Poles Call for Open U.S. Borders

FOXNews ^ | February 06, 2004

[traumer]

WASHINGTON

[festus]

Side splitting hillarious..........

[cake_crumb]

"Change all that, it would alter a lot of the way the world is. Just pointing it out"

Yes I know. I'm not a "seal the borders and build a Great Wall to keep the foreign devils out or I'll elect another Democrat" type. In fact, I get flamed for pointing out how complicated border control and immigration is frequently.

It may well have to come to that though, to stop the bloody terrorists from emigrating to a country like Britain or France in order to get here withut a visa and accompanying background check.

[kabar]

The visa wavier program was instituted some time ago to eliminate the time-consuming and labor intensive visa interviews at our embassies abroad. Countries can qualify for the program if the visa refusal rate is below a certain percentage. I believe it was around 5%. The State Department saved money by reducing the number of consular officers overseas and the associated costs of maintaining them there. The program was implemented on a reciprocal basis, i.e., American citizens don't need visas for the countries that are part of the Progam.

Obviously, Poland does not meet the established criteria for being part of the Program. Congress approved the program and set the limits. There has been pressure from Congress, depending on the country, to include borderline countries like Ireland. The question is whether you want to extend the Progam to cover more countries by changing the criteria or do away with it altogether. 9/11 has put the Program under new scrutiny.

[Prodigal Son]

It may well have to come to that though, to stop the bloody terrorists from emigrating to a country like Britain or France in order to get here withut a visa and accompanying background check.

You raise an interesting point.

What I would like to see is a lot of treaties renegotiated. What you could tie 'free travel' to is the immigration policies in the countries that we consider friendly. I think we've all identified by now that our number one weakness against terrorists in the first place is the fact that we're an open society. One of the most effective ways, therefore, of shutting terrorists down is to simply remove their ability to travel freely among this group of free and cooperating countries.

There are two ways to do this- US becomes 'Fortress America' blocking free travel to even our traditional friends or- that entire group of nations becoming 'Fortress Free World' and block entry to the entire group to people coming from 'suspect nations'.

If you tied open borders with nations like UK to immigration policies, it would be a good thing in my opinion. Tightening down on immigration is often decried as far right radicalness in Europe. The US, by giving politicians like Blair, Schroeder and Chirac an incentive to change their immigration policies actually gives those leaders more ammo to use in their own debates on these matters. There's a lot of dynamics involved in these debates that are very complicated given the mosaic nature of Europe and its various overlapping institutions.

It could start, perhaps, as a NATO iniative. NATO could strongly recommend the matter as being necessary for the defense of the NATO members. That's exactly what NATO is for- mutual defense. If NATO makes a strong case for our defense being compromised by the open travel of people from 'suspect nations' to Europe and then onward from there (taking advantage of immigration policies) to the US, this would give European leaders a much more 'legitimate looking' reason for cracking down on immigration (without being labeled as far right). The debate could go from there.

Any crack-down at all on immigration here would be positive. I think this is one way to go.

[jpsb]

What allow white, european Chritans into the USA? No freaking way, forget it Poland.

[jpsb]

We have a saying over here that is both funny and true.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Good luck

[xsmommy]

i must be older than you, mine got here before the nazis and bolsheviks were around....

[White Eagle]

I'm not sure how my Grandfather got into this country, but I remember hearing confusing and conflicting stories about how he got out of Poland about 1915. I also remember that he had a lot of paperwork problems when he wanted to go back for a visit in the late '50's. He finally got that resolved, and brought back some pictures of the Nazi camps that made a real big impression on this 6-year old.

And that's where the handle White Eagle comes from.

[xsmommy]

very cool to know that is where your handle comes from!

my dad was born in the US in 1917, and my Ukrainian grandmother married my Polish grandfather, so they obviously met in Pittsburgh. my dad had cousins born here that went back to the Ukraine, and the woman was actually raped by Bolshevik soldiers. but came back, had several PhDs from the U of Pittsburgh, but was mentally disturbed, understandably so. i think she was manic depressive and would periodically go off her meds and act up.

[SAMWolf]

The lack of a longterm strategic agenda makes that the country lives from election to election.

Yep. Our politicians spend too much time trying to get re-elected. We are too slow to develop and build relationships over the long run with other Countries that should be our Ally.

[staytrue]

Please read post 19 and you will find your sarcasm in post 26 to be unwarranted.

[Crapgame]

My father came to the US in the 1930s with his mother and family. My father crossed the Sonoran Desert in order to work for the California Conservation Corps. With war on the horizon in October 1941, he enlisted in the US Army, infantry. After 5 Pacific campaigns and 2 Purple Hearts, he was awarded citizenship. He and my mother had 9 kids. Two of his sons served honorably in Vietnam and came home. None of them is a drain on the resources of the State of California. Of those 9 children:

2 are Doctors and owe no debt for their education
2 are engineers and again, owe no debt
2 are employed in private industry
1 is a mechanic, shop foreman and homeowner...paying taxes
1 is a civil servant
1 is a police detective

Of the nine, 4 are committed, dedicated conservatives, 2 are outright leftists and 3 are undecideds. Kinda mirrors the country at large, I'd say assimilation worked for my family.

[jpsb]

You are no fun.

[JudgemAll]

Well, maybe we were wrong to allow those 27 nations in the first place in...

[MissAmericanPie]

I can appreciate Polands problem, but we are engaged in a WOT right now, no country should have free access to the USofA.

[P.O.E.]

My Polish grandparents came in via Ellis Island. Grandpop worked in the coal mines, in steel mill, and at the copper works. He and Grandmom raised 7 church-attending children through the Depression. 'Nuff Said!

If only I could do half as well.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

The Poles probably have no idea that we do not bother to protect our borders. Afterall, every civilized and sovereign nation protects its borders.
If they knew, they might be joining the millions of Latinos that cross our borders without being stopped or questioned. They'd better hurry though, summer's coming and it will be too hot for safe passage.