The American Dream should be available to anyone and achievable for all who are Americans. One responsibility that comes with that dream, however, is that one respects the laws of the nation as the ruling standard for legal conduct.

This applies to both American citizens and foreign nationals within our borders, and the presumption would go that these laws are applied when necessary by the government. Sadly, however, this is not always the case, as shown by the ongoing debate over reforming our immigration system that is necessitated by the continued stream of illegal border crossings that occur every year.

Granted, President Obama has taken some action on this issue. But “some” is the key word. To date, Obama’s major “accomplishment” on reforming immigration has been to sign an executive order that prevents the deportation of young undocumented workers. This effectively moves what parts of the vaunted DREAM Act that Obama could legally act upon into place as if it were the sole problem that requires his attention.

The emotional arguments for allowing illegals to remain in the United States are debatable and at the same time understandable. Anchor babies in particular create a problem that is not easily solved. Normally because a larger extended family accompanies the baby’s presence on U.S. soil. In addition, some of the undocumented workers Obama chose to give protection to probably crossed the border illegally with their families at an age where they would not have much knowledge about the legality of their actions.

However, as shown by the increased violence in Mexico over the last several years and the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal, America’s illegal immigration problem has quickly turned into a localized national security threat. Drug trafficking and other criminal activities perpetuated by Mexican drug cartels are the main causes behind these events, which has led to numerous incidents of execution-style murders and violence on both sides of the border.

Given these issues, the focus of any future immigration reform efforts must begin with a focus on—if you will forgive the overused phrase—securing our borders.

Texas provides one example of this issue with their state law enforcement’s purchase of six armored gunboats this year to combat Mexican drug traffickers. According to a CBS Nightly News report, Mexican drug runners being pursued by Texas police have been driving their vehicles into the Rio Grande. There they and their load of illicit drugs are picked up by boats from Mexico in order to prevent losing a profit. Hopefully none of them receive any work permits per President Obama’s executive order.

I could cite dozens of statistics in regards to the other problems surrounding illegal immigration. But cartel-incited crimes should be enough of a reason to shift our solitary focus on the presence of illegal immigrants and undocumented workers to the security of our borders.

If our state governments have to form their own miniature navy to stop drug trafficking crime, let alone pass laws defining the abilities of law enforcement to detain illegals, as was the case with Arizona, could anyone say the federal government is doing enough to halt illegal border crossings? I think the victims of cross-border violence would say “No.”

Greg Sainer is a senior communication studies major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].