When it comes to the idea of a “virtual fence” on our border with Mexico, I the government should simply refer to this fiasco as “Operation Back-Rub,” along with all of the other military-sounding projects aimed at protecting our nation from the massive influx of illegal aliens, among whom are criminals and, undoubtedly, terrorist sympathizers and terrorists.

What do I mean by that? When a child awakens from his sleep in the middle of the night, the dutiful parent will generally speak to him in a soothing voice, administer a gentle back-rub and tell the child whatever is necessary to calm him so that he will go back to sleep and the parent, too, can go back to sleep.

For far too long, our government has been able to get away with creating illusions that do not match reality. It has whittled away at our expectations of privacy and freedom in the name of national security and yet refuses to truly secure our borders and create an immigration system that has real integrity. In the quest for the creation of the illusion of living up to its obligations, our nation’s “leaders” have squandered billions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars while our borders are as porous as a sieve. Additionally, the immigration bureaucracy that alleges to represent the “legal” process for aliens to seek to secure resident alien status and even United States citizenship rewards massive levels of fraud and makes an absolute mockery of those true immigrants whose lifelong dream is to legally immigrate to the United States, play by the rules and follow our nation’s laws to become a part of this nation.

The fence on the border in and of itself will not protect our nation. However, it should be an integral component of an immigration system that secures the sovereignty of our nation’s borders and aids in protecting our nation and our citizens from the unlawful entry of illegal aliens, including criminals and terrorists, as well as a wide variety of contraband such as narcotics, counterfeit goods that may compromise public health and safety, and even weapons of mass destruction.

Perhaps a part of the reason that our government has been so inept is that there is no competition where the securing of our nation’s borders is concerned. Our citizens are at the mercy of a government that has no sense of obligation to its own citizens. Our government has established a track record that would cause a comparable business to file for bankruptcy and, indeed, our government’s financial situation does not give me any comfort either.

Every unsecured mile of border provides criminals, terrorists and other illegal aliens ample opportunity to enter our country without detection. Think about how much destruction just 19 terrorists inflicted on our nation on September 11, 2001.

In fact, our nation has been attacked numerous times by terrorists, some of those attacks happening before 9/11. Many of those attacks occurred overseas but in 1993, our nation suffered casualties from two terrorist attacks carried out on our soil. In January, 1993 an individual by the name of Amir Kansi, a Pakistani national who secured political asylum by committing fraud, stood outside the CIA in Langley, Virginia and opened fire upon the cars streaming into that complex of buildings on a cold winter morning. When the shooting subsided, two CIA officers lay dead and three were wounded. Kansi fled from the scene and left the United States. He was ultimately captured and returned to the United States to stand trial. Following his being found guilty, he was executed. The death and suffering he caused, however, could not be undone.

Just one month later, in February, 1993, a truck bomb was detonated in the basement of the World Trade Center complex resulting in massive damage to that iconic landmark, estimated at half a billion dollars. More importantly, six people were killed and hundreds were injured. The individuals involved in that attack committed immigration fraud and gamed the immigration bureaucracy, yet the Clinton Administration did absolutely nothing to address these fatal flaws in the system – leading to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Those attacks occurred 17 years ago. The attacks of 9/11 occurred eight and a half years ago. Yet thanks to deep budget cuts, another six years may be necessary to secure our nation’s border with Mexico, meaning it will not be completed until 2016.

When our nation was attacked at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 it took just about 44 months for the United States, acting in concert with its allies, to build fleets of ships and aircraft that had never existed before. All sorts of new technology had to be created and even nuclear weapons fashioned and deployed with scarcely proven technology. That was American “Can do” spirit at its best.

When President John F. Kennedy established the goal of sending American astronauts to the moon and returning them safely to the earth, this audacious proposal was to be carried out in less than a decade, marking the last time that the American “Can do!” spirit was applied.

Today, our nation is the nation of “Can’t do” with an explanation and an excuse explaining yet another failure.

Is this acceptable?

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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About the author

Michael Cutler
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who regularly appears on radio and television programs, in addition to testifying before Congress, addressing the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice. Cutler is part of AIM's Speakers Bureau. Send inquiries to speakers@aim.org