President Bush recently concluded a trip to South and Central America. His last stop was in Mexico to visit with the new President Felipe Calderon. The continued massive illegal immigration of Mexicans and citizens of other nations passing through Mexico to the United States was naturally an issue. The President took the occasion to champion his call for 'comprehensive legislation' to address the matter. To the surprise of no one, Calderon is not a fan of building a fence on the border to help stop the invasion just as his predecessor Vincente Fox was not. In the far too popular 'Blame America' fashion, Calderon proffered a scenario that the issue is really America’s fault for being the land flowing with milk and honey, and America's responsibility to solve by diverting more of the flow south of our border.
The new Mexican President apparently thinks America should take responsibility for propping up the Mexican economy far beyond the about $60 million in foreign aid we already send them, and the $20 billion illegal immigrants are sending back into Mexico, and about $100 billion already invested in Mexico by American corporations annually that creates jobs and wealth opportunity in Mexico. As Calderon puts it, "We do consider in a respectful way that we may truly stop the migration by building a kilometer of highway in Michoacan or Zacatecas (rather) than 10 kilometers of walls in the border."
Good fences do make good neighbors, and as a product of agricultural upbringing, I also know that fences, or borders, are obliged to be maintained by the parties on each side. Calderon apparently sees it differently. Rather than accepting responsibility for Mexico to be a good neighbor and assist in policing the US-Mexico border, he basically said it's all our fault that we have such a desirable nation, and that if we want to solve the problem then we should take responsibility for growing the Mexican economy (solving their problems of political corruption and crime along the way, too, I suppose) so that his people would be more inclined to stay home.
Calderon could have scored some points had he acknowledged that Mexico has encouraged and promoted illegal migration to the U.S. and that his Administration was going to put an end to that policy. But, he didn’t. Approximately 80% of illegal drugs enter the U.S. across the Mexican border – much of it carried in by illegals to pay their coyotes for transportation and covert entry. Calderon said that’s our fault, too. America needs to shut off the demand. He was also asked how his relatives in the U.S. liked our country, and if they were here legally. Like an experienced politician, he avoided answering the question, saying only "yes, I do have family in the United States, and what I can tell you is that these are people who work and respect that country."
Both the Senate and House are expected to introduce legislation addressing illegal immigration very soon and move bills to the floor quickly. President Bush has called for a “comprehensive” bill on his desk before the August recess. As one who has been there before, and knows the players involved, my guess is that they’re about to give away the family jewels.
Ted Kennedy is widely reported to be crafting his latest ‘amnesty’ bill, and this time not even including his partner in citizenship give-away, John McCain, though the would be next President from Arizona is expected to sign on with Kennedy again. Once Kennedy has sufficiently stuffed his legislation full of goodies for illegals at the expense of law abiding Americans, the Rule of Law, and our Constitution, he’ll let Nancy Pelosi in on his masterpiece. A House version to compliment Kennedy’s bill will be introduced probably by John Conyers, the Democrat Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, or perhaps Pelosi herself.
This legislation will be weak on border security and law enforcement, as the previous Kennedy-McCain legislation was from the 109th Congress. The cornerstone of the legislation will not be about protecting our borders, it will be an amnesty plan (they’ll call it ‘guest worker’) that will almost surely include a smooth sailing path to citizenship.
You'll hear loads of talk about hard working folks who are an integral part of our economy. About how difficult the problem is to resolve any other way but to blink, pretend our laws don't matter, and imagine that there is no real threat to our nation's security. In the blink of an eye, the Democrat majority in Congress will approve this latest give-away of America.
For a very concise and real description of the nature of our problem on our borders, read the account of my former legislative aide on immigration, Joe Varley, elsewhere in this issue of A Line of Sight. You'll quickly understand that this is not simply a few desperate individuals doing what’s necessary to find honest work to feed their family. This is an invasion. It is organized, it is often armed, it has become the method of choice for the drug cartel to transport poison into America, and it threatens who and what we are as a nation.
Sadly, our priorities are misplaced. While Congress and the President talk of amnesty for illegals, two Border Patrol Agents have been prosecuted, convicted and jailed for doing their job to secure our southern border. Congress should demand, and the President should grant a pardon for BP Agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, and restore some common-sense to immigration enforcement.
I am absolutely convinced that illegal immigration needs to be handled in a sequential manner, rather than this ‘comprehensive’ approach that Bush and Kennedy favor. It’s a simple argument to make. If you’re drowning, the first order of business is to shut off the water. We have been unable, unwilling, or both, to secure our borders for decades. Everyone recognizes the ‘magnets’ that draw people to America: jobs, education, healthcare, food, birthright citizenship for their kids, etc. Plus, virtually no serious threat to their existence once they are here because some cities even operate as “sanctuaries”. The worst thing that can happen even if they are picked up for being here illegally is to be sent back home – at American taxpayer expense – so they can turn around and enter illegally again.
