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Politicizing the Border Weakens Our Security
Guest Column | By Michael Cutler | July 15, 2008
This Washington Times article about Sen. Obama's Sunday speech to the Hispanic rights group La Raza
should be of great concern to all Americans. It deals with the
politicization of one of the most important issues confronting the
United States today: border security and the immigration system.
Those
of you who are familiar with my commentaries and my testimony before
various Congressional hearings and other venues know that I am
adamantly opposed to providing any sort of wide-scale programs to
provide amnesty for illegal aliens. I oppose any pathway to citizenship
or guest worker programs for millions of aliens who have entered our
country illegally or in one way or another violated the terms of their
lawful admission into our country after entry, or committed visa fraud
in order to enter our country in the first place.
This
is not because I am cold-hearted or because I am a "nativist" (a
derogatory term I have heard used by the advocates of open borders to
describe anyone who thinks our nation, especially in this perilous age,
should have a secure border [not sealed border] and an immigration
system that has integrity.) I am not a xenophobe. I believe that the
United States is strengthened and the lives of our citizens are greatly
enriched by the fact that our nation has so many people from so many
parts of the globe who have been attracted to this great nation and
decided to legally immigrate here, adding their threads to this
magnificent tapestry we call the United States of America.
My
own mother was a lawful immigrant who entered the United States several
years before the Holocaust swept through Europe and claimed so many
casualties, among them most of my mom's family, including my
grandmother (for whom I was named). My dad was born in Brooklyn, New
York, but his parents and most of his siblings came to America shortly
after the turn of the last century.
Tragically,
my parents both died of cancer while I was attending college but I know
so much about their backgrounds and the backgrounds of their families
and I am proud of my immigrant roots.
I am
not opposed to lawful immigration, provided that our government can run
an effective and efficient program that properly screens those who
would come to America to begin their lives anew and share the American
dream and contribute to our country's future while building their own
futures in this land of opportunity.
The
problem is that the massive influx of illegal aliens is not in the best
interests of our nation or our citizens. In addition to creating a
national security nightmare, it also enables criminals (including
violent gang members) to enter our country and hide in plain sight in
communities overflowing with illegal aliens from the many parts of the
world. Therefore it acts in a twofold manner: enabling entrance to
criminals and providing potential victims for these criminals, who
often ply their "trades" among the communities populated by those who
have either immigrated here legally or entered our country illegally
but are of the same ethnicity as are the criminals. This pattern, in my
experience, is universal and impacts every community in the United
States.
By not knowing their true
identities, including their respective nationalities, our
government will find it all but impossible to determine with certainty
if they have criminal histories in other countries or if their names
appear on various terrorist or criminal watch lists because of
potential affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations. The
"undocumented" nature of these aliens means that the government does
not have a shred of official documentation to attest to any of these
very serious questions.
Because we have no
reliable way of knowing when or how illegal aliens entered the United
States, there will be no real way of even deciding which illegal aliens
would be eligible to apply to participate in a citizenship program such
as both candidates claim they want to create. The only way that many of
these critically important questions might be answered is to have an
adequate number of agents who would be able to go out into the streets
of cities and towns across our nation and conduct an actual field
investigation, showing photos of such alien applicants to neighbors and
those who they claim they have worked with. This is the process by
which security clearances are granted. As an INS senior special agent,
I held a Top Secret clearance that had to be renewed every five years.
The field investigation took several weeks of actual field work and was
costly, as well as time-consuming.
The
reality? There is absolutely no way for our government to conduct
comparable investigations of millions of aliens who have no
documentation to begin with. We have heard the politicians and the
advocates of such amnesty programs, speak about doing security checks. A
security check is absolutely nothing like a background investigation. To
compare the two is like comparing a patient getting a thorough exam
from a battery of doctors, including blood tests, cardiac stress tests,
etc., and the person who has his temperature and blood pressure taken
at the local pharmacy.
The agency that would
be responsible for administering the guest worker program is USCIS
(United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). They would be
required to process tens of thousands of applications per day that would
be filed by those millions of illegal aliens. All that they would be able
to do is to run the name and fingerprints of the applicants. If the
alien had never been arrested in the United States, an especially
likely possibility if the alien had come here recently, and if the
alien provides a false or especially a fictitious name, a tactic used
universally by criminals and terrorists, the name would come up as
being a "no hit." The adjudicators at USCIS would then issue that alien
an official identity document in whatever name the applicant claimed
was his (hers). In essence, the criminal alien or terrorist would be
able to put himself into his own version of a "witness protection
program" that we should probably call the "bad guy protection program."
It was for these reasons that I came to refer to the Comprehensive
Immigration Reform Act that had been rammed through the United States
Senate last year as truly being the "Terrorist Assistance and
Facilitation Act of 2007." That fatally flawed legislation would have
required USCIS to process a minimum of 100,000 applications each and
every day.
Illegal immigration also impacts
the labor market, driving down wages and often eroding various hard-won
benefits for those workers who are legally entitled to live and work in
the United States.
The massive influx of illegal aliens also hammers schools and hospitals and creates damage to our nation's environment.
Therefore
I find it more than a bit ironic that Sen. Obama would link the
"American Dream" to an amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. This is
not the sort of dream I like to have - it sound more like the American
Nightmare.
In reinforcing the stereotype that
all aliens are Latinos must make those newly arrived lawful immigrants
wonder what country they have arrived in. A couple of days ago, Sen.
Obama made it clear that he thought that all American school children
should learn a new language - Spanish.
I
certainly believe that our kids should learn additional languages. I
took French in junior high school and high school. My parents spoke in
Yiddish when I was a young boy when they didn't want me to know what
they were talking about and, given that incentive, I quickly began to
learn Yiddish! I also had to learn Spanish when I was hired by the INS
because it is believed that some 75% to 80% of the illegal alien
population of the United States is Spanish-speaking. (That training is
not routinely offered to the special agents of ICE today, meaning that
it is easier for illegal aliens who speak Spanish to get away with
making false claims to United States citizenship and hobbling efforts
by ICE special agents at conducting field investigations.
But why does Mr. Obama believe that Spanish language in particular is important for our kids?
