Go Ahead, Fence Him In

I tried to find the following story from the Courier Times web site, but I was unable to do so (the site has improved somewhat lately, so I promise I won’t take a shot at it). So, for this reason, I must link directly to the web site of Mike Fitzpatrick from here so I can highlight the following quote regarding Mikey’s vote on something called the Secure Fence Act (as opposed to an “insecure” fence needing constant reaffirmation I guess…and how exactly will this help Pennsylvania?):

“Terrorists know of our vulnerabilities and seek to exploit them,” Fitzpatrick said. “We don’t know who among these illegal aliens may be migrant workers and who may be terrorists. Congress must act to stem this flood and improve our security.”

Oh, sure; we’ve just had a “flood” of terrorist attacks from migrant workers in this country since 9/11, haven’t we? Yes sir, I can see them strapping whatever possessions they may have onto themselves including all manner of explosives, negotiating the hard trek over our southwest border, and then somehow traveling all of the way to the 8th Congressional district just so they can blow up themselves and take as many of us with them as they can.

Is it my imagination, or is Mikey starting to become a bit unhinged?

Besides, if this Republican congress were really interested in border security, they would have addressed this issue in some intelligent manner (a stretch, I know) right after the attacks we remembered a few days ago and not waited five years until many of them were running for re-election.

I tend to listen to a position on this from a politician who actually has a lick of common sense, so please allow me to present the point of view of U.S. Rep Allyson Schwartz of Philadelphia (noted in the Courier Times story on this available only in print at the moment):

“Congressional Republicans may talk tough on securing America’s borders, but the reality is that time and time again Republicans have voted against tough border measures, such as increasing the number of border patrol agents.”

I think the framing of this whole issue is utterly ridiculous. The problem is that, when employers hire illegal/undocumented/whatever workers, they don’t do their due diligence, so these people end up stuck here with nowhere to go and no one to help them but the U.S. taxpayer. And no fence will ever be worth anything if employers don’t police themselves on this first and stop this practice.