Shakespeare notwithstanding, the “original” H.R. 2, Secure the Border Act of 2023 made it through the House, but can common sense provisions for securing our nation’s border become law and be enforced amid ever widening Party Politics? FAIR (The Federation for American Immigration Reform) supports HR2, a rational way to combat the border crisis, address its economic catastrophe and stem the flow of millions of unvetted illegal migrants, and with that those who are involved in trafficking sex, drugs and terrorism.
H.R. 2 Basics
The Secure the Border Act enacts effective border security solutions, including:
1. Requiring the Department of Homeland Security to resume border wall construction.
2. Increasing the number of Border Patrol Agents.
3. Tightening asylum standards by restricting asylum to only aliens who present at ports of entry and by requiring aliens to prove they are “more likely than not” to qualify for their asylum claim.
4. Narrowing DHS’s power to unilaterally grant parole to illegal aliens.
5. Criminalizing visa overstays by making the first offense a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and the second offense a felony punishable by up to a $2,000 fine and up to two years imprisonment.
6. Stopping NGOs from using tax dollars to transport or lodge illegal aliens and provide illegal aliens with lawyers.
7. Restricting DHS from using its CBP One app to welcome illegal aliens into the country.
8. Requiring employers to use E-Verify.
9. Ensuring CBP has access to the criminal history databases of all countries of origin and transit so that CBP is aware of the criminal history of illegal aliens encountered at the southern border.
https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-introduces-senate-companion-to-house-passed-secure-the-border-act
My Journey
I did some reconnaissance the day before November 8th, Lobby Day in Washington D.C. This is the “state-of-our-union:”
As I hiked the DC mall, I asked a worker at the National Museum of American History in what direction the Lincoln Memorial was located. She emphatically responded, “I have no idea.”
I asked a college-aged student food vendor, “Hi, I’m looking for the Vietnam War memorial … “
She responded, “Is that in Capitol Hill?”
I pointed, “It’s in that direction. I was wondering which side of the lake was more direct.”
She used her phone, and then showed me the screen directions. It was about 300 yards away to the left.
A male riding a bike did not know the location of the iconic statue of WWII Marines raising the US flag on Mount Suribachi. He admitted it was embarrassing but he shrugged his shoulders and said he just could not get his “companion” to take him to see the sights.
Of many typical responses from the general public, I suspect these local individuals likely heard of Abraham Lincoln but none of them probably heard of Vietnam no less Iwo Jima. Unfortunately, I fear, it is the same for half of Congress as well.
At The Capitol
When I finally got to speak with New York and Maine “clerks” of Senators and Representatives, I voiced my concern for the previous day’s adventures and continued extrapolating with my open-border concerns along with my FAIR associate from Maine, the Hon. Lawrence Lockman. Larry brought up specific illegal migrant issues in his state as well as the southern border crisis in general.
I expressed that I come from New York City where students at Columbia University believe men can have babies, taxpayers fund dancing transvestites in the children’s libraries, if someone pushes your mother on the subway tracks they are released from prison the next day, and my NY Representative here at Capitol Hill pushes to lower the voting age to 16.
I explained how the flawed hypocritical character of politicians reeks when exposed to an issue that affects them personally. Suddenly, the aforementioned NY congressperson did not agree with the party line like the rest of the marionettes.
When the same “Asian” House Representative from NYC was faced with the ending of specialized testing for entrance into the city’s elite High Schools, she blasted then-Mayor De Blasio. One in each of the five boroughs, these coveted schools admit a high percentage of Asian students.
Suddenly, “Diversity-fairness” became “Merit-fairness” because it is not fair that hard-working students should have to give up their High School entrance chances to lower-performing students.
This, I pointed out, leads us to Responsibility and Conscience. Perhaps for the first time, forced to do what is logically and ethically right, the congresswoman went against party-line absurdity and injustice. She could not bear to sit by and let another racist policy in the guise of “Diversity” stand against not only Asian students but any student who worked the hardest.
“So, here we are, at the southern border,” I asked, “We all have families, you and me, and we know there will be terrorist attacks with the involvement of those from the border invasion. Who will be responsible if it comes back into your life? How will you, or your boss,” I asked the clerks, “justify in your mind that policies, that were obviously going to result in horrors from bombs or sex trafficking or Fentanyl, you supported?”
After a pause, I asked, “Will you claim ignorance, or oh, I voted the party line … or it was Trump? Or do you make yourself believe that your family member is gone, but somehow way in the distant future, the border policy will prove good for society?”
I added that “the argument that some poor mother and child on the news, now living a new life in America is a positive result of the open border, is not a reasonable argument as if that somehow eclipses or justifies the 27,000 pounds of Fentanyl confiscated in the past year alone (enough to kill every person on the planet and we are now on our way at 300 deaths a day), and the millions of unknown anti-American invader ‘gotaways,’ party to many criminal activities.”
To the current administration’s denial as to the seriousness of the border crisis, 26 year Border Patrol veteran Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland uses the simple but truthful cliché, “It’s all smoke and mirrors.”
For further and more detailed information contact:
Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
https://www.fairus.org/about-fair
H.R. 2, Secure the Border Act of 2023
