Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Responding to George Will's 'Welcome to America' Proposal for the Border Kids
Center for Immigration Studies ^ | 07/29/2014 | Jerry Kammer

Posted on 07/29/2014 9:53:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

In the mid-1990s, when the collapse of the Mexican economy produced a wave of illegal immigration to Arizona, I did volunteer work at a Phoenix school that was struggling to meet the needs of a few hundred Mexican children who spoke only Spanish. Even as I sought to help ease the transition for both sides, I thought it would be better for everyone if the influx subsided.

That explains my contradictory reactions of appreciation for and disagreement with George Will' s open-arms pronouncement on "Fox New Sunday" regarding Central Americans streaming across the Mexican border into Texas. It is burning up the blogosphere, drawing delight from the left and dismay from the right.

Said Will, prescribing a sweeping solution for the 57,000 unaccompanied Central American youth, "We ought to say to these children, 'Welcome to America. You're going to go to school and get a job and become Americans.'"

Applying some arithmetic, Will added: "We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 [children] per county. The idea that we can't assimilate these 8-year-old 'criminals' with their teddy bears is preposterous."

I admire Will's charitable inclination. It shows a fundamental decency that has been lacking in some of the public reaction. It is strong evidence of a kind heart in response to those who, in some instances are fleeing truly life-threatening circumstances.

But it goes way too far. Its generosity is flawed by a lack of basic understanding of the dimensions of the issues. It lacks the normal prudence of Will's conservative principles.

It shows an American tendency that Will himself lamented 29 years ago, when he wrote of the "constricted political imagination natural in a sheltered, liberal nation to which history has been kind", where leaders are "apt to underestimate the terrible dynamic" that confronts them.

As he unfurled his blueprint for the installation of flashing green lights at the border, Will showed no understanding of the enormous fact that the 57,000 minors he proposes to welcome are only a small part of the Central American exodus.

There are perhaps an equal number of children traveling with parents who have decided to come north as what our government calls "family units". They are being detained by the Border Patrol and then released into the country with the order to appear later in court for a deportation hearing that will take place months or years in the future, or not at all.

According to an internal memo from Deputy Border Patrol Chief Ronald Vitiello, the number of minors detained by the Border Patrol is expected to reach 90,000 this year and 142,000 next year.

There is a vast river of desperate humanity rising in Latin America, straining to flow northward, already eroding the dam of restraint that has long been a mostly psychological barrier constructed by the belief that the mighty United States wants to control its border.

When I was in the Rio Grande Valley last month reporting on the influx, I was struck by the number of single mothers traveling with children. While some talked of violence back home, most were fleeing poverty, the abandonment of shiftless fathers, and the indifference of corrupt governing oligarchies.

Does George Will think we should welcome them all? Is he aware of the correlation between impoverished, unskilled single mothers and a host of social problems? Does he think we can solve that problem, too?

If Will has his way, I think we can expect to see in many more places the sort of backlash that swelled in Arizona when the influx of the 1990s was not restrained. There the illegal immigrant population grew from an estimated 88,000 in 1990 to 560,000 in 2008.

The resulting transformation was so stunning, so straining on schools, hospitals, social service institutions, and neighborhoods that it eroded trust in government, undermined public willingness to accept all newcomers and bred the public outrage that produced a host of anti-illegal immigration laws and initiatives.

We can be sure that little of the impact will be felt around George Will's neighborhood in Chevy Chase, Md., where the median home price is $926,000. They can prescribe open borders with equanimity because for them the cascading consequences will be somebody else's problem.

Will's open-arms prescription is reminiscent of President Jimmy Carter's 1979 effort to get China to allow more people to emigrate. Journalist Patrick Tyler recorded the memorable response of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.

Tyler wrote that Deng "leaned forward, spreading his arms, and said to Carter, "Fine. How many do you want? Ten million?"


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; bordercrisis; borderkids; georgefwill; georgewill; homosexualagenda; illegals; immigration; libertarians
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

1 posted on 07/29/2014 9:53:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

If George Will wants to welcome them, he can take them all into his home and keep them there.


