Before tackling the subject of "illegal" immigration in the United States, I should point out certain specific border issues that will not be included. Drug, gun and human smuggling are criminal acts separate from the "illegal" immigration issue; therefore, this article will only deal with those "illegal" immigrants who enter the United States to seek work.
I've placed the word illegal in quotes because in spite of what political and media hacks tell us, there is no such thing, per se, as illegal immigration. Illegality occurs only after the period of time covered by a particular documentation has elapsed. Crossing the border at other than an authorized government checkpoint is illegal but most "illegals" enter the United States at government checkpoints.
If you're thinking that this nitwit is making a nit-picking distinction, try this: Go to the border and walk into Mexico. Are you an illegal? No, you're a "tourist." The same applies to the Mexican folks you keep bumping into at casinos and sales warehouses such as COSTCO. They are "tourists." They only become "illegal" when they work for a casino or warehouse without valid documentation.
The difference is not simply (as the hacks would have you believe) a matter of semantics. An "illegal" immigrant, one who does not have valid work papers, may have entered the United States any number of ways. Most undocumented workers enter the U. S. legally, they just don't go home when their papers say they're supposed to.
Recognizing this basic fact, it should be clear that the billions spent on border fences and other deterrents for controlling "illegals" is wasteful, not only in spending but also in the allocation of manpower necessary to thwart border-related criminal activities. Because of the enormous waste or resources, it isn't much of a stretch to argue that many of these border controls are actually counter-productive to the security of the United States.
The proposed 700-mile fence fails to take in alternatives. Of course, once the fence is installed and in operation, border "illegals," like Cubans have been doing for decades, will take to the sea. It will be a terrific upgrade. Instead of being referred to by the pejorative, "wetbacks" they will become "boat people."
Absurd beyond argument is the proposal that we should send all the "illegals" back to where they came from. The logistics of such a maneuver boggles the mind. The only conceivable way this could even be possible would be to hire millions of "illegals" to round them up.
And how far back do we go? Do we ship Sean Hannity back to Ireland where both sets of his grandparents originated? (Absurd solution for an absurd idea).
The Department of Homeland Security lists 28 categories of immigrants who can receive work authorization in the United States. Among these are domestic servants of U. S. citizens and foreign students seeking optional practical training. Omitted are individuals who simply want work.
Those not included in the 28 categories must compete for green cards by entering a lottery, but only if they have a high school diploma and worked in one of the authorized occupations for at least two years. To qualify for the lottery drawing in the construction industry, for example, an immigrant must be either an experienced carpenter or manager which excludes the bulk of jobs available in the United States needed by both employers and the immigrant employees.
Tragically, the present "policy" is nothing short of homicidal. Over 450 border-crossers die in the desert each year as a direct result of our idiotic lottery procedure. How we allow this to continue year after year is irresponsible beyond reason. It only makes sense that if a person has a job offer in the United States, that person should be allowed to enter the country to work.
If we permitted workers to enter only in order to work, we could safely assume that future border crossings would be for illegal purposes: drugs, terrorists, or other criminal activities.
Continuing our present policies virtually guarantees that terrorists will eventually enter our country under cover of the chaos of "illegal" immigration. The consequences are bound to be catastrophic beyond imagining; not just in destruction of property and lives, but also eventually in the loss of freedom of movement, increased individual surveillance, and even concentration camps.
Here in Arizona, the penalties being imposed on those who hire illegals have already impacted the economy in ways that are not readily apparent. Since enactment, affordable domestic help is practically non-existent. It's also ironic (perhaps stupid) that at the same time the housing market is crashing and many homes are being trashed, contractors and owners cannot find affordable help to put these homes in shape and on the market.
In a time of deepening drought, increasing wildfire risk and budget restraints, the law against hiring cheap immigrant labor to clean up potentially dangerous fire hazards (such invasive and highly flammable buffel grass), could have catastrophic consequences.
