Immigration....The Most Important issue Facing Americans in 2014

Links: DC Prepares For A Flood Of Resident Aliens
            Thousands Of Undocumented Felons Released

Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
    -From William Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

Any issue regarding the safety of U.S. citizens belongs in the realm of national security.  Immigration is and always has been part of the national security discussion.  I could also argue that the stampeding herd of elephants that is our national debt is an issue of national security, but today we will focus on immigration.  When Barrack Obama ran for President in 2008, he did not disguise his determination to reform the immigration system.  I assume other priorities, including Obamacare, took precedence during his first term, and so Obama has decided to fight the immigration battle in 2014 (following the Nov 2 midterm elections, mind you).  Actually, we won't get to observe a battle, or a debate, or even a vote in Congress.  President Obama has openly declared his intention to use Executive Action to address immigration reform.  Obama's intended Executive Action will be primarily focused on the thirty million undocumented persons living in the U.S. (there are many guesses as to how many people live in the United States illegally. . .thirty million seems a bit conservative, but let's give the benefit of the doubt).  We've had this conversation before.  During the Bush Administration, the decision was made to build a fence along the southern land border.  Not a white-washed picket fence like the one Tom Sawyer was supposed to paint, but an electrified fence that was intended to be part of a broader monitoring system.  Although a few stretches of fence were constructed, the effort never got close to completion.  From the get-go, the fence was opposed by Democrats in Congress, and a variety of legal challenges really killed the effort.  If you've read my blog more than a few times, you should know that I always appreciate keeping things simple, so this is my simple question:
 If the United States has an international border with Mexico, why is it wrong to demarcate that border with a fence?

We never got the fence.  But Congress has paid for a steady increase in Border Patrol, Customs and Inspections personnel.  I understand this issue because in a former life I was a Federal Agent working on the International Ports of Entry in Laredo, Texas.  Any honest Border Patrol or Homeland Security Officer will tell you that we probably only interdict five to ten percent of those who are trying to enter the U.S. illegally from Mexico.  The percentage of drugs that we stop is probably close to five percent as well.  Should the average American be concerned about undocumented persons living in the United States?  The answer is yes.  No hospital emergency room is going to refuse service to a sick person because of lack of identification or documentation.   When the bill does not get paid, the physician/hospital system has to absorb the loss and the difference is passed on to the taxpayer.  And it happens all the time.  I'm not saying that emergency rooms should deny treatment, I'm only dissecting the issue.  Every public school system in the United States is required by law to teach the children of undocumented persons.  This has become a tremendous liability for the respective school districts.  Undocumented persons don't pay school or property taxes, so the district has to come up with the additional funds (not just to teach undocumented children, but to pay for bilingual teachers, create bilingual education programs, books, etc.) by raising the school tax rate.  Our prison systems have become heavily burdened with gang members from Mexico, Central and South America.   Gangs like Mara Salvatrucha 13 and the 18th Street Gang originated in Central America and are deeply involved in drug smuggling both inside prisons and on the outside.  We can only guess at the depth of the involvement that various Central and South American gangs have in the importation and distribution of drugs on the streets of America.  The smuggling of both people and narcotics used to be exclusively controlled on the south side of the border in Mexico.  That has changed: the gangs that run the coyotes (a smuggler of people) and the mules (an undocumented person smuggling narcotics) have established themselves in U.S. locations like El Paso, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Tijuana, Yuma, Douglas, Nogales, McAllen, Laredo, and Brownsville.  A Border Patrol Chief who has been a close friend for decades told me that he believes at least five of the homes purchased and built in the exclusive, gated community in which is lives, belong to narco-traffickers.

These are only a few of the reasons why immigration is a national security issue.  We haven't even touched on the issue of terrorists sneaking across the porous border pretending to be Latino.  Special Interest Aliens (persons from countries with known terrorist connections, for instance Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan) having been pulling the "just pretend to be Mexican" trick for years.  Now that we no longer deport undocumented Mexican nationals, you can bet that a few bad guys are presently holed up in cheap hotels in Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros, practicing a few words in Spanish.  No doubt at least a few readers have decided that I harbor some racist tendencies, a charge that often seems a futile effort to continue to refute.  Except to state the obvious; nothing in the above paragraph can be construed as applying to solely to one particular ethnicity.  More importantly, nothing I have stated applies to every person of a particular ethnic group.  I love Mexico, I love the Hispanic culture, and I speak fluent Spanish.  Whenever I return home from a long trip abroad, I never feel "at home" until I hear someone speaking Spanish.  So lets cut the crap and leave all that "racist" bullshit at the door.  We have a problem, and I'm beginning to fear that it may be out of control.  On top of everything that we have previously discussed, we must consider the fact that President Obama intends to issue an Executive Order that provides a path to citizenship for most of the nation's undocumented persons.  It's true that many of these people have been living in the United States for decades and certainly in their own way have contributed to the growth of the nation.  While it's been argued that providing a Social Security number for persons who were previously undocumented will increase the tax base, hold your horses, folks: it won't make that much difference.  Filthy rich Americans still constitute the great majority of the nation's tax base.

