Thread: What's Worse Than Open Borders?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18852

What's Worse Than Open Borders?
by Mac Johnson
Posted Jan 10, 2007



When the U.S. is trespassed upon at will by 15 million to 30 million illegal aliens, our border troops are under orders to flee from their posts if attacked, and the only thing upon which President Bush and Speaker Nancy Pelosi agree is the need for amnesty for brazen masses of immigration criminals, it would be easy to say that America has a de facto policy of open borders.

But upon reflection, it must be admitted that our current corruption is worse than open borders. For with a truly open border, oxymoron and nation-killer that that term may be, it could be expected that both the illiterate and the educated would pass easily across it. Likewise, the middle-class and the poor, the peaceful and the violent, the honest and the criminal, and the skilled and the unskilled would be expected to enter into our nation with equal facility.

Yet that is hardly the system we have had imposed upon us by our federal government—for many skilled computer programmers from India are kept out while they await their visas. Educated Chinese scientists cannot find cash-only jobs in our aerospace industry. And the honest of all nations are kept outside our country by their very honesty, except for the small portion of aspiring legal immigrants that, after much paperwork and time and expense, are admitted properly.

And while those who know they will pass background checks wait for them to be performed, while those who would bring the most value to our economy are held up in legal bureaucracy, and while the honest are shocked by the idea of paying criminal gangs to smuggle them across desperate deserts, our current system selects perfectly for their demographic opposites.

For those who are criminals, the border is open.

For those without degrees, the border is open.

For the violent, the dishonest, the unskilled, the destitute, the illiterate … the border is open.

And so they flow in by the millions each year—unfettered by the compunctions that keep out their moral betters, and undaunted by the need for unforged documents that keeps out their intellectual betters (for high tech businesses have too much at stake to play the “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” game with fake IDs and random Social Security numbers).

No, we do not have an open border. We have an anti-border.

Where a real border is designed to keep out the bad of the world and let flow in all its good, our anti-border keeps out the good and drowns us in the bad.

Where a real border is intended to politically define a distinct nation, our anti-border is intended to redefine that nation into something indistinct.

Where a real border is supposed to declare to the outsider and the would-be entrant, “Here begins a new set of laws,” our anti-border declares to them “Here begins whatever lawlessness you need to get by.”

With this selection process in place, we are supposed to believe that our economy is benefited?

It would be as if a world-class company suddenly stopped interviewing applicants for new positions and simply gave the jobs to whomever managed to break into the building the night before. While titans of industry brag that much of their success is attributable to picking good people and letting them work their talents in service of the common good (Jack Welch, I believe, once jokingly claimed to be the Chief Human Resources Officer of GE), our nation is pursuing the opposite approach.

We most heavily add to our national organization those that first break laws, fake their resumes, pay bribes, evade their taxes, communicate poorly, have few legitimate skills and disrespect our culture.

For people such as these, our borders are open, and amnesty is a civil right.

For the people we really need, however, our border is mockingly closed, and amnesty is just a word for their place being taken by some lesser man.

We have, in short, the worst of all possible systems.

Mr. Johnson, a writer and medical researcher in Cambridge, MA., is a regular contributor to Human Events. His column generally appears on Tuesdays. Archives and additional material can be found at www.macjohnson.com.

Don't get me started on all those wonderful 'skilled programmers' from India. Here is the truth about that:

1. Companies have plenty of games to play to get them in. There are all sorts of loopholes.

2. If we needed skilled tech people from India why did we let hundreds of thousands of ours go since 2000? Why have many of them found it so hard to get new jobs if we are hard up for tech talent?

3. I think it was Norm Matloff who pointed out that in 2001, 9 out of 10 US tech openings went to an H-1b.

4. Far from being the best and brightest, most of them are average in skill and many below, having been hastily recruited by international bodyshops and sold with plumped up resumes to win contracts through salary lowballing against American incumbents.

India outnumbers us, Mexico doesn't. How many of our white collar jobs do we have to give them before they're satisfied?

Can you tell I'm in IT?

What is worse then open borders? Open borders and 2 more yrs of President Bush!

i know several coders who want ... need jobs but have been replaced by out sourcing.

a couple of these people have kept their jobs because the morons in india did crap work.

Nittygritty wrote:

What is worse then open borders? Open borders and 2 more yrs of President Bush!

So true!