Author sounds immigration alarm (Very interesting read)

The day before the September 11 attacks, Michelle Malkin warned of the dangers of unlimited immigration. . "It is a tragedy that we've now given the enemies of our constitutional republic the keys to flood our gates and trash our home," Mrs. Malkin wrote in the last line of her syndicated column published Sept. 10, 2001.

That line resonated in the days after the terrorist hijackings, as readers wrote to Mrs. Malkin saying, "You've got to speak up." She is speaking up with her new book, "Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores."

The book "argues a simple theme: that immigration must be treated first and foremost as a national-security issue," she says.

•How weak U.S. immigration policy helped the September 11 hijackers. Three of the hijackers obtained their visas through the State Department's Visa Express program. Hijacker Hani Hanjour entered on a student visa, but never enrolled in classes. Hanjour and six of his fellow terrorists got fraudulent Virginia identification cards with the help of Salvadoran immigrants.

•How the travel industry and ethnic lobbying groups pressure politicians for lax immigration policies.

•How the appeals process makes it difficult to deport criminal aliens, such as the Haitian babysitter who killed an 18-month-old infant and the German woman who had abetted the sexual assault of her own 3-year-old daughter.

•How officials corrupt the immigration process and seldom pay a price for their wrongdoing. One Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) examiner was convicted for granting permanent residency to immigrants in return for homosexual acts, but was allowed to retire and keep his federal pension. A Justice Department official assigned to the IRS fraudulently obtained U.S. visas for two Russian women, including his girlfriend, but never faced criminal charges and took early retirement.

•How foreign criminals like Mexican serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz — who murdered 12 Americans –— are able to enter the United States and evade capture because of incompetence by the INS.

Though herself the daughter of immigrants, Mrs. Malkin has only contempt for those she calls "the open-borders crowd," who defend even illegal immigration.

"They think it's possible to overlook the fact that we have 9 [million] to 11 million people in this country who have flouted our immigration laws, and still make sure we don't have another September 11," she says. "I'm saying that's impossible. It's a deadly delusion."

Although polls consistently show most Americans favor stricter immigration policies, that grassroots sentiment is opposed by what Mrs. Malkin calls an "almost insurmountable alliance of big business, ethnic panderers, the university cabal, the travel and tourism industry and the immigration lawyers."

That alliance, she notes, includes the Wall Street Journal — which has advocated an open-borders amendment to the Constitution — and many libertarians. "With libertarians in particular, I find it disturbing that these open-borders people — who otherwise advocate attachment to the rule of law — shrug their shoulders at the massive amount of [illegal immigrants] who've shown contempt for that principle," she says.

Born in Philadelphia to Filipino Catholic parents, Michelle Maglalang grew up in New Jersey and attended Oberlin College in Ohio, planning to become a concert pianist. But she "realized fairly early on that I was not going to cut it as a world-class pianist," she says, "so I majored in government and English."

She soon found herself in conflict with the political climate at Oberlin, a famously liberal school. "I think I was either ignorant or willfully naive about how radically left the Oberlin campus was," she says.

At Oberlin, she met her future husband, Jesse Malkin, and the two cooperated on an article in the student magazine criticizing the college's affirmative-action policies. "The response to [the article] was so violent that it really woke me up to what a stranglehold liberal orthodoxy had; that you couldn't even issue the most mild challenge to their sacred cows," says Mrs. Malkin, now 31. "That's what really set the course for my career in journalism."

It was at Oberlin that she developed a resentment toward identity politics. "There were self-appointed minority leaders who presumed to speak for every nonwhite person on campus," she says. "I think that the driving force of my career has been to say that those people don't speak for me. And I think that's the driving force behind the book, as well."

She criticizes "all the hyphenated groups objecting to every single reasonable immigration measure; those groups do not speak for the majority of immigrants who are here legally."

After graduating from Oberlin in 1992, Mrs. Malkin worked at NBC News, the Los Angeles Daily News and the Seattle Times before getting a column with Creators Syndicate in 1999. (Her column appears regularly on the Commentary pages of The Washington Times.) Along the way, she married her college sweetheart — now an economist with Rand Corp. — and gave birth to a daughter, Veronica, now 2.

Sitting on the deck of her Germantown home, which overlooks Little Seneca Lake, Mrs. Malkin admits she has sometimes confronted racism. "Growing up in south Jersey, I certainly experienced my share of name-calling, but that never bothered me," she says. She finds what she calls "liberal condescension" more damaging. "The tacit lowering of expectations — it's so much harder to fight that," she says.

After September 11, writing "Invasion" was for her an act of patriotic duty. "My parents have stressed so much showing gratitude for the freedoms we have here," she says. "I just felt this was a way to give back something."

In her book, Mrs. Malkin quotes a routine by "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno: "U.S. visas: Everywhere you terrorists want to be."

