Posted on 10/18/2011 12:04:10 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Minnesota Congresswomen and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has become the latest politician to call for an impenetrable fence along the entire length of the border with Mexico. "President Obama has failed the American people by failing to secure the southern border," said Bachmann. "I will secure that border and that will be Job One."
Statements like that may get some attention, but they are not practical. Don't take our word for it; take Rick Perry's.
The Texas governor has been called a lot of things, but he's hardly a mushy liberal. Yet even this tough Texan sneers at calls for a Berlin Wall-style border fence spanning hundreds of miles from Brownsville to El Paso.
Two reasons: We can't afford it, and we don't need it.
The cost of a barrier like that would be staggering, certainly in the billions. Bachmann and others are silent about how they would pay for it.
Moreover, it is unnecessary. The Texas-Mexico border includes many miles of desert that are either lightly populated or devoid of any human presence. Illegal immigrants don't cross there. They make their moves along urban corridors.
Perry knows this because he is the governor of Texas. He knows the issue is more nuanced - like his support for in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants.
Secure the border? Absolutely - but in an intelligent way that puts our resources where they will have the most impact.
Voters should be wary of sound bites from candidates that fire up special-interest groups but lack logic. The next president will need real ideas, not gimmicks, to solve the challenges facing this nation.
“Thou shalt not steal”
When you bring in your millions of cheap illegals you are stealing from American citizens their wealth and their future.
Anyone who supports this invasion and the consequent destruction of our constitution and freedoms is a traitor to our country.
Couldn’t agree more.
I can’t stand liberals. I apologize if that offends anyone, but, I can’t stand liberals.
I’m guessing you didn’t find it hard to pin down where I stand regarding liberals????
Those who aid and abet and profit from this invasion of illegals in order to gain the temporary financial benefit of the cheap labor are like Esau who gave up his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Except in that day of reckoning it won’t be just Esau who will be full of bitter regrets, it will be all Americans who treasured our once free constitutional republic.
Take a breath and then go outside and get some fresh air.
The fence really wouldn’t matter if we just did a few simple things
Enforce our laws
Stop hiring illegals
stop educating illegals
do away with anchor babies
catch and either imprison or deport
stop giving benefits to illegals
they will self deport and eventually stop coming when they realize there is no job and no freebies anymore.
—
Secure our borders; enforce our laws
Americans have embraced their role as the world’s premier “melting pot,” welcoming immigrants from every corner of the planet. We readily learn about other cultures, customs and beliefs. We appreciate those who are willing to come to this country and mak America a more vibrant and enriched place.
Americans do resent, however, the willingness of some to circumvent our laws and enter our nation illegally. While many, if not most, illegal immigrants are peaceful people simply seeking to provide for their families, some are not. In fact, some are quite dangerous, jeopardizing the safety and well-being of American citizens.
Illegal immigration also puts a tremendous strain on America’s entitlement and health care systems. In fact, several hospitals in the U.S. have declared bankruptcy as a result of the costs of caring for illegal immigrants.
We must secure our borders, enforce our laws and promote the existing path to citizenship.ÿ
Source: Campaign website, www.hermancain.com/ “Issues” , May 21, 2011
Problem solved. Rick Perry just promises to throw everyone in jail for a year that hires illegal aliens.
[snip]
David Gregory: “Would you deport illegal immigrants in the country right now?”
Herman Cain: “Here is my approach to illegal immigration. Here again, this is what’s resonating with the people. How I would solve the problem. It’s not as simple as, would you deport. We must secure the border. It would be a combination of a physical fence, technology and in some areas we might have to put troops there. We must secure the border. Secondly we must promote the path to citizenship that’s already there. We need to clean up the bureaucracy. Third enforce the laws that are already there. The way you do that is number four, which is a bold idea – empower the states to do what the federal government can’t do and won’t do as far as dealing with illegals that are in the United States today.”
[snip]
Gregory: “Why you and not Mitt Romney?”
”Why me and not Mitt Romney? Mitt Romney is a great businessman. I have a lot of respect for him. He has been more of a Wall Street executive. I have been more of a Main Street executive.”
Meet the Press – October 16, 2011 Aprox 25 minute video
Is this being enforced?
(Newser) – Under House Bill 1202, one of a number of proposed Texas bills that addresses illegal immigration, anyone who “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly” hires an illegal immigrant would face up to two years in jail and a fine as high as $10,000 ... unless, of course, he or she is just hiring that illegal immigrant to do housework or yardwork. As long as you’re hiring unauthorized immigrants “for the purpose of obtaining labor or other work to be performed exclusively or primarily at a single-family residence,” you’re in the clear.
See # 148
Did it pass?
YES
The fence is an unnecessary waste of money. It is nothing but a symbol and will not stop people intent on crossing. Eventually, it will become a symbol the left points to and ridicules as the right’s folly and they will be correct.
One thing that MUST be tackled for any immigration enforcement program to work is changing Section 1 of the 14th Amendment. It grants citizenship to anyone born on American soil regardless of the immigration status of the birth parents.
Ratified in 1868 following the War Between the States, the 14th Amendment reversed the 1857 Supreme Court Decision in Scott V Sandford (Dred Scott Decision) that people of African descent, brought to the U.S. and held as slaves (and their descendants) are not protected under the Constitution and could never be citizens. There was a genuine fear after the abolishment of slavery that blacks would be deported as non-citizens. It was a unique requirement for a unique time in our history but it is now the major stumbling block to modern immigration enforcement.
How many realize that most of the children of illegal parents residing in this country were born on U.S. soil after their parents’ arrival? Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, that makes those children bona fide U.S. citizens, entitled to the same rights and privileges as every citizen. They cannot be deported without due process of law no more than you can. Do I like this? NO, but it is a fact and, if we insist that immigration laws be enforced, we must be consistent and respect the 14th Amendment. Until it is changed, we are stuck with complying by it.
