Dakota Beacon

A recent poll shows North Dakotans strongly supporting the currently discussed immigration “reform” bill.  Before we jump to too many conclusions here, though, we should examine the primary question posed by Harper Polling, the agency cited in the Politico article purporting to show this widespread support for the bill.  Here is the question:

                Q:  There is bipartisan immigration reform legislation being debated in Washington. The bill would secure our borders, block employers from hiring undocumented immigrants, and make sure that undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. with no criminal record register for legal status. If a long list of requirements is met over more than a decade, it provides eligibility for a path to citizenship. Would you support or oppose this proposal?  (emphasis supplied)  (http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/poll-suggests-north-dakotans-strongly-support-immigration-reform/­­)

Note the actual question.  People are FIRST asked if they support  securing our borders.  The next phrase is “block employers from hiring undocumented immigrants”.  The rest is sort of how we should deal with those already here, how we should challenge them.  The follow-up questions basically ask, assuming the above conditions, would they want their congressional delegation to support the bill.  What’s not to like?  Securing borders, not hiring undocumented immigrants, requiring the law-breakers at least “register for legal status”?  Who would object to that? 

I have been involved in the process of polling.  You can elicit whatever response you want depending upon how you phrase the question.  Example:  How do you feel about clean air? For it or against it?  This can be manipulated to support more EPA involvement in our power industry or to support legislation requiring that smokers stand 40 feet from the nearest building.  When you begin by asking whether we support securing our border or protecting our own labor force and end with support of a bill which does neither it’s just part of the game of manipulation.  Don’t get me wrong – polls can be useful.  If done forthrightly they can be indicators of broad public opinion difficult to ascertain otherwise.  And in any case they can be useful as a catalyst for public discussion. 

Here’s my question:   What “bill” are they talking about?  Because the only bill I have been hearing about does none of these primary things.  It does not secure the border.  Here’s another question:  Why HAVEN’T we been enforcing our border to begin with?  The poll suggests that only if we get on with passage of this bill can we ever secure our borders.  We don’t need a “bill” to enforce our borders!  If we could do it if this bill passed, presumably we can do it NOW.  We have drones that can read the seed packets for our tomato plants, kill Americans in the desert and leap tall buildings with a single bound.  Why aren’t they concentrated on our Mexican border?  That’s where the drug cartels and crime syndicates are killing our people and creating general mayhem in our southern tier states.  If we can’t stop this now, why does anyone think we would – or could – do it after this silly bill is passed? 

A nation, by definition, has borders.  That’s how we know where our laws apply and who is a citizen of our country.  This is not peculiar to America.  It is a concept as old as time itself.  Since the human race has organized itself into nations we have had borders.  Often we have fought wars to establish or defend them.  All of a sudden America is the “bad guy” because we want our borders  defended?  When Hitler invaded Poland we decided that borders were important.  Or at least Britain did.  Finally.  Why is it different now?  We have a border for which our men fought and died and bled for.  Is it too much to ask to hold that border?  To guard it and prevent its breech?

Indeed, there are many, many reasons to oppose the current thousand-page bill.  It would reward those who have broken our laws first thing out of the gate.  It would likewise penalize those who have respected our laws.  We’re told we need more workers.  Who needs more workers?  Corporate farms?  Who?  We have a severe unemployment problem here in America.  Our economy is severely challenged.  Every single thing this administration (and most of what the last administration) has perpetrated has compromised our economy.  The cost of our social programs is clearly out of control.  Obamacare is going to exponentially worsen this picture as it becomes implemented.

What we are talking about with this bill is basically importing Mexico into America.  It is substituting Mexico’s political culture (and thus their economic and social problems) for our American one.  So, a good question to ask Americans responding to polls is: why do you think Mexicans want to come here?  Mexico is vastly rich in resources.  Their climate is productive.  They have the benefit of two seacoasts.  They are a major crossroads of the Western Hemisphere.  Their official language, Spanish, is mainstream, a major language for everything from culture to commerce to science.  What’s not to like about Mexico?  There is one thing, or a pair of twin things, which are enough to negate all of these important positive attributes:  CRIME and CORRUPTION.  Unhappily, these are the two things which will be brought into America through this amnesty bill (and it IS an amnesty bill – don’t let anyone tell you anything else).   The corruption which has destroyed a nation with every reason to enjoy high productivity and an excellent quality of life for its people will destroy our country as well.  It is not the people of Mexico, it is not its temperate climate nor its mineral wealth, its happy geographical situation or its impressive cultural heritage that has caused its people to stow themselves and their children away in car trunks and pickup beds to sneak out of their country and into ours, to cross that inadequately secured frontier.  It is the crime and the corruption which allows the crime to flourish. 