The piece of this issue which really gives me the red-ass has nothing to do with taxes or narco-trafficking.  What really pisses me off is that EVERYONE realizes that this fast-lane to citizenship is meant to create as many as twenty million additional Democratic voters.  Even Democratic talking heads on television admit this shameful fact.  The vast majority of persons affected by the impending Executive Action (forgive me for making assumptions, but see me in November and call me a liar) will be persons of Hispanic heritage (this proportion may possibly even as high as ninety-nine percent as not very many Austrians or Sri Lankans are hiding out from La Migra).  When this is taken together with the fact that in 2012, seventy-five percent of Hispanic voters cast their vote for Barrack Obama (stated in National Review magazine) the impact becomes clear. Every statistic I found echoed this kind of political dominance not just for Obama, but for Democratic candidates in general.  So, no "rocket science" here:  if President Obama signs an Executive Order fast-tracking citizenship for millions and millions of undocumented Hispanics in the United States, we will be staring a "one-party state" right in the face.  Why don't Hispanic Americans (documented or not) vote Republican?  On occasion, it happens.  The Cuban-American community in the Miami area have been staunch Republicans, mostly because of the Castro issue.  And a Hispanic Republican Governor (Martinez in New Mexico) and Republican Senator (Cruz in Texas) have been  recently elected, which seems to give some conservatives hope. I don't buy it.  Hispanic Americans have been loyal Democrats since the days of John F. Kennedy, and I do see a Sea-Change on the horizon (I love the phrase Sea Change; it comes from a song Shakespeare wrote as part of "The Tempest").

I don't have a problem with providing rights to persons who have been part of the fabric of our nation for decades.  I believe that, instead of creating a fast-track to citizenship, it would be preferable to provide an avenue for persons to obtain Resident Alien status (Green Card), and require that they utilize the system in place for adjusting to U.S. citizen.  Its terribly unfair for individuals who have followed the existing law and been waiting for years to become Americans, to be pushed to the back of the line by persons who entered illegally.  As tough as it may be for some people, we must remember that we are dealing with persons whose entire presence in this country is predicated on an illegal act.  I realize that Mexico can be a difficult country for young people with hopes and aspirations, and I don't judge anyone who is trying to provide for their family, but this issue is beginning to impact OUR families, especially those with children and grandchildren.  I had hoped for some form of political compromise, something that did not include a fast-track to citizenship.  I just can't see why that part of the equation is so important.  If someone entered the United States illegally in 1989, they should have the opportunity to apply for a Green Card.  Once that process is complete, if they are interested in becoming citizens, they can follow the law that is already in place.  IMPORTANT: Don't believe the Democrat narrative that Congress has been AWOL on this issue.  The House of Representatives has approved a number of Immigration Reform Bills that were not allowed to even reach committee.  Sometime in 2012, Harry Reid decided that President Obama should rule by decree. So for all practical purposes, he ended the functions of the U.S. Senate as of October 21. At that time, three hundred fifty-two Bills that had passed the House were languishing in Harry Reid's personal purgatory.  With Congress unable to act, Obama can say (without the hint of a smile) that the do-nothing Republicans won't act on immigration, and he is therefore obliged by his responsibilities as President of the United States to utilize Executive Authority.  Once he signs the Executive Order, no one knows how many formerly undocumented people will follow through with the process, but if they do, they get to be the latest addition to a rapidly expanding Democratic voter roll.

Our Southern Land Border, or Bienvenidos Todos!

(Another instance in which no link is necessary.)  The sensitive issue of immigration in this country has brought the current status of our southern land border to the front pages.  Being a south Texan, I know the border area.  Having once been an Immigration Officer working in Laredo, Texas, I understand a bit about the immigration issue as well.  But today I want to focus on the subject of national security.  Is the southern land border as porous as we hear from the far right?  Is it possible that terrorists may be taking advantage of our border issues to sneak into the United States?  I'm fortunate in that if I have any questions regarding Border Patrol or the Department of Homeland Security, I can reach out to any number of close friends who are still employed by that Agency.  I like to start out my commentaries with a few hard facts.  The United States Border Patrol (BP) has never been as successful as they are today in apprehending persons attempting illegal entry.  The BP is well trained and dedicated.  But recently the job  has evolved.  It has become difficult for each respective BP Sector to guard the border effectively when Agents are assigned duty watching over hundreds of minors from Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.  Hopefully this event was an exception and will not become a regular occurrence.

