On Immigration And Borders
by Linda Cirincione
lindac15@adelphia.net

Exclusive to TLE

I keep receiving forwarded articles giving a myriad of reasons as to why we should want the government to close our borders to (theoretically) stop illegal immigration. It is difficult to counter the emotionalism of most of those posts, but I think we have to continue to try to get through to these misguided activists.

First, let me state that I do not believe that either our open borders, nor the illegal immigrants are the real problem. They are merely the current smoke screen the government is setting up so that we will ask them to do that which they have wanted to do all along: close our borders.

Why would they want to close the borders? Because any fence (or security system) that is theoretically set up to keep people out, can also be turned against our own citizens to keep them in. Think about it.

The government has already set up the no-fly lists which control who can—and cannot—take an airplane flight. These are in the process of being extended to railroads and buses. These same lists can easily be used at the current checkpoints at our borders where people legally enter or leave the country. The only avenue left for those the government decides to place on "the list" might very well be going across an unmonitored part of the border.

Now the next question might naturally be: Why would anyone need to exit this bastion of freedom in a covert manner? Given the fascism taking hold of this country under the auspices of the new King George, there are any number of reasons why one might need to do this in the future. The easy ones are...

Reasons one might want to cross a border in the future:

1) The government can decide to declare you a non-citizen so that they can arrest you & hold you indefinitely, without either formally charging you or giving you access to a lawyer.

2) The government could decide any day to implement the draft & one of those young people that they might be looking to enslave & use as "cannon fodder" might be your child.

3) King George has already stated that he considers the constitution merely a piece of paper & that laws passed by congress—and signed by him—can be ignored anytime he chooses to do so. He has already ignored the constitution by condoning torture, illegal spying on our own citizens, & possibly ordering that American citizens be killed if he personally considers them to be (that oh so handy label) "potential terrorists". Think you are protected by the constitution? Not anymore. And he even has a precedent, in that good old Abe Lincoln did pretty much the same thing to quash dissent. (Bet you thought old Abe was a good guy too, huh?)

4) The government could just decide that they don't like the way you have utilized your freedom of speech and then, whoops... no access to your bank accounts or credit cards, no way to even pay for food. It's pretty easy to set someone up as allegedly having "drugs" in their home. Hell, they don't even need to plant anything any more. They can just break in & confiscate everything you own, down to your family photos, under the asset forfeiture laws. By the time you get through several years of a lawsuit to get them back—presuming you can get a lawyer and can figure out a way to pay for food and a place to live—they have already been sold off. Would you want to stay in this country if that happens? Think they will let you just leave? And who would take you legally after having been tarnished with those scary "drug" or "terrorist" labels?

5) If you are of Arab descent, you are in danger of being sent to one of the internment camps they have already set up around the US. Or, if you dissent with any of King George's policies, the same fate could very well await you. Don't say it can't happen here, because it already has: the Japanese citizens during World War II, as well as the case that the supremely corrupted court recently upheld regarding a US citizen being detained indefinitely in Guantanamo prison. According to King George, anyone who disagrees with him is a 'terrorist". Think you might want to leave the country rather than wind up in an internment camp or prison? Will you want to stay when he cancels the 2008 elections and declares martial law?

I could go on, but you get the point. Now, back to...

The reasons given for wanting to close the border:

They usually fall into groups.

a) Using Government Services—Illegal immigrants are using services that the rest of us have to pay for—everything from emergency services at hospitals to the costs of housing many in prisons (even though this argument ignores the fact that many legal citizens do the same things). Don't forget to add in the babies that are born here who automatically become citizens and therefore enable their families to stay. (Oh wait—then they are legal and can work legally, right? But they might just want those "free" services that they haven't paid for. Could it possibly be that the problem lies with offering "free" services (aka socialism)?)

b) Not Paying Taxes—Illegal immigrants don't pay taxes to help pay for all of the government-controlled services and programs. (This obviously ignores pesky little aspects like the fact that every time they purchase an item at a store they do pay sales tax. And the rent they pay goes to a landlord who most likely does pay property taxes.)

c) Businesses Employ Them—Illegal immigrants allow those nasty old employers to undermine our economy because they can be paid less and good old boy American workers lose out on jobs (that they obviously feel they should be over-paid for). A sub-argument of this one is that those employers should be fined and/or put in jail for hiring these illegal workers (so that they can afford to stay in business).

d) Mexico's Involvement—Mexican army personnel (or someone dressed like them or their police) are invading US territory and helping these illegal immigrants to cross the border. Mexico also refuses to take back their citizens who have crossed the border illegally, but then committed crimes and wound up in our prisons.

Some things to consider:

If the government really wanted to stop illegal immigration, or considered the invasion across our borders to be a serious enough problem, then they would have used the army or national guard to protect those borders. They have not done so, therefore they must want this situation to continue. Think about why they might want that.... Perhaps because they want us to become so inflamed by this situation that we actually ask them to close the borders. But not to keep the immigrants out, which they could have done at any time.

