|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
The Immigration Band-Aid Philip V. Brennan It's a wound that never heals, and whenever we strip off the bandages covering it, we discover that it's gotten much worse since the last time we looked at it. We dither around, try various ointments and salves, listen to a group of would-be healers who disagree among themselves about how to treat it, and when it doesn't respond, we throw up our hands, put another bandage over it, and try to forget that it still hurts. And when the pain finally becomes unbearable, we reluctantly remove the bandage once again look at it, and repeat the previous failed attempts to treat it. We fail because we refuse to look at the reasons why it has resisted all efforts to heal it. The bandage is off once again and the great gaping wound on our body politic — illegal immigration — has attracted the attention of a new bunch of political diagnosticians and alleged healers. They echo the previous claims that they have at last found a lasting cure for the problem — a comprehensive one that will not only heal the wound, but prevent it from recurring. As is always the case, those who approach the problem do so from a series of differing perspectives, among them those who think we simply ought to put the bandages back on and move on to more important things.
One thing everybody agrees on is the severity of the wound. There are, for example, something between 12 and 20 million illegal immigrants living here in the U.S., and God knows how many more are crossing the U.S./Mexico border every day. Some are coming here to find work, others to smuggle illegal drugs, and, God help us, some who plan to bring terrorism to our homeland.
Story Continues Below
According to ImmigrationCounters.com there are now 20,291,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. and according to the Pew Hispanic Center an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 enter the U.S. illegally every year.
The Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform reports "80 percent of cocaine and 50 percent of heroin in the U.S. is smuggled across the border by Mexican nationals. Drug cartels spend a half-billion dollars per year bribing Mexico's corrupt generals and police officials, and armed confrontations between the Mexican army and U.S. Border Patrol agents are a real threat. There have been 118 documented incursions by the Mexican military over the last five years. "Illegal aliens have cost billions of taxpayer-funded dollars for medical services. Dozens of hospitals in Texas, New Mexico Arizona, and California, have been forced to close or face bankruptcy because of federally-mandated programs requiring free emergency room services to illegal aliens. Taxpayers pay half-a-billion dollars per year incarcerating illegal alien criminals." Obviously that's a badly infected wound and it needs to be healed before it gets any worse and kills the America we know.
The Bush administration, unfortunately, is internationalist in their foreign policy. While Mr. Bush does not admit it, his policies show he is dedicated to the ideal his father pronounced when he was president — the establishment of a new world order. It supports unrestricted globalism and its current focus is reportedly on forging a version of the European Union here in the new world by all but abolishing the borders between the U.S. and Mexico and the U.S. and Canada. And doing so behind the scenes. If so, this goes a long way towards explaining President Bush's extreme reluctance to do anything that might displease the oligarchs who rule the Narcorepublic of Mexico. As a result his approach to solving the problem of illegal immigration is to, in effect, do away with the very concept of illegal immigration by waving a magic wand and making the illegals legal with the mere stroke of a pen — in this case by having the Congress pass a bill that accomplishes that feat. The administration refuses to take a realistic view of the root of the problem because the root of the problem is Mexico itself and the very nature of its government, which is nothing less than an oligarchy dedicated to the preservation of the wealth and power of a small elite at the expense of the Mexican people. Those Mexicans who tear themselves away from their homeland to take the risk of illegally sneaking across the border do so out of desperation. In the U.S. there is hope — there are jobs, there are wages that can be sent home to alleviate the misery of their families — in Mexico there is only despair, bribery, corruption, drug wars, and starvation always just around the corner. The estimated $15 billion Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal, send home every year is an important part of the Mexican economy the oligarchs do not want to lose. Illegal immigration costs Americans billions — to Mexico it's a godsend. Moreover, illegal immigration provides an escape valve. It gets rid of that part of its population who would constitute a threat of revolt against their system if illegal immigration was not a possible way out of their misery. Finally, the illegal drug trade is a multibillion dollar part of the Mexican economy and the bribes paid by the drug barons a major part of the compensation of Mexican officials and members of Mexican police and army. So we turn a blind eye to all of this and pretend to seek an answer to the problems it creates for us, most importantly that of millions of impoverished Mexicans flooding across the border or already living here and putting a crushing burden on the American taxpayer. Common sense should tell us that any solution must begin with the most immediate crisis once expressed by President Reagan in his diary when he wrote "We have lost control of our borders." Before we do anything else, we have to do anything and everything to regain control of our borders. Whatever it takes. Sooner or later we need to look at that great horde of illegals now living here, but there's no hurry. Most have been here a long time and dealing with them can wait. We first have to insure that their numbers will no longer be allowed to increase. Shut down the borders to illegals and we'll shut off the escape valve and Mexican officials will be faced with the need to cope with the potential unrest its absence will create. On this side of the border everything possible needs to be done to prosecute those who knowingly employ illegals. Shut off that source of income for the illegals and most will have to go back to Mexico. Having experienced first hand the benefits of the American free enterprise system once back home many will be inspired to seek reforms that eventually the government will have to implement. Finally, the administration must decide to tackle the problem and stop pretending they are dealing with a government that has even the slightest interest in promoting the welfare and interests of its people. It must do everything it can to convince the Mexican elite they must reform — and until they do, make clear that the U.S. will begin to act solely in our own interests, and not in the phantasisms of globalism. In other words, no more Mr. Nice Guy. As Ronald Reagan would have put it: "Put up that wall, Mr. Bush." Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor and publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He can be reached at pvb@pvbr.com
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2008 NewsMax.Com |