With
all of the talk about the United States being a "welcoming nation," what
about having those who come to our country, learning the language of
the country that they voluntarily came to?
Then we come to Mr. Obama's outrageous statement last Sunday as reported in the Washington Times article linked above:
In
Sunday's speech, Mr. Obama said that by embracing the
"enforcement-first" approach, Mr. McCain has not in effect "abandoned
his courageous stance" he took to support last year's bill.
What?
Mr. Obama actually criticized Sen. McCain for saying that wants to secure
the borders of the United States first, before moving on to
implementing a program to put illegal aliens on a pathway to United
States citizenship!
You have to conclude
that if Mr. Obama gets his way, our borders would remain porous while
he would simply provide the promise of United States citizenship to
millions of illegal aliens already present in our country with God
knows how many more arriving each and every day (and night).
If
Mr. Obama was really being honest about his view on this issue, I
suspect he would call for declaring anyone who was born on the planet
earth to be a United States citizen. Then he could tell the special
agents of ICE that they should limit their activities to going after
aliens who arrive in flying saucers! Of course then there would be those
who would accuse those agents of species profiling...
Having
hammered away at Mr. Obama, I want to be fair and tell you about Mr.
McCain, the co-author of the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Bill.
Mr.
McCain said he would go to the governors of the four border states and
then, when they certify that their states' borders are secured, he
would move on to attempting to enact his immigration reform bill! Here
are a couple of important questions:
Why go
to the governors of the border states to find out about the security of
their borders? I have certainly had credibility issues with the DHS that
I won't repeat here, but my regular readers are familiar with my
concerns about the lack of adequate numbers of Border Patrol agents and
virtual fences that would probably stop virtually no one! But at least
that is where the information should be made available. Furthermore, we
know how most of those governors feel about immigration.
Additionally,
what about the fact that an estimated 30 to 40% of the illegal aliens
in our country did not run our nation's borders but rather entered
through ports of entry and then violated the terms of their admission?
What about those illegal aliens who may have run the border that is
supposed to separate Canada from the United States? What about the issue
of rampant fraud and incompetence in the immigration benefits program?
The
point is that it is clear that neither candidate for the office of the
President of the United States wants to secure ournation's borders or
create an immigration system that has even a modicum of integrity and
protects our nation and our citizens.
Our
nation is clearly in the midst of the most profound challenges it has
faced since its founding. The mortgage crisis would be tough enough to
deal with by itself. The energy crisis would be tough enough to deal
with by itself. The threat of additional terrorist attacks and the entry
of tens of thousands of violent gang members are a daunting challenge
to our nation. The synergy of all of these problems coupled with the
disloyalty of corporations that are fixated on profits and for whom the
bottom line is purely the bottom line, threaten the future of this
nation in ways that I believe are unparalleled in the history of the
United States.
A couple of days ago I
discussed these issues with an old friend, a former colleague at the
INS and I said to him that if the United States was still a "Super-Power" I would love to know where the Kryptonite was buried.
My friend neatly summed up what is wrong with our nation today: "Washington, D.C."
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a well-respected authority on immigration and border security issues.
Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.
25 Comments | Post a Comment
I’m with you, seal the border, then round up those here who should not be.
Illegal immigration impacts all facets of our lives.
It is one of the causes of the rise in healthcare costs. Illegals get free healthcare while many taxpaying working citizens can’t afford any healthcare.
Property taxes are going up to fund the education and other programs illegals use.
Our welfare system is strained to the breaking point because of food stamps, WIC.
Our schools are being seriously impacted. Funds needed for our own children are being diverted to illegals and children of illegals. There aren’t enough books in my grandaughter’s school. She has to share a math book!!
Auto insurance is out of sight, because most illegals do not carry insurance.
Our infrastructure, already not so good, is seriously in trouble. Some parts of this country already do, or will have, a serious shortage of fresh water. That is the part of the country that has the highest concentration of illegals - from south of the border.
Our laws are being flaunting and ignored on a daily basis by illegals and our law enforcement does nothing about it. That makes all other laws less absolute. It reduces the respect for the law.
And yes, the illegal community, the fake ID trade, the don’t ask/don’t tell employment, etc., acts as a perfect screen for any terrorist that wants to come.
‘Little children, pregnant ladies, grandmothers, Uncle Jose with a bad heart and tons of drugs’ come across our border on a daily basis. No problem for a terrorist, I’d say.
What chance do we have when the Bush (the great terror-warrior), calls the Minutemen “vigilantes” and violates his oath of office by refusing to secure our borders.
In my opinion, any president whole fails to do this should be impeached.
Yes, he did. He also called people ‘bigots’ who opposed amnesty for illegals.
We have to be honest with ourselves though and realize this is truly a bi-partisan effort. The previous President was very ‘tolerant’. Local and state governments have been very tolerant as well. They have established ‘sanctuary cities and New Mexico wanted to be a sanctuary state, don’t know it it become one or not.
We can certainly see that both parties like this -
I agree, ladytexan, that both parties are guilty of not securing the borders, however, I didn’t bother mentioning the Democrats complicity with this because they never made any pretense concerning border security. They always made it clear where they stood on this issue.
On the other hand, phony Republicans such as Bush would wrap themselves up in the American flag, proclaiming their desire for border security and government fiscal responsibility, only to double-cross us after they get elected.
That’s why, as a conservative, I sat out the 2004 election and will sit out this one unless Ron Paul or some other true conservative is on the ballot.
It is a dissappointment to see someone calling themselves a Republican or conservative behave this way.
This President’s stance on illegal immigration should have been no surprise to anyone who really listened to him. In one of his first speeches outlining his agenda after election, amnesty was one of the first things on the agenda.
He has had a strange friendship with Vicente Fox, and has allowed him to come here, speak to Congress and make demands for his Mexican illegals. Just me, but I’m thinking this President and every congressperson should have walked out.
Think about it. Millions of people from Mexico have illegally entered this country, they are breaking dozens of laws just to work, drive and be here. They are draining money from working families. Yet, this President and our congress allowed the president of that country to come here and make demands that we do more for the lawbreakers???