A common argument in the illegal immigrant issue is that they do those jobs that US citizens generally don't want to do or they will do them for less. (And sometimes better—they're number two and have to try harder; also, they are only paid if they actually perform up to expectations.) I would think that this always has and always will be true of recent immigrants, legal as well as illegal. So—either we have not allowed enough legal immigration to supply the country's needs or else we have set up salary structures and regulations that won't allow businesses (or individuals) to make a profit and thus stay in business otherwise.

Will building a fence and "closing the borders" solve this? I doubt it. Will current citizens then do those jobs for a low wage? Not unless they had no other choice. So those jobs would either not get done or a higher wage will have to be offered and then whatever gets produced will be more expensive.

There are several things that might work a lot better, even though our government will not ever implement them (mostly because what they want is not really the end of illegal immigration).

Suggested actual solutions (to the real problems):

—Allow anyone who wants to become an immigrant to do so legally. They will all then be "registered" and taxed. (I won't get into what I think of government taxation at this time....) So they will then be paying for any government services that they use. And, if there are indeed jobs that existing US citizens prefer not to do, these legal immigrants will be available to do them.

—Stop making free services available to illegal immigrants—or anyone else for that matter. People need to be responsible for themselves and their choices. Allow the general public to voluntarily contribute to a fund to assist the truly needy, but this money needs to be paid back... so that it is then available to help someone else. Don't just offer anyone who wants it a free ride and then force businesses like hospitals to continue providing that free ride—to the point where they are driven out of business.

—Start getting rid of social welfare programs (welfare, Medicaid, etc.) entirely. Welfare is not the answer to anything. It has merely created a myriad of other problems. If we don't give a free ride to anyone who merely asks for it, then we won't have to worry about the fact that too many are using it, whether they are legal or illegal. This social welfare takes advantage of the productive people in society who wind up having to pay for those who aren't. If you can't see going cold turkey, at least make these free ride programs only available for a limited time.

—Get rid of the minimum wage and reduce or eliminate the myriad of fees, taxes and regulations that make it so difficult for businesses to remain in business and compete with those from other countries. This is especially true for small businesses. (It would be really nice if the government would also stop giving the advantage to the very large corporations which have the money to bribe our government representatives to then pass legislation favorable to them. But again, that gets into another mine field....)

—Stop over-taxing the productive citizens of this country and then giving their hard-earned money to other countries that do not over-regulate and tax the businesses in their countries. We have been, in effect, subsidizing our competitors in other countries. Let them tax their own businesses/citizens (if necessary) to provide for themselves. Our government does not have the right to force US citizens to be the providers for the entire world. (Neither does a majority vote justify forcing this on the rest of us, especially if the outcome is fixed, as it is in most cases these days.)

—Get rid of the income tax and go to a flat sales tax. Then, both illegal immigrants and citizens would all be paying that tax whenever they buy anything. (Yes, I would prefer to eliminate most taxes and government services, but, in lieu of that, we should consider this option.) We could probably get rid of most of the IRS personnel at the same time and save a whole lot of money from their salaries and expenses.

—Add an import duty to any goods coming into the US that are manufactured by a business (whether individually, corporate or government owned) in a country receiving money from the US. Personally, I think that import duties are a much more fair way of taxing (if you really do have to tax...) than income taxes. Especially so if their country is receiving money from our government (stolen from us via taxes) as well, for services for its citizens and businesses, some of whom produced those import goods. Use this import duty to pay for that "financial assistance" to their countries (in actuality, bought and paid for alliance) or for the free services for those illegal immigrants. I'd also rather see the only "assistance " given to other countries be in the form of US manufactured goods or farm products... rather than cash, but again, that's another tangled web.

—In the specific case of Mexico: immediately stop giving any money to that country for any reason—until they take back those who came here illegally and committed crimes and until they control their own army and police personnel; I would also recommend declaring "open season" on anyone in a Mexican army or police uniform who crosses the border anyplace other than at an official entry point until such time that Mexico steps up and controls their own personnel. In lieu of that, at least tell the border patrol and US police/sheriff's department personnel that they can feel free to consider them armed invaders and take appropriate action.

—Lastly, lift all regulations such that small businesses or individuals can operate new independent media outlets of all kinds: newspaper, television, radio, etc.. This way the government will not be able to continue its psyops geared towards manipulating people into asking for things that the government wants to implement, but for entirely different reasons, and which many people would not want if they knew those real reasons. Our current mass media is controlled by too few people and is complicit in this manipulation. Orwell predicted all of this in his book '1984'. He was only off by 25 years. It's happening now.

The last thing I want to leave you with is a request that you look at all angles of what is happening. Just remember: a locked door or a fence can be used to keep people out... or to keep people in; "security" can be used to protect... or to control (ie. as in a prison). Which one is our current fascist government more likely to really want to use it for? Please think it through. You might personally never need this method of egress. But what if you do....?

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