Your immigration story “Apprehension” quoted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Officer John Schaefer as saying “All enforcement stops within 80 miles of the border” (HCN, 5/15/06).
Not so! I live in a village of 800 approximately 150 miles from the Mexican border via crow flight, much longer by any system of roads. Our village law enforcement is regularly tied up out on the highway dealing with illegal aliens, and waiting for Border Patrol agents, instead of being in the village doing what local taxpayers hired them to do.
A tentative solution to the immigration problem: Annex the country of Mexico as the State of Old Mexico, thus bringing to a logical conclusion the war with Mexico, which was not really solved by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Results:
1. The problem of alien immigration disappears — or at least “they” will no longer be aliens.
2. Mexican oil production becomes American oil production.
3. The new border, along the Panama Canal, will be much shorter, thus requiring fewer patrol agents.
4. Border Patrol agents, now surplus due to the shorter border, will be available as state police within the State of Old Mexico.
5. A large pool of manpower will become available for military duty in Iraq, Kosovo, Iran, North Korea, etc.
John Barnitz
Magdalena, New Mexico
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Make Mexico the 51st state.
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