not much more is know about Ortiz due to the fact Houston is a "sanctuary city" and does not cooperate with Homeland Security on issues involving illegal aliens.

Some would say that Horn is a hero. I will let you decide for yourself if you want to put that label on him. It is very clear, however, that this has become a "blame game" issue. Nobody wants to take responsibility for our lack of border control or the illegal immigrants that our open borders have brought to this country. The U.S. Government wants to put issues of illegal immigration in the hands of local and city governments. Yet, when tragedy strikes, the local officials want to blame the U.S. Government for not sealing up our borders.

Let me end with this thought. If I own a dog, there are leash laws in place that say that I have to have my dog on a leash in public. If I don't and my dog harms or injures another citizen, I am responsible. If I have my dog in a fenced yard and I put up a "beware of dog" sign up, and someone comes onto my property and gets bit by my dog, I am admitting that my dog may harm you by placing the "beware of dog" sign up on my property. If I loan you my car, and you run a red light and a traffic cam takes a picture of my vehicle running the red light you ran while driving my car, I am responsible for paying the fine for that ticket. Better yet, I am responsible for any injuries resulting from a wreck due to you running a red light and I am susceptible to getting sued as well by the injured. So, off of those two scenarios, is the U.S. Government responsible for any harm done to you and me by an illegal immigrant for the governments lack of securing our borders? Do you know any lawyers willing to test this theory?

KP

Irving Texas

Most people think of Irving Texas as the home of the Dallas Cowboys. Well, that will change as of the 2009 season. The Cowboys are moving to Arlington Texas, another suburb of Dallas.

My Grandparents moved to Irving in the 1950's. My Grandfather still lives there today. Irving use to be a nice little suburb of Dallas. Offering the home of one of the best known NFL football teams in history and one of the most watched PGA golf tournaments each year. The Byron Nelson.

Today, Irving is what most would consider a sanctuary city. When I was a kid, my Grandparents use to let me walk up to the 7Eleven for Slurpee's and video games. Today, I wouldn't be caught dead walking the streets of Irving. Most of the stores that I used to walk to as a kid have since closed or re-opened with all Spanish signs outside. I wouldn't know what to take to a store in Irving today, a dollar or a peso.

In an article of the Dallas Morning News written by Brandon Formby, Sept. 28, 2007, the Mayor of Irving, Herbert Gears, was quoted as saying that around 300 people are being turned over to I.C.E. each month. More than any other city in the Nation. It's the latest tool being used by local governments in the absence of a federal overhaul of immigration laws. So far, Irving has turned in over 1,600 people to immigration officials.

I support Mayor Gears efforts and applaud him. Just a few short weeks ago though, I.C.E. officials told Irving Police that they would no longer take suspected illegals if they had a class C misdemeanor. It had to be a class B or higher.

It is the lack of support from the Federal Government such as this that landed Border Patrol Agents Ramos & Compean in prison. These two honorable agents have been in prison since Feb. of 2005. This, in my opinion, is total "b.s."!! The laws are in place for our local governments to enforce. The laws are in place for our federal agencies to enforce but when they do, they are hit with some bureaucratic red tape bull crap!! The arrest of these two Border Patrol Agents is so un-American it ain't even funny. I feel as if there should be an investigation of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton and he should be disbarred from every state in the Union.

These two men were doing their jobs. Protecting our borders. Protecting our borders from illegal immigrants, terrorist, and drug smugglers. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the reason that Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean are in prison is because they shot Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks. I also forgot to mention that Aldrete-Davila was fleeing because he had been caught trying to smuggle 745 pounds of marijuana into the United States.

This is your government at work people. If you don't think that it is important to vote, think again. We have to stand up for our Nation and make sure that we are putting the right people in office. Putting the right people in place to work for us.

KP

Day One

Well, I really don't know where to start on this. I guess I will just start with my disgust with our illegal immigration problem. I was born in Dallas Texas and raised in the DFW area. Living in a "border" state, I think I am qualified to voice my opinion on this issue. It just BLOWS my mind how out of hand this has gotten and our government is sitting back and doing nothing at all to rectify the situation. In 2004, I moved to Louisville KY and lived up there for 3yrs. When I came back to Texas, my jaw dropped. In fact, when people ask me where I live, I don't say "Dallas" any more. Rather, I tell them that I live in Northern Mexico. It's not that I am not in favor of immigration. Let's face it, our country was built on immigration. What I do oppose, however, is illegal immigration. Let me say that again, "ILLEGAL" immigration. Why are there over 12 million illegal immigrants here? I say it's because of the good 'ole corporate world. They hire these people for slave wages. If we would stop giving these people a reason to come over here, they wouldn't do it so freely. Most of the money that illegal immigrants make goes back to Mexico via Western Union. They don't pay taxes. They don't contribute to this nation. Crime is up in our nation and if you look at the statistics, a lot of the violent crimes that are being committed here are being committed by illegals. Hospitals are closing due to "non payment". Schools are closing. Neighborhoods are being taken over which causes local merchants to close.

When are we going to wake up and demand that our congressman do something about this? Since 2004, over 60 American citizens have been kidnapped from the border near Laredo Texas. Over 20 are still missing. Why don't we hear about this in the media? The Laredo Morning News was bombed by Mexican drug cartel due to the fact they were reporting on the situation down there. Fear runs amuck down in Laredo. The Sheriffs in Laredo have been begging and pleading with members of congress but yet nothing is being done.

People don't care about these things if it's not happening in their backyard. Well, I live over 300 miles from Laredo and it's now in my backyard. How big does the yard have to get before we do something about this? Congressman Duncan Hunter from California wrote a bill that passed in congress and was signed by President Bush that made it law to build a double layer fence from California to Texas. Completion date on this fence was to be May of 2008. To this day, the project has yet to start. Why?

I will get off my soap box for now. I welcome your views on this topic and what you feel needs to be done to get control of OUR nation back.

KP