Illegal Immigration

I’m an immigrant. When I came to this country, I already had a job lined up. I did everything the legal way: I got a work permit and a temporary residence permit. From the day I got off the plane, I paid local, state, and Federal taxes (including social security). Eventually, I received a Green Card (permanent residency as an alien and permanent work permit). During Ronald Regan’s second term, the U.S. government declared an amnesty on illegal aliens who had been in this country since before 1982. The immigration service assured me that they had one group of bureaucrats processing the Illegal’s applications, while another group of bureaucrats was processing the applications of legal immigrants like me. Like many people in my position, my green card application was held up for over a year while the Illegals were processed ahead of me.

Let’s get a few things straight: First, these people are not undocumented workers; that description doesn’t cover the thousands of MS13 and other gang bangers here who never worked a day in their lives. Someone who comes here legally or illegally from somewhere else is an Alien. An Alien who breaks the law to get into this country and does not have a visa or other residency and work permit is an Illegal Alien. I sympathize with people who want to come here to live, work, and better themselves. Half the rest of the world wants to live in America. I know that I did, and I’m more grateful to this country for accepting me than I can ever say. I don’t blame people for sneaking across our borders. I don’t blame them for working any job they can get—without a work permit—to provide for their families. I don’t blame the previous generations of Americans, who accepted waves of immigrants to this country because it followed one of the basic tenets that this great nation was founded upon: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. I do blame the drug runners who have taken advantage of our porous borders to introduce cocaine and heroine to our citizens. I blame the gang bangers, rapists, child molesters and other scum who come here because they think America provides easy pickings (which, apparently, it does).

But most of all I blame generations of American politicians who turned a blind eye to the growing problem of Illegal Immigration because they either thought that waves of Latino voters would vote Democrat, or because cheap lettuce would allow farmers to pour money into Republican coffers. And all the while, American citizens who live along the southern border have to tolerate hundreds of Illegals trespassing on their property every night, leaving tons of trash, stealing, killing their animals, as they make the trek northwards to murder, rape, steal, or—if we’re lucky—simply work without paying income tax.

Here’s something else to ponder: In order for an immigrant to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, they have to demonstrate to an immigration officer that they can read, write, and speak English before they are granted U.S. citizenship. Only American citizens are allowed to vote. So why did my local polling station have signs written in both English and Spanish? Do you still think this isn’t a problem caused and tolerated by politicians?

So what is it going to take to fix this problem? First, we have to address an equally important threat. Eventually, a terrorist with a WMD will sneak across the border along with the Illegals, and attack an American city. It isn’t a question of “if”, more like “when”. The only way to prevent a threat like this is to seal the borders. Build a concrete wall fifty feet high and twenty feet thick along the entire border. Put one door in it and place the First Armored Division on the northern side (do the same on the Canadian border, but put the First Infantry Division there).

Deport every Illegal Immigrant. Suspend the American Citizenship of every child born here of Illegal Immigrants in the past twenty years. Oh yes, and hold every politician, every bureaucrat, accountable. That is phase one. We’ll address phase two some other time.

Churchill was right; Democracy IS the worst form of government

If you've voted in a few presidential elections, you might be starting to feel that strange sense of foreboding that grows steadily as we get closer to the big day this November. There's that feeling that regardless of who wins, we are going, in some way or another, to get screwed by our elected politicians.

In a two party system, unless you flat out agree with everything one candidate stands for (assuming that candidates actually STAND for anything anymore) you end up voting for the lesser of two evils. If, like me, you are cynical about politics, you can make the case that in a two-horse race, if you own both horses, you don't care which one wins. And that, I think, becomes the problem when you get big corporations and other entities with fat checkbooks who contribute to both parties campaigns. For the rest of us, we are stuck with voting for the lesser of two bought and paid for evils--or is that the lesser of two weevils?--A Weevil being a small beetle that is destructive to nuts, grain, fruit, etc. Yeah, that sounds about right.

So maybe we should go with a three or four party system like some of the European countries have? Certainly there is more chance of finding a candidate or party with much more similar political views to yours, but the chances are that in an election, the winning party will not have a clear majority to govern, and will end up cutting deals and forming alliances with one or two of the other minority parties and compromising their political position in order to get anything done. That brings us right back to where we started.

Perhaps by the time the general election comes around, it's already too late for us as voters to be truly effective; like waiting for the Superbowl before you root for a team. it seems to me that the time to really influence politics is during the Primaries. It's the only chance you get to weed out the undesirables and settle on a candidate who may actually share your values. Then, you just have ti watch that candidate like a hawk to make sure that big money doesn't corrupt him and turn him to the Dark Side of the Force.

So there you go; Sucks doesn't it?

Oh, but I didn't finish Sir Winston Churchill's quote: "Democracy is the worst form of government. except for all the others."