When it comes to illegal immigration, Americans' concerns are on the border

Nearly half of all Americans want a decrease in legal immigration.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
WASHINGTON -- Every day they come. From Mexico and Nicaragua. From China and India. From the Middle East and Africa. Illegal immigrants. Hundreds enter the United States daily. Sometimes thousands.
There are at least 8 million illegal aliens living in America today -- and their numbers are growing by at least 400,000 a year. Maybe 500,000. No one knows for sure.
The growing number of foreigners who violate American immigration laws, sometimes with the aid of smugglers, has begun to rattle politicians and roil public opinion. Illegal residents are so plentiful they are hard to miss in states like California, Texas, Arizona and, more recently, Virginia and Maryland.
In Arizona, anger over use of costly public services by illegal aliens has led to a statewide vote next week on Proposition 200, which would require local governments to verify the immigration status of applicants.
President Bush and John Kerry came face to face with the mounting worries over immigration during their final presidential debate. Moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News noted that thousands "cross our borders illegally every day," and that prior to the debate he "got more e-mail" on immigration than any other issue.
Public opinion on this issue diverges from the positions of both President Bush and Senator Kerry. Neither presidential candidate calls for a slowdown on legal immigration. Yet a Gallup poll earlier this year found that 49 percent of Americans prefer a decrease in legal immigration, while only 8 percent want an increase of the kind supported by Bush.
Security concerns
It is illegal immigrants, however, who raise the most concern among many voters, as well as security experts. The 9/11 commission, in its 567-page report on the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, noted that in an age of terrorism, "the challenge for national security is to prevent the very few people who may pose overwhelming risks from entering ... the United States undetected." Until recently, border control "was not seen as a national security matter," the commission said.
Kerry said "the borders are more leak[y] today than they were before 9/11. The fact is, we haven't done what we need to do to toughen up our borders. And I will."
At the same time, Kerry promises to help illegal aliens who are already here. He vows within 100 days of taking office to rush through legislation that would allow millions of people who have already entered the United States illegally to move toward legal status -- a move that Bush quickly criticized as "amnesty."
The president denies that his own plan for undocumented workers is amnesty, but critics say it could lead to the same result.