This President allowed them to march in our streets, making demands, disrespecting this country and it’s people, using our flag for baby blankets - and they weren’t deported???
The idea of border security is just talk. He has done everything he can to thwart the Border Patrol. The idea of getting busy to build that fence is just to silence the people until the election. They might take land along the Rio Grande - but I’m thinking any fence they build can be breached by an illegal with a can opener.
Illegal immigration has been a truly bi partisan effort since Jimmy Carter.
If the new voting procedures allow write ins, I’m writing in Ron Paul.
You know whether we support Dem or Rep or unaligned, most people in this country recognize the dangers of illegal immigration - yet it was almost an non-issue in this most critical election. Doesn’t that make you wonder if we, the people, have any effect on this process.
Globalists such as Bush, Clinton, McCain, etc. have contempt for the Constitution. They govern according to their own “New World Order” agenda and to hell with the idea of a representative republic.
I saw footage of Bush’s father, when he was president, addressing Congress and speaking of the need for a “New World Order”.
What a lot of Americans don’t realize is that this country has returned to the state it was in before the American Revolution. It’s as if King George III has arisen and rules the colonies, only now, it’s King George IV. We are no longer a representative republic.
All you and I and a handful of others can do ladytexan, is to write in Ron Paul or any other true patriot during the election and know that we did all we could do as this country heads further into the abyss of socialism.
I remember hearing him when he made that speech. A cold chill ran down my spine. No one I talked with even noticed it.
The father also said in an interview that his son wanted to have a Western Hemisphere Union, from Canada through South America. ‘An area with no borders and people and commerce moving freely within’. That wasn’t verbatim, I don’t think, but that was the idea.
I’m thinking Chavez put a hold on that idea as he has his own big plans.
All these little trade deals, CAFTA, etc., maybe getting it in place a little at a time.
It’s really hard to get people to think about these things when they are so hung up on either being loyal to the Rep or the Dem, though.
Ron Paul is not the answer. The only way to make change in the government is by becoming active in your state and local Republican Party organizations and by carefully researching those candidates. Those at the top were chosen from the local organizations and worked their way up in the party. Put your money behind the true conservatives and speak out when a liberal makes his or her way through the ranks to vote on the Left instead of for conservative values.
Ron Paul sides with Democrats on too many vital issues, although he does have credentials on the side of limited government. He scares me when he talks about immediate withdrawal of our troops from the Middle East. That would be disastrous.
Ron Paul may not be THE answer - but he’s the best answer we have now.
The news media did a real job on Ron Paul and far too many people bought it. The fact that the media was against him should be enough to make people take a good look and really listen to what he has to say.
We have lots of problems, if they are going to be solved it will have to be someone other than the ‘usual suspects’. We keep putting in office the same peole and keep getting the same lack of solutions.
Political parties are bought and paid for by big money and big corporations. Both parties and bought by the same people. As long as we believe in a party, we are lost. The big guys will always have enough money to control a party, from the ground up. They begin grooming, pushing and deciding from college recruitment, to the school boards to the WH.
It is beyond me why people can’t see that.
We had no business in Iraq - no interest in Iraq - no gain for this country by invading it.
We brought chaos and destruction to that country. It will never have peace as long as we are there.
The ME terrorists certainly pose some threat to the world - but our government doesn’t believe the pose a real threat to this country. If they did, we would have better control of who and what comes across our borders.
Common sense has to come back to this country someday.
WE cannot allow so called political parties to make our decisions.
We cannot allow ourselves to be bamboozled by drum beating, flag waving, macho swaggering any longer.
WE have serious problems in this country, the least of which is ME terrorists. They can attack, they can harm us. WE can survive it.
We cannot survive foreign countries owning our very infrastructure, holding our immense debts, providing for our basic needs, and 30-40M occupying this country illegally.
Our troops would protect this country better by being brought home and put on our borders.
The NG would serve this country better by being used to round up those here illegally and deport them.
The money we are borrowing from China to fund this war and the massive troop deployment around the world, would serve this country better developing alternative energy, new technology for manufacturing our own needs, and rebuilding our infrastructure, better education, etc.
That’s our threat - ME terrorists are a buzzing fly compared to the real threat.
But far too many feel so good rallying behind the banner of ‘their party’ and puffing out their chests and thinking ‘we’re bad - we’re bad’, while our country is being sold, given away and treatied away right under our noses.
Wake Up!!!
Slinkiecat,
Which vital issues does Ron Paul side with Democrats on?
If you Google his name and check out his positions on various issues, you’ll find them to be far more conservative than Bush’s or your average Republican’s, which is why he’s ignored by them, as well as by the media.
The only similarity between Paul and the Democrats is his desire to get us out of Iraq quickly, however, unlike the Democrats, he’s pro- military and would use them to protect our borders.
Even though having Ron Paul as President isn’t the only answer, it would be a great start. You can bet that the Republicans would be fighting him every step of the way as far as passing legislation. After all, Paul would actually attempt to put into law what the Republicans claim they would do in their campaigns.
Look at how they piled on and demonized Pat Buchanan when he edged out Bob Dole in the New Hampshire primary during the 1996 campaign.
I do agree with you, though, the importance of researching candidates in local elections. Many times, I’ve rejected the “mainstream” Republican candidate in my district whose positions on various issues revealed him to be too moderate for my tastes.
Unfortunately, the true conservatives that I eventually vote for usually get about 2% of the general vote.
Tragically, most Americans can’t be bothered with the political landscape and keep themselves “fat, dumb, and happy”.
Ron Paul had his chance and was thoroughly rejected by the voters. His main supporters were Democrats (“Pauliacs”), who acted like crazed children at times. His only supporters were those who advocated surrender in the war.
I attended the ACU’s Leadership Conference in Reno last year and was appalled at the speeches given by the various Libertarians, all Ron Paul supporters. Both Mitt Romney and Duncan Hunter also spoke, and those two received rousing standing ovations, but were eventually drowned out in the straw poll by the Pauliacs. I had missed the statement by the Conference organizers that this meeting would have a strong Libertarian flavor.