One of the effects of the culture of corruption and crime is the self-censorship of journalists and commentators in Mexico.  If they cause too much trouble or bring too much light to bear on the cockroaches in the corners they are found murdered.  They become examples.  The corruption of the police and judiciary is legend.  We can’t be very proud of our own condition here, especially throughout the last two or three administrations, but can we afford to make it even worse?  And that is exactly what this bill will do.  It will bring Mexican voters into America.  I am not against Mexicans.  They are entitled to clean up Mexico.   Far be it from me to stop them.  But until the people of Mexico call their government and their law enforcement to account to them why should they be here messing up our government and our law enforcement?

Our country, as the disclaimer always goes, has been grandly enriched by our immigrants.  We are a nation of descendants of immigrants (not a nation of immigrants).  The criteria under which our ancestors came to America were stringent.  They did not allow for felons or the infirm to emigrate.  They were based very largely on the fluctuating need we had for growing the labor force.  They demanded a high degree of assimilation.  English was a requirement.  Knowledge of our government and our history were required.  A knowledge of and respect for our laws and our Constitution were expected of them.  Their expectations?  An opportunity to own their own land, a chance to run their own business, to provide the best life for their children, to live in freedom.  Not Obamacare.  Not an Obamaphone.  Not job preference.  Not first place in the welfare line.  Not the chance to come here and re-create the same hell that drove them out of their homelands.  The result?  A population enriched by the cream of their societies.  The most energetic, the strongest, the most ambitious and willing to work, those whose characters were such and whose values were such that freedom and opportunity were utmost for them, ahead of “security” or welfare.  The people who have emigrated here over our three-hundred-year history have been the best of the best – the most adventurous, the most courageous and those whose consciences and values led them to risk all they had at home to come here. 

Are these the kinds of people we want?  People who share our passion for liberty and are willing to work hard for it?  People who are law-abiding and patient and will persevere in the pursuit of the right way to enter America and become citizens?  Do we want people like this voting in our elections?  Or do we want people who do not have the will or the courage or the perseverance to fix Mexico?  People who are looking for someone to take care of them?  I know many people of Mexican descent and a few who were born in Mexico.  They are hard-working, they are honest, they obey our laws and respect our Constitution.  They deserve our respect.  They are not well-served by a policy or a bill which allows others without those attributes to pour into our country.  Why should we discriminate in favor of those Mexicans who are lawless at the expense of those who come here legally?  What is the sense in that? 

I have heard enough about immigration being “broken” and we have to “fix it”.  That is utter nonsense.  What, exactly, does that even mean?  If by “broken” we mean our borders are like the proverbial screen door on the submarine, we can fix that.  No bill needed.  Just secure that border.  Next?  All those “undocumented” people here?  When we find them, either charge them with a crime if they have committed one, or if not, deport them.  Let them re-apply legally.  Are they working without green cards?  Same thing – send them home.  The big push on the Republican side for this bill will likely have come from corporate farms or other businesses which wish to employ the cheapest labor.  This does nothing for legal citizens’ opportunities.  Time to stop this “broken immigration” crap.  We can fix whatever needs fixing right now.  What is needed is not another immigration bill that will solidify the socialism here, but the will to close the border and enforce the laws we have.

We have no right nor duty to spread our way of life but by example.  This is why our Mideast policies have all failed.  That is why we have borders.  Within those borders we can create a wonderful culture and society where opportunities and wealth will flourish in the freedom we cherish.  We cannot impose these values or qualities on any other nation.  They can choose to follow the example we set, but without borders we must either impose our way of life on all others or ultimately lose it entirely for ourselves.  Within our borders we can preserve America.  Without borders there is no America.

 Visit Sally Morris on her website at fromtherampart.webs.com.