Posted on 05/29/2002 2:42:12 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The 2000 Census revealed that, in at least 13 States surveyed to date, more US residents are speaking Spanish at home. Not English. This is the result of nation’s growing Hispanic population throughout the 1990s. It has risen an astonishing 58 percent to 35.3 million.
In some places such as California, native-born English-speaking business owners are taking Spanish lessons or hiring bilingual employees. Speaking Spanish at home is fine with me, but taking it out to the larger community and, in effect, requiring that it too speak Spanish is just dead wrong. A common language binds Americans to one another. Two languages in the same nation creates two separate communities.
The flow of illegal aliens from Mexico and nations further south is a virtual torrent. In the first six months of this year, the US Border Patrol apprehended 176,655 illegal aliens in just the 21-mile Douglas, Arizona, section alone! The same individual may be apprehended more than once and the Border Patrol estimates that, for every one that is caught, three to five are not! Since 1983, at least a half-million illegal aliens have entered the US from our southern border.
A study by the non-profit Center for Immigration Studies confirms that "annual immigration in 2030 will still approach 400,000 a year, 8.3 to 11.4 percent higher than the 370,000 estimated for 2000." The Mexican-born population of the United States will double to 18 million by the year 2030. There is a powerful incentive for this because, in the last decade, Mexican immigrants sent more than $45 billion to their relatives. In 2000, they sent $6 billion or about $17 million a day!
Federal investigators recently revealed that "tens of thousands of foreigners are illegally obtaining Social Security numbers by using fake documents involving identity theft and other crimes. Federal officials have not yet found a way to search US immigration records to prevent the practice. Using the Social Security identification, the next step is to secure credit cards and even security clearances that permit illegal aliens to work in sensitive areas such as airports. In 200l, the Social Security Administration issued 5.8 million numbers, including 1.5 million to non-citizens.
On May 5th, both the Washington Post and Washington Times reported that the families of eleven illegal immigrants who died while attempting to enter the United States had filed a $41 million lawsuit against two federal agencies. Allow me to provide my standard disclaimer. I do not dislike Mexicans. I don’t even know a Mexican. If a Mexican has come here legally and become an American citizen, bravo! I have no problem with that, but the notion that the United States should be sued because it did not tend to the needs of those entering illegally is just nuts!
According to them, the failure of the United States, specifically the Department of Interior and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, to provide water to Mexicans trying to sneak into America, was the reason they died. Their bodies were found last year in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge between Tucson and Yuma. That area was being used because, say the attorneys for the families, the US Border Patrol has effectively shut down more populous portions of the Arizona border, thereby forcing illegal aliens to come in through more remote areas.
Well, it should be obvious that the US is to blame, right? Why should we stop at providing water in a desolate desert where ground temperatures can exceed 130 degrees in the summer? Why not a fulltime bus service? Or chauffeured limousines? This Mexican version of an Alice in Wonderland approach to illegal immigration is why, in 1997, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 54% of all illegal immigrants coming into the US were Mexicans.
Could this be because elements of the Mexican government are carrying out a strategic depopulation program, centered around approximately ninety communities in central and southern Mexico? Some informed sources believe this to be the case. Making matters worse, according to Rep. Tom Tancredo (CO-R), since 1996 there have been 118 incursions across the border into the US; 61 by Mexican military and 57 by Mexican law enforcement. At least 60% of the time, the Mexicans were armed. Sometimes US Border guards come under fire.
The INS estimates that, in the past three years, more than a thousand migrants have died of various causes trying to enter the United States illegally. Their deaths, each one of them, were a tragedy, but it seems to me that it is a greater tragedy that Mexico does nothing to stem this human traffic. Maybe if Mexico took steps to improve its economy and provide jobs for its people, they would be working in Mexico instead of sneaking across the border?
And maybe President Bush’s enthusiastic support for yet another amnesty program for illegal aliens is one of the dumbest ideas he’s ever had? We are talking about adding another 200,000 illegal Mexican immigrants to the population. That’s equivalent to adding a city the size of Baton Rouge, Bakersfield or Mobile. All this does is say to Mexicans that, if they can get into the US, they have a fair chance of going to the head of the line when the next amnesty comes. No need to apply for citizenship like others do. No need to come here, get a Green Card, and earn the right to be a citizen. Just sneak across the border.
