Things That Should Have Been Done Long Ago

Today the President signed the Homeland Security Appropriations Act for 2006. As he noted:

The most solemn duty of the President and the Congress is to protect the American people. To help meet this responsibility we created the Department of Homeland Security. This department united 22 federal agencies under a single command with a clear mission, to protect the American homeland.

To protect our homeland we tore down legal and bureaucratic walls that separated our intelligence agents from our law enforcement officers. We disrupted terrorist planning and financing, as a result of the reforms. We've used the Patriot Act to break up terror cells and prosecute terrorist operatives and supporters. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security, by working with the United States Congress, has increased the number of people guarding our borders, hardened security at our airports and seaports and bridges and tunnels and water treatment facilities and nuclear plants. We've helped give those most likely to encounter terrorists, our partners in local and state government, the tools they need to do their job.

Adding basically five people to the border, and not searching out those who already broke in, isn't good enough. The President has done an excellent job protecting the American people overseas, but the measures taken in the US have been politically correct, superficially useful, and frequently irritating. Having 80 year old ladies frisked at airports is not going to keep the Mohammed Attas out of the country and away from the airports.

To defend this country, we've got to enforce our borders. When our borders are not secure, terrorists and drug dealers and criminals find it easier to come to America. This administration is going to work with Congress to make sure we do our job, and that starts with having a clear strategy. And here's how the strategy has got to be: We've got to strengthen security along our borders to stop people from entering illegally. In other words, we've got to stop people from coming here in the first place. Secondly -- (applause) -- secondly, we must improve our ability to find and apprehend illegal immigrants who have made it across the border. If somebody is here illegally, we've got to do everything we can to find them. And thirdly, we've got to work to ensure that those who are caught are returned to their home countries as soon as possible. The bill I sign today will provide critical resources for all these efforts.

For the past four years, we've worked with Congress to implement the strategy. To stop illegal immigrants from coming into the country, we've increased manpower, we've upgraded technology, and we've improved the physical barriers along our border. In other words, we've worked together to implement the strategy.(Emphasis added)

Nice of him to finally notice all of this. Conservatives have been saying this for years, but the President declined to address this problem.

Instead, he pushed for guest worker programs and called patriotic Americans who decided to protect our country, when the government failed to do its job, vigilantes. Nice.

You can read the rest of his sucking up to Conservatives and watch video of the speech here.

It is a little late in his administration to finally crack down on illegal aliens, especially when he has consistently refused to deal with them before. This new little strategy isn't going to convince me that the Harriet Miers nomination is the right thing, nor make me feel all warm-hearted and friendly toward him. This ought to have been done 5 years ago, when he first took office.

How many illegals and terrorists have invaded our country because the Bush administration refused to be firm about our laws? Shutting the barn door after the horse has escaped isn't much good.