Immigration and the ‘Mushroom Treatment’

During my career with the former INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), my colleagues and I would refer to those instances when we knew that we were not being given critical information or were being provided with false or misleading information as being given the “mushroom treatment.” We used that term because the way to cultivate and grow mushrooms is to keep them in the dark and feed them a lot of manure.

The mushroom treatment is synonymous with propaganda.

Where immigration is concerned, one of the most difficult challenges is to find honest and accurate information about our immigration laws and why the immigration system is, as we are often told, “broken.” The term is used by open borders advocates to meet their goals. In reality, the system is broken because there is an abject lack of resources committed to actually enforcing our immigration laws which, incidentally, are utterly blind as to race, religion or ethnicity.

Proponents of Comprehensive Immigration Reform claim that providing unknown millions of illegal aliens with lawful status and the identity documents that would attest to their identities – even when in reality there is no reliable way to determine their true identities – would be good for America and Americans and magically create jobs and help the struggling U.S. economy.

Of course the proponents of amnesty never explain how it makes sense to create millions of competitors for unemployed and underemployed American workers, nor do they explain how violating the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission would help national security. In point of fact, they never, ever mention the 9/11 Commission to make certain that no one ever questions why they want to undermine national security.

Recently Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, said that violating our immigration laws and our borders was an “act of love.” He also said it was not a felony to violate our borders or our laws.

While it is true that an alien who evades the inspections process the first time is not committing a felony, subsequent illegal entries may well be felonies. Consider the provisions of 8 U.S.C. §1325 – Improper Entry by Alien.

Furthermore, an alien who has been previously deported can face up to two years in prison for unlawful re-entry, while an alien whose deportation was predicated on convictions for aggravated felonies faces up to 20 years in prison. The relevant section of law is 8 U.S.C. § 1326 – Reentry after Deportation (Removal).

The immediate response to Jeb Bush’s pronouncement by the talking heads on the “news” programs was to discuss how it would play with the “conservative elements of the Republican Party.” Does this mean that only political “conservatives” are concerned about public safety, national security and the impact of illegal immigration?

The immigration anarchists who are attempting to cultivate a nation of “citizen mushrooms” minimize the significance of aliens who evade the inspections process by claiming that they simply entered the United States “undocumented.” What they blithely ignore and hope that the “mushrooms” will ignore is that these foreign nationals entered the U.S. without being inspected by officials of CBP (Customs and Border Protection).

That inspections process is supposed to prevent the entry of international terrorists, transnational criminals, spies, human rights violators, war criminals and aliens who suffer dangerous communicable diseases. Further, the process, when working, should minimize the number of immigrants likely to become public charges or work illegally, thereby providing unfair competition to American workers. In the jargon of immigration agents, an alien who evades the vital inspections process is referred to as an EWI (Entry Without Inspection).

No reasonable person would be willing to fly on an airliner with passengers who evaded the inspections process conducted by the TSA. Yet, Jeb Bush and the other “mushroom farmers” would have us believe that it is entirely acceptable to live in communities with foreign nationals who evaded our borders and our immigration laws, America’s first line of defense and last line of defense against transnational criminals and international terrorists.