Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution by Jeb Bush, Clint Bolick Page A

regarding immigration as other countries do.
    Miami-Dade also has borne the brunt of the negative side of immigration. Our first few years in Miami, we saw the cost of unchecked immigration. The costs created by the minority of Cuban immigrants who arrived with the Mariel boatlift in 1980 were enormous in terms of the crime wave they created and the social costs they imposed. In addition, Miami became the center of narco-trafficking, which added huge burdens to our community. So you see, I know firsthand what happens when the federal government is lax in enforcing our immigration laws.
    I also know firsthand the good that comes when the federal government makes border enforcement a high priority.
    In 1982, I called my dad to say that there was a drug dealer living on our same block. Neighbors said he had been bragging about importing cocaine from Colombia. I called after there was screaming from his wife, who had been locked out of their home in the middle of the night. The Reagan-Bush administration responded to many similar calls for action and the drug trade was dramatically curtailed in Miami because of the federal, state, and local task force headed up by Vice President Bush and Attorney General Ed Meese.
    In the early 2000s, the George W. Bush administration dramatically reduced the flow of drugs from Colombia and the Caribbean into South Florida, using the Coast Guard and Navy. That was done with the full cooperation of the state of Florida.
    After Attorney General Janet Reno refused to accept a partnership, we proposed to help the federal government with their duties to enforce the immigration laws of our country. In June 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft signed an agreement creating the first 287(g) Cross-Designation Program in the country. Florida was the first state to get the feds to allow local and state law enforcement officers to be trained to act on behalf of Border Patrol and other federal law enforcement officials. I have always felt that this effort could be expanded dramatically and lessenthe frustration that local and state officials have regarding the inability of the federal government to combat the crimes of illegal immigrants.
    Three successful initiatives point the way to how to get border security right: the vice president’s task force of the 1980s; the federal-state efforts to control the importation of drugs in the early 2000s; and the cooperative agreement to extend the reach of immigration officials using state and local resources.
    As governor, I saw the impact of immigration policy on my state and the country. On September 11, 2001, America was changed forever by the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Four of the nineteen terrorists got their pilot’s licenses in Florida. Ten of the terrorists had valid Florida-issued identifications (some received only ID cards, and some had driver’s licenses). Three of the nineteen had valid visas that had expired. Clearly we had been too complacent as a nation.
    Beyond its relation to border enforcement and homeland security, immigration was woven into most of the issues that I dealt with during my eight years as governor, and most prominently the economy. Florida’s three largest industries—hospitality, construction, and agriculture—could not endure without immigrant workers. The 80 million visitors a year, the $8.26 billion of agricultureproduced, and the construction business—Florida is historically one of the top three home-building states in the country—will all be impacted, unless we achieve comprehensive immigration reform. The jobs that will be lost and the opportunities that will be missed won’t affect only immigrant workers. The economic livelihood of all Floridians will be hurt. The same applies to most regions of the United States.
    As we all know, the economic livelihood of our great country is at greater risk than it has been at any time in the last fifty years. The aging of our population (and at sixty years old,