2 posted on 07/29/2014 9:56:28 AM PDT by NRA1995 (I'd rather be a living "gun culture" member than a dead anti-gun candy-ass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NRA1995

George Will wants to “socialize” the “welcome”.... 20 kids per county ( there are over 3,100 counties in the USA ).


3 posted on 07/29/2014 9:57:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Applying some arithmetic, Will added: "We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 [children] per county. The idea that we can't assimilate these 8-year-old 'criminals' with their teddy bears is preposterous."

There seems to be an assumption on Will's part that this is an end number. it's only a beginning number. We seems to forget we'd have to do this every day for the rest of our lives.
4 posted on 07/29/2014 9:58:39 AM PDT by stylin19a (Obama ----> Fredo smart)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Why does George Will hate America’s Sovereignty as much as B. Hussein?


5 posted on 07/29/2014 9:58:58 AM PDT by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Will, like other sheltered DC elites is very free with everyone else’s money.

You’ll also notice he would never think of living anywhere near this “riff-raff”.

All this concern for future landscapers and gang-bangers.


6 posted on 07/29/2014 9:58:59 AM PDT by headstamp 2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

So what happens when these kids’ mommy and daddy and aunt and uncle and siblings and cousins and second cousins and neighbors who say they’re cousins and neighbor’s mommiesanddaddiesandcousinsandsiblings&etc&etc&etc all come flooding in?

AS THEY WILL.

George Will is a fool.


7 posted on 07/29/2014 10:00:54 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Without GOD, men get what they deserve.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

yeah the 20 in his county can go into the classrooms with his grandchildren..

Wghat his grandchildren go to private schools ???

No prob Uncle George will pay for the illegal aliens to go too


8 posted on 07/29/2014 10:02:09 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Ya see, Bill...............

The PROBLEM is that they bring their MORALS and CULTURE along with them.


9 posted on 07/29/2014 10:02:13 AM PDT by Flintlock (Deport them ALLLL!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Before 1986 California was a swing state.

After the amnesty of that year (granting legal status 1.5 million officially, in reality far, far more) it became deep blue and will remain blue for as long as this country exists, I'm afraid.

George Will needs to retire to his great big Georgetown recliner.

10 posted on 07/29/2014 10:02:14 AM PDT by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Well by using Will’s simple arithmetic logic we can let the whole country of Mexico be absorbed and each state can have 2,274,000 each! Sweet!


11 posted on 07/29/2014 10:03:30 AM PDT by jimmyo57
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The 8 year olds, I could live with. The 13 to 20 year old gangbangers are another story.


12 posted on 07/29/2014 10:06:47 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

What did Presidents Hoover , Truman, and Eisenhower have in common?

This is something that should be of great interest for you to pass around. I didn’t know of this until it was pointed out to me.

Back during the great depression, Herbert Hoover ordered the deportation of ALL illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American citizens that desperately needed work.
Harry Truman deported over two million illegal aliens after WWII to create jobs for
Returning veterans.

In 1954 Dwight Eisenhower deported 13 million Mexicans. The program was called Operation Wetback. It was done so WWII and Korean War veterans would have a better chance at jobs. It took two years, but they deported them!

Now, if they could deport the illegal aliens back then, they could surely do it today. If you have doubts about the veracity of this information, enter Operation Wetback into your favorite search engine and confirm it for yourself.

Why, you might ask, can’t they do this today? Actually the answer is quite simple. Hoover , Truman, and Eisenhower were men of honor, not untrustworthy politicians looking for votes!

Reminder: Don’t forget to pay your taxes - 12 to 20 million illegal aliens are depending on it.


13 posted on 07/29/2014 10:09:06 AM PDT by simka
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

God knows how many of those girls are being released to pimps and sex traffickers. How do you think they are going to pay the $10,000 smuggling fees?


