When one declares oneself to be a conservative, one is not, unfortunately, thereupon visited by tongues of fire that leave one omniscient. The acceptance of a series of premises is just the beginning. After that, we need constantly to inform ourselves, to analyze and to think through our premises and their ramifications. We need to ponder, in the light of the evidence, the strengths and the weaknesses, the consistencies and the inconsistencies, the glory and the frailty of our position, week in and week out. Otherwise, we will not hold our own in a world where informed dedication, not just dedication, is necessary for survival and growth.

William F. Buckley Jr., Feb 8, 1956, NR

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Illegal Immigration: A Talking Paper

Background

One of the most pressing, yet relatively untouched issues of our time is the challenge of coming to terms with the illegal immigration problem. Over the past several decades illegal immigrants, primarily from Mexico and Central/South American countries have swarmed across the borders. Some current estimates place the number of illegal aliens in our country to be between 20-40 million. The median number of 30 million represents 10% of the entire U.S. population.

1. The principle of law and order are being largely ignored and laws pertaining to immigration are unenforced.


2. The United States, for the past two decades, has experienced a geometric increase in illegal immigration. This immigration is largely due to illegal border crossings from the southern border, but is not limited to Mexico.


3. The United States is undergoing a significant challenge in protecting our economy and preventing a depression. Revenues to the fed are becoming smaller. The effect of illegal immigrant labor suppresses the wage paid to lower income earners.

4. The 9/11 attacks brought the spotlight to bear on areas of weakness concerning national security. The U.S. spends tens of millions each year in vetting international airline passengers and maintaining numerous terrorist watch lists, but the borders remain porous.


Discussion


1. The principles of national security and the social controls of controlling detrimental activities to the nation are cast aside and no real solutions have been proposed, much less implemented. The long term ramifications of continuing to allow open borders can be seen in the following numbers:


  • 1. In 1996 it was estimated that illegal immigration accounted for a job displacement of 730,000 Americans as a cost of 4.3 billion dollars. The numbers have tripled since that time.

  • 2. The annual cost of providing services to illegal aliens is more that 45 billion dollars.
    3. In 2003, only 186,151 illegal immigrants were deported from our borders.
    4. It is estimated that 30% of federal prison inmates are illegals.

2. The national security implications are significant, and each year the potential for a terrorist attack conducted by illegal aliens crossing the border increases. In 2000, a U.S. Customs officer interdicted a vehicle crossing into the U.S. from Canada. Inside the vehicle were explosives that were to be used to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport.

My Opinion

1. The primary function of government is to protect the rights of the citizenry within the responsibilities delineated by the authors of the Constitution. Those rights include insuring the common defense that is part of the concern in the issue of illegal immigration.

2. We should demand that the U.S. government secure our borders. While debating bailouts and tax increases, one of the most depressing factors to our economy is growing each day. It is estimated that in California, only two percent of illegals work in agriculture, while 29 percent are on welfare rolls.


3. The Department of Homeland Security should place an emphasis on allocating resources for securing the border.


4. We should work with Mexico and other Central American nations to assist with building their economies to provide a higher quality of life for their citizens to reduce the need for them to migrate to the U.S.


Recommendations

1. The United States should stand strong an pressure the governments of other nations to reduce their immigrating citizens.


2. All possible action by the various government agencies should be pursued. DHS should utilize B.I.C.E., CBP, and the DOJ should all work to forcefully investigate and deport illegal aliens. Extremely punitive measures should be taken against U.S. companies whi employ illegal immigrants.


3. The National Guard in Border States should be tasked with patrolling the border and interdicting illegal immigrants. In Juarez, the border city of El Paso, the Mexican government sent 1,000 Army personnel to combat the 17,000 gang members that are fighting over smuggling routes in the U.S. There have been 1,000 murders in Juarez this year alone. The State Department has advised that the violence in Juarez is the equivalent of small unit combat engagements using machine guns and grenades. The President should declare illegal immigration a clear and present danger to the security of the U.S., and military and intelligence assets used to secure the borders.


4. Socials services, except for emergency medical care and provision for infants, should be denied to illegal immigrants.

10 comments:

TAO said...

I remember when the I-9 form was first required and as an employer I was given a manual that showed samples of acceptable documents that in poorly rendered b&w samples. I also remember calling the 1-800 line for help and getting absolutely no where. I remember after sending out W-2's and getting a bunch back the employees would all disappear. Then they seemed to divise a system to overcome that. Then it was the letters from Social Security that would inform us that someone's name and social security number did not match. Then we started getting letters from state child support offices asking us to verify information and once again the names and social security numbers did not match.

