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Leaderless in Washington, State Governments Take Control

Author: Mike Cutler
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: December 5, 2006


With no consensus reached in Washington on how best to protect our borders, FSM Contributing Editor Mike Cutler explains that many states are turning to their own legislators to control what has reached crisis proportions in our country. Is this a good thing, or would we prefer to see staunch leadership from both parties on how to keep us safe right here at home?


Leaderless in Washington, State Governments Take Control
Mike Cutler

The driver of a minivan that careened off a snow-covered Interstate 70 near Denver, Colorado, on November 30 with 14 passengers inside was jailed Wednesday on suspicion of human smuggling, a new crime under state law. The crash Tuesday left four passengers dead and injured 10.

This smuggling of illegal aliens into the United States is not a "victimless crime." The aliens who are smuggled are often victimized by the smugglers who treat their human cargo as nothing more than a commodity. The smugglers often beat, rob and rape their "customers." The smugglers are among the most ruthless and brutal criminals to be found anywhere and often drive over-loaded vehicles recklessly, thereby not only endangering the aliens they smuggle across our nation's borders and often across our nation's roads, headed to cities located far away from the borders, but they also endanger other motorists who unwittingly share the highways with these vicious criminals.

Obviously the smuggled aliens may be more than mere victims who are simply coming to the United States in violation of law seeking employment, they may also be criminals or terrorists who have surreptitiously entered our country to commit criminal activities or even engage in terrorism. Terrorists are not only the bomb throwers or the airliner hijackers who attract the attention of the media when they carry out a terrorist attack or are thwarted before they are able to do so. Terrorists may also engage in fund raising activities in support of terrorist attacks to be carried out within the borders of our nation or within the borders of nations that are allied with the United States.

While our "leaders" in Washington debate whether we should hire a relative additional handful of more Border Patrol agents or special agents for ICE; while these "leaders" in Washington debate whether it is appropriate to provide amnesty, Social Security and other benefits that do nothing more than provide incentives to aliens to enter the United States illegally; while our "leaders" argue whether to build an imaginary or virtual fence to help secure our borders instead of a true barrier to illegal aliens and the smugglers who aid them in surreptitiously entering our country and who may also smuggle drugs and weapons across our nation's borders, local politicians, in this case in Colorado, have enacted laws that effectively deem alien smuggling to be a crime on the state level!

There is much speculation about whether the new Congress, controlled by the Democrat Party, will give the President what he and the corporate interests among others want - open borders and a virtually limitless supply of cheap labor and new voters. If they do, they will enact legislation that will endanger our nation's security and provide ample incentives for many more aliens to be taught the lesson that violating the laws of the United States is a good strategy because our government rewards violations of law and penalizes those who are willing to play by the rules and wait their turn to have their applications for visas processed so that they can enter the United States legally.

Meanwhile, more and more communities are rushing to fill the vacuum of leadership in Washington and are prosecuting alien smugglers on the local level. It is interesting that the Chief of Police, Dave Wohlers, made the point that all of the aliens involved in the incident were believed to be Mexican but that the authorities were still working to positively identify them. I spent roughly 30 years working for the INS and I can tell you that it is nearly impossible to know with certainty the true name or nationality of an illegal alien who possesses no identity documents. Usually illegal aliens have many aliases as do most criminals. They change their names about as frequently as most people change their clothes. That is how they attempt to cover their tracks.

This is why a guest worker amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens will not finally get these illegal aliens out of the shadows so that we will know who they are, but simply provide them with new identities that make our terrorist watch lists and "No Fly" lists obsolete.

It has been said that ultimately all politics is local. It is time for Washington to follow the lead of local governments.

Lead, follow or get out of the way!