Build that wall!

DISASTROUS PITFALLS OF A POROUS SOUTHERN BORDER

Arizona's KVOA photo

By Nancy Thorner & Bonnie O'Neil - 

Why are our elected officials not adequately protecting our borders?  Why do we allow a single person to cross into the United States who has not gone through our stated immigration procedures? 

There is a process to follow, and our elected officials should not allow a single illegal immigrant entry through the back door. Those who show up at border crossings without proper paperwork should be denied entry until they have gone through an established vetting process and then required to wait their turn.  To do otherwise allows these undocumented individuals to take the place of others who have honored our laws and procedures by applying and waiting their turn.  We are losing control by allowing so many immigrants into our nation who have not been thoroughly or properly vetted and/or have no desire to assimilate.This is also a disservice to our nation’s people. 

Our flawed visa system

We likewise have a visa problem. According to Department of Homeland Security data released on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018, more than 600,000 foreign travelers -- including visas granted to students -- who legally entered the United States in 2017 overstayed their visas and remained in the country by the end of the year.  This marks the second straight year when more than 600,000 visitors stayed past the expiration of their visa, turning them

into undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation. 

In response to the terrorist attacks in 2001 and how four of the terrorists being visa over stayers, the 9/11 Commission recommended a biometric entry/exit system which Congress approved and streamlined in 2004. Since then, Congress has appropriated funds for the it six times, and yet we have no system in place.  This is inexcusable.  A biometric entry/exit system is a must to keep better tabs on those entering the country and reduce the number of Visa over stayers.

The scourge of human traffickers

There is ample proof that many who use the backdoor method of entry are those who would be red flagged if they were forced to use the required procedure.  A more thorough investigation by our officials would discover they have been accused or convicted of crimes in their country of origin as drug dealers, smugglers, gang members, and/or human traffickers.  These people are clever.  A common ploy is to claim to be a family at the border, when the truth is men are smuggling young girls and women into America for the highly profitable crime of prostitution.  

Thousands of young women who have been forced into prostitution once they arrive in America eventually become pregnant as victims of lose border restrictions. When that happens, these young girls are forced to have an abortion by their “Handlers” and are taken to one of our many Planned Parenthood facilities for the “procedure.”   These clinics are safe for “handlers” because no questions are asked.  Handlers claim the victim (woman) is their girlfriend and no attempt is made to ask questions that might allow the young woman to share the truth.  It is not unusual for these “trapped” young prostitutes to end up with multiple pregnancies, which are quickly terminated each time by an abortion.

The humane thing to do would be to force all who enter illegally to go through the proper government verification service.  Even so, too many judges and Democrat leaders have more compassion for foreigners, even those who come illegally through our borders, than they do in protecting our citizens and/or the chance that some young girls and women may be brought by traffickers.   A recent case in point is a San Diego judge who once again froze family deportations, wanting to allow separated migrant children to pursue their own asylum claims in the United States, rather than be deported with their parents.  What are the ages of these children, and how does this judge know whether some of these young girls are being “trafficked?”  

Southern CA/Arizona as entry for unprecedented number of illegals

An unprecedented number of foreigners have been allowed entry at our southern California/Arizona borders for decades, with the excuse these “illegal immigrants” were necessary to America because they were the only ones who would pick our strawberries or do other jobs Americans would not take.  Consumers were warned that without these foreign workers strawberries would cost 10 times as much.   In retrospect that would have been a bargain.  Although no exact figures exist, we know those here illegally often commit crimes, and the cost to incarcerate them is shocking.  When caught in a crime they are often given probation, thanks to our compassionate judges, skillful lawyers, and pro-immigration groups who represent them.

Supporters of keeping U.S. immigration at high levels argue, with apparently convincing evidence, that immigrants as a group are no more crime-prone than the native-born.  On Tuesday, August 21, 2018, an illegal immigrant was charged with first degree murder in the disappearance and death of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts. Yet such an appraisal invites an age-old question, what's wrong with this picture?  The explanation is that that much of the crime is not being reported.  As immigrants are often victims of crimes committed by fellow immigrants, they are often too scared, bound by custom, or fearful of deportation to report the crime.  Also, FBI's crime figures reflect state and local crime reports, which often omit any mention of an offender's national identity.  

