Posted on 09/19/2002 7:41:32 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
A year after the attack on this nation, nothing much has been done to address the menace of our immigration policies. Here's a quick look at the abysmal situation, as it now exists.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service remains the same dysfunctional agency it long has been. Blithely ignoring the threats to this nation, it has been issuing visas to thousands of people from the very nations that stand opposed to our taking any action against Iraq or dismembering al Qaeda.
In the past year - under pressure from various elements of our economy more interested in money than national security - the INS has issued more than a million visas to anyone describing themselves as tourists, students, businessmen, agricultural workers, and other categories that pop open the door to the U.S.
Insanely, both leading Democrats and the White House keep pushing for yet another amnesty that would cover millions more illegal immigrants residing here. Every one of those previously granted amnesty have since been replaced by new illegal immigrants.
Our borders are literally indefensible at this point. We have two few personnel to adequately guard the Canadian and Mexican borders.
In her excellent book, "Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to\b Our Shores,"" syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin points out, "There are currently fewer than four hundred Border Patrol agents along the four-thousand-mile border between Canada and the United States-less than one agent for every ten miles. Although there are an estimated nine to eleven million illegal aliens living in the United States, the INS has only twenty thousand detention beds for illegal aliens awaiting deportation, and fewer than two thousand agents assigned to interior enforcement."
The INS routinely releases those scheduled for deportation "on their own recognizance," rather than hold them in detention. And they disappear back into the population.
This nation still does not have a secure way, nor mandate, to check the nationality of those who apply for a driver's license. Indeed, in many states you do not have to prove you're an American to secure a driver's license or even to vote! T
he Mexican government now issues an ID card to its citizens that is routinely accepted as valid proof of identity by U.S. banks and state government agencies.
The economy is tanking, unemployment is rising, and hundreds of thousands of U.S. high-tech workers continue to be replaced by Third World programmers, many of whom are paid in their home country and thus completely circumvent paying U.S. taxes.
We are paying a price for too many myths about immigration. There was a reason why Emma Lazarus's poem spoke of "the wretched refuse of your teeming shore" because, indeed, that's what showed up.
Generally unknown is the fact that, between the Revolution and 1965, one third of all those who did arrive ultimately returned to their home countries.
In a brilliant analysis of the history of American immigration, Robert Locke noted that after the American Revolution, fully two generations passed before the next major wave of immigrants arrived, and they were mostly the Irish fleeing the great famine in their homeland.
After the Irish, the 1800s recorded waves of immigrants, but, as Locke points out, immigration was never a constant flow.
Instead, it was in response to unrest throughout Europe and leading up to the Russian revolution in 1917. In 1924, accurately noting that too many new arrivals were often deeply committed to communism and that the nation could no longer absorb great waves of new immigrants, Congress closed the doors by setting quotas that allowed the new immigrants time to be integrated into American society.
The 1921-24 cuts in immigration led to a reduction of the poverty rate because it cut off the supply of cheap labor, leading to a rise in average wages.
American cities, relieved of the problems involved in absorbing millions of immigrants, were free to create a middle-class residential society and, in time, the immigrants began to transform themselves into Americans, absorbing the values of the nation and shuffling off those of the Old World.
America needs to put the brakes on our out-of-control immigration policies that threaten our national security, our economy, our educational and health systems, and the safety of our streets.
It is time to slam the door shut. It is time to find and deport illegal aliens. The nation needs time to assimilate our most recent immigrants. It is time to stop putting out the welcome mat for people who want to do this nation harm.
(Alan Caruba writes "Warning Signs," a weekly column posted at the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center. He is the author of a pocket guide, "America: A Nation Without Borders!" available from the Center.)
The INS does not issue visas, that would be the State Department. Seems our reporter needs to do a little more research.
In the past year - under pressure from various elements of our economy more interested in money than national security - the INS has issued more than a million visas to anyone describing themselves as tourists, students, businessmen, agricultural workers, and other categories that pop open the door to the U.S.
Wrong again, the INS has not issued a single visa in it's existence.
Insanely, both leading Democrats and the White House keep pushing for yet another amnesty that would cover millions more illegal immigrants residing here. Every one of those previously granted amnesty have since been replaced by new illegal immigrants.
That would be the fault of Congress, not the INS.
Our borders are literally indefensible at this point. We have two few personnel to adequately guard the Canadian and Mexican borders.
Once again, that blame lands at the feet of Congress, not the INS.
In her excellent book, "Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to\b Our Shores,"" syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin points out, "There are currently fewer than four hundred Border Patrol agents along the four-thousand-mile border between Canada and the United States-less than one agent for every ten miles. Although there are an estimated nine to eleven million illegal aliens living in the United States, the INS has only twenty thousand detention beds for illegal aliens awaiting deportation, and fewer than two thousand agents assigned to interior enforcement."
Again, that's the fault of Congress, not the INS.
The INS routinely releases those scheduled for deportation "on their own recognizance," rather than hold them in detention. And they disappear back into the population.
Maybe Congress could give the INS some more detention space.
This nation still does not have a secure way, nor mandate, to check the nationality of those who apply for a driver's license. Indeed, in many states you do not have to prove you're an American to secure a driver's license or even to vote!
Blame the States, not INS.
The Mexican government now issues an ID card to its citizens that is routinely accepted as valid proof of identity by U.S. banks and state government agencies.
Blame the Mexican Government, not the INS.
The economy is tanking, unemployment is rising, and hundreds of thousands of U.S. high-tech workers continue to be replaced by Third World programmers, many of whom are paid in their home country and thus completely circumvent paying U.S. taxes.
More blame for Congress.
We need to replace Congress, not the INS.
The CIA and FBI did not fail us on 9-11, our congressional leaders did.
They alone are responsible, yet they hold hearings galore to blame others!
If a liberal PC a@@ hole or a CAIR representative would object, calling such a decision a religion profiling? The answer should be if we stopped all airplanes, friends and foes, we should be able to stop all Moslems from getting into this country! At least until we purge out the terrorist cells within this country.
The good old days when even if immigrants themselves were not eager to assimilate, then the rest of society made sure that they got assimilated. Now we do just the opposite, encouraging them to hang onto their old cultural ways or even provide little incentive to learn English! That's the perfect way to have a fragmented country with no conception of citizenship.
If I may ask, what do you do at the Embassy?
I was a Marine Security Guard in Calcutta and Hong Kong.
Bush has the helm now and he's done nothing, absolutely nothing to correct the problems.
I completely agree.
Jorge? Naw, can't be!!
That would generate lawsuits. The borders should be absolutely closed to anyone who enters the country without permission.
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