Illegal Immigration: It's Just Business!

Somehow many people still don’t understand that both sides of the political aisle are responsible for the ongoing immigration crisis.  There are a number of myths about immigration, and today I will quickly explain my perspectives on an issue I have been intimately involved with for 40 years. Where illegal immigration is concerned, there are not only politicians seeking to garner votes and campaign contributions but many people in many industries that stand to make lots of money as a result of the massive influx of aliens into our country.  In that human tsunami the attorneys who practice immigration law see an endless flow of potential clients.  Corporations and smaller employers see millions of exploitable workers that will work for substandard wages under substandard conditions.  Advocacy organizations also see political power and potential sources of money in the large numbers of aliens. People who see profit and/or political power are opposed to any measure that interferes with their goals.  In order to push their agenda they often vilify folks who want to secure our nation’s borders and create an immigration system that has real integrity that not only protects our nation and our citizens from aliens whose presence would be harmful or even dangerous.  They accuse those of us who advocate for secure borders and an immigration system that has integrity as being “anti-immigrant” while they proclaim themselves to be “pro-immigrant.” The reality is that immigrant communities are most at risk from transnational criminals who seek to live in communities in which the residents are from the same part of the world that they are.  This is true for all transnational criminals from the four corners of our globe and is not limited to the Latino community We are continually reminded that we are waging “wars” against terrorism and transnational gangs.  In order to win this war, our nation must do everything reasonable to keep the bad guys out of our country. This is precisely what the immigration laws are supposed to accomplish- prevent the entry of aliens who would pose a threat to the safety and well being of our nation and the people who live in our country and seek the removal of those aliens whose presence represents a violation of those laws. Therefore I am compelled to ask: Who is truly more anti-immigrant? Those who want to prevent the entry of illegal aliens whose true identities, backgrounds and intentions are unknown and unknowable? Or those who oppose securing our borders and making certain that aliens are not given lawful status in our country including resident alien status and United States citizenship unless these people are properly identified and an objective determination is made that they are lawfully entitled to the benefits they apply for? When politicians say that they want to place unknown millions of illegal aliens on a pathway to United States citizenship (thus all but making unlawful entry into our country a prerequisite for United States citizenship), whose well-being are they looking out for, other than themselves? The Arizona Daily Star published a news report on April 23, 2011 that was entitled, “US warns of travel to Rocky Point – Danger can be extreme, State Department says of N. Sonora; ‘one more blow’ to beach town.” The news report, which details the increasing violence along the Mexican border and in regions in both the United States and Mexico, also contained a short paragraph that illustrated quite clearly that the goal of the Chambers of Commerce, even the National Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, is to promote commerce and profit no matter what the reality of the situation might be:

Being continuously highlighted in the warnings doesn’t help Mexican business and tourism leaders trying to rehab the city’s image, which has been severely damaged by a sharp increase in drug violence murders over the past four years. The National Chamber of Commerce in Mexico recently launched a campaign to encourage a positive outlook about Nogales, using the Spanish slogan, “Let’s speak positively about Nogales.”

I understand that the business of business is business, but in this perilous era the time has come for the lives and future of our citizens to become the priority of our government.  America’s security and its future begins at it borders and those borders must be made to be as secure.