A study concluded a few years ago shows one inmate in a California prison for one-year costs $71,000.00.  Some estimate the cost today is now even higher.  As to the welfare programs illegals benefit from, the shocking national cost of illegal immigrants to Americans is estimated at a whopping $134,863,455,364 a year.  Total taxes paid by these illegals is $18,968,857,700.  That means illegal aliens are costing our nation $116 billion a year.  

Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, believes that  a border wall would be a bargain.  If a border wall prevented 160,000 to 200,000 illegal crossings (excluding descendants) in the next 10 years it would be enough to pay for the estimated $12 to $15 billion costs of the wall.  Even Cato Agrees: A Border Wall Can Pay for Itself.

The Opioid crisis involves porous Mexican border

The fentanyl that has taken over American's drug market, begins in China, flows through Mexico and into the U.S.  This pipeline funnels 80 percent of the drug through the San Diego border before dispersing throughout the U.S.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2016 fentanyl-type drugs were responsible for killing nearly 20,000 people in this nation, and now the figure is much higher.  Fentanyl is so potent that the equivalent of a few grains of table salt can be fatal.  Mexican drug cartels often take bulk pure fentanyl from China and then cut it with any number of substances, from heroin to cocaine to methamphetamine to cheap fillers such as sugar and acetaminophen.  First developed in 1960 as a powerful painkiller and surgery anesthetic without the side effect of nausea, fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and up to 50 times stronger than heroin.  

Few would deny that our judicial and immigration systems are broken.  We need to speak up and demand our long-established immigration laws be strictly enforced and that chain migration, citizen birth and the lottery systems be abandoned to protect our own citizens from those who come here with an agenda to deliberately harm us. Most Democrats like it that way as a ploy to swell their voter base -- finding ways to justify protecting those here illegally and making it harder to deport them, even when they commit crimes in this nation -- as do many establishment Republicans who are beholden to the Business Round Table, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Koch Brothers for a cheap and constant supply off labor.  And why wouldn’t immigrants crash our borders with little fear of retribution?   Those who know they would never be able to gain entrance legally, due to past or current crimes, will sneak in illegally or travel through specific borders where there are few or no barriers impede them.  They also have nothing to lose in trying.  If caught they are simply sent back to try again, and most succeed. Without proper vetting or required paperwork criminals are entering our nation and traveling freely throughout our country, as has been happening for decades.  

Court hearing not respected by illegals

One of the major unspoken issues regarding immigration policy is how illegals skip court hearings, disappear into the shadows, and the government has no idea where they are.  Whatever the laws on the books, even the most basic regulations are completely unobserved.  Accordingly, whenever you hear congressmen assuring you that illegals will have to jump through certain regulatory hoops to get citizenship or legal status, you shouldn't believe them, as the regulations they are supposed to obey now don't. 

As reported by the Trump administration on August 16, 2018, on any given day nearly 20 illegal immigrant children skip their deportation hearings and disappear into the shadows, putting contours on the difficulty the government faces in trying to stop the flow and protect the children.  Moreover, more than 200,000 of the juveniles, referred to as Unaccompanied Alien Children, have been released into communities in recent years and remain there, many ignoring deportation orders.

This nation’s liberal welfare apparatus for illegals

Our welfare apparatus is more liberal than that of any of the European democracies.  It has reached the point that the rights and privileges accorded to citizens, illegal aliens and legal immigrants are nearly the same, and citizenship has become nearly meaningless. If the Democrats have their way, ICE and borders would be eliminated which would result in unlimited immigration and the ruining of America beyond redemption.  It is not surprising that our Founders were fervent immigration restrictionists. They had just fought a bloody, protracted and expensive war to establish a nation built upon a new paradigm and were determined to protect what they had achieved from the influence of foreign populations with different political systems and cultural practices. In 1790, nearly two centuries after the first settlers arrived, just 0.3% of the population were identified as other than descendants of Northern European peoples, aside from the African slaves. Becoming a citizen in the early days was quite difficult. A person had to reside in the US for 14 years and declare their intent 5 years prior to applying for naturalization.

While we are a compassionate people and may have sympathy for those who want a better life in America, we should not have any misplaced sympathy for those who ignore our immigration laws and procedures to enter illegally.  Unless “we the people” speak out against this, and insist everyone must have the proper identification, go through the required procedures and processing, and qualify to enter the U.S.A. with proper documentation, these practices will continue and worsen every year.

Americans need to understand that too many legal immigrants from one region, country, or ethnicity which is opposes our historical norms cripples our country’s ability to have a future that stays faithful to our past. In this way, unchecked immigration can literally and quickly alter the course of America.