Of course, I did listen to the Ron Paul Supporters as well as to Bob Barr, and not one of them exuded any love for our country, focusing only on the kind of hatred one hears at a Democrat gathering. I did learn a lot from the experience, so it wasn’t a total waste of money to go to that conference. It was obvious that Ron Paul and Bob Barr are very dangerous to the Republican Party and could cause the election to swing to Obama and to a huge majority in both houses of Congress.
Either of them would be disastrous as president, which most people will realize.
The main reason not to consider voting for any third party is that it will give the win to Obama.
I guess you and I must be listening to two different people. The Ron Paul I have seen occasionally on TV, such as C-Span, Fox News, etc.,
speaks of the importance of following the Constitution and how both parties have strayed away from it.
Duncan Hunter and Romney are part of the ‘establishment’ and would do very little, if anything, to improve our country’s deterioration and path towards socialism.
Other than get us out of Iraq quickly to end this insanity of ‘nation-building’, Democrat voters would protest Ron Paul’s agenda concerning all other issues if he were elected. That’s why Pat Buchanan has stated that he sides with Paul on just about all his positions.
Bob Barr is, indeed, a phony because of his involvement as legal council to the ACLU after losing his congressional seat. I would never support him.
As far as Ron Paul being a danger to the Republican Party, I think that Bush and his fellow RINOs have done a good enough job of destroying it.
He has been the biggest domestic spender since LBJ, and I’m excluding his ‘war on terror’ spending, has tried to push amnesty on us, refuses to secure our borders, and made a mockery of our military to the rest of the world by conducting a politically correct campaign in Iraq which tied the hands of the military behind their backs, causing unnecessary casualties. Of course, this being an election year and for his legacy , he’s finally turning up the heat, somewhat, in the Iraqi theater after 5 years.
To me, any politician who emphasizes the need to adhere to the Constitution, does indeed love this country more than any of the 2 parties could ever dream to.
The ‘lesser of two evils’ strategy in voting will not make our problems go away because the RINOs who have infiltrated the GOP will know that they can get in by default and therefore, have no incentive to change their globalist ways. I will never again cast my vote out of fear for the Democrat getting in (this is what the Republicans count on).
It is today’s Republican establishment that’s the real danger because they campaign themselves as patriotic, pro-American.
I would rather have an obvious enemy in the White House than a supposed ally who turns out to be a back-stabber.
Pizcaj, your BDS has blinded you to all the good done by our president. He has most importantly kept this country safe from another attack like 9/11 (or worse, as al Qaeda threatened). This is mainly because he did answer the call to war in response to the many attacks all during the ‘90s under Clinton’s watch. Don’t forget that many members of both houses of Congress, loudly and clearly, demanded that he take out Saddam, as the intelligence sources from all over the world, in addition to our own CIA, showed the danger.
It was only a matter of weeks after we took out Saddam that the Democrats who had voted to send our troops into combat began siding with our enemies and against our military. This is what turned the American public against the war. We should be thanking Bush for not testing the wind as Clinton did and waffling on his promise to this country to stand by our military and see that the job was finished with honor. He also promised the Iraqi citizens that we wouldn’t abandon them to the terrorists.
You may call the reconstruction of Iraq “nation building,” but it is in accordance with the Geneva Conventions that we return that country to a viable state. In doing so, we have created a very valuable ally in a strategic part of the world. It may take decades to fully appreciate the ramifications of this. All our military experts support the vision of this allegiance, not only for our own security, but also for that of Israel.
As for wanting an “obvious enemy” in the White House, that is about the most unpatriotic statement I’ve heard from someone who claims to be conservative. Knowing that your vote for Ron Paul is effectively a vote (or at least a half vote) for Obama, you may be helping with the destruction of all pretense of a Constitutional government.
Your hatred for a decent, honorable president who gave this country and the world the best he had, liberating 50 million people from tyrants and keeping the 300 million Americans free from terrorist attacks, is irrational. Just be thankful that President Bush has more respect for every American than you do for him.
I won’t read any more of your posts, so don’t expect me to reply.
It is our right and our absolute duty to point out when the President is wrong and when our country is headed in the wrong direction.
We are supposed to be the ones running this country, we hire people we think can do the best job and then watch them very closely. We are lax on all of the above.
If we love this country, we want it to go in the right direction.
In raising our children, we point out where they are wrong and guide them in the right way - if we love them.
So we keep on voting for the ‘lesser of two evils’ and what we get is the ‘evil of two lessers’. That sounds a little suicidal to me.
I’m trying to think of something this President has done to make us safer.
I can’t.
Ladytexan, I’m so sorry you’ve been asleep for seven years. President Bush has brought this country back from the Clinton-Gore recession with his tax cuts, and even before they took effect was hit with the 9/11 terrorist attack that took over a trillion dollars from our economy. His stance against the terrorists brought this country together with his numbers at 80% at that time. Everyone knew he was the kind of leader we needed. Congress was right there in insisting that we had to retaliate to save this country.
How quickly we forget, and how blind people are to the effects of prevention! President Bush has prevented the followup attacks everyone KNEW were coming after 9/11, and you now say he did NOTHING?
John McCain was far from my choice for our Republican nominee, mainly because he sided too often with the Democrats, so he is having to reconsider many of those positions to come back to the conservative side where candidates like Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson were all along. Even Mitt Romney, with his great success in business management and his ability to speak well in public was a great second choice, but he bowed out when it became impossible to beat John McCain.
I got over my disappointment, mainly because I knew McCain was far better than any of the Democrat candidates as far as leadership of this country was concerned. I had already contributed to the RNC, and I reluctantly also sent money to McCain’s campaign. I would send more, but McCain needs to move further right to deserve more.
McCain is in no way evil. He has devoted most of his life to serving this country, and he obviously loves it. I can’t say nearly as much for his opponent, and I would never give a penny, much less a vote, to any candidate that would defeat McCain for the presidency. He deserves a chance to lead us, much more than the novice Obama, who has never led even a Boy Scout troop, a business, a city, county or state. He has never served in the military, but wants to become their Commander in Chief, and has only attended one committee meeting since joining the Senate.
Why is a man so unqualified even being considered for the highest office in the world? Maybe he’s not evil, but we certainly know that John McCain, with 20 years in the government, is not. We have a choice of an unknown with terrorist friends, a racist bigot for a religious mentor, a communist “uncle” who was a surrogate father in a very influential role during his childhood, and truly no great role models to lead him in the right direction.
