Borderline Insanity, by Diane Alden

In Part 1 of Diane's series on Immigration, she presents a truckload of stats on illegals and the problem. Long, and a bit unwieldy at times, but provocative nonetheless.



What do screwball libertarians, the laughable left, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and the Bush administration have in common? They are all wacky on the topic of immigration – legal and illegal. They dance on the thin line between reality and delusion.

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal once called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would drop any pretense at borders and, by extension, U.S. sovereignty and our viability as a nation-state. The Bush administration, the Wall Street Journal and guys like Jack Kemp have little evidence that backs up their claim that unrestricted immigration and open borders would be the best thing since sliced bread and the internal combustion engine.

In a kind of frenzied groupthink they are quick to label critics and immigration realists as racist, nativist, xenophobic, anti-free trade or anti-immigrant. Debate is stifled even when the reform-minded are armed with enough data and unpalatable truths to reach to the moon and back.

Loaded with piles of evidence, immigration realists make a valiant attempt to bust the myth that unrestricted immigration (migration) and porous borders can continue, with no real harm done.

In that regard, it has become obvious to me over the last year that the entire immigration mess is driven by extremely wrong-headed, shortsighted commercial and economic considerations. Also in play is a quixotic post-Cold War attempt to remake the world and human nature through a process of deconstructing the nation-state system. The idea is to reconstruct the entire world system into something else – heaven on earth, I suppose.

Given the evidence that guest worker amnesty/programs in the past have been flops, the response is the same: "We are a dynamic nation that can absorb the world and connect willing workers with willing employers and it won't cost much."

Think again.

Most of us muddle along pretending things are as they always were – business as usual. One would think border anarchy, increase in Third World disease in the U.S., drug cartels, human traffickers, gangs and gang warfare, kidnapping, and the rise of ethnic mafias would provide enough reasons to put a moratorium on immigration and regulate the borders. Additionally, our leaders give no consideration to misuse of work and student visas, bankrupting the states, crime and mayhem, putting up with those who have citizenship in two countries, refugee status given to people who shouldn't have it, along with all the other aberrations.

If Washington were not so insulated from reality, our leaders would recognize this grab bag of chaos and rethink the entire immigration/open borders question.

The opportunity presented itself after 9/11. Commerce and economics, trade and corporate needs, as well as identity group interests, made it impossible to react in a truly rational way. Instead we added another federal agency to the government, thereby creating another opportunity for paper shuffling and throwing money down the bureaucratic rat hole. Sensible provisions for national security and self-interest were not priorities.

Rational leaders would have gone after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, but they would also have ENDED the visa and immigration system as we know it rather than institute pathetic reforms. Someone with intelligence would have demanded demographic profiling, at least by age and gender. Nonetheless, commerce, economics and political correctness trumped national security and continue to do so. Proof is on the way – read on.

A statement from the latest research piece from the Center for Immigration Studies puts it in perspective:

"Put simply, the mere fact that employers want more workers, and foreigners wish to work in this country, does not mean that Americans necessarily benefit from their coming. This fact must be considered when formulating policy." (www.cis.com)

It is all about commerce and economics, which are then rationalized for the public by cloaking them in "compassion." President Bush says that "family values do not stop at the Rio Grande." He also maintains that border jumpers are simply people who want to feed their families. Nonetheless, nearly every government and Census Bureau study on the issue tells us that the VAST majority of border jumpers are young males under 40, poorly educated and single. Some of them also make up approximately 25 to 30 percent of the prison population in the United States.

But that does not seem to make a blip on the "compassion" radar in D.C. as it impacts U.S. citizens and states, which must deal with the problem of illegal and legal immigration. The fact is, if the leadership actually believes the compassion rhetoric, we are in real danger because no one is looking out for us as either citizens or taxpayers. According to Census Bureau statistics, only 37 percent of foreign-born living in the U.S. have even bothered to become naturalized citizens. That is a far cry from earlier immigration, wherein the vast majority of immigrants became citizens. Also, the number of immigrants living in the U.S. at its peak in 1910 was less than half the number of immigrants in the U.S. today. When you add the welfare state to mass migration and the failure to keep welfare for citizens only, as my dad would say, "Why buy the cow when you can have the milk for free?"

