by
Chip Wood
It used to be that when illegal aliens made it across our border with
Mexico, they’d flee as fast and as far as they could from any Border
Patrol agent. Now, by the thousands, they’re eager to be caught. What on
Earth has changed?
In the old days, those coming in illegally knew that they and their
children would be deported just as quickly as they were caught. Today,
thousands of women believe that if their children can get here, they’ll
be allowed to stay, as part of some sort of “amnesty” deal. And they
don’t just get to remain in this country; heck, they’ll even be provided
with food, medical care and a place to stay.
Tens of thousands of people have believed these promises. As a
result, we’re now seeing a flood of children pouring across the border,
particularly in Texas. In 2011, roughly 7,000 unaccompanied minors were
apprehended trying to enter this country. In 2012, that number doubled
to 14,000. Last year, it climbed to 24,000.
Now, the numbers have skyrocketed. In just the first half of this
year, the number of unaccompanied minors sneaking into the United States
soared to more than 40,000. The Department of Homeland Security, which
is responsible for protecting our borders, estimates that the number
could pass 90,000 by the end of this year. And they say it could reach
an astounding 145,000 next year.
The Texas Department of Public Safety reports that in only one week,
from May 28 to June 4, in just the Rio Grande Valley, the Border Patrol
caught more than 8,300 illegal aliens who had made it across the border.
Again, that’s the count for just one week and in just one part of
Texas.
This is an
invasion, pure and simple. There is simply no
other word for it. And unless it is stopped, the America we know and
love will cease to exist.
The problem has gotten so bad that the Department of Homeland
Security, which is responsible for processing deportations of illegal
immigrants, can’t keep up. Because the detention facilities in South
Texas are already filled to overflowing, some detainees are being sent
to converted warehouses and military bases in Arizona and California.
Many others are simply being released and asked to come back in a few
weeks. Can you imagine that? Rather than being put on a bus and taken
out of this country, they are being driven to a bus stop, given a
prepaid ticket to somewhere else and asked to come back when it’s more
convenient. How many people do you think will obey that request?
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has written President Barack Obama,
protesting the Administration’s policy of dumping many of these illegals
on her State. The last I heard she had not been given the courtesy of a
reply from the White House. And of course, the policy hasn’t been
changed.
We’re told that most of these new illegal immigrants are not
Mexicans. They’re coming from further south in Central America —
particularly Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Those countries are
1,800 miles away from our southern border. So let me ask a couple of
obvious questions: How on Earth are those thousands of women and
children getting to our border? Does anyone seriously suggest they have
walked all the way?
It’s hard to imagine even healthy young adults making that trek,
across some very inhospitable terrain. But we’re supposed to believe
that pregnant women and young children have done so? Impossible!
It’s equally ridiculous to suggest that these tens of thousands of
impoverished aliens have paid thousands of dollars to smugglers to
transport them. They don’t have the funds to do so.
So I repeat: How have they managed to get from Central America to our
border with Mexico? Have people in their governments conspired to help
them? Are some Mexican officials in league with them? It’s hard to
believe this is all “just happening.” It sure smells like there’s a
criminal conspiracy at work here.
And what is Mexico’s roll in all of this? How does it happen that
tens of thousands of aliens somehow are able to travel 1,800 miles
across their country without anyone being aware of it or doing anything
about it? I smell a very big rat at work here.
We’ve been told that Vice President Joe Biden is flying to Guatemala
later this week to meet with Guatemala President Otto Perez Molina and
senior officials from Honduras and El Salvador to see what can be done
to stem this criminal invasion. Apparently, Biden will bring with him
some offers of “enhanced” support from the U.S. for the three countries,
if they’ll help keep tens of thousands of their citizens from sneaking
into our country.
Lots of luck with that, Joe.
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is one of many Republican legislators
who say that the blame for this crisis can be laid squarely at Obama’s
feet. Sessions
issued a statement June 3, stating:
The rising crisis at the border is the direct and
predictable result of actions taken by President Obama. He and his
Administration have announced to the world that they will not enforce
America’s immigration laws, and have emphasized in particular that
foreign youth will be exempted from these laws. The world has heard the
President’s call, and illegal immigrants are pouring across the border
in pursuit of his promised amnesty. President Obama is responsible for
this calamity, and only by declaring to the world that our border is no
longer open–and that the law will be restored–can this emergency be
stopped.
Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be much chance of this happening.
Meanwhile, Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi continues to languish in a
Mexican jail, where he’s been held since March 31. That’s when he missed
a very obscure street sign and accidentally drove into the country.
Because he was carrying three guns (all of which were legally registered
in the United States), he was arrested by Mexican police and tossed
into the hoosegow, where he remains to this day.
Yet Mexican troops and police stray across our border all the time without anyone making a fuss about it.
Personal Liberty’s Sam Rolley reported:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil
Kerlikowske told Representative Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) in a letter
that the “incursions” are “infrequent” — but the commissioner added that
they happen frequently enough for the U.S. to have created special
units to deal with the situation.
Kerlikowske said that a total of 525 Mexican law enforcement and
military personnel have wandered into the United States in about 152
separate instances since 2004. In 81 instances, involving about 320 of
the armed non-Americans, contact was made with U.S. Border agents. In
131 of those cases people were detained.
If there’s one good thing that’s come out of the present crisis, it’s
that so-called immigration reform is stone-cold dead, at least for now.
The defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican
primary in Virginia last week added an important nail to that coffin.
There’s been a lot of discussion about why voters in Virginia’s 7
th
Congressional District gave the boot to Cantor, the guy who had
represented the district for six terms, and instead made Dave Brat the
victor. Certainly, Cantor’s reputation for being aloof, arrogant and out
of touch didn’t help him.
Neither did his financial profligacy. One wag pointed out that the
Cantor campaign spent more on steak dinners than Brat did in his entire
campaign. The numbers are simply astounding: Cantor raised more than $5
million for his campaign; Brat raised less than $250,000.
Brat made Cantor’s support of the bank bailout bill a key part of his campaign
Fortune reported:
“All the investment banks up in New York and Washington
or whatever, those guys should have gone to jail,” Brat told a May 7
gathering of the Mechanicsville Tea Party. “Instead of going to jail,
where’d they go? They went onto Eric’s Rolodex. That’s where they all
are, and they’re sending him big checks.”
That stung. But nothing hurt Cantor as much as the accusation that he
was working with Obama to provide some sort of amnesty to illegal
immigrants. Talk show hosts Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin hammered this
point again and again. At the same time, the television screens were
filled every night with pictures of the flood of people, many of them
children, pouring across our border in Texas.
Cantor was so confidant of any easy victory that he didn’t even
bother to come to his district on the day of the primary. Instead, he
was meeting with potential contributors in Washington. When the votes
were counted, Brat shocked all of the pundits by beating Cantor by an
11-point margin.
So we can say goodbye to Cantor and to the amnesty for illegals that
Obama and his liberal cronies have been demanding. And we can say hello
to increased demands that we must stop the illegal invasion of this
country. Let’s hope Congress gets the message.
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