Our immigration policies are so stupid that the House Judiciary Committee recently voted out Rep. Barney Frank’s HR 1452, misnamed the Family Reunion Act, but in fact is legislation that would permit foreign criminals to stay in this country! It has 52 sponsors, most of whom are from the far Left of the Democrat Party, but that is not a long distance to traverse. The bill would erase the reforms achieved in the landmark 1996 immigration law requiring that, after serving their prison sentence here, they get deported.
This is why, at current rates, between legal and illegal immigration into this nation, we will double our population within the lifetimes of today’s college students.
In the last decade, the 11.2 million immigrants who arrived, plus the 6.4 million children born to immigrants living here, equaled almost 70% of the nation’s population growth. That’s just flat-out too much, too fast.
I think our politicians in both major parties have observed the great deal they believe politicians in Mexico get. Most Mexican politicians end up extremely wealthy from the bribe money and one party managed to stay in power over 70 years. Bringing these same voters over here makes sense if that's what you're after.
C'mon, oh great learned and scholarly Poohbah, I'm still waiting for you to explain why I should consider anyone that makes a determination pertaining to the meaning of any clause of the Constitution or any of it's Amendments, by ignoring 46.43% of it's words, anything but a "great fool" and a "crackpot ignoramus".
I can hope that, at least, 5 members of the Supreme Court can do better than that, can't I?
Lawyers are worst than trailer trash. Lawyers are the reason this country is so screwed up in the first place. They create the problem, than offer (at a rather large price) the solution.
Was it Shakespeare that said 'In order to create a perfect society the first thing one must do is kill all lawyers'.
I guess they'll just place the ladder over the razor wire also. What happens when the encounter the electric fence at the top?
"..., and a rope to descend on the American side."
Where they see the big bold sign (in English and Mexican) stating that they are about to enter a minefield.
"Only those who are classified as 4F by Selective Service would think this to be any sort of extreme physical challenge." I guess all the others will be in body armor and have minesweepers with them.
I guess they'll just place the ladder over the razor wire also. What happens when the encounter the electric fence at the top?
And just where are you going to get the electricity to power the fence? It's not as if there's much surplus generation capacity in the Southwest.
"..., and a rope to descend on the American side."
Where they see the big bold sign (in English and Mexican) stating that they are about to enter a minefield.
Ah. You really want to have a nice handy supply for explosives for terrorists to steal?
US mines do not have the nastier anti-tampering devices that other countries use; additionally, you can BUY manuals from the Government Printing Office that show you, in well-illustrated detail, how to disarm US-built mines.
"Only those who are classified as 4F by Selective Service would think this to be any sort of extreme physical challenge."
I guess all the others will be in body armor and have minesweepers with them.
And you really think John Q. Public will support a minefield? Especially after the first few inevitable accidents?
How do you quietly plop a 45-foot-tall ladder into place and get a few hundred illegal aliens over the wall without being seen? Any idea what a ladder like that weighs?
We'll go from 1000's of illegal aliens crossing our borders, daily, to one, maybe.
Mikey, putting welfare recipients to work sounds good to me.
You mean you're going to post many thousands of soldiers on line 24/7 to keep the illegals from stealing the cameras, sensors, and land mines you put up?
I think I understand your idea. You don't have a huge number of bodies on the border to keep the illegals out, you have them there to keep the illegals from stealing the billions of dollars of hardware you left lying around. Then you just engage in some mission creep.
If you don't have the testicular fortitude to use an army properly, don't even try using it at all. Read some Clausewitz.
And as for how the illegals get in: it's called "go to the nearest Mexican port and buy passage on a Boston Whaler."
Oh, that's right, the US can magically track every single boat near its coastal waters and stop them from coming ashore in isolated areas.
Oh, I've got it now! Illegal aliens are too stupid to understand boats.
How do you quietly plop a 45-foot-tall ladder into place and get a few hundred illegal aliens over the wall without being seen? Any idea what a ladder like that weighs?
With a few hundred people to do it, it's amazing what could be accomplished, particularly if you don't have a lot of bodies standing around close by to stop them. And the whole idea of the wall was to ease those manpower requirements...
We'll go from 1000's of illegal aliens crossing our borders, daily, to one, maybe.