Much of the chaos over "illegal" immigration seems to have sprung from the imaginations of politicians and talk-show hacks who have never done an honest day's work. One of their most persistent online rumors concerns the enormous healthcare costs for "illegals." The source of this absurd contention can be traced back to a bill signed into law (to his everlasting credit) by the very president many "illegal" immigrant-haters idolize, President Ronald Reagan.
Simply stated, the law prohibits hospital emergency rooms from denying life-saving medical care for anyone; a law that is virtually universal, which means that if you, as a tourist, are injured in a car wreck in Hong Kong, you will receive emergency treatment.
This right to emergency treatment that all of us share has been seized upon by "illegal" immigrant-haters and the cost of emergency treatment distorted in ways to make it appear that this service is a gigantic federal healthcare program for "illegals", paid for at the expense of taxpayers. It ignores the reality that others use the services and facilities much more frequently and in far greater numbers, or that "illegals" are denied basic healthcare, such as government funded Medicare.
Another oft-regurgitated argument put forth by politicians and talk-show hacks, that all of our forefathers followed some sort of legal procedure to enter our country, is ludicrous. My Irish ancestors, for example, were little more than slave laborers hauled in by the boatload to fill the needs of the industrial revolution. They weren't even allowed to keep their own names. (McGill, for example, was originally McGilicutty.)
When it was deemed by certain factions that the Border Patrol needed help, at the urgings of the aforementioned hacks, these factions set out to guard our borders by doing what was jokingly called, "playing Cowboys & Mexicans." Although they referred to themselves as "Minutemen," they actually behaved more like RV people looking for a place to park where it wasn't too hot or too cold.
In Southern Arizona, this writer observed them on winter "patrol" on paved roads with Seven-Elevens, and clearing out on or before the first hundred-degree day.
What politicians, Minutemen, and talk show hacks apparently don't understand and probably never will because they seldom leave their desks or RVs, is that the Sonora Desert is so thickly covered with vegetation, that it is extremely difficult to move through. So difficult in fact, that the Forest Service cut a trail from the Mexican border north, which is now used by, you guessed right, illegal border crossers.
No, you won't find any Forest Service or Border Patrol agents or Minutemen on that trail. In fact, you probably won't see anyone, except on moonlit nights when literally hundreds of folks from other countries use the trail. Oh yes, maybe a deer hunter (like me) in season.
Located on the eastern edge of the Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona, Wilbur Canyon was once one of the wildest, most beautiful and pristine areas on Mother Earth. The last few of the great North American cat, the Jaguar, haunted the deep canyons and remote reaches. To get to our hunting area required an eleven-mile four-wheel drive just to get to the campsite.
Although our campsite was a few miles from the Mexican border, I never saw a Border Patrol agent in that area in the last twenty years I hunted there. Before that, we saw them on horseback every year. When they traded their real broncos for the Ford brand, they stopped patrolling the actual border.
Jokingly, we proposed that the Border Patrol be renamed "The Ten-Miles-North-of-the Border Patrol." Although Border Patrol agents were conspicuous by their absence, during those twenty years we witnessed hundreds of illegals crossing, most of them on moonlit nights.
This is a true story: Several years ago we were camped overnight along a trail maintained by the U.S. Forest Service that also crossed the border. The trail was heavily littered and had been for years. Around midnight on a moonlit night we heard a group come through. Judging from the sound we estimated there were about 125. Unfortunately, the area along the border has no cell phone coverage so we were unable to notify the authorities.
The next morning however, we interrupted our hunting trip, drove over the god-awful jeep trail out to the dirt road and another eight miles to pavement, then another three to an intersection where an agent was pulled over, guarding our borders (ten miles north of the border), apparently asleep behind the wheel of his brand new Chevy SUV. The young man listened to our story and told us they'd catch them when they crossed the Arivaca Road (the road we were on).
In Wilbur Canyon, one of the most heavily traversed illegal border crossing areas in the United States, illegal crossing could have been stopped in its tracks years ago, but the Border Patrol, for whatever reason, elected not to guard our borders. (I'm told, but have not personally verified, that this has changed).
