There is a movement in this country to open our borders to free migration into our country for anyone who wishes to enter. I wonder if these people keep their residence doors locked or if they encourage strangers to enter their homes and stay a while?
Back in the eighteenth century when our country was founded, people could freely immigrate to the United States. In those days, people did not lock their residence doors and did invite strangers to say over. In the eighteenth century, nations fought wars with a degree of civility – there were understood rules. Today, the world has changed. If you haven’t noticed, we are no longer seeing nations fighting wars with civility. Non-nation entities actually declare war against nations and weapons of mass destruction may be in the hands of these non-nation entities. In addition, organized gangs exist across national boundaries.
Early in the twentieth century, the U.S. managed immigration fairly well. Even though we experienced heavy immigration from Europe, we managed to carefully screen each and every person – can you say Ellis Island? Oh yes, like today these immigrants came to this country because they were dirt poor and were seeking the bounty of the United States of America. Screening émigrés did not prevent those who wished to come to our country from coming here, provided they were reasonably healthy and not criminals. The only obstacles were emigration quotas and sponsorship rules.
Today, we have Muslim extremists wanting us dead, the international gang MS13, violent convicts fleeing their country, and the potential of international pandemics. Does it make sense now to abandon the screening of all émigrés? Does it make sense to abdicate the management of all our borders? Another most important and forgotten element of our immigration policy is making visas available. One of the drivers of this current torrent of illegal entry into our country is our failure to provide sufficient visa quotas to those who wish to emigrate to our country. Our leaders claim that we need low-wage unskilled people to do jobs Americans won’t do, yet they have done nothing to grant more work visas to this labor pool. They have not attempted to fix the bureaucratic maze required to enter this country legally. All we hear from our leaders is “We need a comprehensive solution to immigration.” What a load of crap! Large problems are fixed by breaking them down into smaller and more manageable issues. Cure the cause of a problem or suffer continuing recurrences of the problem.
What is an illegal alien? What is an undocumented alien? What is an immigrant? The law of the land enacted by Congress requires anyone entering our country for an extended stay to either be a citizen of the U.S. or to obtain permission to enter. Permission is granted in the form of an entry visa. Visas provide for categories of entry – you are here to work or you are here to reside. Residence visas are granted to spouses of citizens and sponsored émigrés by relatives. More minor categories exist as well. Work visas are granted to workers who are sponsored by employers. In the last 25 years, rules for work visas tended to more readily allow entry based on the level of worker skills. Doctors and engineers are more likely to receive a visa as their skills are in the national interest. Low skilled or non skilled workers have little chance of receiving a work visa. So, if you have a visa, you have a document. If you do not have a visa, you are undocumented. If you are in the country and do not have a valid visa for your status, you are undocumented and are here in violation of our laws – you are illegal.
An immigrant is a person who emigrates from another country to the U.S. for tourist, economic, relationship, or political reasons. We know that our country was built by immigrants and immigrants are good. Uncontrolled immigration can do damage to our economy, health safety, and security against crime and terrorism. The open border people look at the history of this country and believe that immigration is good and they are right, but they tend to ignore the damage caused by uncontrolled immigration – and they are wrong. Widespread disregard for our laws is anarchy. Twelve to twenty million undocumented – illegal entrants into our country is arguably anarchy. You be the judge.
We need to properly and adequately establish visa quotas, work skill requirement levels, and the infrastructure to investigate and process applications, issue visas, revoke visas and notify immigration enforcement of invalid visas. Without this step, we are aimless in our efforts to solve this problem of entry. We should take care of these issues concurrently with our efforts toward enforcement.