And once the first one is across, he calls home and tells folks how it's done. Pretty soon, it's tens per day, and then 100s as more and more border guards get sucked into long chases and get pulled off the line.
Pretty soon, the folks in charge will have to make an ugly decision: chase the illegals who get away, or stay close to the wall and let the lucky ones go free?
Mikey, putting welfare recipients to work sounds good to me.
Yup. Great idea. I'm sure that they'd be (a) skilled at putting up a massive wall and (b) immune to bribery by various interested parties.
And, of course, I'm sure the unions will happily waive the Davis-Bacon Act in a sudden (and unprecedented) fit of patriotism and selflessness.
BTW, as long as drugs are a hot-ticket item in the US, there will be a huge effort to get past the wall. You fail to address that issue.
The illegal aliens would need a virtual FLOTILLA to even come close to landing a handful of deadbeats on our shore with the Coast guard out there on patrol.
There'd be no mission creep. We'd only be doing the same thing, on our own borders, that we're doing in Bosnia, Korea, Afghanistan and to a lessor degree in Japan and Germany, now.
You don't think that the American public will go for landmines, now. I believe the majority would be for it, if they were polled. Just wait until there's another successful terrorist attack on our soil.
Five per mile is not impressive. Roving patrols to back them up? Not impressive. Especially with minefields in play: How fast will those roving patrols move to respond after hitting a mine that's been relocated by an enterprising drug smuggler?
Again: you can buy, from the GPO, manuals that tell you how to emplace, arm, disarm, and remove all current-issue US land mines. We don't go for the really nasty anti-tampering devices that other nations opt for.
That's not alot, but it's more than enough to do the job. I doubt even 1 illegal alien could get over that wall.
Yup. The Maginot Line kept the Germans out of France, and the Great Wall of China did a fine job of keeping the barbarians out.
The illegal aliens would need a virtual FLOTILLA to even come close to landing a handful of deadbeats on our shore with the Coast guard out there on patrol.
The Coast Guard is a very bad way. They have too much work to do as it is and not enough resources to do it with. Tracking every vessel within 200 miles of our coastlines and interdicting the ones that suddenly head inshore would require more ships and aircraft than they have or can reasonably expect to get.
It's amazing how you think that there's this bottomless barrel of money with no other claims, just waiting to be spent.
There'd be no mission creep. We'd only be doing the same thing, on our own borders, that we're doing in Bosnia, Korea, Afghanistan and to a lessor degree in Japan and Germany, now.
Hmm. In Germany and Japan, the Cold War mission was keeping the Red Army from attacking.
Believe it or not, that's MUCH easier than keeping a steady stream of illegals from crossing a border.
FYI, North Korean intel operatives routinely cross the DMZ, and have done so since 1953. And in Afghanistan, our efforts to interdict Taliban and Al-Qaeda movements have been less than completely successful, despite the massively greater effort we've thrown into the fray. In Bosnia, it works like this: our soldiers pretend to see nothing unusual, and the Muslims and the Serbs pretend to be at peace. None of these circumstances maps onto the US-Mexican border very well.
Your assumption is that success will just magically come
You don't think that the American public will go for landmines, now.
Yes, actually, they won't. They can understand that leaving explosive devices lying around for anyone with a minimum of dexterity and knowledge to pick up is a really bad idea.
I believe the majority would be for it, if they were polled.
Your belief and reality do not intersect on this issue, IMNHO.
Just wait until there's another successful terrorist attack on our soil.
And that's your mantra: "just wait until..."
I have a "just wait until" for you: just wait until terrorists use land mines stolen from the border strip to frag a shopping mall or two or three. When John Q. Public discovers that we basically left a few million land mines lying around, waiting to be stolen by the terrorists...
Just how much support would there be for REMOVING the damn things? Perhaps a LOT more than there ever was for placing them in the first place?
You think drug dealers would be enterprising, if they fooled with landmines or our soldiers. I believe they'd just be dead.
A force of 5 soldiers per mile, guarding the 30-foot-tall wall, isn't supposed to be impressive, just sufficient to do the job.
I can just imagine 3 million illegal aliens coming ashore on surfboards and little boats each year. What a riot. I can't wait to buy one for myself at the Coast Guard auction.
ROTFLMAO!
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