The Wall
By: Jason Hastings
I know that a blog entry on building THE WALL between the US and Mexico is passé but I honestly think that the issue will arise again around the November election time. And I would also like to note that in all of the border discussion, I haven’t heard the issue of street drugs being raised. If the right wing is so morally outraged about street drugs in this country how come they haven’t mentioned the affects THE WALL will have in helping to reduce drug trafficking?
We need THE WALL. THE WALL will improve the life of Hispanics on both sides of the border. Don’t dismiss this rant as racism. That is the liberal way of silencing their critics and cowering away from logical discussions on the issues. I am not racist against Hispanics. I am married to a native Mexican (now a naturalized citizen) and that makes our three kids half-Mexican. I have traveled extensively in Chihuahua and love my family down there. We have also adopted a Mexican girl. I guess you can accuse us of tokenism. We only adopted one child.
Why we need to build THE WALL:
1. Illegal immigration is against the law. Can we not forget that simple fact? A wall will help enforce laws that our legislators lack the political courage to put in force.
2. Homeland Security/Terrorism issues. We have political enemies on our own soil who are plotting to kill Americans. Most got here by simply overstaying their visas. But we can assume that many are simply crossing the unguarded borders of Mexico and Canada. Let’s start with a wall on the southern border. I will discuss the Canada argument later.
3. Domestic economic and social issues-Illegal immigration affects our economy in complex ways. Some affects are positive, some negative. Many illegals are hard workers that bring cheap produce to our tables and perform a lot of other physical labor Americans think is beneath them. But I don’t believe the argument that they are taking American jobs (more on this later). On the bad side, illegals are using up assets from hospitals, police departments, jails and other limited social resources. They also tend to make their employers lazy and less competitive. If you have a cheap labor source, you don’t have to stay competitive with new technology. That is one of the problems facing California’s economy. California is not modernizing along with the other states that do not have this cheap, illegal labor source.
4. Mexican political reform. The porous border is an international problem. Mexico is a corrupt kleptocracy and we are their enablers. Life in Mexico is very austere for a sizable portion of their population. The open border gives these disenchanted citizens the option of merely leaving for a better life rather than staying home and forcing political reforms. We need a wall along the Mexican border so that life will improve for the average Mexican in Mexico. That way the average Mexican would be more content at home.
5. It would improve the life of the immigrants who are already here. Europeans quickly assimilated into this country because they had no choice. They didn’t have the easy option of rotating home every few months. The illegals are not assimilating. The liberal multi-culturalists don’t like to admit it but the sooner you assimilate into the American way of life, the better off your standard of living. An immigrant needs to learn to speak the native language, get an education, become self-reliant, learn the culture, obey the rule of law, participate in democracy, and give back to their adopted country. Instead the immigrant tends to cluster in communities of other illegals. This turns into a subculture on the fringes of society. They are less likely to call the police when they are victimized because they are either afraid of being deported or just naturally suspicious of anybody in uniform. This makes them easy prey for criminals and our crime rates go up.
6. Street Drugs. And finally the issue that everyone overlooks. The Mexican border is a sieve for marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and other street drugs. If the right wing was serious about fighting the War on Drugs, THE WALL would certainly help turn off that spigot of dope.
Arguments against THE WALL-
It would be pointless, we already have at least 15 million illegals in the country and we can’t possibly deport them. Sure we can. Seal the border, conduct raids on known illegal communities, and then continue deporting others that you come across during normal circumstances such as police arrests. Deny them access to social programs (hospitals, schools, public assistance) and make it harder for them to work by issuing fines and jail terms to their employees. Give them 90 days to go home voluntarily and file to re-enter legally or be permanently banned. Many that you don’t catch will attrit back to Mexico by themselves.
We are a nation of immigrants. I don’t see the relevance of that argument. Every nation is a nation of immigrants; everybody came from somewhere. What’s your point? And if that argument was relevant, it doesn’t apply here. A large majority of us are now native born. We might have been a nation of immigrants one hundred years ago when our European ancestors where coming over, but that was a long time ago and most of them were legal.
You will also have to build a wall to the north with Canada. And if we built one there, terrorists and drug smugglers would use boats. We don’t have millions of Canadians crossing and a corrupted Canadian government to deal with. Let’s deal with the biggest problem first and then see how that affects the northern border.
They do jobs Americans won’t do. That is true up to a point. Americans take jobs based on the pay. If someone offered you $40/hour to pick lettuce you would probably quit your present job and do it. But you won’t do it at $2/hour. Immigrants are taking jobs at low immigrant wages. If you remove them from the marketplace the wages will rise to the point that American laborers will become interested. If it rises too high for the farmer to make a profit, someone will invent a machine to replace the workers. And if we absolutely need the cheaper labor, we can issue seasonal work visas.
The immigrants have human rights and Constitutional rights. They do have human rights. But all that means is that they should be treated with respect when they are arrested and deported. But they do not have Constitutional rights.
Other considerations about THE WALL
We need to immediately change the anchor baby rule. Where did the concept of every child that is born in the US automatically granted citizenship? Some say it was a misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment. End birthright citizenship now. At least one parent needs to be a legal resident.
Both our political parties lack the courage to enforce current immigration laws. They both see millions of immigrants as cheap labor for their constituents now and potential voters after amnesty. And there is a certain twisted political logic for not solving this problem. They can continue to get political mileage out of it. The republicans can claim they are concerned and appeal to our patriotism. The democrats use the race card and claim racism, and also work to expand government assistance programs. So the bottom line is that our esteemed statesmen are sacrificing the rule of law in this country for political gain. Many of us are tired of our spineless lawmakers. This has resulted in public protests against the illegals and the rise of the citizen’s border militia in Arizona. This ought to be a wake up call to our insulated and clueless lawmakers.
Last but not least, I really hate seeing illegal immigrants protesting in this country for rights they are not entitled to. If they want to protest, they need to return home and protest the policies of their own government. This is their real enemy. Their own government that is so corrupt that they see their only option as to leave and become lawbreakers here in the US. But they won’t protest at home. They know there is a good chance that they will be beaten, thrown in jail without due process, and possibly killed by their own government. It is safe to protest in the US where they risk only tear gas and a short stay in jail. Cowards.
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