Rep. John Carter of Texas offers a long article about secure the border (for real) here. Bottom line:

Taking all the data into consideration, a deployment of somewhere between 25-to-50,000 troops would secure our 2,000 mile southern border immediately. Cost estimates range around $3 billion per year, a small fraction of the current $78 billion taxpayer cost of illegal immigration, even after counting tax payments by illegal workers.

These manpower numbers are well within the range of similar current deployments. 28,000 U.S. troops are helping guard South Korea’s 151-mile border with North Korea, and have been there since 1950. The U.S. Army is helping Iraq put a 45,000 man border force in place to patrol its 2,200 miles of border.

In homeland security missions, 70,000 troops were deployed for Hurricane Katrina by President Bush. President Obama has authorized 17,500 so far for the BP oil spill. Isn’t the security of our own border as important as any of these missions?