QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: [some questions shortened and paraphrased due to audience not being mic'ed, but many of the questions were repeated by Ms. Malkin, so all answers are in appropriate context.] Q: [Regarding whether a spreading trend of citizen militias to encourage private property rights along the border will increase.]
A: Yes, I do. Just one word about the citizen militias. There are being called "vigilantes" by the mainstream media. And you know what? The root of the word "vigilante" is "vigilant". They are doing what the federal gov't is failing to do, and I don't consider them...it's stunning to me that they're the ones that are considered "outlaws". They're not the ones breaking the law!
They're not vigilantes, they're patriots. And you know, it kind of reminds of the situation in NYC in the 1980s when there was a violent crime epidemic, and I really do see an analogy between how that epidemic was solved and how the state of immigration anarchy that we are suffering under will be solved. In NYC, criminologists came up with the broken windows theory of crime control. And what they discovered is that, is when you ignore the small signs of disrepair, those signs that nobody cares or nobody's in charge, for example, with broken windows. They're an open invitation to more violent crime.
And it's the same thing with broken fences. If nobody's going down there except for people like Bob Eggle to fix the broken fences, then it spreads. That's what mestastizes, that's the epidemic, and it leads to much more violent and menacing crimes. Not only murders like the murders of David March and Kris Eggle, but terrorism. Do they not see the nexus? Do they not see that we need to put armed military on our border to help so that the people, so that the citizens don't have to do it.
Q: What do you say to the argument that nobody else wants to do all these jobs, fix the roofs and mop the floors and work in restaurants. What's your answer to that?
A: Bull. Seriously, I mean, there are two answers to that. One is, of course, there are millions of people around the world who would love to do those jobs, people who are highly educated, in fact, who would gladly throw away their M.A.s or Ph.D.s for the opportunity to come here and just be able to live the American dream.
When I was in Houston, I met an Ethiopian taxi driver. He came here legally, he had an advanced math degree, but he was willing to do that job nobody else wanted to do. And we were talking because he asked me what I was doing, what kind of business I was doing, and I talked about my book. He was very enthusiastic about it. And actually, he talked about how he was really annoyed with other people from his country who come here and don't speak our language, and he said, "I don't understand what they're doing here. It's like they don't want to be an American!"
Now, I've heard that same refrain wherever I've gone. I'm not making this up. When I was in Palm Beach, Florida, I met a guy at my hotel who was Swedish. I mean he said the same thing. There is a huge Swedish population, apparently, in Palm Beach. Eleven thousand. And when new Swedish emigres come here legally, they settle in this part of Palm Beach, and it's sort of like the ghetto. I mean, it's Balkanized, everybody speaks Swedish and stays with their favorite Swedish customs and families, and after a couple of weeks, after he arrived here, some 13-14 years ago, he said, "They don't want to be American. I want to be an American!" This Swedish guy!
And the same again from all across the country. The other serious part of your question, of course, is if many of these businesses would pay the proper wages, there'd be plenty of people here to do the jobs that you mentioned.
Q: As an engineer, I don't see how we can possibly solve the problem by trying to catch the hordes coming. They have to be prevented from coming. However, how do you see us being able to solve what I call the Berlin Wall Syndrome? I mean, if we were ever able to build a barrier on the border with Mexico all across the 100 yard ditch filled with piranha fish, or a 50 foot concrete wall. I mean, as a proposal I think it would be shouted down, but still, because of the Berlin Wall, how would you deal with the idea of a physical prevention of invasion?
A: That's a fantastic question. I think there are many paths that we have to attack this on. And the first would be to shut off all those magnets that are bringing people here in the first place. And again, that would simply entail enforcing the laws that are already on the books. How about those federal employment sanctions that have been on the books since 1986? How about repealing the laws that have been passed attracting people here by rewarding them with drivers licenses? And discounted college tuition as I mentioned earlier? And eventually amnesty. This is why the amnesty battle is so important. We really have to rally into the battle with the battle cry, both native-born Americans and naturalized Americans who came here legally - "No more amnesty, period."
Just to finish quickly, I think also getting serious about deportation. And fixing that broken deportation system. I'd like to suggest you visit the website deportaliens.com. Juan Mann is a brave soul who is out there, who has brought attention to a problem that the mainstream media has no idea about. And that is the shadowy bureaucracy that handles this process and has basically sabotaged it. I mean, how can we have any control over the immigration if we can't kick out the people, the worse of the worst, we know are here?
Q: Do you think the two DC snipers who had the country in total fear leading right up to our election this year, acted alone?
A: No, I don't think they did. I think that there were probably a lot of other illegal aliens from Jamaica and Antigua who helped them out. And they have yet to be tracked down.
Q: [When asked whether there's a chance that things can be turned around in the Republican Party, seeing that the Democrats were corrupt from the get-go on the issue.]
A: Well, there have been successes. Look at this past spring. President Bush and Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt all wanted 245(i), the amnesty provision, attached to the border security law, and because of grassroots immigration reformers and a backlash, an overwhelming backlash from people who listen to talk radio and who educated themselves about 245(i), it was stripped at the last minute. Thank you, Tom Tancredo and the House Immigration Reform Caucus.
And you, with those phone calls and letters. A lot of people say, "Oh, you know, I'm not gonna call, I'm not gonna vote, nobody pays attention. They did. 245(i) was not in the final law. So keeping up that pressure and sustaining it is what we need to do. And I think especially now since this latest amnesty push, or legalization push, whatever Clintonian linguistics they're using now to describe rewarding lawbreakers, I think that the juggernaut can be stopped. I really do.
Also, I add this, that more and more public officials are coming out and stepping up to the plate. There's the Virginia state attorney general, for example, who's now demanded that public universities not enroll illegal aliens. Good for him. The Kansas School Board candidates and district attorneys in Pennsylvania also are making news for coming out and saying and doing the right thing. So that's got to be encouraging.
Q: [Regarding how to deal with polling on issues where illegal immigration is not even addressed.]
A: Send back the poll with INVASION written in black marker and a note that you are not going to contribute to the Republican National Committee until they put it on their polls.
Q: You have the ear of Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly who have a wide audience. They are talking up this, not amnesty, but guest worker program that they say, "Well, we don't want amnesty, but we'll go for a guest worker program." I wish you would ask them, whenever somebody brings that up, how is it if you have a guest worker program, fine, and you want say a million illegals working here as guest workers. How is that going to stop the other illegals? How are we going to get the 8, 9 million other illegals out of this country? I mean, how are they going to do that? There's nothing. They have no solution. This guest worker program seems to be gaining steam, but that's still not going to stop the illegals that are here and get them out, and stop others that are coming in.
A: It's a big rhetorical cop-out. A lot of conservatives who kind of straddle on this issue, and I'll do what I can and I have been doing what I can. When people ask me about those kind of programs, the guest worker programs, I kind of draw back the focus a little and I'd say, "We have to talk about the national question." Is this what we want, for our country to be treated as sort of a Rent-A-Country? I mean, I thought the whole idea of immigration period is that people were coming here permanently because we wanted to become part of the American mainstream, not be transients back and forth and milk all the benefits from one country and then toddle back home. That's not what it's supposed to be about.
Q: How are we going track those guys? They can't track the people now!
A: I absolutely - I just go nuts when I hear them making the national security argument for bracero programs, it just doesn't make any sense.
Q: Have you got any reaction from President Bush? How do you think he'd react to your book? Maybe you should send him an autographed copy!
A: I don't know that my book is allowed anywhere near 100 feet of the White House. There is one woman from the Republican Club in Sugar Land who said she was a high school friend of Laura Bush's, she did get a signed copy for her.
Q: [You have become a genius on the subject. We are the citizens. What is the single most important thing, besides contacting our Congressman and Senator, that we should do to stop this awful invasion?]
A: You're already doing it. I mean, here you are, and you're concentrating on what you can do in your own neighborhood. Certainly there's little we can do to ensure that the Homeland Security Department, for example, is doing its job. We can't be there. But we can be at the local 7-11 where we know there are illegal aliens, day laborers hanging out. We should get on the case of employers that we know are employing illegal aliens.
And we can demand the DAs in our cities to help enforce our laws. Repeal Special Order 40, for God's sake!
Q: [Regarding the courts - including our Supreme Court - who have been both implicit and explicit in their assistance to provide cover for illegal aliens, such as their stonewalling of Prop 187.]
A: Fodder for Invasion 2.
Q: [Do you believe it may take another 9/11 to open people's eyes to this? Your gut reaction?]
A: My gut reaction, is, yeah, that's probably what'll do it. You know, one of the things a lot of open borders people hide behind is they keep pointing out that 19 of the September 11 hijackers came in legally. And so that all the blame lies in the state departments and the consulate offices abroad. And that if we simply fiddled around with visa issuance and beefed up our intelligence resources, that would solve the problem.
Of course, the open borders people don't want you to look at the south, and the north, and those open doorways, not only again for those millions of illegal aliens who are from Mexico, but the OTMs - the Other-Than-Mexicans. The hundreds of thousands of unknown illegal aliens from the Middle East, from places like Pakistan and Yemen and Morocco, who probably aren't coming here to wash dishes or mow lawns.
Q: [There has been a discussion about changing electorate - not only the huge illegal alien problem, but now California is the first minority state. Most of us are Republicans, and we are disenchanted. For them, it's become all about votes. As long as that's most important, we won't get through, and more pro-illegals will rule the elections. Do you see a solution?]
A: Again, as I said, no more amnesty. It seems to be the way, but it may be the last stand.
Q: I'm a police officer, and thousands of us know where all illegals are. We are told we must stand by the chiefs and city councils. Can you research and write articles, and call these chiefs what they are - cowards?
A: First, thank you for doing what you do. ... I wrote this past week for VDare.com, another great resource, talking about this politically-correct attitude among police chiefs, which again undermines national security and threatens our public safety. Because it's all of those local cops who are so frustrated who would love to be able to help federal immigration authorities and are always hearing from the INS whining about how they're understaffed, and undermanned and underresourced, but they're not using the resources that are available, those cops on the beat on the street on the front lines, who could be helping out.
And I talked about Special Order 40, or the formal sanctuary policy in NYC. And Ground Zero, where illegal aliens helped kill the people of NYC, where Michael Bloomberg, just weeks after September 11, was announcing to all the illegal aliens there, that they didn't have anything to worry about, that they were going to make sure the city employees still didn't cooperate with federal immigration authorities, and that his main job as mayor was to provide them with city services.
Q: Have you ever considered writing a column on MEChA?
A: Yes. So many people have given me information on that, and there's Invasion 3, I mean you could do a whole book on it, and yes, keep reading my columns.
Q: Is there legal recourse for crime victims of illegal aliens?
A: As I record in my book, there is the case of a widow in Washington state, Billie Saunders, whose husband was a trooper who was gunned down by an illegal alien who had been deported several times, committed several crimes, and then was allowed to take advantage of "voluntary departure". Of course he voluntarily returned, and at a routine traffic stop, gunned Billie Saunders' husband, James Saunders, in cold blood, in the head. And he died, he died before his son was born.
And Billie Saunders is now suing the INS and I talked to the lawyer in the case a couple of weeks ago, and they were in discovery, and he believes they will be heading to trial... We'll see. I mean, a lot of people tell me that the chances are really slim. However, she stood up, she's doing it, and more victims should. I don't see why the sniping victims, for example, are not going after the INS district official and the immigration judge who made the decision to release Lee Malvo.
Q: What about legal immigration and those who come here and simply live off the welfare state?
A: Of course, again, it's a case of enforcing the laws that are already on the books. They're supposed to abide by a deeming pledge, for example, that they're not supposed to go on welfare and get public benefits. If we simply enforced that law, maybe there wouldn't be such a huge problem.
I do call in my book for having a freeze, at least, to start with, the issuance of temporary tourist business and student visas to places that are essentially breeding grounds for anti-American terrorism. I mean, why are we letting people from Yemen still come here to go to Disneyland when we can't track after they've come in? And that valve has remained on full speed.
Ms. Malkin, when addressed with statements rather than questions, took the time to give kudos to American Patrol as a prime news source on the issue of immigration reform and activism, and to thank a lady who is a disabled veteran for her service and for pointing out that, although we were generous with the Iraqi defectors in the Gulf War (bringing them here and paying for their housing and medical expenses), the Gulf War Veterans still struggle with their own government to receive adequate recompense and support for their service.
After receiving a citation of merit from Barbara Coe and receiving the appreciative huzzahs of the packed house, Ms. Malkin thanked us all for spending Thanksgiving evening with her, and returned to her chair behind the table, in front of which queued a long line of well-wishers.
With her busy schedule, I was impressed with her cheerful, friendly stamina at the end of a long day.
Especially when the national battle of the Border Disorder is getting especially heated...and far from an end in sight.
But from what I witnessed, there's plenty of tiger in this lady to face the big jackals - and coyotes - on both sides of the aisle and in the media.
Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with tigers for truth.
