Are Americans living the dream protected by our Declaration of Independence or are we living in a constant state of fear?  The sad truth to this question for many southwestern Americans is yes; we are afraid.  What are we afraid of ?We are afraid of the drugs, gangs, documentation fraud, terrorists and many other inconveniences brought to us by illegal immigrants crossing our borders.   Worse now is we Americans are going to have to prove that they are indeed Americans.  I, for one, am offended by this and think its time for something to be done about protecting our rights that are being violated.  America needs to start worrying about its own tax paying legal citizens before they worry about the problems of the people that do not belong.  The rest of the country needs to follow the laws being passed by Arizona and implement harsher penalties for illegal immigration and start checking legal status.

                The rate at which drugs are being brought into this country through Mexico has proven to be more then our officials can handle.  Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, said, “I believe today, under the circumstances that we’re facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in…” (Saturday, June 26, 2010 - The Associated Press).  How can liberalists and human rights activists protect these people by saying that we are violating their human rights when they clearly do not need to be coming into our country bringing the drugs and gangs with them, violating American citizen’s human rights?  America has the worst drug use in the world, most of which is being supplied by the drug cartels in Mexico. 

Documentation fraud is a huge problem that comes with illegal immigration.  Many say that immigration is what our country is made of and immigrants deserve the same chance at a life in the United States as our ancestors did, but to get this chance they need papers even if obtained illegally.   What are they harming? They are just coming here to work and most are documented anyways; right?  Wrong!  Part of these claims may be true. The sad fact is that most immigrants are here illegally and some are even using means of identity theft the get jobs and obtain other documents needed.  Three common misconceptions of document fraud are illegal immigrants are undocumented, the laws being broken by these aliens to obtain jobs fraudulently are minor, and that these transgressions are victimless (Ronald W Mortensen).  A report by Ronald W Mortensen in June 2009 found that 75% of working-age illegal immigrants are not undocumented; they fraudulently obtain green cards work visas and other documentation.   Using fraudulent documents is a felony.  Children are prime targets in identity theft; many of which are on state assistance this causes problems for them further down the road.  We should not be so arrogant in thinking that we are not being deceived by illegal immigration because the truth of it is it hurts us all.

The United States has already fallen victim to more then our share of terrorist attacks; many which have caused this country a great amount of grief.  It has been reported that terrorist groups such as al quida have been moving into Central America and Mexico and are moving towards the borders of the United States.  The people that we have been fighting for nine years now in the Middle East are now coming to us through Mexico.  Is this not another reason that we should have stricter laws against illegal immigration?

The people of this great country deserve to be able to sleep peacefully at night knowing that when we awake in the morning our lives will not be changed for us in some radical way.  Perhaps, we should take a long look in the mirror and decide, are we strong enough to make the changes to our border problem and reform immigration laws.  Are we just going to sit by idle and let the great injustices that are happening all around us continue to happen?  It is time to take a stand and regain our sense of national security.  It is time that all states follow suit with Arizona and implement harsher penalties for illegal immigrants and start checking the legal status of those suspected to be illegal. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION HURTS US ALL.