The Best DeFence...

I usually reserve this blog for things on the lighter vein but I got this article on my daily subscription of "Daily Dose" and thought it interesting enough to pass on.

In the last two Daily Doses, I've laid out for you not only the frightening statistics showing how large a problem illegal immigration is, but how frighteningly out of touch our leaders (both foreign and domestic) are with what John Q. Public wants in the way of counter measures...

In my closing for the last article, I promised to tell you the steps we NEED to take to stop the impending economic disaster illegals represent -- and why we won't do them. Here goes:

A BORDER FENCE --
The construction of Israel's trenches-and-wire border fence reduced the influx of foreign terrorists by more than 95%. Politicians say it'll cost too much, but even at its most expensive (an estimated $8 billion, tops -- about 2.5 months worth of our war effort in Iraq), it would be cheaper than the negative lifetime economic impact of just 1.5% of the illegals already in this country.

Why we won't do it:
Building a wall creates relatively few jobs, and only for a limited amount of time. But radically expanding the border patrol and the INS could create tens, even hundreds of thousands of new jobs -- kind of like all those useless airport screening agents we have pawing through our luggage now. These jobs mean tax revenue, plus a nice bragging point (job creation) for any politician involved in the effort.

EMPLOYMENT PROHIBITIONS --
Making it a felony for anyone in America to hire an illegal immigrant would go a long way toward discouraging those bent on hopping the border to make a living. If the money river dries up, the "fish" will swim back from whence they came.

Why we won't do it:
Too many industries (landscaping, golf course maintenance, restaurant, custodial, construction, etc.) are already dependent on illegal workers for their profit margins. Prohibiting them would stall huge segments of the economy overnight, and no politician wants that on his resume`.

RESCIND BENEFITS --
Simply by virtue of their presence in this country, illegal immigrants are entitled to emergency health care, police and fire protection, and every right to privacy, liberty, and due process of law that all American citizens are entitled to. Many states grant them driver's licenses, and many have mortgages and credit cards. Beyond this, their children, even if born 1 minute after illegally crossing the border, enjoy full U.S. citizenship, along with all the perks.

Why we won't do it:
A hard-line stance on benefits for illegals could sway the legitimate Hispanic population of the U.S. to vote against candidates. No politician from either party wants to lose their chance at wooing this pivotal voting demographic.

Doing just these three things would neutralize the illegal immigrant threat almost overnight. If we did these things, we wouldn't even NEED to make illegal entry or occupancy a crime (another measure being discussed by Republicrats). Nor would we have to go through the costly process of mass deportations.

If illegals found they couldn't work, get benefits, or guarantee their unborn automatic citizenship, they'd go home and make Mexico all it could be (which was the goal of the all-but defunct NAFTA).

Repeated surveys have shown that the vast majority (as much as 87%) of Americans favor the construction of a fence or wall along the entirety of the U.S./Mexico border. Other surveys have shown similar degrees of support among the American populace for the other measures I've mentioned -- especially the establishment of English as the official language, a concept I touched on in part 2 of this essay...

But all this evidently means nothing to our elected officials, including our President.
For them, the soul of America is secondary to votes, cheap labor, tax revenue, and the opportunity to expand government (and their own power) through entitlements like welfare, healthcare, and education assistance.

And so, instead of a return to the fairness and uniquely American concept of large-scale LEGAL immigration and assimilation -- one of the pillars of greatness this nation is built upon -- we'll end up with a morass of half-measures, none of them effective, and all of them inflating government power while at the same time watering down our once-great entrepreneurial culture into a massive welfare state as stratified by social classes (the "haves" and "have-nots") as any communist country ever was...
Lamenting and dissenting,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

Later...