Thread: To Curb Illegal Immigration, Pressure Native Countries

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To Curb Illegal Immigration, Pressure Native Countries
Mike Cutler

When I used to arrest illegal aliens during my many years with the former INS, I often felt empathy for many of them. They were and are victims of the corruption, both economic as well as political, found in great abundance in their home countries And while most articles on illegal immigration focus on illegals who are citizens of Mexico, there are a significant number of aliens who come from other nations and continents.

The ways in which they make their way to our country may vary, but their goals are quite similar. They want to come here to work and send money to their impoverished families and friends in the homelands. They often take huge risks and spent a lot of money that’s hard to come by in order to get here. I respect their tenacity but, as a sworn immigration officer, I had an obligation to enforce America’s laws. Often it was depressing to see the working conditions under which illegal aliens toiled. Many of them gave up their dignity for the money that they so desperately needed to send back home. This caused me quite a few sleepless nights. I believed then, however, as I do today, that our nation cannot afford to have unsecured borders so that the world's poor can freely cross them.

Let me give you an analogy. I certainly have strong feelings of empathy for orphans. On my limited resources, however, I could not show up at an orphanage and adopt half the kids there and bring them home with me. If I did that, I would quickly drive my own family into bankruptcy and thus fail at providing a decent home for both the orphans and my family. This is not a good outcome. Our politicians need to recognize that our nation has limited resources, too, just as families do.

The world's population includes billions of poor people who live in abject poverty. For one billion inhabitants of our planet, their poverty is so profound that they do not have access to clean drinking water. There is no way that we can absorb even a fraction of these people without turning the United States into a Third World Country. The situation that drives millions of illegal aliens from their home countries needs to be addressed by the international community. Our government needs to apply pressure to the leaders of the countries that traditionally send our nation the majority of illegal aliens who live and work in our country in violation of our laws.

The illegal aliens who run our nation's borders are being exploited by their own governments as well as by the unscrupulous U.S. employers who profit from their hard labor. The American banks and money remitters are their "silent partners" and are happy to move their money from the United States to the countries from which these aliens come. The movement of money out of our country harms the economy of the United States.

Employers who hire illegal aliens often fire United States citizens or resident aliens who would not tolerate the wages and conditions that desperate illegal aliens will. The employment of illegal aliens is contrary to our concept of justice and human dignity. The United States was torn in half by the Civil War. Most school children are taught that this was about slavery. What most people do not realize is that slavery was about cheap and exploitable labor. So while our nation outlawed slavery, illegal aliens now furnish the cheap and exploitable labor that prompted the use of slave labor more than 150 years ago in America.

The pressure that ICE has recently brought against violators of the immigration laws is a very good thing. This is known as the "attrition approach" to illegal immigration. If illegal aliens are convinced that they run a risk of capture and deportation by special agents of ICE after they run the gauntlet of thugs and violent smugglers on the border, the deadly conditions of the desert or the other challenges they face if they enter as stowaways on vessels, then they may decide to leave voluntarily. Additionally, many other people may decide not even to attempt to illegally enter the United States, having been deterred by the apparent resolve of our government to enforce the immigration laws. What this means is that while our nation cannot and should not attempt to deport the millions of illegal aliens who are present in the United States, we can seek the removal of a segment of them and, in so doing, discourage the massive illegal immigration we have witnessed in the past couple of decades and, in fact, convince a significant number of illegal aliens to leave.

It is critical that our nation secure its borders against illegal aliens because of national security considerations. Clearly if those illegal aliens who simply want to enter our country in violation of law in order to work and send money to their homelands are able to do so, then criminals and terrorists who possess far greater resources and resolve than illegals can also gain access to our country and kill more of our citizens. The ability of terrorists to embed themselves in our country is aided by the lack of integrity to the immigration bureaucracy.

The GAO has issued a number of reports that illustrate the disastrous situation that exists where enforcement and administration of immigration laws are concerned. Fraud and corruption represent serious problems along with the never-ending cycle of the pursuit of the ever increasing backlog of applications for a wide array of immigration benefits including the granting of resident alien status and even United States citizenship. The huge number of illegal aliens who are present in our country creates veritable communities of illegal aliens from many countries around the world. These huge communities represent huge haystacks in which the deadly needles of criminals and terrorists are able to hide. The various enterprises that spring up in those communities that are used to great advantage by illegals are also crucial to the success of criminals and terrorists. Among such businesses are money wire services, telephone arcades, private mail box rental services, document vendors and travel agencies.