We would be a laughing stock around the world if we chose this Hollywood idol to lead us, just because he is handsome, dark-skinned, and reads speeches from a Teleprompter well.
Slinkiecat,
As far as Saddam was concerned; fine. After all, Saddam was ignoring the UN mandate for many years and I agree that he should have been taken out, along with his sons. However, that should have been the end of that and we should have gotten out. It’s not worth the lives of our soldiers to install another government for them. The Iraqi people have been unappreciative and uncooperative with us for the past 5 years. The 3 factions that make up the country have been fighting each other for centuries and will continue fighting one another.
As for your hero George Bush, we shouldn’t have been attacked at all to begin with on 9/11. Everyone knew that the Clintons built a wall between the FBI and CIA, and also between the field operatives of both agencies and their superiors. Removing this wall should have been one of his first acts of duty after he took office considering the ‘93 attack on the Trade Center as well as the attack on the USS Cole. But instead he was busy playing ‘nice nice’ with the Democrats by retaining Clinton’s CIA Chief George Tenet and signing on to Ted Kennedy’s stupid and wasteful “No Child Left Behind” nonsense.
As far as ‘testing the wind’ goes, Bush always tested the wind because he’s one of the most willing students of political correctness. He tied our military’s hands behind their back when he sent them into Iraq for fear of media criticism. He allows old ladies in wheelchairs to be pulled aside in the airports for inspection out of fear of hearing from Muslim pressure groups. He waited for a few days after his re-election to send in the troops to clear out Fallujah because he thought doing so prior to the election might hurt his chances of retaining his office. He wouldn’t come to the aid of marines being persecuted for doing their jobs as well as the two border agents who are sitting in jail for doing their job. When our military was being shot at by the enemy in Iraq from mosques, they were under orders not to shoot back for the sake of political correctness. He wouldn’t even try using the powers of the Justice Dept. to try and keep Judge Roy Moore from being taken off the bench for the ‘crime’ of displaying the 10 Commandments! Instead he hid under his desk and allowed the Left to take down this fine man.
What A Brave President!
So by your reasoning, it’s ‘unpatriotic’ to criticize a president. You may want to march in Party lock-step with Bush and the Republicans, but to me, the right to criticize any of our political leaders is what separates us from most other less free countries. My criticisms are factually based and when members of my Party transgress against the conservative principles that made the GOP what it used to be, then I’m going to call them on it.
You talk of Obama’s possible election as a ‘destruction of pretense of a Constitutional government’;Bush has already done this by ignoring the will of the majority in this country as well as his oath of office to protect our borders. (I guess that’s an example of the ‘respect’ that Bush has for us Americans, as well as his irresponsible runaway spending; the highest on record since LBJ.
WAKE UP!!!
Well, no I haven’t been asleep and I have not been blinded by partisan politics either.
We KNEW other attacks were coming??? No everyone didn’t know. Evidently the President didn’t know.
If this administration knew, even thought, other attacks were going to happen - shame, shame on them for not closing the borders, for not getting rid of people who are here that shouldn’t be here. That includes many ME people who do really hate us. Yet, those people were left here. The airport screeners, ME illegals, were made federal workers rather than being deported. These were people who could have been complicit in the attacks - yet they were made federal employees.
In fact this President went to great lengths to convince the Muslims that he liked them. He had Powell go to a Muslim meeting and tell them he wanted to bring more into this country and ‘teach them to love us’. He called anyone who questioned Muslims ‘bigots’. (A favorite word of his to describe American citizens.)
He jumped into a purely religious debate and trounced Franklin Graham when he said Islam was not a religion of peace.
No I haven’t been asleep - I’ve been listening.
Our ridiculous immigration policy that allowed the hijackers to come here and stay is still working the same way.
The ‘don’t ask’ policy for illegals is still in force giving cover to any miscreant with a forged document.
The fake ID industry is huge and nothing is being done to stop it. This government won’t even verify SS#. E-verify, as I understand it, only tells if the number is valid. Not if the person using it is the one to whom it belongs. Think terrorists don’t realize all the need is to make sure their ID belongs to a real person and they are safe.
I asked what he had done? I know the Republican mantra back and forward of how he led us out of a recession - look around. How he made us safer - how? What a wonderful ‘leader’ he is. Only followers needs leaders.
Once again, outside of a tax cut, which for Texans was not a tax cut. In order to cover his tax cuts, he cut back monies that was supposed to go to the states to cover federal mandates. That meant states, those who had to have a blanced budget each year, had to get the money from the citizens of that state. WE had to pony up to provide education, food, housing and medical care for illegals, as well. It came out of another pocket, but when we got through paying for the added taxes, fees, permits, registration feeds, licenses fees, etc., we are in the hole - due to the tax cut.
No, I haven’t been asleep - I’ve been listening, counting my money, and watching.
I see a country with millions more illegal aliens, more jobs gone overseas, more HB workers to take American jobs, gas $4 a barrel, borrowing money from Red China. Remember how many lives were lost fighting communism - now they are financing our latest war??? We are depending on a communist country to provide the necessities of life, even some of our military supplies.
Don’t anyone try to tell me the dastardly democrats are to blame because we didn’t drill. This is an oil President and VP. If they and their oil company friends had truly wanted to drill, it would have been done.
Food is becoming more and more expensive. Corn, which is present in much of our food and animal food is now being used to make ethanol - thanks to the encouragement of our government. Ethanol is not a good alternative to our energy problem. So we may have ethanol, but we won’t have food. Sounds like plan to me.
No I haven’t been sleeping, I’ve been listening, watching, and seeing what is happening.
So again - what has he done? I truly don’t know. Generic terms of ‘we’re safer’, ‘we’re better off’, etc. I would like to know exactly what he did that made it better.
When someone criticizes the PResident, our duty and our right, his supporters should not make it easy on themselves and just label that person a democrat. I am a 3rd generation TExas Republican and a conservative. Not the ilk of this President, who is neither.
Of the two running, McCain is the lesser of two evils - but remember a lesser of two evils is still an evil.
