LOCAL AGENCIES NEED HELP WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

The news of a big drug bust in Randolph County over the weekend sounded
sadly familiar. The five people arrested were Hispanic illegal immigrants,
according to Sheriff Litchard Hurley. Only two months ago, Randolph County
authorities nabbed five other Hispanic illegal immigrants on drug charges.

At that time, Hurley noted that this was a pattern in local drug
trafficking, adding: "Local law enforcement's going to have to have more
help from the federal people. ... There's no way we can do it all in
Randolph. It's got to be stopped at the border."

Hurley's office made the latest arrests with help from neighboring
sheriff's departments, including Davidson's, Guilford's, Alamance's,
Forsyth's and Caswell's. They have formed a task force that tracks drug
dealers across the region. That level of cooperation is impressive, and
obviously effective.

But, as Hurley says, the problem is too big to overcome at the local level.
These law-enforcement agencies are confronting criminal gangs composed of
people who never should have been allowed into the country in the first
place. This rivals the threat of terrorism as a homeland security issue.

These illegal immigrants are adding to the crime rate, stretching the
resources of police and sheriff's departments and, when they're arrested,
driving up costs within the judicial system. Each one has to be tried, and
afforded a defense. When they're found guilty, they have to be housed at
public expense in our prisons. And the North Carolina prison system has
experienced an influx of Hispanic illegal immigrants in recent years.

It may be expensive to beef up border security and provide enough resources
for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to do its job properly. But
if it fails to meet its responsibilities, the federal government passes
even greater costs to the state and local governments. Not all illegal
immigrants are drug dealers or other criminals, but too many drug
traffickers are turning out to be illegal immigrants. It's far better to
keep them out of the country than to keep them in our prisons.