An Invasion by Any Other Name

The L.A. Times reported in last Sunday's edition (1/23/05) that a group comprising New Mexico and federal law enforcement agencies, the Southwest New Mexico Border Security Task Force, issued a report in 2003 that it didn't have the resources to adequately protect the border against drug dealers, illegal immigrants and "potentially weapons of mass destruction" from making it across the border.

The article relates that border agents have run into heavily armed Mexican soldiers inside the U.S. Patrol agent Rick Moody reported: "I have found up to 10 Mexican soldiers in a Humvee on our side of the border. We don't know what they are doing here. They usually say they got lost. When that happens, we confront them and escort them back."

Police Chief Clare May of Columbus, N.M., told the Times that cars with illegals or drug dealers go through town at 100 mph with border agents in pursuit. Stolen vehicles litter the roadsides, and drug and immigrant trafficking is rife among those in his community. Calls for assistance, most of them related to illegal immigrants, jumped from 450 in 2003 to 900 last year.

Recently, the Washington Post looked into the anarchy near the border town of Nuevo Loredo, Texas. Federal officials indicate there have been 27 Americans kidnapped in the area since August. Out of that number, 15 – including three American girls in their early 20s – are still missing.

The paper also related a warning from the U.S. consular office in the area. "Last month, U.S. consular officials here issued a warning to the thousands of Americans who cross the bridge each week, including Mexican Americans visiting relatives or shopping and tourists on short sightseeing trips."

"U.S. citizens are urged to be especially aware of safety and security concerns when traveling through or visiting in Nuevo Laredo," said the warning. It went on to say that 21 U.S. citizens had been kidnapped or had disappeared between August and December, with nine later released, two found dead and 10 still missing. It also mentioned the "alarming rate" of kidnappings that has continued for some time across Mexico, including "express" abductions for quick-cash ransoms.

One U.S. official stated: "We're seeing outright lawlessness in Nuevo Laredo. Things are just getting out of hand."

There is a drug war going on along the border. So, what else is new? Cartels vying for control of the border has been going on for years. Well, hey, why not? The federal government isn't interested in controlling the border. As the Post reports, "millions of dollars' worth of marijuana, cocaine and heroin are smuggled north by truck and train among cargoes of legitimate goods."

Michael Yoder, the U.S. consul, informs us that one Mexican gang, the Zetas, are composed of former military commandos who deserted from the Mexican army and are busy kidnapping for ransom. It is a way of moonlighting when the drug business falls off or there is a major drug bust. (Mary Jordan, Washington Post, 1/22/05)

In an unprecedented move along the U.S.-Mexico border last year, a convoy of 12 pickup trucks packed with suspected illegal immigrants barreled through the Tohono O'odham Nation and tried to run down approaching Border Patrol agents.

Confrontations with ranchers and Border Patrol and police are commonplace. Nevertheless, it is as if Washington, D.C., and the states and people impacted by migration live in different realities.

These are not isolated incidents. Reports of Mexican army and Mexican police incursions across the border have been reported for years, as well as kidnappings and millions crossing the border illegally. Each and every day thousands enter the U.S. illegally, and not just from Mexico. They are coming in from all over the world. Numbers of illegal Chinese entering is now in the hundreds of thousands. They arrive in shipping containers and cross the borders from Mexico and Canada.

Hustling the Invasion

Citizens of border states, particularly those hit hardest by the human migration from other areas of the world, are at the point of desperation. But it isn't just border states being impacted. The heartland is taking a hit on all its systems as taxpayers foot the bill for the "compassion" the Washington elite and national politicians expend on providing cheap labor and growth of government at all levels

Washington continues to pretend there is no problem. The greater concern in Washington is that actually dealing with the problem of this economic invasion by the people of the Third World would interfere with commerce and take money away from supplying more bureaucrats to Washington.

Retiring Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge informed USA Today that the part of the recently passed intelligence bill that includes 10,000 new Border Patrol agents over five years is not a good use of resources. He informs us that President Bush is not going to ask for money to fund them.

Ridge told the paper, "The notion that you're going to have 10,000 is sort of a fool's gold." He would rather spend it on other kinds of agents and technology, cameras, spy in the sky.

Border Patrol agents are asking, What use are cameras if the invaders they capture electronically are not taken into custody because there are not enough agents to do the job? My suggestion: Gather as many as they can and deposit them at the gate of Vicente Fox's villa and include a bill for upkeep and incarceration. But that has already been tried.