I have not been asleep and I have been reading, watching, listening to more than Republican spin.
I just lost a long reply because I went to Google to document a statement, but it was Maxine Waters’ statement about the Democrats’ intention to nationalize the oil companies. That is pure fascism, and it is the danger this country faces in this era of energy shortage.
Starting over in my reply to you regarding GW Bush’s accomplishments, I’ll be brief this time since this site is unforgiving of any documentation attempts.
McCain has risked his life for this country, even refusing freedom from his capture during wartime because the Vietcong would not free his fellow American captives. This is an American who truly loves this country and can not be called “evil” in any context that involves patriotism. You can’t say the same for Obama, who has embraces an anti-American pastor for 20 years as well as other influential mentors and friends that are communists, terrorists and anti-American radicals.
We are still fighting communism. The CPUSA is alive and well, throwing their support to the Democrat Party. George Soros is the famous leader of this movement, and he is noted for his hatred of capitalism. He nearly destroyed the British banking system by selling short in a deliberate attempt to bring England to its knees. He is the big financier of Obama. That’s why Obama has hundreds of millions of dollars in his campaign finance to defeat first Hillary and now McCain. He will spare no expense to control this country through the weak Democrat candidate who has no core principles and waffles easily to allow his financiers to dictate all his positions.
Back to the tax cuts - They went to all taxpayers, even many who didn’t pay any income tax at all. McCain opposed them because they didn’t include cuts in expenditures, but later capitulated because they did increase revenues to the government. He still insists that government has to be cut back and has never added a pork project to a bill. This is a plus for both Bush and McCain.
President Bush is a lifelong Republican, and you can’t criticize him for that. He has always been a moderate, never a strong conservative. He is a religious man, which attracted the votes of the far right, and he never disappointed them. He did disappoint those of us who want strict border control and enforcement of our immigration laws. I agree with you on his failure there. We aren’t going to get anything better this election cycle on that. The Democrats want an open border, and McCain has weakened in response to our insistence on border reinforcement first. He still leans toward amnesty, because he knows that it’s impossible to deport 12 million Hispanics who have formed families of citizens here and millions of them are now legal voters.
Blame all the politicians if you will, but the fact is that we have millions of American citizens who would become orphans if our government deported their parents and other adult relatives. It would be devastating to any politician to advocate this. We are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard spot.
Sometimes I loose my posts as well. I get a message that I didn’t type the secret word as shown - when I have.
I just copy my post before I hit the submit button. That way if it erases it, I can just paste it.
Truly, I would like to convince you, but if I can’t do that, I would just ask that you think about some things - not in the light of politics especially partisan politics, but reality.
My aim is not political, or aimed at any one politician or party. I have just seen so many changes in this country, in the last couple of decades that is so destructive. I want people to truly think about them.
As for McCain’s war record, I have nothing but respect and honor for the man as far as that goes. He has, however, been for open borders all along and for amnesty.
The ‘evil’ of which I speak is the evil that will be done to this country. If - when - amnesty is given and those 30-40 million illegals are made citizens and given the right to vote - they can control many, many elections in many states and cities.
Many will do as the former president of Mexico told them to and ‘vote and when you vote, vote with Mexico in mind.’ A recipe for disaster for this country.
Check out Mecha and the Aztlan movement. See if you can find some real speeches by LaRaza people.
Not all illegals are involved in this, but enough are and enough can become involved to pose a real threat. Why would our government foster this kind of movement in our own country?
The people who have put forth the idea that children will be abandoned by their parents, have very little respect for the Mexican people. Would you leave your child behind? Just because that child was born in this country? Of course, not and neither would they. Think about that now.
Also, when they talk of parents not wanting to take their children from where they have roots. These people came from where they truly had roots and family. They brought their existing children from the country where they truly had roots and families. What makes anyone think that just because that child was born here, they would abandon it. The only kind that would do that are the ones that would put their own finanicial gain ahead of their children. So we are going to let them threatened to abandon their children so they can stay here on the gravy train? I don’t think they will, but are those are the kinds of people our politicians are championing?.
There was a court ruling, maybe a year ago, that sent a child, born in this country, to Mexico. His parents were illegals - the mother abandoned him, the father was a convicted child molestor who fled to Mexico. A police officer and his wife became his foster parents. Some years later, about 3, they wanted to adopt him. The child welfare found his grandmother in Mexico, and the court ruled he would be better off, culturally, with his grandmother. He was sent to Mexico. So so much for the ‘roots’ and ‘US citizenship’ silliness.
WE are not between a rock and a hard place. We are between right and wrong and we are being held hostage by greedy politicians, corporations and the Mexican government.
Also, the number the politician and media give of 12 million is false. They used 11 million for about 10 years and I’m guessing someone told them they really had to change that - so they went with 12 and have been using it for several years. Conservatives estimates puts it at 20-30 million - some as high as 50.
We would not have to deport many of these people.
We have laws on the books that have been there for years but are not being enforced equally against the illegals.
Employers cannot hire illegals. Fine them, enough it will hurt, and they will decide they can find citizens to work.
You must have valid ID to work. If a citizen is caught using a stolen ID, they are in deep trouble. Simply enforce the same laws, we are expected to obey.
Illegals are not supposed to draw welfare. Determine the illegals and cut their welfare. Illegals do live simply, some do for a while, but a dollar is a dollar. Without the benefits of free food, medical care, sometimes housing, and the relief from having to pay payroll taxes, they could not live here and support their families - any more than a low income citizen can. They certainly can’t live here and send back to Mexico millions of dollars - a national income second only to the oil income. Enforce our laws.
You are not supposed to drive without a driver’s license. Some states allow illegals to have licenses, but many don’t. When one is stopped without a valid license or insurance, impound the car and if they have a stolen DL number, charge them.
Begin enforcing the laws and tell them to return home - no need for deportation for a great many of them.
When you hear political spin, dissect it.
LadyTexan, I agree with you totally on the immigration/amnesty problem. Here in Florida we have millions of Hispanics, many of whom were born here of illegal Mexican or Cuban parents. They are American citizens, and they vote Democrat, especially those on the East Coast (Miami, St. Pete). We have a huge agriculture base that requires intensive physical labor, and the Hispanics fill a real need there. Just like California, our economy would collapse without the laborers.
