October 23, 2009
Exclusive: Will Our Government Ever Secure Our Borders and Shore Up the Immigration System?
Michael Cutler
An article at GovernmentExecutive.com, titled “Senate sends Homeland Security spending bill to Obama,” deals with the appropriations for Homeland Security. What it makes utterly clear is that our government has no intention of securing our nation's borders or creating an immigration system that has even a shred of integrity.
Immigration is not a single issue but is a major factor in just about every challenge confronting the United States today. Our failures to secure our nation's borders against the unlawful entry of millions of aliens, along with an immigration bureaucracy that fails to create in a shred of meaningful integrity, hammers everything from national security and criminal justice to the economy, the environment, health care, education and more.
It is truly amazing that it is considered corruption when a cop accepts a bribe to ignore a violation of law committed by an individual. The cop caught in the act of such malfeasance is likely to be fired and may also find himself being criminally prosecuted. However, a politician who accepts a "campaign contribution" and is thereby convinced by his contributor(s) to eliminate a pesky law that is inconvenient or contrary to the goals of his contributors, or hobbles efforts to enforce such laws by denying the essential funding for the enforcement of laws, is considered to be conducting "business as usual" and may, in fact, find himself being lauded by his colleagues in the political arena for demonstrating "leadership!"
How do you spell "double standard?"
At the end of the day, who is in the position to do greater harm to his community or even our country?
What is being lost in the debate on immigration is the reason that our nation has immigration laws in the first place. These laws are supposed to prevent the entry of aliens into our country whose presence in our country is deemed to be deleterious to the best interests of our nation and our citizens.
Among the categories of aliens who are supposed to be prevented from entering our country include aliens who have dangerous communicable diseases. Ellis Island, which the open borders folks wax poetic about every chance they get, was, in fact, a quarantine station that was established to help our medical authorities under the aegis of the Public Health Service to prevent the entry of those who might pose a health risk to our citizens.
Additionally, immigration laws are supposed to prevent the entry of criminals including drug traffickers, aliens convicted of committing felonies, aliens who are war criminals, aliens who support terrorism and aliens who would take the jobs of Americans. Where this last issue is concerned it was, in fact, the Department of Labor that, prior to the Second World War, enforced and administered the immigration laws because the greatest concern was that foreign workers would displace American citizens and lawful immigrants in the workplace. The Department of Labor even has a division called "Wage and Hour Division" that shares some of the responsibilities with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), where the employment of aliens is concerned. However, it would appear that neither the Department of Labor nor ICE are really enforcing the immigration laws that they are empowered to enforce.
Here is their mission statement as it appears on their website:
Wage and Hour Division Mission Statement
The Wage and Hour mission is to promote and achieve compliance with labor standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the Nation's workforce.
The WHD enforces Federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. WHD also enforces the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, wage garnishment provisions of the Consumer Credit Protection Act, and a number of employment standards and worker protections as provided in several immigration related statutes. Additionally, WHD administers and enforces the prevailing wage requirements of the Davis Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act and other statutes applicable to Federal contracts for construction and for the provision of goods and services.
How is our nation's workforce being "protected" as is noted in the mission statement above if something as basic as E-Verify is not going to be funded by our alleged "representatives?"
E-Verify is an easy and effective system that enables employers to check that a newly hired employee is eligible to work in the United States. While E-Verify does not prevent identity theft, a growing problem in the United States, it does make it far more difficult for illegal aliens to be employed. So-called "no match letters" for the Social Security Administration also can be an effective tool to keep illegal aliens out of the workplace.
It makes absolutely no sense for our government to not even try to protect the jobs of American workers. Yet this simple and important goal appears beyond the reach of our government. In my humble opinion, it is not that our government cannot accomplish this goal – it is that our "leaders" don't want this goal accomplished.
Stop and ask yourself how one sixth of our nation's population can be living in poverty and yet our "leaders" in Washington will still do everything in their power to not protect Americans who cannot support their families?
Our nation has mortgaged our children's future and even their children's future in the name of an "Economic Stimulus Package," yet the commonsense approach of protecting the jobs of American workers is not a major priority for our elected "representatives."
Each year, tens of billions of dollars (I have seen estimates of over $100 billion) are wired or otherwise sent from the United States each year to the countries from which foreign workers come. This includes foreign workers who have "temporary" work visas and aliens who are illegally working in our country. This is money that is not earned by American citizens or resident aliens, nor is it spent or invested in the United States.
Yet the Congress claims to want to stimulate our economy…
Some of the economists are claiming that because the stock market is slowly recovering that our nation is doing better. I could not disagree more.
There is no way that a country can be said to be doing well when its average citizens are not doing well and foreclosures continue to increase while more Americans are living below the poverty line.
