Illegal immigration is one of the most divisive and morally vexing issues in America today. During the administration of President Trump, the flood of supposed refugees from south of the border was reduced to a mere trickle by “the wall,” a “Wait in Mexico” border policy, and strict law enforcement by the border patrol. Now, with progressive Democrats hellbent on winning elections at any cost, some eight to eleven million illegal aliens have flooded into our country during the Biden administration. We were a nation at risk, but now we are a nation in crisis. We are facing threats of unparalleled proportions. (Click on the title above to continue reading if necessary.)
Republicans accuse Democrats of favoring an open border because illegal immigrants are mostly poor and uneducated, and their families vote overwhelmingly Democrat. This is so because undocumented aliens see the progressive Left as the party of entitlement. Republicans also point out that Democrats are attempting to “steal the vote” by working with the Census Bureau to redistrict America in a type of gerrymandering that will eventually ensure perpetual Democrat control of government. Democrats rage against Republicans, who they claim are unchristian, heartless and uncaring, xenophobic, and cling to the idea of meritocracy – that people should get what they have a right to and work for. Democrats would rather that we give freely those things for which Americans have worked so hard and so long and even shed blood.
While border security is an issue with significant moral overtones, one aspect not to be missed is the possibility of plunging this nation into a civil war. The first shot was heard when the Biden administration – using the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court – demanded that Texas take down its razor wire placed at Eagle Pass to stem the flood of illegal aliens. Governor Abbot had had enough and refused. Then, the governors of 25 conservative states began to offer the assistance of their National Guard units to hold federal troops at bay should that become necessary. Earlier, Abbot had tried to make the point that the flow of refugees must stop and started busing and flying illegals to sanctuary cities like Chicago and New York. Who knows where this is going to end? Our earlier Civil War was fought over states’ rights in relation to the issue of slavery. Will the next civil war be over states’ rights concerning the issue of border security?
The Biden administration’s open border policy and the resulting illegal immigration are complex issues with important implications for our nation’s future. The issues call into question the vision for our country and how we should react to the teeming masses from around the world who wish to come to our shores to breathe free. As a result, the policies of the past are not suitable for the problems of the present.
When our ancestors came to this country, they did so legally and had to survive on their own merits. They lived or died as a result of their own resources and efforts. They worked to fit into our country. Some eight to eleven million immigrants have illegally entered our nation, welcomed, aided, and abetted by the Biden administration. They are here now and expect a complete set of health and social welfare benefits – all at an enormous and growing cost to the American taxpayer. All the while, they continue to embrace their native languages, traditions, and flags of their countries of origin. This is polarizing and dividing our nation.
In the main, schools of the past served as the great assimilators. Everyone learned English, American history, and culture and embraced our patriotic values. Everyone came to know America for its exceptionalism. Today, our schools are overflowing with multiculturalism and revisionist history. DEI and CRT are replacing much of our traditional curriculum, which consists of subjects such as history, science, math, and English language arts. Today, it is as though we are ashamed of the American culture. We are affirming cultural differences rather than assimilating them. This is producing a country with growing cultural divides cutting across every race, culture, religion, and nationality. Once a cultural melting pot, America is now vegetable soup. America doesn’t know how to assimilate foreign cultures anymore, and, as a result, our nation is changing and not necessarily for the better. One example of this change is the fact that our major sanctuary cities are turning into bankrupt third-world countries.
We can’t employ as many uneducated aliens as we did in the past because they don’t have the necessary language and job skills necessary to take on good, well-paying jobs. Those who are employed often enter the workforce illegally, reducing available introductory, low-level jobs for undereducated and low-skilled Americans. This drives down wages. Illegals are often preferred to American citizens because they will work with no benefits such as vacation and health insurance. Illegal aliens are being exploited, and it’s costing the low-skill American workers as well.
Many illegal immigrants are willing to work the jobs that Americans are unwilling to do, but this is not an excuse to permit a flood of undocumented aliens to enter our country. Many countries use guest worker programs to allow foreigners to enter their territory for seasonal work, such as crop harvesting. Once the harvest is over, the workers return to their own countries.
Let’s admit that there are benefits to businesses of hiring illegal aliens because many will work for low pay with no benefits. We cannot count on American companies to enforce immigration policy because this is a conflict of interest for them. The only way we can control such workers is through effective enforcement of border law, with no more catch-and-release that so fuels today’s border security crisis.
We can no longer be (if ever we were) the country that Emma Lazarus’ poem The New Colossus (affixed years later to the base of the Statue of Liberty) describes:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of you were teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
As a practical matter, we can’t live out the words of Emma Lazarus. The Statute of Liberty stands as a shining example of what a great nation is like. It is not an invitation for all to come to America. Anyone who cites this poem for such a purpose is woefully ignorant of the intended meaning of the statue. The statue is a beacon of light, encouraging other nations to emulate us, a shining city on a hill. Our nation should be a beacon of hope to foreign countries, providing an example of what hard work and sacrifice can produce in other nations fraught with poverty, lawlessness, and war if only they are willing to stay home and work for it. Again, the Statue of Liberty was never intended as a “come hither” call to the world.
Our high-tech society doesn’t need many poorly educated, low-skilled workers anymore – at least not those who come by the millions and then stay. That’s unfortunate but true. If we continue to welcome such people to our shores and permit them to stay, we will eventually experience in America the same conditions in those countries immigrants are fleeing.
We will become a poorer and more restless nation, mired in poverty and chaos because so many immigrants favor the Democrats, whose platform boils down to that dystopian future. (The metropolises of California, New York, and increasingly Illinois are examples of what sanctuary city America can become – examples of third-world countries.) We can no longer bear the burden of illegal immigrants.
Border security is a critical issue in the election of Tuesday, November 5th. Who will win the day? Will it be emotional, virtue-signaling Democrats who claim the moral high ground at a terrible cost to our country or Republicans who consider and weigh the facts carefully, see America as a virtuous and generous nation, and put Americans first?
If you want to be an informed voter – one who can help others see and understand the problem that illegal immigration poses for our nation, then attend the McLean County Republican’s Border Security Symposium featuring Tom Homan, who served during the Trump Administration as Acting Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). You can learn more about this March 22nd event by going to https://www.mcleancountyrepublicans.org/border_security_symposium. I encourage you to attend. As for me, I’ll be there!