A serious problem with all these low-income minorities is crime, including the drug trade. Another is the burden on our hospitals to the point where a visit to the Emergency Room means a long wait to be seen unless one comes in by ambulance.
I believe about 25% of our population is minorities now, and this is likely growing because the caucasian population is largely older while the non-white population is young and fertile.
The Democrats are totally opposed to closing our borders, and although McCain fought to grant amnesty to the illegals already here, he did cave in when millions of callers to the Capitol switchboard protesting the McCain-Kennedy bill convinced him that the people didn’t want any consideration of amnesty until the border was closed. He still believes that we can’t deport all illegals, but the enforcement of laws as you mentioned is important. It will be a plus for McCain to emphasize this enforcement aspect along with building the fence.
You can be sure that if Obama wins, there will be no more financing for the border fence, and more invasion from the South will surely happen. That alone is reason to vote for McCain, as any third-party vote makes it easier for the Democrats to win.
OK, as I see it, the border fence is a joke. It was never meant to prevent illegals, or anyone or anything from entering. It was to quiet the people and make them think something is being done.
They have a ‘virtual’ fence, which I understand doesn’t work in rain, sandstorms, etc. It cost twice as much as originally thought and is almost useless.
The asked 6 companies to build prototypes of fences for the border. When they were unveiled, they then asked border patrol agents to come, and using only tools confiscated from illegals, to see if they could breach the fence. All of them failed.
You can want to believe that this President is not actively working to encourage and protect illegal immigration, but that would necessitate having to ignore his actions and his speeches.
He has openly, and ‘lovingly’ spoke of them as ‘hardworking people just looking for a better life’, ‘good family-oriented people’, ‘just doing the jobs citizens won’t do’, etc. Those opposing illegal immigration and amnesty were called ‘bigots’. This was from day one of this administration.
Early on there was a story he sent some official to a border patrol meeting and essentially told them to shut up that nothing was going to change on the border.
He persecuted two agents who shot a drug runner in the behind. The government went to Mexico, found this drug runner, gave him medical care, money, and essentially a free border pass, to testify against the agents. He used that border pass to bring in drugs. He was caught a couple of times.
This has been going on for 30 years. It isn’t all the Republican’s fault - it is truly both parties. It is just that this President has been the most publicly and blatantly supportive of it. Just because his predecessor did not do the job, doesn’t mean he has to take on the protectorate role of this very destructive movement.
For many years, it was a non-issue with politicians and the media. Just look at this election. Illegal immigration is very important to a lot of people, and to the survival of this nation, but one would never know it existed by reading the media or listening to the politicians.
The Minutemen were, I think, instrumental in forcing the media, then the politicians, to at least admit it existed. This President called them ‘vigilantes’.
The government has been openly unwilling to enforce border laws or round up illegals. The little raids that netted 2/6/25/50 were just a joke. They were a made for TV raid. All they have to do is park busses at a poultry plant at shift change and fill them up.
All they have to do is charge the company officers with employing illegals, and all the other laws they have broken, and it would stop.
I guarantee you if these big time criminals, and that’s what they are, see a half dozen of their counterparts marched out of their offices wearing government bracelets, they would think twice.
Many law makers stepped back from amnesty, but they didn’t change their minds. That’s when they decided to begin pushing the idea of a fence. People were stirred up and wanted something done. They were not about to do anything substantive, so they decided they would throw them the bone of ‘building a fence’. That could be said to ‘take time’, etc.
If a fence is built along the Rio Grande River, it will effectively cede the river to Mexico. If we have no access to it, then Mexico owns it. That river is a part of people’s lives down there. It is strange Mr. Chertoff is johnny on the spot to confiscate land along the river, yet he has done nothing else to prevent illegal immigration. This sounds like plan written by the Mexican government. Just confiscating the land will cede it to Mexico.
As to how badly we need these laborers, we need to think about that. First off, those jobs were getting done before the illegals came - truly they were. I saw citizens put out of work on the poultry farms, the processing plant, in favor of illegals. This was once work that teens did on weekends and in the summer. If both parents worked, it provided a living for a family. It was jobs that low-skilled, even handicapped, mentally and physically, people could do, and provide for themselves and have sense of accomplishment. Many of those people had no choice but to begin living off welfare, when the illegals came. Many left the area and now a large portion of the population is illegal. There aren’t enough books for the children. My granddaughter had to share a math book and was not allowed to bring it home to study.
There are programs for bringing in agricultureal workers. These would come sans spouse and children, work, and return home. The employers don’t want this as they have to be responsible for their welfare, their medical care, decent living conditions, etc. They would rather have a nation full of people standing on the street corner waiting for work. A group for which the taxpayers have to provide medical care, housing, etc.
Then again, without cheap, as in subsidized, labor, there would be much more machinization of agricultural work. As long as the employers have a steady stream of workers that taxpayers subsidize, why would they invest in machinery.
They were showing a grape picking machine and one employer said he didn’t want one, as he ‘liked his people’. Read that he liked taxpayers subsidizing them while he got to play Lord of the Manor.
These subsidized laborers will prevent this country from moving forward with innovations, technology, and will slip us farther back in time and closer to a third world status.
Think of the benefit to this country if innovators knew they had a market for agricultural tecnologies. WE could once again begin to grow, make things, provide things for ourselves. Instead, the employers get rich, the politicians get paid off, and we foot the bill, while having less and less for our families.
A story. My husband’s family were migrant farm workers in the 40’s and 50’s. They travelled all over the South working - mainly the Rio Grande Valley and AZ.
We got a chance to spend several months in AZ and on time off, we did some sightseeing. As we would drive down a road or highway, he would say, “I picked cotton where that housing project is”, or “See that cotton field, I used to be in charge of the irrigation pipes”, “they are raising alfafa there, it used to be cotton”
etc.
Now these were children and I do blame, for the most part, the parents that their children were in those fields, but the employer has to share some also. If someone had told those employers that they could no longer hire children , they would have whined, wrung their hands and protested that they just had to have those workers. They would have said without those workers, the price of cotton would be so high no one could buy clothing.
