When Al Sharpton and Pat Buchanan agree on an issue, it may be time for politicians in Washington to take note. Recently on MSNBC’s Donahue show, the two concurred on the need to control the flow of illegal immigration into the United States. Donahue’s guests decried the loss of lives, of both Americans and illegal crossers, and suffering along the U.S.-Mexican border. Their call for action got a powerful boost from the incoming Senate Majority leader, Trent Lott, who says that it’s now time to use the U.S. military to protect our borders.

Phil Donahue’s show included as guests not only Buchanan and Sharpton, but Glenn Spencer of the American Border Patrol, and Reverend Robin Hoover of Humane Borders. Hoover runs a program to place watering stations along the routes favored by illegal border-crossers in Arizona, while Spencer uses high-technology to monitor and then publicize illegal crossings. They both agreed that the government has lost control over our borders.

The parents of slain National Park ranger Kris Eggle expressed their outrage at their son’s murder last August by drug-cartel members on the run from Mexico. Eggle’s father told Donahue that his son had received no training or preparation for his service in what Donahue characterized as a "war zone." Mr. Eggle said he has made several trips to the spot where his son was ambushed and described the situation along the border as "out-of-control, chaos, even obscene."

Donahue’s immigration show came on the heels of the revelation that one of the Washington Beltway snipers, John Lee Malvo, was also an illegal immigrant. Malvo was arrested in Washington state last January and handed over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for shipment back to Jamaica. But the INS changed Malvo’s status and released him to later take part in the killing of at least 11 Americans.

The arresting agent was not permitted to speak publicly on the case, but a Border Patrol union spokesman told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that (quote) "it’s nothing new for the INS to release criminals onto the streets and for them to commit murder. There’s been hundreds murdered in the United States at the hands of illegal aliens." Immigration expert Michelle Malkin reports that Border Patrol and INS officials are now retaliating against both the agent and the union spokesman for criticizing the INS’s handling of the case. Meanwhile, Malkin says, Malvo’s mother, who arrived with him last January, is appealing a deportation order and is free on bail.

But border security may have been one of the big winners in the recent elections. Congressman Tom Tancredo, who heads the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, was overwhelmingly reelected despite efforts to smear him for using undocumented workers in a home improvement project. The workers were later shown to have falsified documents, but the Republican National Committee tried to disassociate the Party from Tancredo. But now Tancredo’s call for the U.S. military to patrol the border has been picked up by Trent Lott, the new Senate Leader.

Reed Irvine can be reached at ri@aim.org