(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The people of Arizona are fed up when it comes to illegal immigration. And they ought to be.
Almost one in five of those caught trying to enter the state illegally from Mexico has a criminal record.
It's one reason why Senators John McCain and John Kyl are calling for 3,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to Arizona's border with Mexico.
They also want federal funding for an additional 3,000 U.S. customs and border agents, a double-row border fence, increased mobile surveillance and hardship duty pay for border patrol agents.
But it's not the only reason... at least for McCain. Can you tell he's in danger of losing his Senate seat this November? Where have all the clowns in Washington been on this issue since 9/11? Virtually nothing has been done to secure the nation's borders... because Democrats want the Mexican vote and Republican donors want the illegal aliens to work for them.
President Obama insists his administration is committed to securing the borders and has taken "unprecedented" steps over the past 14 months. What a load.
The fact is it's unlikely anything will be done about illegal immigration now that we're in an election year for the reasons laid out above.
But Arizona is taking measures into its own hands. The state Senate has passed a tough immigration bill that would force police to arrest people who can't prove they're in the country legally.
Critics say it would lead to racial profiling. So what? The state's governor has five days to veto the bill or sign it into law.
Here’s my question to you: What should be done about border security if almost 20 percent of illegal immigrants entering Arizona from Mexico have criminal records?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Sterling in Phoenix writes:
We in Arizona are tired of paying for health care for illegal immigrants; they clog our emergency rooms. This will do more to contain medical costs in Arizona than anything Obama or Congress have done.
J. in Arizona writes:
What's the big [Biden quote] deal? As a white Arizonan, I carry the state-mandated driver's license, a federally mandated SS card and proof that I carry auto insurance. I am required to show these things any time law enforcement requests it. The segment of society that is howling about the potential for some REAL immigration oversight is the far-left Latino whiners who don't want to be profiled (simply because massive numbers of their illegal voters-to-be might be asked to leave the country they have illegally entered).
John writes:
What do I have to carry to prove I'm a natural-born U.S. citizen if I travel to Arizona? Do I need to get a passport to travel in my own country? Can they arrest me if I don't have proof of my birth? I know drivers' licenses and Social Security cards prove nothing. How many innocent people will they stuff in jail just because they don't have a passport?
Aaron writes:
I am beside myself with frustration over watching previously prosperous neighborhoods being turned into border town slums by illegal immigrants who have absolutely no investment in this country. For them, this country is but one thing: a cash cow.
Sam in California writes:
I lived in a small town on the eastern slope of the High Sierra for 30 years. It was beautiful; we didn't lock our doors. There was no crime – until the illegals came to town. They are now over half the total population, living 20 to a house. Now there is crime, the hospital is about to go out of business because of the cost of providing care to the women who bear 5 or 6 children as fast as they can. It's horrendous. Illegals have taken advantage of America and it must stop now.