There have been major successes in stemming illegal immigration -- among them, in El Paso and San Diego -- both efforts having occurred within the past decade. As a result of both clamp-downs, illegal immigration decreased dramatically, as did crime rates and court backlogs. But, because other neighboring areas did not follow suit and institute similar common-sense programs, the illegals simply chose other areas in which to enter the country.
After President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in the mid 80s, the INS found itself battling against pro-immigration/pro-'human rights' politicians in their efforts to enforce it.
In the late 90s, during the Vidalia onion harvest in the southeast, the INS conducted raids in Georgia and rounded up hundreds of illegals who had been hired by Georgia onion farmers. As a result of their successful efforts (we can't, after all, allow visible successes in enforcing immigration control laws, don'tcha know), both of Georgia's senators and several of its congressmen expressed outrage that the INS, and the American public in general, were oblivious to the needs of Georgia farmers (translation: If immigration control laws interfere with the obtaining of cheap labor, cheap labor holds the trump card).
So the INS abandoned raids on farms and used a more 'undercover', paper-trail approach. They began auditing the records of slaughterhouses in Nebraska in order to attempt to determine which of their employees were illegals. They discovered and deported many more illegals than were anticipated. In fact, the operation was such a resounding success that it was resolved that such audits would be repeated on a quarterly basis.
But, just as occurred after the success in Georgia, the owners of the slaughterhouses, and local and state politicians, vociferously opposed continuing the successful enforcement of the immigration control law. The governor and one of the state's two senators, hand-in-hand with slaughterhouse owners and ranchers, successfully lobbied the Justice Department to put an end to the INS’s (*cough*) 'human rights violations.'
Running true to form, the Justice Department stepped in and ended the operation. Not only was the INS called on the carpet for doing precisely what it was entrusted to do, but the veteran INS officer who authored the operation was forced into early retirement.
As a result of American businesses and American politicians lobbying against enforcement of American immigration control policies, during the 90s, the number of American businesses fined for knowingly hiring illegals dropped from well over a thousand annually to single digits. In other words, successes simply were not allowed.
Even 'conservative' lawmakers working under the homeland security banner are afraid to allow immigration control measures to have any teeth to them. Asa Hutchinson (whom I used to include on my ever-shortening list of 'politicians with character' cautioned, fewer than two years ago, that we must be certain to 'consider the sensitivities' associated with human rights when we attempt to enforce our immigration laws’ (so much for conservatives placing national sovereignty and security above the vagaries of political correctness).
The sad truth is that we may never know whether effective immigration control is possible, simply because our own so-called 'leaders', in bed with businesses that thrive on a cheap illegal labor force, have done their best to turn major interdiction successes into failures. And then, with a kind of convoluted glee, they point to those contrived failures as evidence that immigration control does not work. They know full well that effective immigration control (with effective follow-up) has never consistently been tried, and they are determined to see that it remains that way.
Until last month, when the House passed H.R. 4437, Congress had made no attempts to address the issue of illegal immigration since the Reagan administration – twenty years ago. And, even now, H.R. 4437's future is dubious at best, because the self-destructive desire to maintain a vast pool of cheap labor, combined with the scourge of political correctness disguised as a reverence for 'human rights,' increasingly find themselves taking precedence over our sovereignty, our security, and our definition of justice (a definition in which the ‘rights’ of aliens/criminals have somehow found themselves elevated so as to be equal to, or supersede, those of law-abiding citizens). And without that three-pronged sovereignty/security/justice foundation, this republic's days are numbered.
I believe there are two, and only two, camps on this issue: those who are determined to uncompromisingly defend our sovereignty, secure our borders, and the preserve our culture, and those who are not. There is no middle ground. And the fact that most of our so-called 'leadership' falls into the latter category does not instill confidence and optimism in the hearts of those of us who are resolute members of the former.
A must read, that (1) masterfully illustrates the Bush administration's impotent, half-hearted, for-public-consumption-only efforts to end the ocean of aliens streaming unhindered across our southern border, and (2) courageously predicts the nightmarish future that awaits us as a result:
~ joanie …