"Non-Mexicans arrested at U.S. border nearly doubled"

Well I'm glad to see someone is actually being caught sneaking over the border.

The number of people from countries other than Mexico arrested trying to cross the U.S. southern border has almost doubled this year, the head of the U.S. border patrol told the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.

David Aguilar told the House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee on homeland security the United States was continuing to experience a rising influx of what he termed OTMs -- other than Mexicans -- trying to enter the country illegally.

This is the important point:

U.S. officials believe the increase stems from non-Mexican illegal immigrants knowing they will be released even if they are caught crossing the border.

Mexicans caught by U.S. border patrols trying to enter the country illegally are usually immediately returned to their native land. Many simply wait a day and then try to sneak into the country again.

But Mexico accepts only Mexicans, so any non-Mexicans are checked against government watch lists as a potential security or criminal threat.

If their names do not appear, they are normally released on their own recognizance and told to appear at a deportation hearing often months in the future. Some 85 percent fail to show up for the hearing and are never seen again.

You don't say! Illegals know that "they will be released even if they are caught crossing the border"? Why, pray tell, do we bother with immigration laws? And why release them on their own recognizance? They have no recognizance! They have already broken the law by entering a sovereign nation illegally. Do we really think they will bother to show up at a deportation hearing?

The biggest "duh" is this:

Lawmakers are increasingly concerned that terrorists could slip across the Mexican border . . .

If poor, uneducated, non-English speakers can come across the border at will, then what is stopping educated, English-speaking terrorists with money to bribe guides from doing so? Nothing. This is why we need to put the military on the border. After all, members of the military take an oath to defend the United States from "all enemies, foreign and domestic." Shouldn't we start with guarding our borders?