Thread: Undocumented H1N1?

National Review Online
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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Undocumented H1N1? [Mark Krikorian]

At his press conference, the president was asked about the possibility of closing the Mexican border due to the swine Mexican H1N1 flu:

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. With the flu outbreak spreading and worsening, can you talk about whether you think it’s time to close the border with Mexico and whether — under what conditions you might consider quarantining, when that might be appropriate?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, as I said, this is a cause for deep concern, but not panic. And I think that we have to make sure that we recognize that how we respond intelligently, systematically, based on science and what public health officials have to say, will determine in large part what happens.

I’ve consulted with our public health officials extensively on a day-to-day basis, in some cases an hour-to-hour basis. At this point they have not recommended a border closing. From their perspective it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States.

Knowing nothing about epidemiology, I guess this sounds sensible to me. But implicit in both the question and the answer was the notion that we could close the border if we needed to. But how would we do that? Even after years of expansion, the Border Patrol is still smaller than the NYPD. We still haven't completed fencing on even one-third of the border. And Obama and his immigration fellow-travelers on the left and the right keep telling us it's impossible to close the border in any case. So which is it? Can we close the border, but don't need to, or we can't and so shouldn't try? There's a difference.

The lefties have gotten their knickers in a twist at the mere mention of using the border for protection against the spread of disease, and especially the idea that Mexican immigrants might have contributed to the spread. There hasn't even been much of that — other than a freshman Democratic congressman from New York calling for border closure, it's just been the usual performance artists (Michael Savage and Larry Klayman seem to think it's part of a bio-terror attack). But the very possibility must terrify the open-borders crowd, because they seem to be sputtering in outrage even more than usual. The National Council of La Raza is denouncing "shameless exploitation" while congressman Luis "ICE agents are the Gestapo" Gutierrez is warning against politicization of the flu, and Daily Kos is complaining about the "latest fodder for nativists."

Finally, the invaluable Judicial Watch points to documents from several years ago about disease outbreak from the North American Competitiveness Council, a business group pushing a North American Union: "It is also essential that throughout a pandemic all borders and major roads remain open . . . " Essential, mind you. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the anti-borders folks, left and right, would oppose using border and immigration controls for public-health purposes even if they could work.

04/30 08:51 AM

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? ... E1ODVmZmY=

Border Patrol is smaller than the NYPD! UNBELIEVABLE! What a joke on the American people.

It's real easy to close the border crossings. They sound an alarm and the steel walls come down. I'm sure all stations have been re-fitted after 9-11 with high tech equipment.

You seal the border with a tank on the road, like they do in Iraq to block anything that might bust through. Then you send the BP out to catch the people trying to go around.

If Napolitano and Obama are so lame, they can't issue an order for a plan that is already in place, then they need to be removed from office. The guys in the field know what to do but the political puppets in Washington don't.

Dixie