Invasion

“The surprise Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7 are a grim reminder that the US remains at great risk of new homeland attacks .”

You probably lock the doors to your home even during the day when you’re there, but assuredly at night while you sleep. You lock it up tight when you’re away. You do this because it’s your home and contains valuable items, at least to you. But, most importantly, you lock your home because that’s where you live – your family lives. It’s where the things of life happen. It’s intimate. You control who comes in and out, not because you’re unfriendly or unneighborly, but because you can’t judge the motives of strangers coming into your home. You lose control.

We protect those we love and what we own because we know the world can be a hard place, and people can be downright evil. Trust, but verify, as President Reagan often cautioned.   

That’s not a political statement or a religious judgment. It’s a practical decision. Why would our national borders be any different? We have a legal immigration system,  such as it is, to know who is coming into our homeland and something about them. To maintain control of that which we love. To protect immigrants themselves from exploitation and to protect the citizens of the US from exploitation – or worse.

America never needs to offer an apology or explanation for its historical immigration policies. It has been an immigration magnet for its entire history. Freedom has that effect. And though that process has sometimes been contentious and provoked a political backlash in varying degrees, the American story on legal immigration has been remarkable and unique in world history. Since 1980 alone, with the enactment of the Refugee Act, the US has taken in more refugees than every other country combined.   

But illegal and uncontrolled immigration turns that concept on its head. It abandons our duty to protect our families, fellow citizens, and their property. And, often, it is a disservice to the illegal alien, too, turning them into an economic commodity, stripping them of the dignity of personhood.  

Big business proves this with their incessant drumbeat for low-wage, cheap workers – only a rung above indentured employment, which they seem okay with. They collectively regard the national border as a hindrance. Incredibly, many even advocate for an “any willing worker for any available job” policy regardless of residency status – to do to the white-collar professions what they have already done to the Nation’s blue-collar jobs. (The late Ross Perot’s “sucking sound” of jobs leaving version 2.0. Déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra described it.)

But the facts speak for themselves. According to publicly available CBP (Customs and Border Protection) data, national apprehension and encounters with illegal entries from all sources were 1,684,586 (from January, when Biden took office, to September 2021); 2,766,582 for fiscal 2022 and 2,096,346 through May of 2023.

For the first 28 months of the Biden administration, total CBP “encounters” with illegal aliens nationwide were at least 6,547,514 – but that’s only part of the story. There were also nearly 1.7 million estimated “getaways” reported by immigration authorities. These individuals deliberately crossed the border to the US, evading contact with immigration officers.

A staggering 8 million have crossed into the United States in less than three years. Corral this population into a metroplex of its own, and it would be the fourth largest behind only New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. It is a larger group than the population of 38 US states.

The massive, unceasing caravans of illegal aliens headed North to the US border were kicked off when the hapless, appointed President, Joe Biden, announced an end to the Trump-era “stay-in-Mexico” policy – a policy which merely enforced existing US law and international protocols – requiring potential asylum seekers to stay in the last country en route to the final destination and request refugee status before admission. (But it appears that many, if not most, of the illegal alien flow are not even claiming refugee status but are released into the US anyway (here). A Federal Inspector General reported that 93% of illegal aliens not claiming refugee status are released into the US as well (here).

The Biden gang might as well have hung out a sign that read, “The Border is Wide Open – Y’all come on in.”

Who are these people? In truth, we don’t know much at all about them. How could we? Those who have contact with border agents are met with a lick and a promise by overwhelmed immigration personnel, who fingerprint them (we hope), hand them a smartphone with supposedly limited uses, and tell them to check in when they get wherever they’re going. They are released by Order of Release on Recognizance, granting them a legal right to travel in the United States. Historically, few actually check-in, and less than 10% ever make a court date regardless (those dates now stretch out to five years plus.) It’s all a huge joke, and everyone involved knows it.

A network of NGOs and refugee resettlement groups – Catholic Charities and others that use millions of dollars in public funding – facilitate and direct the illegal aliens even as they travel through Mexico (here) toward the US. A UN agency distributes a $400 debit card to assist the “migrants” as they trek to the US border. Once in the US, either the government or resettlement groups arrange transportation into the interior of the US.

