The Washington Times published an important story yesterday, September 27 that was written by one of the most experienced journalists who has been covering the “immigration beat” for many years, Jerry Seper. His article is the basis for my commentary this evening.
Jerry reported on how 18 members of the United States Senate led by Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, have come forward to challenge the administration blatant flouting of its responsibilities to enforce critically important immigration laws as evidenced by policy memos that make it clear that the entire chain of command starting with the President and flowing through key members of his cabinet including the DHS, and agency I have come to refer to as the “Department of Homeland Surrender” will not only ignore the presence of illegal aliens in the United States and in hundreds of thousands of ongoing deportation cases, terminate those hearings but also seek to provide these foreign nationals whose very presence in our country represents a violation of our laws, with employment authorization!
Furthermore, the President, members of his cabinet and a number of “leaders” in both houses of Congress and even some GOP candidates for the Presidency have openly called for providing unknown millions of illegal aliens with pathways to “United States citizenship.”
Before we go any further you must consider that this sort of purported “prosecutorial discretion” as the administration has come to refer to it, is not really prosecutorial discretion at all, but actually represents a violation of our laws as do promises of pathways to citizenship for illegal aliens as espoused by politicians who, by virtue of the authority they wield in the legislative process.
The point is that a case could be made that the policies of the administration and promises of pathways to United States citizenship for illegal aliens, encourage and induce aliens to violate our nation’s borders and to remain in the United States thereafter in violation of law with the hope that if these “leaders” deliver on their promises that aliens who violate our borders and manage to hide in plain sight for a long enough period of time will be rewarded for their violations of our nation’s borders and laws.
Of course I am not holding my breath, waiting for Eric Holder’s Justice Department to prosecute the President or members of the Congress who promise pathways to United Stats citizenship for illegal aliens. After all, it is Holder who is suing the States of Arizona and Alabama for daring to enact their own immigration laws that largely parallel federal immigration statutes while doing nothing about “sanctuary cities” that essentially shield and harbor illegal aliens within their jurisdictions further encouraging still more aliens to run our nation’s borders.
Here are the statutes under the Immigration and Nationality Act that address the issues of concealing, harboring, encouraging or inducing aliens to enter the United States in violation of law or reside within the United States thereafter in reckless disregard of their violations of law:
Title 8, U.S.C.
Encouraging/Inducing – Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) makes it an offense for any person who – encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law.
Conspiracy/Aiding or Abetting – Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(v) expressly makes it an offense to engage in a conspiracy to commit or aid or abet the commission of the foregoing offenses.
Here is the link to this section of law in its entirety.
What is also extremely important to understand is that our nation’s immigration laws are among the most important laws the United States or, in fact, any nation can enforce. The goal of these laws is to prevent the entry of aliens (foreign nationals) into a country whose presence would be harmful to that nation or its citizens or even pose a threat to national security.
Indeed, aliens who run our nation’s borders pose a threat to national security and public safety. The inspections process that they evade is conducted to prevent the entry of aliens into our country whose presence in our country would be problematic for our nation and our citizens and lawful immigrants and might even pose a threat to their very lives! This is not mere conjecture on my part but is based on my 30 year career with the INS, having spent the first 4 of those years as an Immigration Inspector assigned to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
First of all, an alien who runs our nation’s border leaves no record of his (her) entry into the United States, this in and of itself poses a serious problem for law enforcement authorities and creates a significant vulnerability for our nation.
Second it is important to consider the section of law contained in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that addresses the categories of aliens who are to be excluded from the United States.
Title 8, United States Code section 212 is that section of law that enumerates the various categories of aliens who, under the INA, are supposed to be prevented from entering the United States and are supposed to be removed if they are found here:
Here is a link to that section of law:
http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-1956.html
Please take the time to review the contents of this section of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
Among the categories of aliens who are supposed to be kept out of the United States are aliens with dangerous communicable diseases, aliens who suffer serious mental illness and are prone to violence, aliens who are convicted felons, aliens who fugitives from justice in other countries, aliens who are human traffickers and drug smugglers, aliens who are war criminals and aliens who have committed human rights violations. Also aliens who are engaged in terrorism and espionage are among those who are, by law, supposed to be prevented from entering our country and are supposed to be removed if they manage to evade the Border Patrol and enter the United States.
Last month I wrote a commentary for the CAPS website that was entitled:
“Do We Still Need Our Armed Forces When We Don’t Secure Our Own Borders?”
Here is a link to that commentary:
http://www.caps-blog.org/articles/2011/08/06/do-we-still-need-our-armed-forces-when-we-don%E2%80%99t-secure-our-own-
The point is that border security and the effective enforcement of our immigration laws need to be understood for what they are- adjuncts to the efforts of our military to safeguard our nation and our citizens. The goal of the military is to keep our enemies far from our shores. Failing to secure our borders undermines the efforts of our valiant members of our nation’s armed forces!
Furthermore, many hundreds of American cities are now infested by members of the Mexican cartels and numerous transnational gangs and criminal organizations from virtually across the world who are of every race, religion and ethnicity. Contrary to the dangerous game of false allegations played by the President and others who are want to provide pathways of citizenship to millions of aliens whose true identities are unknown and unknowable and hence pose a severe threat to national security and public safety, this is not about race or xenophobia. This is about commonsense. The responsible homeowner who insists on looking through the peephole before admitting a stranger into his (her) home is not antisocial but prudent!
Finally, with all of the talk about creating jobs- why has no one mentioned the need to liberate jobs- jobs taken by illegal aliens whose goal is to send as much of their earnings out of the United States back to their families in their home countries. I would remind you that prior to the Second World the enforcement and administration of our nation’s immigration laws was under the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor. The concern was that a massive influx of foreign workers would undermine American workers and not only cause a reduction in wages for American workers but might well cause American workers to lose their jobs altogether!
The leaders of our nation during that era that we wistfully now refer to as the “Greatest Generation” understood that America’s future would be brightest if the greatest numbers of our fellow citizens had opportunities to be rewarded for getting good educations, acquiring skills and trades and working hard. We are often told that America was built by the immigrants. Certainly immigrants played a major role, but what made this country unique was our disproportionately large Middle Class (when compared with other countries).
Today our nation and our citizens are suffering under the highest unemployment rates since the Depression and yet there are still politicians calling for the admission of still more so-called “temporary” foreign workers on various visa programs such as the H-1B visa for “high-tech” workers while Americans with the very same skills remain unemployed or underemployed!
Every alien who is granted employment authorization must now be seen as a competitor for a job an out of work American desperately wants and needs to be able to support himself and his family and, perhaps, to prevent the loss of his home to foreclosure.
I am gratified that Senator Grassley and his colleagues in the Senate are demonstrating leadership by speaking up and attempting to make the administration accountable!
Having just alluded to the “Greatest Generation” I sincerely hope that our generation will not be remembered by history as being the “Last Generation!”
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!
I hope you will be listening! (Please tell your friends and neighbors!)
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borders/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/27/obama-flouts-law-with-policy-on-deportations-senat/
Obama flouts law with policy on deportations, senators say