I always wondered what happens to the taxes that we deducted from these illegals pay, what happens to the social security that we paid in on people who were not the people they claimed to be and I wondered what happened to people who had their social security number stolen and we were reporting wages on that social security number but it was a different person in a different state.

The problem is much larger than just taking jobs.

We need to seal the borders and stop all illegal immigration. We need to deny all assistance to anyone who is illegal, newborn or whatever. We need to deny citizenship to children born in this country of parents here illegally. Then we need to make a effort to send all illegals home and we also need to accept the obvious and extend citizenship to those that keep their nose under the radar screen.

It appears with the economic downturn we are seeing more and more of them return home...but we also have others who have homes, businesses and such here and we really do not want to lose them

I know we hear about the liberals that protect illegals and shelter them but I also know of businesses that have sent buses to various locations to relocate them to our town to solve employment shortages and lower their pay scales.

Anonymous said...

Great post Robert! I am very passionate about this topic, so bear with me!

My personal experience with this leads me to be a bit harsh when it comes to illegal immigration! An illegal immigrant in my area killed a young woman while driving drunk. He had two priors and should NEVER have been on the road. He should have been back in Mexico. If they are convicted of a crime, send their butts back over the border, don't let them back in the public.

Secure the borders! I agree with #3 of your recommendations completely. Stop them from getting here in the first place!

1. Get them out of here by whatever needs are necessary.

2. Penalize companies that hire illegal immigrants.

3. Protect that border so no one else gets in!

So many immigrants have come to this country legally to find a better life! If you are here illegally, you are BREAKING THE LAW! Arrest them and deport them! Yes, it sound simple and nothing is ever simple, but they should not be here to begin with!

Great recommendations Robert!

Patrick M said...

The key to stopping (for good) the flow of illegals is to take away any reason they have for being here.

With the recession, those who are here for jobs have been going back in some cases.

So there are a few things (and this is repetition) that need to happen.

1. Secure the border.

2. take away any legit reason for them to stay (jobs, welfare, anchor babies) by cracking down on employers, tossing illegals off the roles (except emergency medical), and eliminating citizenship for babies born of illegals.

3. Deport any criminal (preferably by catapult if he's a drug dealer, gang banger, or other violent POS).

I am not in favor of raiding homes to deport people, simply because it drives those coming here for otherwise legit reasons (like work) deeper underground. In addition, our lax immigration has implicitly allowed them to come here, and to hunt them down after the de facto invite is somewhat barbaric. When they return of their own accord, no penalty. If they run afoul of law enforcement though, then they're gone, and they will not like it if they come back..

Joe said...

I just don't get why anything illegal should be tolerated, including immigration.

You cannot be a law abiding person, let alone citizen, if what you do is illegal.

Does that make sense?

Robert said...

It makes total sense Joe! Their very presence here is an illegal act.

I hate that so many frame anti-illegal stance as racism. We are seriously addressing a serious issue, but the name caling keeps anything from being accomplished.

Anyone care to explain how they would secure the borders? I will post mine after giving a couple of days to hear responses.

Tapline said...

During Vietnam we had what was known as Mc Namara's fence. It was an electronic fence that coulc transmit the location on an ant? (just kidding) when he went by...The same could be placed there much cheaper, I would assume than what was done during Vietnam. Effectiveness?? I cannot speak to that but to its authenticity yes it was there......To stop the illegals, ship them back one at a time. We cannot do it without congressinal backing and they don't want to do it. That's from the president on down....Why!!!!You guess????I don't know....NAU anyone.....

Anonymous said...

A government that cannot (or will not) control its borders is not sovereign. The same might be argued for a government that cannot, or will not, control spending on programs that do not benefit its own citizens.

How do we implement your recommendations? As one who generally does not believe in lobbies, I can see that without a strong advocacy group, one that is well funded, there will be no change in government/political attitudes about the immigration problems in this country. I don't think a simple "letter to Congress" will do much good. At least, they haven't so far.

Dave Miller said...

Robert, would you provide the sources and/or links to the statistics you cite.

Since I spend about half of my year working in Mexico, this is an important issue for me and I have thought a lot about it.

Before I go further, I'll wait for the sources.

Thanks.

Robert said...

Dave, it is Robert. For some reason blogger won't allow me to comment on my own blog....

There are a variety of sources, and I should have cited them. My apologies. I will try and recreate the places I looked.

Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Federation For American Immigration Reform, National Immigration Data

Testimony to the House Judiciary Committee by Steven A. Camarota, October 2004.

There is one other page, but at the moment I can't remember where it was. I will attempt to do better from now on!

Dave Miller said...

Gracias Robert. Those blogger bugs can be so annoying.