Security and illegal immigration are both linked in terms of the problems and linked in terms of the solutions. I do not mean that illegal immigrants are the folks behind terrorists acts. Rather, the same open borders that allow illegal immigrants to cross under the radar can and undoubtedly will be (if they haven’t already) used by terrorists.

The U.S. needs to secure the length and breadth of its border with Mexico (and I would argue also with Canada). Whether they do it with a great big fence or with a combination of look-out towers, motion detectors and security cameras, and foot patrols, the borders need to be effectively sealed off except for designated crossing points where papers, people, and vehicles are inspected. Having secure borders would put the biggest dent into the illegal immigrant problem.

But the U.S. also needs better internal security. On my last visit, when I visited a mall in “sleepy” little Chapel Hill, N.C. –remember, however, that it has only been 7 months since a cell of 8 terrorists were arrested in sleepy North Carolina — I was nervous as a cat. My browsing was constantly interrupted with checking around me for suspicious behaviour. I felt incredibly unsafe. There was no security to speak of there. ANYONE could walk right on into that mall with a gun or a bomb unnoticed until BOOM.

I didn’t feel much better wandering around the beautiful college campus –that anyone and everyone could simply walk onto and enter any building. With all of the school shootings that resulted in mass murder that have happened in the U.S., why in the world are university campuses still so vulnerable? Why are the university administrations so irresponsible? It would cost very little to put some pretty little fences around the borders of the campus, add in conveniently located and attractive entry gates stocked with security guards who would check IDs and ascertain that the person entering had a valid reason for doing so and wasn’t packing any automatic weapons or bombs.

If there was good internal security –shopping malls, post offices, government buildings, university campuses, hospitals and so forth, not only would U.S. citizens be much safer from terrorist attacks (this includes terrorizing incidents with no political agenda but rather just nuts who want to kill a bunch of random folks) but also people in the country illegally would be much more readily apprehended without any profiling going on.

And for anyone with Orwellian “Big Brother” fears, dudes, chill out. With a government security apparatus so inept that it can’t even keep known terrorists on the “no fly” list off of airplanes into the country, you like seriously don’t have anything to worry about. Better to worry about the couple of hundred random and innocent people who are killed each year by nuts spraying shopping malls, campuses, post offices, and eateries with bullets. And better to worry about the terrorists who, pretty surprisingly haven’t started blowing themselves up in pizza joints and shopping malls yet in the U.S., but …I don’t doubt it is coming. And then the question will be, how many innocent people will have to die before responsible security measures are put into place. Prevention is the key.