Politicians, talk show hacks, and the rest are playing the right tune but tooting the wrong bugle. Our border concerns should be about terrorists, not cheap laborers. The high priority to stop "illegal" immigration is not only misdirected, it is suicidal. A fence might keep out farm workers but will have little effect deterring those who want to destroy us.
So are there solutions or should we just go on wringing our hands while whining about the sky falling in? The answer is that there are many possible solutions but for whatever reasons, mostly political, none have been implemented.
1. Restore the alien worker's program to basically what it was before politicians began their tinkering. Allow all workers, regardless of experience, country of origin, or education, to be hired to work in the United States. Issue work permits to workers with preexisting employment, which allows them to work in the United States for as long as the specified employer listed on the permit pays them on a regular monthly basis. This would be similar to farm worker programs of yore.
2. Install cell phone towers so all border areas are covered. The largest gaps in cell phone coverage in the United States are along the border. In two instances, I personally could have reported as many as a hundred entrants on the trail. Other border hunters I've talked to told me they could have reported perhaps thousands of illegal crossers.
3. Station Border Patrol on the border.
4. Replace some of Border Patrol's SUVs, helicopters and other hi-tech transportation with horses. Yes, I said horses! As late as in the 70s, we never set up a deer camp that didn't have at least one visit from a BP agent on horseback. The agent always asked if we'd seen any crossers and the answer was always "no."
Plenty of horses could be trained from the wild herds in Nevada and other western states. One argument against the use of horses is that they present too good a target. Has that become our excuse, we don't enforce laws because it is too dangerous to do so?
5. If for no other reason than to weed out the bad guys, we need a national ID. The perfect model is already in use by cruise ship lines, a free plastic card that allows passengers to get on and off the ship. The holder's photo is bar coded at check-in so anyone finding or stealing a card cannot view the holder's actual face. The free process, which takes minutes and is tamper-proof, replaces the outmoded Passport for security purposes.
Passengers are required to insert the card into an electronic reader that shows the holder's photo on a screen in front of a security guard. A national ID would not only alleviate many border crossing issues, it could ease airport hassle and be used at other facilities.
Contrary to the prevailing hoopla, immigrants are not taking jobs away from Americans. Basically, the problem stems from an aging population. Much of the "outsourcing" has come about because of labor availability, not lower cost (although that is true). If the present economic conditions continue, we can count on the housing market to keep sliding, more bridges collapsing, and a general stagnation of the economy.
We can close our borders, seal them up, put a net over the United States, waste whatever resources we want to stop border crossers, and none of that will put a dent in the increasing numbers of undocumented immigrants. Just as we can travel into Mexico by acquiring a Visa or guest pass, so too can anyone from another country enter our country on a tourist or temporary business nonimmigrant visas.
There is no law (and should never be!) that prevents people from other nations entering the United States. Therefore all the hoopla about breaking laws is just that, political bull designed to mislead or confuse the electorate. No law is broken by the simple act of entering, which is perfectly legal, just as you or I can travel into Mexico once we obtain the proper documents.
Ten years ago my wife and I drove through all of Mexico (6,200 miles, 34 days). It is an incredibly rich and beautiful country with the most polite and helpful people I have ever met anywhere in the world. Our Mexican insurance agent assured us that we would have no trouble communicating. " English speakers are everywhere," we were told. The second day south of the border we ran out of English speakers.
Fortunately, there were a few here and there, mostly working in hotels, who not only spoke English but did so with a decidedly American accent. At the Mayan ruins in Uxmal on the Yucatan, I asked a young lady where she learned to speak such perfect English. "I went to school in LA," she replied, explaining that she'd come back to Mexico to be with her family.
This was not an isolated instance. Wherever we went in Mexico, we encountered those who had lived, worked, and were educated in the United States. All that were asked, said they would remain in Mexico where we were the "immigrants."
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