Before any discussion happens about dealing with the estimated twelve million illegal immigrants in this country, we must secure the borders. Failure to do that will create the greatest incentive ever to continue illegal entry, and we have evidence to substantiate this fact. During the couple of weeks of discussion and debate prior to the Senate’s passage of the Kennedy-McCain amnesty plan in the last Congress, our own Border Patrol reported a 500% increase in attempted crossings in the El Paso, Texas area. If you think we have a leak in our bucket now, what Congress and the President are about to do will rupture the dam!
We need more manpower that is properly equipped, armed and supported by the Administration and Congress to do their job. In areas where a physical barrier is needed to secure our borders, by all means, we should build a fence. As Mr. Varley explains in his article, the addition of a fence helped reduce annual apprehensions near San Diego from 524,231 to 126,908. Technology will help and we have made progress with cameras, aircraft, intelligence equipment, etc. but America woefully under equips the border patrol. It is an abomination that the U.S. Border Patrol has to outfit themselves with night vision goggles seized from smugglers to do their job.
Still, we need an immigrant labor force...
We do need an immigrant labor force to continue to power the world’s largest economy. But, it must be legal. On that point, virtually everyone agrees. Some would make it legal by simply declaring it so – amnesty. I prefer a different, more common-sense law abiding solution.
First, you have to stop the problem. Without securing the border and insuring that tomorrow and everyday thereafter massive numbers of people will continue to enter illegally, you only kick the can down the road. America did that with the 1986 Amnesty Plan and look where we are!
As the border is secured, a new system of identification and processing of legal immigrants needs to be developed and enacted. This would take advantage of 21st century technology – and I believe private enterprise solutions – so that we have identification that cannot be counterfeited, and a process that manages the flow of people to the U.S. accurately including the orderly management of a flexible workforce that expands and contracts with the needs of the economy.
At a date in the future -- I hope it's soon -- when the border is secure and a new identification system is developed, we should establish a point in time whereby all employees will need to verify their status (citizen or legal alien) and all employers will have to demonstrate verification of their employees. Obviously, this requirement will have to be strictly enforced and be subject to substantial penalty unlike the current environment.
What happens with the estimated twelve million that are now here illegally? Pretty obviously, if they can’t demonstrate legal status, and their employer is subject to substantial penalty for failure to comply with the identification laws, then they go home.
Once back home, they may choose to get in line for legal immigration, pass a background check, a health exam, pay fines as may be determined by Congress, and if we have determined that we have need for them in the workforce, they get a new fool proof identity card and start over.
Employers may say they can't take the disruption to their workforce for this 'cleansing' process to work. Remember that by this time there will be a new immigration processing system. It should take days – weeks at the most – to process a legal immigration application. The years of waiting, uncertainty, and delay of the present system is completely unacceptable, and must be changed. Employers should demand from the government access to a legal workforce in a timely manner.
When a customer exits any Wal-Mart with roll of paper towels, the item is scanned and immediately they know at the distribution center and in Bentonville, Ark. that inventory has changed by one and a sale is recorded. Billions of financial transactions occur daily across the globe virtually instantaneously, accurately, and seamlessly.
Not only does the technology exist, but the people who know how to build and operate a 21st century security system are among us as well. One of them is Jack Harper who lives in Evergreen and has a distinguished career in identification security systems world-wide. A Line of Sight invited Mr. Harper to offer his insight and recommendations for solutions to our readers. Enjoy his thoughtful commentary that follows.
Identity theft is real, and it may have already happened to you.
We’ve all heard tales of stolen identity and what a growing problem it is. It is typically connected to illegal immigration – somebody needs a fake identification to get a job – and/or to crime – with a credit card, social security, or bank account number they suck you dry in a hurry.
A friend and former employee of mine recently emailed the following horrifying personal experience. I won’t disclose her name, because as you’ll see, she’s already had her identity violated enough.
There are at least two problems here: obviously the crime committed against my friend, but also the lack of attention and intervention by the government even once they know the problem exists. Be on watch, it can happen to you. Here’s her story:
"You are never going to believe what has happened to me. I had needed to talk to the IRS about some personal issues so I called them about 2 weeks ago now. In that conversation with them, it came out that my social security number has been being used by a person in San Jose, CA for employment!! The amazing thing about it is that his company has been reporting wages for him under my social security number to the IRS for 5 YEARS and has not paid any taxes!!!! The IRS has it on their computer, right in front of them, and 2 weeks ago was the first I had ever heard about this. I was SO angry on so many levels! And no one seems to be able to do anything about it... that is the extraordinary thing. I mean we keep hearing that ID theft is so important and fed/local government are doing everything in their power to stop it... but the IRS had it right in front of them for 5 YEARS and did nothing and the Fed Trade Commission and the local government basically said there was not a whole lot they could do. VERY FRUSTRATING!!! This is just unbelievable to me."