Thirty-eight vehicles sit idle at 1:30 p.m. on a typical Tuesday at the Border Patrol station in Naco, Ariz.

Just another one and one-half million dollars of taxpayer-supported, debt-ridden government property indicating illegal immigration is a failure of politics, economics, business and laws that govern our behavior and protect us from self destruction.

“That’s the way it is,” many say. But it’s not the way it has to be!

The do-gooder side of us lets our empathy or sympathy get in the way of common and fiscal sense.

We are blind to fiscal and cultural sanity while illegals make American identity evolve so fast our culture is becoming destabilized.

Illegals penetrate our social and economic activity with the audacity to demand equal rights and services and the mendacity of their protests — even from jail by convicted felons.

Illegal inmate felons are suing for equal treatment in all prisons for food, medical service and lodging. Mexico wants us to stop executing their citizens — no matter what the crime. We deepen our national debt and threaten our state, county and local budgets to pay for Border Patrol, helicopter rides, hospital services, schooling, welfare services, police actions and imprisonment of illegals.

Politicians perpetuate their own failures as they duck the illegal immigration issue in order not to offend certain voters. Businesses contribute to the failure by knowingly hiring illegals thus oiling the supply and demand chain.

We may be the most tolerant, charitable nation in the industrialized world but that tolerance has bred indifference as our melting pot has become an invasion. The illegal culture permeates our society, both in the civil and criminal sense, and a high percentage of captured illegals are felons re-entering the USA.

The pro-illegal movement has managed to cajole our media into using the word migrants in place of illegals or UDA’s as did the Herald/Review in the front page headline and wire story June 20.

Larry Elkins, a Bisbee resident, has three practical answers.

First, keep accurate track of all immigrants with temporary visas. Second, get really tough on employers who knowingly ignore the law.

Third, create job centers at the border where an employer can find immigrants ready and qualified to train and work in the employers’ industry.

A fourth answer is to demand that Mexico and other foreign countries level the playing field with us and that Mexico close its own borders and take responsibility for paying the costs of exporting its citizens.

With Mexico as an example, consider the following differences.

Americans may not buy property 60 miles from the border and various distances from the oceans. Banks have different policies depending on proximity to the border. How about search and seizure laws, illegal entry and Mexico’s policy of non-extradition for most criminals and those subject to the death penalty?

Have you ever tried questioning the authority of a Mexican law enforcement officer or shooting at one?

Our Homeland Security can’t shoot at a smuggler or coyote unless fired upon but,  Mexican soldiers and Judicial Police protect drug loads and coyotes and have shot at our law enforcement officers and killed illegals coming into Mexico.

Smugglers, coyotes, judicial police and military personnel have no rights in the U.S. when they cross the border and need to be subjected to whatever force is necessary when they refuse to obey Homeland Security personnel.

We must keep track of temporary visas as these people move around and infiltrate American society.

Businesses should not be the whipping boy of failed immigration enforcement, but we have to dry out the job market so the desire to illegally enter the United States will drop.

Employment centers are the most practical approach to handling the need for workers while making the employer totally responsible for paying at least minimum wage and insuring adequate housing, equal working conditions and medical needs. No women or children allowed.

The value of a an illegal from Mexico has been set by the law of supply and demand at $2,000. Why not charge Mexico the same amount to recover its citizens? Induce Mexico to face reality, close its own border and pay our total costs of their illegal immigrants.

Why won’t our politicians make these simple changes? Because re-election is more important than our country’s future.

Illegals should not have the right to file lawsuits, obtain welfare of any kind and obtain drivers licenses. But, legally documented people who want to work should not be denied if work is available.

You, the readers, are the festering problem. Do you understand what is happening to our country? Will you open your eyes to the facts? Are you willing to demand these no-nonsense measures from your elected officials?

I doubt it.

DAVE CARTUN is a Bisbee resident who has been involved with pro baseball, volunteer coaching, has served on the Bisbee City Council and is a business entrepreneur. He is a registered independent. Area residents Ross Anderson, Peter Carberry, Ken Thomas and Tito Ross also contributed to this column. Look for the Independent View in upcoming editions of the Herald/Review.