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Border games
By Dateline D.C.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

WASHINGTON

No one wants to be a Johnny-one-note but no apologies are offered for making illegal immigration into the United States again the focus of this column.

There are plenty of other issues. For the past month, there has been war and peace in south Lebanon with attacks on Hezbollah by Israel's military, after provocations by the terrorist group brought rocket attacks on towns better known to Bible students: Haifa, Tyre and Sidon.

There was the uncovering of the plot in which terrorists were attempting to bring down America-bound planes into the Atlantic. The fanatics were mostly British citizens, born and educated in Britain, one generation away from their Pakistani villages. As one Brit said, in disbelief, "They even played a good game of cricket!"

And, thousands of miles away, in India, the U.S. embassy has told our citizens who live and work there to keep "a low profile" because attacks are anticipated against Indians and Westerners. Who are the terrorists? Pakistani and Kashmiri immigrants now living in India.

In every part of our travel-shrunk world, immigrants create problems. Problems seen overseas could even more easily erupt in our country with its millions of illegal aliens.

These criminals have the support of Mexican President Vicente Fox. Said Fox in Chicago: "We are Mexicans that live in our territories and we are Mexicans that live in other territories ... we are 120 million that live together and are working to construct a nation."

If there were any doubt about Mexico's stance on these criminals, the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IME), a department of the Foreign Ministry, issued an endorsement of the events of April 10 that they described as "historical" and that shook our cities.

As August began, 200 organizers met at Washington's American University, called together by the National Immigrant Solidarity Network (NISN). The organizers were multinational and came from at least 15 states.

These were the people who brought us the street demonstrations and disorders involving 2 million on April 10. These events they intend to repeat very soon in Washington, starting on Labor Day, for a week, with "Camp Democracy" on the Mall.

Linking anti-Iraq war activists and domestic agitation with immigrant organizing is spearheaded by the now-notorious Cindy Sheehan, who is using the slogan "Immigrant Rights are Workers' Rights."

The solidarity gathering provided a number of workshops that were very politically oriented and unanimous in scorning House and Senate legislation. It announced plans for rallies and activist actions, now and through next spring.

The 50 or so identified leaders of the NISN see themselves as the vanguard of the first new civil rights movement of the 21st century. As all movements, they have a list of demands and preface these with the statement, "We will fight for our demands until we prevail."

They are fighting against any planned immigrant crackdown, against guest-worker programs, against employer sanctions and against militarization of our borders. Additionally, they demand amnesty for the undocumented and a "humane path" to citizenship with all of its rights and protections.

There is one other demand -- "immigrant family reunification." If that demand were met, the number of immigrants who would arrive here is believed to be, initially, 7 million more women and children.

Simple math tells us that in one swoop, there could be 19 million new "Americans."

That's too many and too soon. But it reflects the policies of President George Bush, which have to be based on bad information given to him.

The president this month said that we now have 6,000 National Guard troops supporting the Border Patrol. Well, there are now 6,000 guardsmen in the Southwest but most of them are undergoing training, far away from the border.

We are now told that 250 Border Patrol officers have been freed up by the National Guard, which goes to underscore the exceptional job being accomplished by the Border Patrol -- 6,000 men and only 250 freed up.

Then, Mr. President, you told us that since the Guard had been deployed on June 15, 2,500 illegal aliens and 17,000 pounds of illegal drugs had been seized. You may have been misled. Last year, the Border Patrol caught more than 1 million aliens and seized about 1.3 million pounds of drugs.

And words are important. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has given up talking about "securing the border." He now talks about someday when the United States will achieve "operational control" of the border.

If we are sincere about helping Mexicans, we should close the border.

With the border sealed, Mexico would be forced to institute its economic reforms and move more Mexicans from poverty to the middle class. As long as illegal immigration is tolerated, there is no incentive for reform. U.S. employers who hire illegals should be punished and loopholes in our social programs closed. Legal immigration should be cut. We have 300 million residents. Do we really need more workers?

Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer.