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America must drain the immigration swamp
www.charlotte.com/ ^ | Sat, Sep. 27, 2003 | TOM ASHCRAFT

Posted on 09/27/2003 7:07:33 PM PDT by getget

America must drain the immigration swamp Make borders secure and deport the illegals who are already here

The U.S. armed forces have done a magnificent job in Afghanistan and Iraq in carrying out the orders of their civilian leaders. Indeed, American blood is still being sacrificed, and the federal treasury has been opened wide for the necessary support.

As to the battle against illegal immigration at home, the political leaders have long since declared unconditional surrender. A few limited reforms since 9-11 have not changed the fundamentals. In the common parlance of those who live along America's southern border, immigration enforcement is "a joke." What's worse, after years of neglect, it's now a lethal joke that threatens the safety of every American.

According to Census Bureau estimates, among a foreign-born population of 33.1 million living in the United States, some 8 to 9 million are illegal immigrants. Others put the total at 13-14 million.

Another half million illegals enter the country every year and stay; hundreds of thousands more enter but then leave. According to a Sept. 17 NPR report, 1,000 illegals enter Arizona every day. There are probably more illegal aliens in America than the entire population of North Carolina, the 11th largest state in the union.

With this culture of immigration lawlessness, it is not surprising that five of the 19 foreign nationals who hijacked the 9-11 planes were in illegal status, largely visa overstays. Moreover, all had played the immigration system like a fiddle, freely obtaining business, tourist, vocational training and student visas, and generally entering "legally."

Among the 19, according to Robert Thibadeau at Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, they held 63 state driver's licenses for identification.

The Center for Immigration Studies (www.cis.org) is a respected Washington think tank. In its May 2002 report "The Open Door: How Militant Islamic Terrorists Entered and Remained in the United States, 1993-2001," Steven Camarota reviewed 48 cases of foreign-born Islamic terrorists who have been charged, convicted, pled guilty or admitted involvement in terrorism in the United States since 1993. Their crimes involved 9-11, murders outside the CIA in Virginia, the first attack on the World Trade Center, bombing plots in Brooklyn and New York City and the millennium plot to bomb Los Angeles airport, among others.

The findings of the report indicate that what is supposed to be a protective net of laws to assure an orderly flow of legal immigrants has become, in practice, an open sieve utilized by terrorists and criminals. Virtually every aspect of immigration control has been penetrated by wrongdoers. "Terrorists have even used America's humanitarian tradition of welcoming those seeking asylum," the report states.

It also identifies what is the deadly dynamic of the whole system.

Stemming from the "existence of a large illegal population" and "widely flouted" immigration laws, the report cites "a general contempt for the law among all parties involved, including those officials charged with enforcing it." It is this "contempt factor" which leaves us all sitting on a ticking time bomb of future terrorist acts inside the United States.

Nobody maintains that most illegals in the country are terrorists.

Frankly, they're often victims of, if not terrorism, at least the petty tyranny of the governments whose jurisdiction they have fled. Mexico's rulers, for example, are not totalitarian like Cuba's, but they have been corrupt for generations, robbing decent, hard-working Mexicans of the opportunity to build economic prosperity.

Nonetheless, the fact of widespread immigration lawlessness, whether originating with Mexican nationals or others fleeing injustice, has engendered disregard and contempt for our immigration system -- by foreigners, citizens and even immigration officials, especially Border Patrol agents.

Within this swamp of routine lawbreaking and endemic cynicism, terrorists find it easy to insinuate themselves. If millions can break the law every day and get away with it, why can't a few of Osama bin Laden's lieutenants do so as well?

Accordingly, we have no choice but to drain the immigration swamp. The borders and ports of entry must be made secure by whatever means necessary, including effective fortifications along the Mexican and Canadian boundaries. In addition, the illegals who are here, irrespective of the number, must be deported.

These actions amount to little more than regularizing immigration enforcement. They have been neglected for so long, however, it will take a revolution in Washington thinking to achieve them.

To succeed will restore respect for immigration law and eliminate the soft underbelly of our national security -- chronic immigration chaos. To fail will run the risk that the sacrifices of Americans in the current war on terrorism have been in vain.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: borders; homelandsecurity; illegals; immigrantlist
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To: getget
While draining the swamp it is important that all assets beyond the shirt on their back be taken and used to repay the costs of their transgression.

ONLY if we completely remove the economic incentive (money and goods sent home to mexico etc.) will this invasion cease.

Fox very recently admitted that money sent back to mexico from the USA was THE top earner for the mexican economy.
41 posted on 09/28/2003 9:20:22 AM PDT by norton
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To: cyborg
I forgot who it was that started that list but I have it listedon my homepage in unaltered form if you want it.
It is a great list.
42 posted on 09/28/2003 9:28:54 AM PDT by BeerSwillr
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To: BeerSwillr
I love that list. Nothing on it is unreasonable to me. Can you FReepmail it to me or post it?
43 posted on 09/28/2003 9:51:49 AM PDT by cyborg (dankie jou)
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To: BeerSwillr; cyborg
The freeper "Imagine" created that. Account banned.
44 posted on 09/28/2003 10:23:47 AM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak (Stop the open borders death cult)
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To: 4.1O dana super trac pak
"Imagine" that... heh-heh-heh
45 posted on 09/28/2003 12:05:38 PM PDT by BeerSwillr
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To: BeerSwillr
Lotta immigration thread types blow ther tops, I don't know what happened to Imagine though. I may be next.
46 posted on 09/28/2003 2:48:07 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak (Stop the open borders death cult)
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