An Arizona rancher whose land borders Mexico told Fox News that among the illegal immigrants he had seen trying to cross the border were Romanians, Polish and Russians. As it turns out, Romanians, Polish, and Russians are the largest groups of Europeans that have been apprehended for trying to illegally cross the US/Mexican border in recent years. But they are not the only ones, over 1,600 people from various European nations have been caught trying to take advantage of our dangerously lax southern border.

Here are twenty European nations with highest number people apprehended for trying to illegally enter the United States via the southern border from 2007-2009:

Romania -227
Poland -204
Russia -145
Turkey -97
United Kingdom -87
Albania - 86
Ukraine -83
Serbia -68
Georgia- 65
Bulgaria- 55
Czech Republic 45
France-44
Germany-43
Moldova- 42
Armenia 38
Macedonia 38
Hungary -37
Italy -36
Ireland -32
Lithuania -31

This naturally leads to the question, "If Europeans are taking advantage of the Mexican border, who else is? And what are the national security implications?" Ironically, this aspect of the illegal immigration debate rarely, if ever, finds its way into the national political arena or even causal conversation for that matter. Mention it next time your innocently uninformed neighbor says that most of the people coming here are just Mexicans who want a better life.

It is time to tear down this wall of ignorance.