Thread: Open borders will destroy the nation state forever

Open borders will destroy the nation state forever


Will Witt
Wed, August 30, 2023 at 2:00 PM EDT·4 min read



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Citizenship means nothing without strong border enforcement - Paul Ratje /AFP



Illegal aliens storm the Texas border by the thousands and no one seems to care.

Republican politicians talk a big game about stopping it, but nothing they propose ever seems to work. The Democrats are even worse. They fund so-called “sanctuary cities” in blue states all across America, helping to shield illegals and labelling them as “undocumented migrants” instead.

The message is clear: enter a nation illegally, and you’re just a piece of paper away from full-ride citizenship.

It might make progressives feel virtuous to pretend otherwise, but the fact remains that illegal immigration costs the United States billions of dollars every year.

Our porous borders facilitate human trafficking, drug smuggling, and gang crime. One in seven people in America are immigrants, with nearly a third of this figure falling under the “undocumented” label.

If accepting the world’s migrants is the ultimate act of charity, it is one the West will increasingly struggle to afford.

In California where I used to live, taxpayers shell out $23.5 billion a year for the education, healthcare and legal aid of illegal entrants.

This averages to about $2,370 per California household per year. California is a rich state, yes, but it is also home to some of the most desperately impoverished people in the country.

You need only walk through one of San Francisco’s semi-permanent homelessness encampments to understand how transformative that $2,370 could be to the life of a born-and-raised American citizen.

The supposedly “compassionate” agenda of open borders activists becomes even more ridiculous when we consider the work done by ICE, the federal immigration enforcement agency.

The central government spent $4.7 billion on the body last year – a small cost, when you consider the other expenses above – and has faced constant demands from liberal reformers to abolish this “fascist” organisation, which is portrayed as hellbent on persecuting undocumented workers.

But the truth is more complicated. Alongside working as our border enforcement agency, ICE also appears to serve as one of the most successful anti-trafficking organisation in the world.

In 2019, ICE put forth 1,024 human trafficking related cases that led to 2,197 arrests. This resulted in the rescue of over 400 victims. And this is just a small sampling of the work they do.

It is easy to smear the brave people at ICE as racists who wish to gatekeep the innumerable riches of America from the rest of the world. In reality, it is through their work in defending the nation state that they protect women and children from some of the worst crimes imaginable – with little to no mainstream recognition.

Arguing against illegal immigration can feel at times like a fool’s game. So let’s say that the financial cost of supporting illegal dependents is negligible.

Let’s say that everyone who crosses the Texas border is a highly skilled worker merely plugging an already-existent labour market gap.

Let’s say there’s no risk in allowing gang-affiliated men to travel around American cities without proper vetting.

Do we now have an obligation to open our door to any who wish to enter? The answer is still no.

As conservatives, we recognise that the word “citizen” still means something, regardless of the circumstances.

The narrative that America has always been a nation of immigrations is a powerful one, but still rests upon the fundamental understanding that our country remains a nation. A nation implies a border, a citizenry, a shared history: all impossibilities in the age of illegal amnesty.

Being a citizen means more than just being someone who lives in a certain area.

Being a citizen means you have a responsibility to the place you live, to uphold it, to promote its virtues, to defend it, to protect it from within.

If anyone from Nicaragua, or Somalia, or Romania can just walk into America and be granted the same rights as everyone else, the nation ceases to exist.

If we want to restore the value of American citizenship, then we must first stop cheapening it.

To be part of America is an honor and a privileges, not something to tarnish and trample. As soon as we remember the difference between migrant and citizen, the sooner we can restore this great nation to its former glory.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/open-bord...180036142.html