The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Saturday, March 25, 2006
The REAL Immigration problem: wither the "Other Than Mexicans"?
While it is easy to understand why the Democrats and Republicans feel they have to cater to the growing Hispanic population for political purposes, the sobering fact is that there is ample evidence that several of the 9/11 hijackers came across our porous Mexican border. I am all for free trade, but I am also about enforcing our immigration laws (they are there for a reason you know...)--rather than winking at Vincente Fox and looking the other way while entire cities pour across the Rio Grande each year.
It seems to me that the one thing that ALL parties should agree on is what to do with the so-called OTM's. Currently when we catch Mexican nationals trying to sneak into the US, we deport them immediately back to Mexico. But Senor Vincente Fox doesn't want to accept the OTM's (illegals coming across who happen to be from countries other than Mexico). So what have WE been doing with these individuals? Let's say Ahmed from Pakistan gets caught sneaking across with Mexican nationals. What have we been doing as POLICY while we are in a WAR??? Why of course, we LET THEM GO in our own country and "expect" them to show up weeks later for some deportation hearing. Riiiight.
Let's be frank here: at this point, we are no longer talking about workers working for less or even not paying their fair share of taxes: we are talking about releaseing potential terrorists--who have illegally entered the United Stated from places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. This is not bad policy--this is absolute INSANITY. Michael Cutler, writing in The Counterterrorism Blog is justifiably angry about this--and for damn good reason. I'm posting his excellent commentary below.
In the meantime, I say we either send these OTM's to places like Gitmo for an an all expenses paid sleep-deprivation-for-information "vacation"--or else as a part of ANY immigration deal, we get Senor El Presidente Fox to agree to put the OTM's in some of Mexico's excellent prison facilities. If the OTM's should never have been in Mexico in the first place; and if they are caught COMING from Mexico, then by my highly scientific calculations, that means that these OTM's are illegal aliens THERE in Mexico. And the last time I looked being in Mexico illegally is supposed to be against Mexican law. So (Earth to Vincente): these OTM's are YOUR problem, not ours.
Meanwhile--since the majority of the people coming across (OTM's included) never get captured in the first place--it is time to get a lot more serious about catching these SOB's before they blow up one of our cities. Is that so much to ask, especially so long as this war is raging aginst psychpaths that would think NOTHING about taking a couple of million of us to meet Allah with them? If the Republicans do not wake up and smell the coffee on this issue, America will pay dearly for their neglect. War is War. Pandering for Latino votes should not in a time of war result in endangering millions of our fellow citizens. It seems to me that Republicans ought to be able to make that case.
Take it away Mr. Cutler:
I have linked to an interesting story ("Non-Mexican migrants 'rent a family' to avoid deportation") that manages to combine a number of immigration issues in one fell swoop. It shows the burgeoning problem that so-called OTMs ("Other Than Mexican") aliens represent to our nation along the Mexican border. That the number of so-called OTMs apprehended along the border has more than doubled last year from the previous year, makes it clear that the Mexican border is a major entry point for aliens from a variety of countries other than Mexico.
While the article did not name the countries from which these aliens came. I would be curious to know how many of them were identified as being from "Special Interest Countries." The term "Special Interest Country" is the term that DHS uses to describe countries known to be involved in terrorism such as Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iran, to name three. I would also be curious to know how these OTMs managed to gain entry into Mexico. Somehow, I believe that some sort of corruption was involved, but then I tend to be mistrustful of a country that has made a national policy of encouraging its indigent citizens to head to a neighboring country for health care, education and most significantly, money. I am also mistrustful of a country that acts as a way point for much of the narcotics that flows into our country.
I also want to use this article to illustrate a crisis confronting our nation's supposed efforts to enforce the immigration laws of our country; immigration fraud. Clearly the aliens who seek to enter our nation are shrewd. They are adept at gaming the systems we employ to attempt to secure our borders and the system by which we adjudicate various applications for immigration benefits for aliens. Those aliens who are intent on violating our borders and our immigration bureaucracy needn't be brilliant, only persistent!
A bit of creativity, however, goes a long way with a system that does not have the commitment of all too many of our nation's political leaders, starting with the President. I wonder if when the President speaks about willing workers being paired with willing employers if he was thinking about babies being "employed" by OTM "employers" to perpetrate fraud where the immigration bureaucracy is concerned.