Additionally, FBI head Robert Mueller has testified at Senate hearings on his concerns regarding "sleeper agents." A sleeper agent is an alien who, upon gaining entry into our country, seeks to establish an unremarkable lifestyle within our country so that he/she can manage to hide in plain sight. They take ordinary jobs that do not call attention to themselves. The President, in calling for a guest worker amnesty program has repeatedly stated that if the United States simply allowed aliens into the United States who wanted to work, then law enforcement officials could focus on the terrorists. In point of fact, whenever you read accounts of terrorist suspects who are arrested, they are often described as being ice cream truck drivers, school bus drivers, taxi drivers, teachers or used car lot employees, to name a few jobs such suspects have held in recent years. When I speak about the nexus between terrorism and illegal immigration, I often ask if anyone in the audience knows what a terrorist is likely to do a couple days before he carries out an attack in the country in which he has managed to embed himself. The answer is that often a terrorist goes to his job or attends the school he as been attending for the past several months or years.

No sane person would allow a stranger to break into his home and then offer that same stranger a job especially if he were unable to determine the true identity of the intruder. That is why just about every home or apartment comes equipped with a door bell or door knocker and a peep hole or other means of determining who is seeking entry into the home. It provides the homeowner or apartment dweller to identify the intending visitor before he opens the door. Our nation needs to be as prudent as a conscientious home owner. Terrorists and criminals see weakness in our kindness. Their goal is to exploit the vulnerabilities that arise from our kindnesses in order to enter America to pursue their nefarious goals and objectives. The last time that terrorists managed to exploit those weaknesses, 3,000 innocent people paid with their lives for our nation's lack of vigilance and resolve.

It is reasonable to want to help those who are less fortunate than we are, but it would make far more sense to apply pressure to the nations from which the majority of our illegal aliens have come. This would prevent families from being split up, would ultimately help far more human beings in a number of countries than is achieved allowing millions of illegal aliens to be exploited by unscrupulous employers in the Unites States. This would also help keep American citizens and resident aliens from losing their jobs to illegal aliens who are willing to work for substandard wages under substandard and often horrendous conditions. A family that overextends itself threatens the well being of its family members and its children. If our nation overextends itself, it jeopardizes its future and the future of its citizens as well as our way of life. It is time that the needs of "We the people" were given priority over the greed of the few. Citizens of the United States as well as many other countries would benefit in the long run.

Lead, follow or get out of the way!


FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a well-respected authority on immigration and border security issues.

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How about sending them the bill!

I think that our government definitely should tell the countries where the illegals come from to deal with their issues but that unfortunately in ost cases it won't get anywhere. Many of the countries are so called banana republics where the government is only out for itself. They don't care if there is only the rich and poor and no middle class. We still need to secure our border and keep them out. That is the best solution.

These companies only want Illegal labor, not Legal. So if they push Amnesty through they have hurt themselfs. The illegal who worked for cheap labor wages now can demand regular wages. For example Gould co. on the Tom Brokaw special last night actually shows that their intentions are to hire only illegal labor, he mentioned that he tried to get Americans to apply and he got no responses, (i do not believe this), well once the illegals become legal, they won't apply either.
Also, congress will be totally responsible if amnesty goes through and they have no one else to blame if the american people do not accept amnesty, and show them that they will not support amnesty who will only take american jobs, the difference! were adding 30/50 million more people "all" fighting for the same jobs. to stop this, send the illegal immigrants home and clean up our country. by this, enforce the immigration laws, throw the book at companies who step over the line, and investigate all the welfare programs, make everyone pay for their childrens deliveries, education, this illegal stuff can be stopped.
These companies should go the legal way, plain and simple and quit illegally hiring cheap labor, they would have workers if they did it the right way. Well, i feel Gould co., should be looked into to come up with some facts on just how did they go about advertising for american workers.
I have a hunch, most illegals will continue the same lifestyle they have now, if they don't they will have to pay for the freebies they get now, so they probably will not even try.
I feel very strongly that LaRaza and the aclu should be investigated throughly, and shut down completely, they "only" hurt the american people.

There is no way that we can absorb even a fraction of these people without turning the United States into a Third World Country.

This is already the case in many of our cities.
Well written article, shows experience with the issue, compassion and common sense.