Keeping illegal migrants away

THE EDITOR: The TT borders are not porous, they are completely open. Migrants from any country are free to enter without being caught. The JSC suggestion for the establishment of a border protection agency is a good initiative. It would need to implement the following:

1. Have the Coast Guard, Customs and Excise Division, Police Coastal and Riverine Patrol Unit and army work together.
2. Have them patrol most ports of entry: north ports of the Caribbean Sea; south ports of the Columbus Channel; west ports, the Gulf of Paria and the east ports of the Atlantic Ocean.
3. Have the ports manned 24/7 and set up permanent structures at all cardinal points of the island.
4. Turn them back illegal migrants at the points of entry. It is not necessary to transport them to the heliport at Chaguaramas.

Is there a nexus between the escalating crime rate in the country and the entry of illegal migrants? Yes! National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds must do something, anything, to stem the flow of illegal migrants, guns and illicit drugs into the country. Hinds, on a scale of one to ten, knows where his performance falls.

JOHN JESSAMY

Fyzabad