An invasion: Are we still a nation?

Wes Vernon
May 29, 2006


Read my lips: Citizenship in this country is not a "civil right." It is a privilege. When 10 to 12 to 20 million illegals cross our borders and take to the streets waving the Mexican flag demanding the "right" to stay, that is not a "civil rights" movement. It is an invasion.

This column explores absolute proof of that. We also assess the damage done by the Senate and what you can do about it; why we can learn something about immigration policy (ironically) from Mexico itself; and a challenge to Mexico as to what it can do if its government is really serious about cooperating with our efforts to stem the flow of much of its population over our borders.

The Senate immigration "reform" bill is an insult to our intelligence. Americans who care about whether this country remains a nation need to use this Memorial Day congressional recess to contact their congressman insisting that in the Senate-House negotiating sessions, the House version (that deals with border enforcement-only) be upheld, and that the amnesty bill passed by the Senate be rejected. Then — and only then — should we consider other issues such as guest worker initiatives.

Here are major talking points: (1) Rewarding tens of millions of lawbreakers with "a path to citizenship" will cost you and me tens of billions of dollars in benefits to the illegals and their families — estimated at $46 billion (Robert Rector-Heritage Foundation); (2) The Senate bill would create the largest expansion of the welfare state in 35 years; (3) Illegal aliens would have more rights than the average American citizen. "Under 'affirmative action' (defining the new arrivals as a 'minority'), combined with amnesty, they would have preferences in jobs and other benefits" (noted by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett — R-MD); (4) Illegal aliens would not have to pay all the back taxes they owe; (5) We all know Social Security is going broke. But illegals would be forgiven for forging Social Security cards. Adding insult to injury, they would collect Social Security benefits on that fraud.

Your input during this congressional recess week is important because what I'm hearing from inside sources is that the very math of the Senate-House conference committee will give the Senate amnesty forces the upper hand — and it is likely that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner and his pro-border security House colleagues will be "rolled." They will be outnumbered by liberal Democrats and liberal Republicans from the Senate and liberal Democrats from the House. Add to that the fact that the pro-amnesty Bush administration will be flexing its lobbying muscle big time, and you have a recipe for disaster regarding any serious meaningful bill. A president's arm-twisting persuasive powers are always most effective behind closed doors.

Only you can prevent this. Despite the congressional and White House tin ear to the coast-to-coast outrage of grassroots Americans, there is still hope if you talk to your lawmakers now. Remember they work for you and me. They do not work for Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has been touring the West presuming to tell our elected officials they should be happy to toss us — their employers — overboard and surrender to the open-borders lobby.

And "surrender" is the word. It is not a Freudian slip. What we have here is an invasion. In a previous column ("Illegal Aliens and the Speech Police — and the coming Breakup of the United States?," April 10), we quoted at length a study done by Congressman Charlie Norwood.

The Georgia lawmaker exposed a plot (by one of the main organizers of April's street demonstrations) to dismantle the United States. This would be achieved by carving out a racist nation in the American West. A fictional "Aztlan" would encompass Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, and parts of Washington State.

Norwood says the leaders of MEChA (Chicano Students Movement of Aztlan) advocates that these areas of the U.S. be surrendered to La Raza after enough immigrants — legal and illegal — became a majority; and that non-Chicanos be "expelled"; that opposition groups be "quashed"; and that "ethnic cleansing" should commence.

La Raza tried to refute Norwood's charges, but he in turn knocked them down point by point. Moreover, others — including columnist Michelle Malkin and Lee Bellinger's American Sentinel — have provided even more evidence of the Reconquista or "Re-occupation" movement.

Between them, they have cited supposedly "American" politicians — on radio talk shows and elsewhere — advocating a scheme to reverse the U.S. victory of the mid-19th Century war with Mexico when vast previously Mexican lands were ceded to the United States. For example, Gloria Ramirez Vargas of Baja, California, said on National Public Radio, "Many Mexicans are nourishing the ground in the U.S., but those lands were once ours. Those same lands, which now with intelligence, with love, and with a lot of work, we are re-conquering again for our Mexico."

Much of this effort can be traced directly to the doorstep of the government of Mexico. A study by the Mexican National Council on Population embraced the movement and in fact is credited with inventing the term "Reonquista."

That of course spotlights a question you won't hear in "politically correct" circles: If the government of a foreign nation backs a movement aimed at dismantling or "reconquering" this nation, does that not make that government (i.e. Mexico) an enemy nation?

However, sometimes we can actually learn from our enemies. If Vicente Fox lobbied us to mimic his own country's immigration laws, perhaps we could benefit.

J. Michael Waller of the Center for Security Policy notes that Mexico enforces laws mandating all foreign immigrants be there legally; that they have the economic means to sustain themselves; will not be a (welfare) burden on society; will in fact be an economic benefit to society; are of good character and have no criminal records; will be a benefit to the general well-being of the nation.

In Mexico, foreign visitors entering under false pretenses are imprisoned or deported. Those aiding illegal immigration are sent to prison. Foreign visitors are banned from interfering in the country's internal politics (President Fox, take note). Foreigners deported form Mexico who attempt to re-enter the country without authorization can be tossed in prison for up to ten years.

Finally, there is the economic factor. Joel Kurtzman and Glenn Yago, both scholars at the Milkin Institute, have outlined ways in which Mexico can stem the mass exit of its own citizens across the border into the U.S. The thought crosses one's mind that since President Fox has been generous with advice as to how we Americans can deal with the problem, perhaps we might return the favor. That, of course, would assume El Presidente would actually want to solve the problem and does not stand behind those in his own government cheering on "Reconquista." (Ahem.)

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Kurtzman and Yago note that Mexicans are running away from their native land because Mexico "has failed to produce enough [economic] growth, despite massive wealth."

While the U.S. is ignoring its own immigration laws and looking the other way as millions of Mexicans sneak over the border and burden our economy, Mexico has some tight restrictions against U.S. capital investment. Paraphrasing Ronald Reagan, the Milkin Institute writers urge, "President Fox, tear down that investment wall."

Mexico needs to create a million new jobs a year to keep its people from heading north. It is creating just half that, and has had virtually no growth since 2000. In fact, Mexico's share of exports to the U.S. have fallen in the last six years.

"Mexicans don't have access to capital because of the way Mexico is run," the study says. "It has a big, bureaucratic government that is highly corrupt and controls much of the economy. To conduct business requires bribes of 'facilitation' payments to get the bureaucracy to move." Otherwise, it's always Manana.

Even the cops are on the take. We choirboy Americans, of course, have passed laws that can land our own people in jail in the U.S. if they bribe anyone outside the USA to get the process to move in foreign governments. Americans cannot invest in real estate within 30 miles of the coastline. They can't invest in "the energy sector," and are limited in what they can invest in telecom and transportation sectors.

The state-owned oil company Pemex has a 100% monopoly on Mexico's "vast reserves of oil and gas, the largest proved in North America," and yet operates as "a giant, inefficient....jumble," with "weak accounting, budgeting, and reporting practices."

Bottom line, as the Milkin study puts it: "Mexico is a rich country, exporting its troubles north while pretending to fix them."

Tell your elected lawmakers to fix the border first and not even to consider any of the other issues until border and other security enforcement provisions are firmly in place.

Also this message to Vicente Fox: Clean your own house and provide your people with opportunities for a decent life before you push your problems onto our backs, either by looking the other way or through "Reconquista" schemes.


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Wes Vernon is a Washington-based writer and veteran broadcast journalist.

© Copyright 2006 by Wes Vernon
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/vernon/060529


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