It's hardly a joke, because of policies like the "diversity lottery," which helped at least one terrorist killer stay in America.

INS officials had begun deportation proceedings against Egyptian immigrant Hesham Mohammed Hadayet, but in 1997, he was allowed to stay after his wife won permanent residency in the "diversity lottery" program. On July 4, Hadayet shot to death two persons and wounded three others when he opened fire at the El Al Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport.

"It's become clear to us how much blood is on the hands of INS officials who remain in office, who continue to be promoted, who get salary raises," Mrs. Malkin says. "You can't make this stuff up."

That about says it. While dedicated left liberals rarely post here, at least in coherent form, I would like to ask libertarians reading this post to state what justification for open borders exists especially in light of tomorrow's aniiversary.

There doesn't seem to be much we can do, since this incompetence is so firmly ensconced deep in the halls of federal government, due, in large part, to the absolutely corrupt administration of Bush's predecessor.

But I, for one, am not going to simply wring my hands. I am calling the White House and register a complaint about the lax policies relative to illegal immigrants.

If you would like to register your complaint, I encourage you to do so. The White House realizes that for every call they receive, there are several more who feel the same, but who didn't call. After all, it's about numbers.

Their number is: 202-456-1111. Make the call. Close the borders. Round up the illegals. Do not reward (with amnesty) criminals.

One of the issues that makes me wary of the libertarian party is their stance on immigration. While I don't agree with unlimited immigration, I think part of the problem is the current welfare state. If we got rid of welfare and allowed for open immigration, perhaps we would get only those that could support themselves and have something to offer society.

Although, I'm think it more likely that we would just have pockets of the third world all over our country.

Yeah, well as long as we sit here and do nothing, not even call D.C. we get pretty much what we deserve. I have a Presidential ticket I would like to see put forward in 2004, Coulter for President and Malkin VP. Those two women would make such short work of so many of our problems and who would dare cross them?

"due, in large part, to the absolutely corrupt administration of Bush's predecessor"

Don't forget that Bush, himself, wants to grant amnesty to illegals. This is not a partisan problem, but a problem with the ruling elite. If they destroy our country, they will never feel the effects, they'll just go from their gated communities to their gated private schools.

We don't have the demograhics to reduce government spending right now. Admitting 1M+ new socialists every year only puts us further behind. We'll always have a welfare state so long as we admit people from 3rd world socialist hellholes...(they'll just keep voting for it!)

America is evolving into a kind of country where buearocracies serve no useful function beyond harassing the majority of citizens who obey the laws and behaive in a decent fashion. The real criminals and culprits are always protected by special interest groups, whose power and numbers are increasing daily.

The only thing which keeps a second American revolution from occurring is the apathy of the general public brought about by: a surfeit of wealth and material possessions,
the proliferation of readliy available and cheap inane
pursuits which function as popular pacifiers, an intense brainwashing by the media, entertainment industry and educational establishments, and a general decline in moral judgement.

The big guy in office NOW is just as culpable. He's happy sitting on his hands. Since it's impossible to fire Gub-mint workers, why doesn't GWB transfer them out of their positions and into a nice rural warehouse with offices overlooking a prarie dog colony. Since he seems to love big government, he can creat an new cabinet position along with staff. Call it the "Office of rodent management" or something, just make sure he makes these people feel important.

I would like to ask libertarians reading this post to state what justification for open borders exists especially in light of tomorrow's aniiversary.

I would ask you to state what justification you have for misleading people into thinking that totally open borders are what most libertarians advocate.

Have you stopped beating your wife yet?

Don't forget that Bush, himself, wants to grant amnesty to illegals

It seems that people have been blaming the wrong group doesn't it? The darling President of the FR Republicans seems to be the culprit.

The real gravamen of this post is to show how it has become nearly impossible for the people in this country to have their will reflected in the political power structure. Immigration is only one of a large number of issues where the ruling classes feel they can blithly ignore the opinions of the majority of Americans. Until this problem is addressed, all the calls to the White House and letters to your Congresscriters will be of no avail.

Thanks for the ping... I've got my copy and am reading it now.

I passed it around to my apolitical neighbors the other day at a BBQ by the pool. One of them picked a page at random and started reading aloud. Much muttering and headshaking followed.

The GOP needs to get on the right side this issue, and get a handle on the opportunity it presents to break up old Democrat coalitions.

Information on INVASION here

I think she isn't entirely correct on that point. Libertarians do not "otherwise advocate attachment to the rule of law."

It seems that people have been blaming the wrong group doesn't it? The darling President of the FR Republicans seems to be the culprit.

"The darling President of the FR Republicans seems to be ~~the~~ a culprit."
The failure of our politicians and our government to heed the will of the American People, defend our laws and borders, and fulfill their oaths of office is, quite sadly, bipartisan.
BTW, I am an FR Republican.

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