Last year an Idaho County commissioner, Robert Vasquez, sent a bill to the Mexican government to reimburse his county for the $2 million the county spent on health care for illegals. The potato industry is where the illegals are employed, but apparently the potato industry doesn't know much about health-care insurance for employees, given that most of them are illegal.

By the way, if you think guest worker amnesty is going to solve this problem by forcing employers to pay benefits – think again. Employers do not want employees on the books. It messes with the whole scam they have going to get taxpayers to pick up the tab. Social costs for immigration, legal and illegal, on the states also allow wages to remain depressed because of a never-ending supply of labor. (Phillip Martin – UC-Davis Study, CAWS, NAWS, Department of Agriculture)

This does not sound like a good deal either for the taxpayer or for migrants already in the U.S. Meanwhile, the Canyon County, Idaho, commissioner is asking the governor to declare the region a disaster area.

The Department of Homeland Security does not want more money for Border Patrol agents, but it does have enough money for conferences, gatherings, increases in numbers of bureaucrats to staff whiz-bang new agencies like the National Intelligence Council. The Council was created after 9/11 – one more effort to produce paperwork and occasions for playing footsie with other highly paid but clueless bureaucrats in the Beltway.

There are thousands of them in government. These are Very Important People who discuss world trends and theories of geopolitics over tidbits at local Georgetown eateries. These highly overpaid officials would drop over in a dead faint if they ever had to spend a night with the Border Patrol. A ride down a dusty, dirty back road playing hide-and-seek with drug dealers, murderers, the Mexican army and police, illegal border crossers and deadly traffickers in anything and everything: It would not make their day.

The objective of one more "intelligence" council in D.C. is beyond me. I surmise from its Web site that the intention is to think great thoughts, share information, coordinate strategic thinking while mapping the global future – which amounts to traveling and shuffling papers from one bureaucracy to the next.

Here's a thought for retiring Secretary Ridge, the new DHS Secretary Chertoff, the boys and girls at the National Intelligence Council, and the Bush White House: GET A GRIP!!!

Numbers of Border Patrol agents are convinced that Mexican authorities are protecting drug runners and traffickers in human beings. The Mexican government and authorities, for the most part, are about as corrupt as it gets. On occasion and with great fanfare, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security) and Mexican authorities catch one or two obvious crooks or evildoers and tell us how great the cooperation is.

Tom Ridge, Condoleezza Rice and President Bush are all shoveling that pile of horsehockey every time a question is asked about why Mexico is so lax in helping us patrol the border. Piled high and deeper: the reasons they give why we can't hire more Border Patrol or use National Guard on the border. The answer is always more technology and guest worker green cards. They obstinately refuse to consider more boots on the ground to catch the invaders; no increase in much-needed detention centers, no reform of the idiotic immigration courts and deportation system – no nothing.

Many Border Patrol agents do not believe Washington has the will to solve the border or immigration chaos. I have heard some say that Washington priorities are so out of whack it may take a major unpleasant event to place priorities in proper order. A major pandemic will probably be the most likely event. A nuclear incident might be small potatoes in comparison.

The current administration wants to remake entire nations and cultures, but it does nothing to control U.S. borders or the comings and goings of non-citizens into the U.S. The result of that incompetence led to the events of 9/11. The 9/11 Commission Report revealed that simple things such as border control and tight visa policy could have prevented 9/11.

WAOL TV in San Antonio informs us that on Monday, January 24, 2005, federal officers from the Office of Homeland Security forced down a plane owned by Azval Hameed of Dover, Del. The aircraft was carrying four illegal Chinese immigrants and a pilot identified as a Mexican national. The plane landed at San Antonio airport Monday night.

At first there was concern that these particular illegals were part of a terrorist plot to set off a dirty bomb in the Boston area. But as it turns out, a Mexican trafficker in human beings probably turned them in. He may have been angry because the Chinese he was trying to smuggle into the U.S. did not pay his fee.

I feel so much better learning they were only illegal aliens trying to force their way illegally into the U.S. on an unregistered aircraft. What a blessing they were not exceptionally bad guys trying to blow up the Boston Commons or Old North Church.

The only conclusion a reasonable person can arrive at is that the leadership in Washington consciously remains oblivious to what constitutes a clear and present danger to U.S. sovereignty, our borders and our best interests.