Many folks misunderstand the reason we have so many undocumented Mexicans and Central Americans in the United States.  These people aren't all managing to avoid the Border Patrol.  In fact, most undocumented aliens in the U.S. were apprehended at the border....and subsequently released.  How can this be possible?  Since taking office, President Obama has taken steps to dismantle the procedures set in place to remove undocumented foreign nationals from the United States.  For some time now he has had in place a policy of "no deportations", excluding foreign national felons.  All persons apprehended at the border without proper documentation are given a hearing before an Immigration Judge.  That Judge almost always issues a "Notice to Appear" (NTA).  Then the alien is released onto the streets of the United States.  I kid you not.  Most Americans are unaware of this reality.  The hope is, the undocumented alien will show up for their hearing to plead a case of Asylum or Refugee Status, then if denied, the Border Patrol returns them to Mexico.  Not surprisingly, people rarely show up for the hearing.  The U.S. taxpayer pays billions of $ to train, outfit and salary thousands of Border Patrol Agents, who then apprehend the undocumented alien trying to make an illegal entry.  The alien is brought before the Immigrations Judge, who schedules a hearing and issues an NTA.  The alien then departs on their own recognizance.  In most cases they never show up for the hearing.  So why in heck do we continue to apprehend them in the first place?  Every effort to fix this problem has been stonewalled by the Obama Administration, who judges every issue involving Hispanics by the net political gain.

If nationals of Mexico and Central American countries are able to take advantage of this situation, should we be concerned that nationals of other nations can take advantage of our messed up system? Simply put, persons from the Near East with typically Semitic features look very similar to Mexicans and Central Americans.  That's my opinion, call me ethnically insensitive, a bigot, or whatever you want, and then lets move on.  In the past, Federal Law Enforcement was concerned about the possibility that a terrorist from Saudi Arabia (for instance) might pass themselves off as a Mexican national and take advantage of the NTA option.  Fortunately, most Near Easterners do not speak Spanish, and if they did, would do so with a pronounced accent.  Would it be possible for a team of four Al-Qaeda operatives to enter Honduras, spend time acclimating and learning Spanish, then work their way up to the Rio Grande River and attempt to enter the U.S.?  Absolutely it's a possibility.  But until recently it was less stress on the bad guy to just enter through a normal Port of Entry on a Tourist Visa.  Purchasing a viable, fake passport and Visa is not difficult.  In fact, when we examine the most famous domestic terrorist attacks (World Trade Center in 1993, World Trade Center in 2001, and the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon), the blind Sheikh of 1993 fame entered the country legally, the hijackers of 9-11 entered legally, and the assholes in Boston were native-born Americans.  Are we too concerned about the southern border?

The answer is a definitive NO.  Federal Law Enforcement becomes more and more efficient everyday at recognizing fake passports and Visas.  Also, the FBI is keeping a close watch on domestic mosques of interest, and certain Imams who have bizarre vacation destinations (Yemen?) and keep questionable company.  I have no doubt that a determined terrorist with the necessary funding and patience could enter the southern land border through three different methods.  First, pretend to be a Mexican, get apprehended, be served with an NTA, and be released onto the streets (of Brownsville, Progreso, Roma, Laredo, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, or El Paso); second, avoid apprehension by choosing a seldom-used route; or thirdly, pay a coyote to smuggle you across the border, pass the 25-mile checkpoint, and drop you off in San Antonio.  The reality is, all sovereign nations have a responsibility to the security of their respective citizens, to properly guard and defend the border.  The Democratic Party appears to not give a donkey's nutsack about the security of the border.  To them, it's an issue of courting the Hispanic vote.  This is one of a handful of issues that really give me the red-ass.  Border security should transcend politics.  People without proper documentation should not be allowed into the United States, I don't care how shitty their home country is.  These countries should do what we did- have a revolution, shoot the dictators and thieves that run your countries, and fix things at home, instead of becoming a burden on us.

Unfortunately I can't help but worry that the United States is headed towards another domestic terrorist attack. And I don't think it will be limited to a couple of cities and a couple of hours.  I think all hell will break lose.  And it very well could be exacerbated by groups of bad guys who snuck into the United States by illegally crossing our southern land border.  Then again, it could mostly involve home-grown bad guys, like the ones in Boston.  I doubt we will see a repeat of the 9-11 circumstances.  I no longer believe the bad guys would take the risk of attempting that kind of entry.  Let's hope we can get control of the mess on the border, and get back to normal enforcement procedures.  I hope we don't have to wait until 2016, because then it may be too late.