The eight million that have flooded into the country represent 150-odd countries from around the world. Nearly 70% of the illegals are single, and of that, a majority are young males. While Central American nations, Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela, are the prominent countries of origin,  there are tens of thousands of Africans and Asians, as well as Iranians, Iraqis, and Afghans.  

Worryingly, there are thousands of illegal crossings by what are termed “special interest aliens.” According to the CBP, there have been 72,823 of these encounters on America’s borders over the past two years. A recent report stated that 250 illegal aliens on the terror “watch list” were encountered through the end of September this year alone. One can only wonder at the number who did not interact with customs authorities.  

From October 1, 2022, through September 30, 2023, the CBP also reports that 57,163 Russian nationals have crossed into the US, a huge increase over the previous year. In addition, 52,700 Chinese have illegally walked into the US, also a large increase. Since the US has been seeded with both Russian and Chinese spies across universities, corporations, and the government for years, it’s safe to assume that potentially thousands of spies have infiltrated these Russian and Chinese populations. (Who can forget Congressman Eric Swalwell’s (D-CA) Chinese honeypot and confidant, Fang Fang, who skedaddled back to China when outed as a suspected spy? Or, the late Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose driver and staffer for twenty years was tagged by the FBI as a Chinese asset?)

The FBI has a record of 100% failure when it comes to acting on and stopping terrorist actions in the US where it did know about the bad actors in advance –  such as at Fort Hood, Texas, the Boston Marathon bombing, and, of course, 9-11 – so it seems unlikely that they’ll stop any potential terrorists hidden in this mass of humanity where they have little to no footing. The surprise Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7 are a grim reminder that the US remains at great risk of new homeland attacks – and it’s difficult to believe that trained terrorists have not already walked across the open Southern border.  

At this point, what’s to be done – what can ordinary citizens do?

Polls show a massive majority of American citizens want illegal immigration stopped and agree that the term “invasion” best describes the current situation at the border. Yet Washington remains implacably opposed (in both Republican and Democrat-controlled Congresses) to shutting down the border and turning illegals back into Mexico –  or returning to a Trump-era program of having the Mexican military check the advancing caravans of illegal aliens. Publically, at least, border state politicians pay lip service to “ending” the border crisis. But words mean little at this point to fed-up Americans.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been the most vocal and active border state Governor to date. On July 7, 2022, he declared an “invasion” and, through Executive Order, launched an operation to patrol and arrest illegals on Texas property.

On September 20, 2023, Governor Abbott reissued the declaration that Texas was invoking its authority under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 of the US Constitution, enabling the State of Texas to protect its territory against invasion and massive drug trafficking by Mexican drug cartels. The Governor also sent a letter to the White House, stating that the Federal Government was not upholding its constitutional duty to “protect each [state]against Invasion.” This declaration led to Texas deploying water barriers in the Rio Grande River and razor wire at heavily trafficked areas along the Texas border. The Department of Justice is challenging all of these actions.

As with so many other issues, the idea that the Federal Government alone is best able to set national policy and carry it out on every issue is rarely proven in practice. The question of jurisdiction over immigration issues is a case in point. Who can better enforce border and immigration laws, the states or the federal government?

The Framers did not specifically address immigration in the Constitution. Instead, Washington assumed power over immigration through the Supreme Court in the late 1800s, then with statute and prerogative, even though it had no enumerated constitutional authority. [Interested readers can read a detailed history in a previous article here.]  

Illegal immigration and its effects have morphed into a “nation-changing” human catastrophe for US citizens – and illegal aliens – alike. One need look no further than California, which transformed from affluence and prosperity to the highest poverty rate in the Nation in scarcely a generation. The case for (at least) Texas to do the hard but right thing is overwhelming. Beyond that, American citizens need to start a grassroots fire under politicians for a “stand down” of all legal and illegal immigration into the country until Washington can reclaim control of its immigration processes, from overstayed visas, anchor baby vacations, chain migration, financial responsibility, work visas, and simple border security.  

Our future and safety in the 21^st century demand it.