On April 29, 2002, Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff David March made a traffic stop on a car occupied by Armando Garcia, an illegal immigrant. Garcia shot Deputy March, incapacitating him, then finished him off execution style before skipping off to Mexico to avoid arrest.

Park Ranger Kris Eggle was killed by drug-smuggling illegal aliens making a beeline through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Park in Arizona in August, 2002. The park is a notorious smuggling route for drug runners out of Mexico.

Phoenix police officer Kenneth Collings was shot and killed in 1988 after responding to a bank robbery. An illegal immigrant involved in the robbery murdered Collings and fled over the border.

Norfolk police officer Sheila Herring was gunned down by an illegal Jamaican immigrant after responding to a call at a bar where the suspect had just shot someone else moments earlier.

Sadly, there are far too many incidents just like these that have occurred all over the United States. What some people consider to be harmless over-the-border migration of people looking for a "better life" is turning out to be a serious threat to law enforcement officers and other American citizens.

The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that 500,000 illegal immigrants enter the U.S. each year. Other credible estimates pose that number at closer to three million. It has been calculated that 12-15 million illegal aliens reside in the U.S.

While the majority of undocumented people are not murderous criminals, the few who are create unimaginable chaos for their victims and the police officers charged with investigating their crimes. In this age of high crime rates, law enforcement officials have enough on their collective plate without having to contend with tens of thousands of undocumented criminals operating in their respective jurisdictions.

Hardened illegal immigrant criminals are but one facet of the problem. Another real danger facing the law enforcement community is the influx of diseases migrating with people across the border. Tuberculosis (TB), Hansen’s Disease (leprosy), malaria, Chagas Disease, New Castle Disease, Dengue fever, AIDS, and hepatitis are all rampant in most third-world locales, including Mexico, South America, India, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

According to Dr. Madeleine Cosman in her NewsWithViews.com article, Hospital to the World Welcomes Illegals & Contagious Diseases, the Queens, New York Health Department attributed 81% of new TB cases in 2001 to immigrants. The Centers for Disease Control suggest that 42% of all new TB cases are from "foreign born" people. Dr. Cosman maintains that in the last three years the U.S. has seen more than 7,000 cases of leprosy.

Some of those who are crossing our borders are undoubtedly criminals seeking greener pastures to operate. Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants have been arrested for gang violence, murders, assaults, rape, burglary, robbery and drug trafficking. As many as 30 percent of all inmates in prison today are illegal immigrants.

Heather MacDonald, in her City Journal article, The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave, maintains that two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants in the Los Angeles area—an astonishing 17,000—are for undocumented foreign nationals. Note that 95% of all outstanding arrest warrants issued for murder in the same area are for illegal aliens.

Gangs comprised of illegal immigrants are becoming one the most dangerous and unnecessary problems to face American police officers. There has been an increase of gangs recruiting illegal aliens. The 20,000 member strong MS-13, formally the Mara Salvatrucha, has been actively seeking out illegal immigrants for enlistment purposes.

The recruiting initiative is occurring in at least 33 states, from the west coast to the east coast. A particularly violent gang noted for gruesome torture and murder as well as operating a lucrative drug business, MS-13 originated with street thugs from El Salvador. Anyone standing in the way of their illegal activities is subject to being murdered, including police officers.

A Washington Times story stated that law enforcement officials in our nation’s capital issued a memo advising that as many as twenty MS-13 operatives from Los Angeles arrived in Northern Virginia because they were unhappy that a local chapter of the gang had not killed a Fairfax County police officer.

There are many Americans still doubting that there is any real danger inherent in illegal immigration. Law enforcement officers and the victims of illegal alien crimes know better. In his book, Immigration’s Unarmed Invasion: Deadly Consequences, Frosty Wooldridge quotes Thomas Borge, the Nicaraguan Interior Minister, from a Washington Times story dated March 27, 1985:

Mr. Wooldridge summed up the situation aptly with his commentary, "What’s going to happen to us as more and more illegal aliens do not subscribe to the rule-of-law? Third World Momentum rolls into America on our freeways without so much as a warning ticket from Congress."

Pro-immigration groups and others have averred vehemently that illegal immigration has no connections to terrorism. This debate was seemingly quashed when Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, an al-Qaida cell leader, met with key members of a criminal gang in Honduras in 2004 ostensibly to discuss cooperative efforts in infiltrating the United States. It is believed that the gang is responsible for smuggling hundreds if not thousands of gang members from Central and South America into the U.S. The troublesome reality of the situation is that any immigrant other than Mexican (OTM is the official acronym) who happens to be nabbed crossing the border is not deported immediately. OTMs are temporarily detained, given a date to appear for a hearing and then released into the U.S. without supervision. In July, 2004, a group of 25 Chechens suspected of having ties to Islamic terrorists crossed over the Mexican border into Arizona. They would be classified as OTMs.

The White House has made it clear through inaction that no significant steps to curb the illegal invasion will be taken. President Bush, as well as numerous Senate and House members, are pushing for a broad "amnesty" of those who are already here illegally. Additionally, red tape constraints, loopholes in the laws, and less-than-ambitious enforcement activities are sanctioned and encouraged by many local, state, and federal-level politicians. Great numbers of cities throughout this country have been established as "sanctuary" areas where illegal aliens are not only welcomed but are given special protections against local police notifying the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement about their presence. With terrorism being a so-called priority in our current administration it seems at odds with an existing unofficial open borders policy. This is no less true when the terrorism is occurring on an individual basis like in the case of Detective Young.

For law enforcement officers, illegal immigration carries with it some very lethal consequences. Deadly force encounters, infectious diseases, gang violence and radical terrorists potentially await every police officer in this country on traffic stops, calls for service or suspicious activity contacts. Additionally, falsified documents, language barriers and multiple aliases confound law enforcement activities.

Like other concerned citizens, cops have a great deal at stake and should take part in activities to ebb the flow of illegal immigration. Police organizations need to be central to these efforts, using their resources and lobbying abilities to protect members of the law enforcement community. Individually, officers can write letters to their respective representatives and senators, take part in orderly activities and events, and, just as importantly, vote out those elected officials who refuse to put the safety of the nation—and this country’s cops—ahead of political pandering.

Those heroic officers who have fallen at the hands of illegal immigrants should not be forgotten. Members of the police community and law enforcement organizations should demand of our leaders to insist that Mexico and other countries allow for extradition of cop killers back to the U.S. As it stands today there is very little cooperation, leaving fellow officers and victims’ families in shock and disbelief that there will be no justice for the death of their loved ones. With a concerted effort from law enforcement officers, perhaps that will one day change.