In addition to all but ignoring the illegal aliens who are working in our country in violation of law, one of many important functions that come under the broad category of the interior enforcement mission of ICE, the interior enforcement mission also should include arresting transnational criminals (gang members, ethnic organized crime groups, etc.). It should also include a robust effort to identify those aliens and their co-conspirators who enable them to easily defraud the immigration benefits program (the program by which aliens are given resident alien status and even United States citizenship.) Immigration fraud is an embedding tactic, identified by the 9/11 Commission, by which terrorists have entered the United States and embedded themselves within communities around our country.
By ignoring the vital enforcement of the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States, aliens who are able to run our nation's borders, or enter our country through ports of entry by committing visa fraud or simply violating the terms of their admission once they are admitted into the United States, are able to easily ignore the immigration laws and secure employment and/or engage in criminal activities.
The special agents of ICE are supposed to back-stop the Border Patrol and the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) inspectors at ports of entry to seek out aliens whose presence in our country represents a violation of law. To ignore the interior enforcement mission is the equivalent of a baseball team not permitting its outfielders to take to the field. In such a foolhardy scenario, any batter who could hit the ball over the infielders heads would undoubtedly get an "in the park home-run."
To put it another way, do you know how many times it takes a would-be illegal aliens to attempt to run our borders to be successful? The answer is that it takes one more time than the number of times he (she) is stopped by the Border Patrol. As long as an alien is determined to run our borders, he is all but assured that he will succeed if he is willing to be stopped a number of times by the Border Patrol.
Couple this simple fact with the fact that the promised border fence will not be completed because the funding has not been appropriated. I have made this point repeatedly and will again: A fence on the border will not solve the illegal immigration problem, but it would be very helpful to our Border Patrol agents to have a physical impediment to the entry of illegal aliens and smugglers.
The idea of a "Virtual Fence" is a bit like the "Virtual Leadership" and "Virtual Integrity" demonstrated by our "representatives."
Nearly three years ago, I appeared on MSNBC, when it was predicted that Congress would refuse to complete the construction of the border fence but were eager to implement a massive amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens. I guess you should file this under, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Family Security Matters Contributing Editor Mike Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who addresses the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (1)
We'll said! Your article is 100% dead on target. Yes, we both know why our government is so conveniently reluctant to secure those borders, talk about an enemy from within.
After all, to secure those borders would mean the crack down on these savage thugs coming to America illegally. Yes, with one evil thought on their warped brains? To rape and push illegal narcotics, with the blessings of the “CIA” Moreover, in many cases too brutally murder whom they choose too.
These contemptible acts of savage violence are now strangely endorsed and made possible by these politically correct liberal orchestrated policies for appeasing all our enemies foreign and domestic. With lawless now abounding here in abundance, what happened to the voice of the people???
No doubt, this savagery has been made a lot easier do to those extremely well-paid! "Traders! In our own Congress." that I have no doubt of whatsoever...
I honestly don't know what has happened to the American people out there. They seem to be under some kind of diabolical mind control today.
For example: They are prone to protect those who are out to destroy them, most logical I must say. Our way of life, those high-paying Jobs, family values, and the worship of the creator.
I honestly don't have a plan of action for dealing with these “Satanic Forces” in Washington. I don't take the prayer approach very often. However, it will take something like a divine miracle to fix this astronomical problem.
My personal plan of action is just some wishful, thinking...
Impossible to implement...
While were still a semi free democracy. Our first plan of action should be the immediate arrest and lawful prosecution of every politician that has ever
Lied, swindled, cheated, and stolen taxpayer money. Fat! Chance of that!
Yes, as you already pointed out in that thought-provoking article, this would be a waste of time for these wicked parasites would just weasel their way out of this using some politician courtesy garbage of something.
If our law-enforcement continues too treat these criminals with kid gloves using this special favors nonsense when dealing with the illegal segments of our population, we will collapse into, absolute anarchy. (If were not there already???)
Believe in this one inescapable fact, This insanity must stop soon or America that mighty undefeated giant who has fought two horrific world wars and countless bloody skirmishes on foreign shores, will be defeated from within.
Yes, as God is my witness. We will become a third rate poverty stricken disaster of a country with hellish violence unleashed at every doorstep... furthermore, and I say this with a sad heart. In that day (America’s tribulation), we will certainly suffer a nuclear holocaust with those who caused the whole thing taking refuge in a specially designed fallout shelter strangely marked “for VIPs only...”
PEACE DEAR FRIENDS: FAT CHANCE OF THAT TOO!!!
posted by : Paul West
Friday, October 23, 2009 at 10:45 AM