What are the consequences of abiding by the 14th Amendment? Although it is legal to deport those who are not citizens, it is impractical and inhumane to do so when their children are legally U.S. citizens. The children cannot be deported without due process and for cause. That their parents are here illegally is not sufficient under the law. So, you are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
On the surface it sounds like Governor Perry authorized taxpayer money to be spent on the public education of illegal aliens. In the vast majority of cases that isn’t so. Most of the children being educated are likely U.S. citizens entitled to the same rights and privileges as every other American child. It is their parents who are non-citizens. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that there are 363,000 children born in the U.S. each year to illegal immigrant parents. Think about it. That is a city population larger than that for Charleston, SC created every single year by citizen babies born to the parents of illegal immigrants. The most pressing need is for changing the 14th amendment to eliminate this loophole.
URL to Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/homepagenew
“I think they’re talking about that Rick Perry guy who was all gung-ho about forcing VD vaccines on 12 year old girls.”
Will you please post proof of him “forcing” any vaccine on anyone? The vaccine was made available to fight a serious problem in sexually active children. Most parents opted out....easily. But of course, you know that, don’t you?
“she’s another one of those females....”
LOL!!! I see Sarah Palin is one of your heroes. I guess you’re one of those males......
Securing our border is more than just stopping illegal aliens. It is a matter of national security and public safety. And 40% of the 12 to 20 million illegals who are in this country came here legally and overstayed their visas. A fence or physical barrier is a force multiplier. Illegal alliens cost us $113 billion a year and that doesn’t include the impact of drugs and crime.
Shutting off the job magnet is absolutely essential, but there is more involved when you realize that our border with Mexico is the longest one in the world between a Third World country and a developed one. There is enormous pressure for people to get out of a corrupt Third World cesspool and go to the US regardless of the risk and hardship. And we now have enough immigrants in this country, 40 million legal and illegal, that can harbor and support illegals.
The two main threats to our national security posed by immigration relate to terrorism and drugs. First, tens of thousands of persons from countries that support international terrorism have come across our southern border undetected since 9/11.
Testifying before Congress in March 2006, FBI Director Robert Mueller said that his agency busted a smuggling ring organized by the terrorist group Hezbollah that had operatives cross the Mexican border to carry out possible terrorist attacks inside the U.S. “This was an occasion in which Hezbollah operatives were assisting others with some association with Hezbollah in coming to the United States,” Mueller told a House Appropriations subcommittee during a hearing on the FBI’s budget. Hezbollah was responsible for the October 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 243 U.S. troops. A total of 20 foreign-born terrorists were involved in 9/11, 19 of whom took part in the attack that resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths. The terrorists had entered the country on tourist or student visas. Four of them, however, had overstayed their visas and become illegal aliens and the others should not have been granted visas for various immigration control reasons.
Second, Michael Hayden, the outgoing head of the CIA stated in January 2009 that the threat of a narco state in Mexico is one of the gravest dangers to American security, on a par with a nuclear-armed Iran. An assessment by the United States Joint Forces Command, published in February 2009, concluded that the two countries most at risk of becoming failed states were Pakistan and Mexico.
The descent of Mexico into a failed narco state, marked by increased violence and brutality, which has already spilled over into the U.S., has enormous implications for immigration, legal and illegal. With over 11 million Mexican-born residents in the U.S. plus their U.S.-born relatives, there are strong familial ties to Mexico, which would attract Mexicans fleeing a disintegrating state seeking asylum and safety in the U.S. And the pressure on our porous, unsecured southern border would increase dramatically. Currently, the Border Patrol apprehends more than half a million people annually trying to enter the U.S. illegally from Mexico and hundreds of thousands more illegal aliens are successful in gaining entry. There is no way the U.S. could stop a tidal wave of Mexicans seeking asylum in this country and it would be even more difficult to remove them.
There has been a confluence of interests between drugs, illegal immigration, and terrorism. The systems for moving terrorists illegally across the border have become increasingly sophisticated, with Mexican drug kingpins now playing a major facilitating role using the same routes and methods to bring in illegal aliens and drugs. In view of the carnage that the 19 terrorists created on 9/11, the virtual certainty that our government has allowed substantial numbers of terrorists and their supporters to enter our country illegally is an outrage.
It is illegal for those who entered illegally to work and it is illegal for employers to hire them. The question is why are we paying to educate them and deny places in the university to Americans and legal permanent residents?
Good grief! Garbage in. I’m sorry I wasted my time thinking it might be a serious attempt to explain why you would vote for Obama if the Republican candidate doesn’t meet your unrealistic expectations regarding illegals. You should spend a day with our Border Patrol agents. You should see the hoops they jump through. You should take a close look at what is happening all over the country with illegals. Perry is absolutely right about the thirty foot fence and the thirty-five foot ladder. Cain is absolutely wrong in pretending you can just fry people. I wish he would stand strong on that issue. He has called it a joke...only to repeat it the next day.
Are you suggesting that no fences or physical barriers be built?
So the stories of illegals dying in the desert of thirst are just lies? The lie is the above, that illegal crossing take place only in urban areas.
This entire article is just more lies from Texans who want no border security. And the nonsense about the cost of a fence is another lie. The cost of illegal aliens is year-after-year, and one year of their costs to the US would exceed the entire cost of a fence.
The one thing we should all be learning is that we cannot trust border state politicians, or businessmen or others form border states to ever secure the southern border. We'll have to have a federal government that will ignore the whining and narrow self-interests of border states and treat it as the US/Mexico border, and not as the Texas/Mexico border, etc.
We sure won't get that from Rick Perry. More of the same from him.
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