Finally, we need to view this article from the perspective of the program that keeps me awake at night, the various "Temporary Guest Worker Amnesty" programs being proposed by everyone from the President to various members of the Senate such as McCain, Kennedy, Specter and others. I have made this point before, but I believe it is worth repeating. If the aliens who are so intent on coming to this country that they are willing to endanger the safety of babies. If the parents of those babies are so eager for cash that they will willingly rent out their babies, then clearly our adversaries will literally stop at absolutely nothing to attain their objectives- the ability to enter our country and hide in plain sight as they seek gainful employment or, perhaps, engage in criminal activities that span a wide variety of criminality, including, potentially terrorism-related crimes. They possess true guile as this latest scheme clearly demonstrates. They will certainly not find it difficult to game the system that would be implemented in conjunction with a guest worker amnesty program. They will not have any problem falsely claiming to have entered the United States prior to whatever cut-off date such a program might establish. (Senator Specter's bill would establish that date as January 4, 2004.)
It is entirely possible that terrorists would be able to obtain officially-issued identity documents in false names to circumvent "No-Fly" and other watch lists and travel freely across our nation's borders, travel freely around our country, gain access to venues that are supposed to be secure such as sensitive buildings, airports and trains and prepare to attack our nation again. Yet, even as you are reading this, there are a number of senators as well as the administration, planning to implement that disastrous program. They would be well advised to follow the lead of Chairman James Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who proposed an immigration enforcement bill that does not include any sort of amnesty program.
As I have noted previously, in the days and months after the attacks of September 11, 2001 many politicians stood before the microphones and cameras, seeking to get their sound-bites on the evening news, ranting about the failure of our government to "Connect the dots" that resulted in the attacks of 9/11. Here are the dots for all to see. Aliens are violating our sovereign borders (at least they are supposed to be sovereign borders). They are proving themselves to be highly skilled where gaming the system is concerned, while our government proves it is inept at carrying out the most simple tasks where our borders and the immigration bureaucracy are concerned.
The GAO issued a report on March 10, concerning this issue highlighted just how great a problem this is. You can see a summary of that report at the House Judiciary Committee website. It is time for our "leaders" to read the report and understand that our country must not implement a guest worker program at a time when the ineptitude of the immigration bureaucracy has been made clear by a variety of authoritative sources. It is time for them to connect the dots before the next catastrophe.
It seems to me that the one thing that ALL parties should agree on is what to do with the so-called OTM's. Currently when we catch Mexican nationals trying to sneak into the US, we deport them immediately back to Mexico. But Senor Vincente Fox doesn't want to accept the OTM's (illegals coming across who happen to be from countries other than Mexico). So what have WE been doing with these individuals? Let's say Ahmed from Pakistan gets caught sneaking across with Mexican nationals. What have we been doing as POLICY while we are in a WAR??? Why of course, we LET THEM GO in our own country and "expect" them to show up weeks later for some deportation hearing. Riiiight.
Let's be frank here: at this point, we are no longer talking about workers working for less or even not paying their fair share of taxes: we are talking about releaseing potential terrorists--who have illegally entered the United Stated from places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. This is not bad policy--this is absolute INSANITY. Michael Cutler, writing in The Counterterrorism Blog is justifiably angry about this--and for damn good reason. I'm posting his excellent commentary below.
In the meantime, I say we either send these OTM's to places like Gitmo for an an all expenses paid sleep-deprivation-for-information "vacation"--or else as a part of ANY immigration deal, we get Senor El Presidente Fox to agree to put the OTM's in some of Mexico's excellent prison facilities. If the OTM's should never have been in Mexico in the first place; and if they are caught COMING from Mexico, then by my highly scientific calculations, that means that these OTM's are illegal aliens THERE in Mexico. And the last time I looked being in Mexico illegally is supposed to be against Mexican law. So (Earth to Vincente): these OTM's are YOUR problem, not ours.
Meanwhile--since the majority of the people coming across (OTM's included) never get captured in the first place--it is time to get a lot more serious about catching these SOB's before they blow up one of our cities. Is that so much to ask, especially so long as this war is raging aginst psychpaths that would think NOTHING about taking a couple of million of us to meet Allah with them? If the Republicans do not wake up and smell the coffee on this issue, America will pay dearly for their neglect. War is War. Pandering for Latino votes should not in a time of war result in endangering millions of our fellow citizens. It seems to me that Republicans ought to be able to make that case.