They learned that cotton could be picked by a machine, those children could be in school where they should have been, and they continued to farm and make money. Well, except for those who realized farming wasn’t as lucrative as selling out to developers.
Again, when you hear such spin as ‘lettuce would be $10 a head without illegals’ - take that apart and apply logic.
We need to realize that the price of the products that are produced or harvested by illegals, is not totally reflected in the price at the check out stand. You pay by increased taxes, increased auto insurance, increased healthcare cots, law enforcement costs, strain on the infrastructure, diminishing education for our children, etc.
The spin is so good, but when exposed to the light of day and common sense, it has no credibility.
Sorry for the length, but this is so important. I saw this from a trickle of a few young men working in the dairies and chicken houses, to a veritable tsunami that will crash in upon us and soon.
LadyTexan, again I find little to differ with you about. Thank you very much for your very thoughtful and eloquent response. I am beginning to understand why you refuse to vote for either of our major party candidates.
Here is where I do differ, though. Knowing that under a Democrat president, coupled with a Democrat Congress, possibly with a veto-proof majority in both houses, we are truly screwed in all aspects of government, I can’t agree with voting for a third party and thus handing the win to the Democrats. I saw what Ross Perot did to us in handing what should have been a sure victory for GHW Bush over to Bill Clinton with 42% of the vote. This is likely to happen again if we allow one issue to govern our vote. We will get far worse than the McCain weakness in Obama, and our great country does not deserve that bitter lesson.
Florida would not survive the loss of all illegals, unless it were done by attrition - i.e., refusing them jobs and benefits, enforcing all laws so as to cut off the enticements to Mexicans to come here, and by penalizing any business found to hire illegals. This last part is why it is impossible to get tough on enforcement, as the employers don’t know which ID is fake. Only the police can determine that.
Before there was significant illegal influx into Florida, the population was much smaller, the agricultural industry was mostly citrus orchards, and there were few large cities. With the availability of cheap labor, this state has boomed and fluorished, and it has become an important source of fruits and vegetables as well as a huge tourism industry. I imagine Southern California has a similar situation. I only pray it doesn’t become as serious here in SW Florida as it is in California.
Again, I thank you for this interesting exchange.
Slinkie
I truly don’t know about Florida, but I do know what happened in Texas. Of course, being Texas, we have always had our share of illegals. They came, worked the crops, or worked jobs for a few months, and returned home. They did not bring their families for us to support and they obeyed the law.
When they began coming in numbers to stay with their families, the situation changed drastically. Entire communities changed.
I don’t know your age, but it may seem to you that illegals have always been here in numbers, they truly haven’t. Not in the numbers they are and not with their families.
We did manage to raise food to eat, manufacture what we needed as a country and at that time, we manufactured more than we do now and we raised almost all our own food. Now we import a large amount of it. We did this with very few illegal employees.
Also, think about the fact that we think we need them, but they are also providing food and services for themselves - 20/30/40 million of them. They are sometimes creating their own work here, and we subsidize it all.
As for not being able to check them out, that is because the government doesn’t want it to happen. It can be done and done easily enough. They already have E-verify - which I have heard only reports if a SS# is a valid number, not that the person giving it is the one to whom the number truly belongs.
I had lost my SS card years ago. I didn’t work outside the home, so I never needed it. WE decided to go to WA state for an extended stay and thought it might be advisable to have one. While there, I went to the SS office. I gave them the number, they punched it in, and within less than 2 minutes, the lady said, ‘Yes, Mrs. ____, you were born in so and so, on such and such, your maiden name is, your Mothers name is, your Father’s name is. It’s truly just that simple.
If someone presents a number, draw it up, if it is the SS# of a lady born in 1952, and you have a 20-something man standing in front of your, you know you have a problem.
If they do not want to give the companies that much access, then the companies can submit a list of numbers, DOB, and Sex of each. The SS department could check them out and get back with them within a short time.
It can be done, they just don’t want it done. To wait a little while before actually hiring someone is not unheard of. Many people have to have a background check or drug test and are not hired on the spot. If the worker is legal, he/she will understand.
So the idea that they can’t be checked out - they can, with little effort on the part of the company and the government.
Neither want to be able to check them.
I cannot imagine a country that claims to be fighting a war against terror would not do that.
I understand your idea that the cost of their being gone would be too great and such a hardship on the agricultural community. At first, the employers would suffer. Yes, those who do business with the illegals will suffer. One can become addicted to anything and they are addicted to illegal labor.
The bottom line, however, unless something is done - we loose our country. The US may remain -may - but not as we know it. That may sound dire, but those are really the facts.
As to McCain being better than Obama, I will admit that thought comes to me as well. Not because I fear Obama because he is a democrat because I don’t, for a moment, believe he is. I fear him because he is not -
Push comes to shove, I will probably cross my fingers, say a prayer, and vote for McCain, but I will know that it is not really a choice.
But when someone says we cannot afford to rid ourselves of illegals - ask them just what price they are willing to pay to keep them here. Are they willing to hand over our country? I promise you, that is the alternative.
Thank you for the discussion.
Thank you Lady Texan and Slinkiecat for your informative posts. Too bad our leaders don’t read.
July 15 at 5:46 pm | #1 | Link
My wife is a LEGAL immigrant from the country of Bosnia. After I married her, we went to the embassy, filled out the papers, took the photos, went through the interviews and so on. It wasn’t that hard.
We live in perilous times and the idea of an Open Border is so bad to be considered along the lined of “Why don’t we just declare sharia law and then the terrorists will have no reason to fight us?” I wonder, at times, hoe many terrorists get through the border today. If a few uneducated central american immigrants can manage it, why cant the well-financed and global al-quida?
Lets be clear now ... 100% of illegal immigrants are criminals. They broke the law coming here. They knew the law and said “to hell with your laws” and came here anyway. They didn’t file the papers or go through the process for a work visa.
As the husband of a LEGAL immigrant, the worst think that pisses me off is the people calling themselves Immigration activists. No, they are ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION activists.
I say deploy the national guard (all of it) and SEAL the border completely.