Here is my posting, this week, for the CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization) website.
For years the open borders advocates have claimed that only the “Right Wing Nuts” of the Republican or the Conservative Parties are raising the issue of immigration and border security.
Now, of course the Tea Party is coming under fire for their position on a number of issues including, of course, immigration.
What is more disturbing than the fact that advocates for open borders and massive amnesty programs for unknown millions of illegal aliens whose presence in our country represents a violation of our nation’s laws and what should be our sovereign borders, it is the fact that so many “journalists” also use the monikers of “Right Wingers” “Ultra Conservatives” and similar terms to describe those Americans who are concerned about failures to secure the borders and instill integrity into the immigration bureaucracy that adjudicates applications for all sorts of immigration benefits including the conferring of resident alien status and United States citizenship upon aliens.
This is extremely frustrating because this nonsense tends to marginalize one of the most critical challenges that confronts our nation and unleashes a host of accusations about xenophobia, racism and other such terms to describe Americans who, especially in this perilous era where the threat of the next terrorist attack hangs over our age like the Sword of Damocles and hundreds of American cities have become infested by the extremely violent Mexican cartels and by other violent and pernicious transnational gangs such as MS-13, Asian Organized Crime, the Russian mob, Caribbean drug posses and the like.
Furthermore, as joblessness continues to increase it is nuts that the administration continues to refuse to seek the removal of illegal aliens who are working on jobs they should not be doing, taking jobs from desperate American and resident alien workers.
The reality is that these challenges and threats that America and Americans are now concerned about are not “Conservative” issues. “Liberals” are supposed to be most concerned about the plight of America’s working poor and America’s minorities. Yet when the subject of immigration pops up, the stereotypical liberal response is to equate illegal aliens with the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s and, in so doing, they utterly ignore the way that America’s minority communities are most affected by the influx of foreign workers who compete at the bottom rung of the economic ladder where jobs are concerned.
Why is no one who is concerned about the plight of the working poor of the United States able to understand how the massive influx of illegal aliens harms Americans who are most vulnerable?
Now the GOP Presidential debates are being held and finally immigration has been raised as an issue at each debate that has so far been conducted. This is certainly an improvement over the past several presidential elections. However, the immigration issue is not being dealt with as an integral part of each of the challenges our nation faces but as a separate isolated issue.
Most of the candidates simplistically think immigration is simply synonymous with the Mexican border!
Fraud runs rampantly through the entire immigration system. As Americans, in the name of “National security” have been forced to surrender most of their expectations of privacy called for in the Fourth Amendment, the number of countries whose citizens are not required to apply for visas before seeking entry into the United States continually increases and today there are some 36 countries on that list for that program that endangers national security and the lives and safety of our citizens.
It is estimated that 40% of the illegal aliens present in our country did not run the Mexican border but entered through ports of entry and then, in one way or another, violated the terms of their admission into the United States. Yet fewer than 300 ICE agents are on the hunt for the estimated 5 million visa violators who live and work in every state in our country! You should also consider that a number of the terrorists of the 9/11 attacks were visa violators and every last one of those 19 bums had committed visa fraud in order to obtain their visas and then lied to the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) inspectors who admitted them into our country!
Not one of the candidates has even noted that at a time that America’s Middle Class should be placed on the “Endangered Species List.” While everyone talks about the “American Dream” and connects that dream with the massive numbers of immigrants who built our nation- in point of fact our nation was built by lawful immigrants and it was America’s uniquely large and upwardly mobile Middle Class that made this country the envy of the world!
Not one of the supposedly “Conservative” candidates made note of the fact that the Obama administration has taken to the outrageous tactic of legislating by executive order and policy decisions and has now ordered that some 300,000 ongoing deportation (removal) hearings being heard by Immigration Judges be summarily terminated because the administration has unilaterally decreed that illegal aliens who have no criminal convictions or who have family members in the military or are caring for an ill family member or some other contrived excuse should be granted employment authorization!
Let us be really clear on this- there is nothing in the law that provides for most of this! As a federal agent I took an oath to defend the Constitution and enforce the laws of the United States- all of the laws! Our nation’s laws are not a menu- you don’t get to pick and choose! Yet the President whose oath is not far different from that taken by law enforcement officers and members of our military has decided to exercise a level of discretion that is unheard of and, I would certainly argue, unconstitutional!
Yet not one of the candidates on the stage at the debates have had the integrity to raise this issue!
In fact, several of the candidates have made it clear that they would grant lawful status to millions of illegal aliens whose true identities are unknown and unknowable even as terrorists seek to enter our country, embed themselves in communities across our nation and carry out attacks to kill as many innocent civilians as possible!
Jonathan Huntsman even bemoaned the fact that there are not enough foreign high tech workers being admitted under the auspices of the H1-B visa program while God knows how many American computer programmers, chemists, biologists and other high tech professionals are unemployed or under-employed doing jobs that have nothing to do with their costly educations and years of experience in their chosen fields!
My concern, after listening to the three debates that have been thus far conducted is that no matter who wins the Presidential election next year, We the People will lose!
Concerns about border security and the enforcement and proper administration of our nation’s immigration laws are neither Republican nor Democrat issues. These concerns are not Liberal nor Conservative issues, they are American issues!
Yet neither party is willing to do what is essential for the security of our nation and the well being of our citizens!
The journalists and the politicians must hear from us!
Please give some thought to the First Amendment of the Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The late, great radio talk show host and friend, Terry Anderson, was famous for his rant, “If you ain’t mad, you ain’t paying attention!”
In considering the First Amendment, I suspect the Founding Fathers might have come up with a slightly different memorable quote, “If you don’t have grievances, you ain’t paying attention!”
We must make our voices heard- and the sooner the better!
A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!
If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!
We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.
My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.
The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.
If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”
The practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.
The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!
The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians. I implore you to get involved!
I believe our nation’s is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world. However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda!
If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!
All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!
We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.
This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!
You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!
Democracy is not a spectator sport!
Lead, follow or get out of the way!
http://www.caps-blog.org/articles/2011/09/16/debating-immigration/
New York, Nevada Special Elections Produce Big Winner for Enforcement Advocates