14 posted on 07/29/2014 10:14:45 AM PDT by forgotten man
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stylin19a

Facts! Facts! Facts!

You can’t confuse Will with facts.

He wears a bow tie so he’s smarter than everyone.


15 posted on 07/29/2014 10:15:51 AM PDT by IMR 4350
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Why does George Will want to stop at welcoming the “children”?

What about the MS 13 gang members and terrorists?

Is he racist?

Probably a joke..........................

An enlightening short read. The Canadian Minister of Defense has a dead-on sense of humor.

I CAN’T IMAGINE ANYONE IN THE CURRENT USA OR UK CHAIN-OF-COMMAND COMPOSING SUCH A BRILLIANT RESPONSE!!
The Canadians know how to handle complaints. Here is an example.

A Canadian female liberal wrote a lot of letters to the Canadian government complaining about the treatment of captive insurgents (terrorists) being held in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities. She demanded a response to her letter.

She received back the following reply:

National Defense Headquarters
M Gen George R. Pearkes Bldg., 15 NT
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa , ON K1A 0K2
Canada

Dear Concerned Citizen,

Thank you for your recent letter expressing your profound concern of treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists captured by Canadian Forces, who were subsequently transferred to the Afghanistan Government and are currently being held by Afghan officials in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities.

Our administration takes these matters seriously and your opinions were heard loud and clear here in Ottawa . You will be pleased to learn, thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself, we are creating a new department here at the Department of National Defense to be called ‘Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers’ Program, or L.A.R.K. for short.

In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided, on a trial basis, to divert several terrorists and place them in homes of concerned citizens such as yourself, around the country, under those citizens personal care. Your personal detainee has been selected and is scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence in Toronto next Monday.

Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud is your detainee and is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of complaint. You will be pleased to know that we will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with your recommendations.

Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his ‘attitudinal problem’ will help him overcome those character flaws. Perhaps you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences. We understand that you plan to offer counselling and home schooling, however, we strongly recommend that you hire some assistant caretakers.

Please advise any Jewish friends, neighbors or relatives about your house guest as he might get agitated or even violent, but we are sure you can reason with him. He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless in your opinion, this might offend him. Your adopted
terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers. We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills either in your home or wherever you choose to take him while helping him adjust to life in our country.

Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your daughters except sexually since he views females as a form of property, thereby having no rights, including refusal of his sexual demands. This is a particularly sensitive subject for him.

You also should know that he has shown violent tendencies around women who fail to comply with the dress code that he will recommend as more appropriate attire. I’m sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity offered by the burka over time. Just remember that it is all part of respecting his culture and religious beliefs’ as described in your letter.

You take good care of Ahmed and remember that we will try to have a counsellor available to help you over any difficulties you encounter while Ahmed is adjusting to Canadian culture.

Thanks again for your concern. We truly appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job and care for our fellow man. Good luck and God bless you.

Cordially,
Gordon O’Connor
Minister of National Defense


16 posted on 07/29/2014 10:17:03 AM PDT by COUNTrecount (There's no there there.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
It lacks the normal prudence of Will's conservative principles.

Huh? Will abandoned his prudent conservative principles years ago.

17 posted on 07/29/2014 10:17:52 AM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: COUNTrecount

Thanks for posting this...I have saved it and forwarded it to friends. Again thanks.


18 posted on 07/29/2014 10:31:42 AM PDT by caww
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Flintlock

....”The PROBLEM is that they bring their MORALS and CULTURE along with them”.....

Liberals don’t see this as even remotely a “problem” they see it as enlarging the world to an all inclusive “Citizen of the World” in all nations.....further, they think we need to be educated in other cultures as means of enlarging our awareness of “Their World”....their world meaning since we don’t visit other nations, as the elites do, they’re going to bring them here as a “Gift” to us!


19 posted on 07/29/2014 10:35:50 AM PDT by caww
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: caww

You’re welcome!


20 posted on 07/29/2014 10:36:32 AM PDT by COUNTrecount (There's no there there.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson