JOHNSTON, Iowa (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate
Pat Buchanan Wednesday linked illegal immigration from Mexico to
a serial killer, prison overcrowding and a flood of drugs in the
United States."We have now in this (Rafael) Resendez Ramirez character
really, if you will, the poster boy for what is happening in
illegal immigration," Buchanan said during an interview on Iowa
Public Television.
"Here's a character that's gone back and forth across the
American border, illegally, for 23 years. He's believed to have
murdered eight Americans. He's been held by the (U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service) and border patrol and
let go because there's no coordination," Buchanan said.
The 39-year-old Ramirez, one of several aliases used by the
Mexican national, is a suspect in eight murders in Texas,
Illinois and Kentucky and is on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.
The Justice Department was investigating why immigration
authorities, who arrested Ramirez in New Mexico in June,
deported him to freedom in Mexico instead of holding him for
other law enforcement agencies.
Buchanan, making his third White House bid, said one-quarter
of federal prisoners are illegal aliens and contribute to jail
overcrowding.
He said even in Iowa -- a state far removed from the
U.S.-Mexico border -- the issue resonates because around 90
percent of the illegal drug methamphetamine is smuggled into
Iowa [Des Moines] from Mexico.
Buchanan went on to claim 80 percent of domestic violence in
Iowa [Des Moines] was due to methamphetamine use.
Officials who run Iowa's domestic abuse shelters conducted a
survey in March which found that 15 percent of batterers used
methamphetamine.
Buchanan called for installing triple-layer, chain-link
security fences where immigrants are flooding across the border.
He named El Paso and Brownsville, Texas, and Douglas, Arizona,
as likely sites, and said a fence erected near San Diego curbed
the tide of illegal immigrants there.
Buchanan said farmers and ranchers along the border were
arming themselves against the slaughter of their cattle and
other vandalism attributed to illegal immigrants.