Take it away Mr. Cutler:
I have linked to an interesting story ("Non-Mexican migrants 'rent a family' to avoid deportation") that manages to combine a number of immigration issues in one fell swoop. It shows the burgeoning problem that so-called OTMs ("Other Than Mexican") aliens represent to our nation along the Mexican border. That the number of so-called OTMs apprehended along the border has more than doubled last year from the previous year, makes it clear that the Mexican border is a major entry point for aliens from a variety of countries other than Mexico.
While the article did not name the countries from which these aliens came. I would be curious to know how many of them were identified as being from "Special Interest Countries." The term "Special Interest Country" is the term that DHS uses to describe countries known to be involved in terrorism such as Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iran, to name three. I would also be curious to know how these OTMs managed to gain entry into Mexico. Somehow, I believe that some sort of corruption was involved, but then I tend to be mistrustful of a country that has made a national policy of encouraging its indigent citizens to head to a neighboring country for health care, education and most significantly, money. I am also mistrustful of a country that acts as a way point for much of the narcotics that flows into our country.
I also want to use this article to illustrate a crisis confronting our nation's supposed efforts to enforce the immigration laws of our country; immigration fraud. Clearly the aliens who seek to enter our nation are shrewd. They are adept at gaming the systems we employ to attempt to secure our borders and the system by which we adjudicate various applications for immigration benefits for aliens. Those aliens who are intent on violating our borders and our immigration bureaucracy needn't be brilliant, only persistent!
A bit of creativity, however, goes a long way with a system that does not have the commitment of all too many of our nation's political leaders, starting with the President. I wonder if when the President speaks about willing workers being paired with willing employers if he was thinking about babies being "employed" by OTM "employers" to perpetrate fraud where the immigration bureaucracy is concerned.
Finally, we need to view this article from the perspective of the program that keeps me awake at night, the various "Temporary Guest Worker Amnesty" programs being proposed by everyone from the President to various members of the Senate such as McCain, Kennedy, Specter and others. I have made this point before, but I believe it is worth repeating. If the aliens who are so intent on coming to this country that they are willing to endanger the safety of babies. If the parents of those babies are so eager for cash that they will willingly rent out their babies, then clearly our adversaries will literally stop at absolutely nothing to attain their objectives- the ability to enter our country and hide in plain sight as they seek gainful employment or, perhaps, engage in criminal activities that span a wide variety of criminality, including, potentially terrorism-related crimes. They possess true guile as this latest scheme clearly demonstrates. They will certainly not find it difficult to game the system that would be implemented in conjunction with a guest worker amnesty program. They will not have any problem falsely claiming to have entered the United States prior to whatever cut-off date such a program might establish. (Senator Specter's bill would establish that date as January 4, 2004.)
It is entirely possible that terrorists would be able to obtain officially-issued identity documents in false names to circumvent "No-Fly" and other watch lists and travel freely across our nation's borders, travel freely around our country, gain access to venues that are supposed to be secure such as sensitive buildings, airports and trains and prepare to attack our nation again. Yet, even as you are reading this, there are a number of senators as well as the administration, planning to implement that disastrous program. They would be well advised to follow the lead of Chairman James Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who proposed an immigration enforcement bill that does not include any sort of amnesty program.
As I have noted previously, in the days and months after the attacks of September 11, 2001 many politicians stood before the microphones and cameras, seeking to get their sound-bites on the evening news, ranting about the failure of our government to "Connect the dots" that resulted in the attacks of 9/11. Here are the dots for all to see. Aliens are violating our sovereign borders (at least they are supposed to be sovereign borders). They are proving themselves to be highly skilled where gaming the system is concerned, while our government proves it is inept at carrying out the most simple tasks where our borders and the immigration bureaucracy are concerned.
The GAO issued a report on March 10, concerning this issue highlighted just how great a problem this is. You can see a summary of that report at the House Judiciary Committee website. It is time for our "leaders" to read the report and understand that our country must not implement a guest worker program at a time when the ineptitude of the immigration bureaucracy has been made clear by a variety of authoritative sources. It is time for them to connect the dots before the next catastrophe.
