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Open-borders world remains topsy-turvy
Leo Buccellato


According to open borders advocates, mass immigration is all about survival; enforcement of immigration laws is all about profiling and discrimination; entitlements for illegal aliens are all about human rights; and securing borders is all about racism.

It easily follows that sovereignty is all about genocide; the rule of law is all about injustice; and being American is all about the loss of human dignity. If you're confused, it's only because you haven't yet learned that the PC up is all about down.

Once learned, it's easy to understand why Human Rights Protection Ordinance supporters, who insisted they sought not to befuddle enforcement of immigration laws, are the very same people now railing against the proposed ICE office in Greeley that would facilitate enforcement in an area known for gang bangers and illegal alien crime. No mystery either in their scorn for people such as me "coming all the way from Fort Collins to tell the Greeley City Council what to do!" (enter: "La Raza" and "Viva Mexico" placards, with applause by those from south of the border). One might think I had no right to be there, to see for myself the Kafka-esque hypocrisy mixing with Orwellian egalitarianism: Illegal aliens "more equal" than citizens!

The ironies embedded in the self-righteous, guilt-ridden mindset of the open-borders crowd are classic. They tell us to embrace multiculturalism, while millions of Latinos espouse separatism; they decry corporate greed but demand it be fed with a constant supply of cheap, imported labor; they argue that illegal aliens take only jobs Americans "don't want," when in fact, without illegal aliens available to work for a pittance, we'd have fair-wage jobs Americans need.

They postulate that mass immigration is inevitable while working under the radar to remove any barriers. They think they care about the environment but ignore mass immigration as a primary cause of degradation. They advocate for sustainability, even as we careen into a population growth spiral fueled by mass immigration that is ever more unsustainable. They want social benefits for illegal aliens but confer on them no responsibility to even respect our society. They accuse whites of racism, though the real racists are Hispanic reconquistadors who want the southwestern United States "returned" to Mexico. They talk about illegal aliens being fearful of reporting felons, though most became felons themselves when they crossed the border.

They offer unsubstantiated anecdotes as self-evident truths while cautioning that numbers can reflect hidden agendas.

But numbers tell their own truths. Without numbers, we can't tell the story about 11 million to 15 million illegal aliens now residing in the United States, the 500,000 each year who settle here, the 4,000 who cross the southern border daily, the $20 billion immigrants send home annually that increases our deficit, the 300,000 convicted of crimes who live among us, the 55,000 vehicles stolen in Phoenix alone in a single year, the 40 percent of illegal aliens paid off the books, the 86 percent of U.S. population growth driven by mass immigration, the $190 billion cost to American workers due to wage depression, the net cost of $90 billion per year to American taxpayers in education, health care, law enforcement and other social services.

This is the real story, by the numbers. The lotus-eaters tell a much sweeter story about acquiescing to an impoverished United States as a remedy for world poverty. Even the lotus-eaters have dreamt that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed - by granting yet another amnesty, increasing the numbers and slapping a "legal" label on those who now are not! It's all about fixing your toaster while the house is burning.

Leo Buccellato lives in Fort Collins.


Originally published January 31, 2006