Keep Families Together

Keep Families Together

Commentary  by Sanford D. Horn

July 13, 2018

The visual remains unpleasant, even disturbing - hundreds, if not thousands of foreigners - the “wretched refuse,” if you will, teeming toward the southern border, clammoring, nay, demanding to be granted entry into the United States of America, knowing they are violating the laws of the very country within which they seek refuge.

The visual instills pangs of sadness, empathy, and even a desperate desire to help, but these are the emotions that should be rerserved for homeless American veterans, mentally adled American citizens wandering the streets of this country aimlessly  because they either can’t get, ot don’t know how to get the help they need.

This is not to dismiss the plight of these foreigners, some may have legitimate reasons for fleeing their home countries, but the United States is a nation of law and order; without which, chaos and anarchy erupts, and from recent appearances, there are those Americans seeking just that - they are the enemy from within.

Admittedly, the United States has a broken immigration system. It takes far too long for otherwise worthy future Americans to be granted legal admission to this country. Yet similtaneously, the United States has much worsening problems - a broken border, a nation too generous for its own good, and a legal system beyond the immagination of the writers of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

None of the potential illegal aliens should have been detained because none of them should have been allowed to cross the border. Thus the wall and strict border security. A nation is not truly a nation without borders and rules for those wishing to cross over those borders. This is not a matter of cruelty, nor is it a matter of nativism or nationalism. This is a matter of common sense. What other country has such porous borders and such a liberal acceptance policy to grant people in this country illegally things that legeal residents and citizens are hard pressed to acquire? What other countries grant free medical care, education, welfare, even drivers licences to people who broke the law to get here and then brazenly make demands of the country to which they pledge no loyalty as they parade around the flags of their countries of orign?

For the same reason we lock our cars or the doors to our homes, our borders - at all directions, not just south, must be secured - secured by personnel and painstaking efforts to vet vigorously all who wish to enter - for any purpose - business, education, vacation or permanant status.

Instead of detention, all those potential illegal aliens should have been denied entry and turned back. By denying them entry one thing is assured - families will remain together. This is what everyone wants - for children to remain with their parents - and what most people want - for them to do so on their side of the border.

If and when those folks decide to apply for legal entry, they must be strictly vetted to ensure first, that they are who they say they are, and that they actually are the parents of the children with whom they travel. The sad fact is, that there are myriad adults masquerading as parents to gain access to the American way of life when in fact they are dangerous criminals, be they drug dealers/smugglers or pimps/human traffickers.

In addition to physical border security, anyone who desires entry into the United States must be fingerprinted and photographed for a national data base. Every guest in this country should be able to be tracked. After all, do we really know the motives of everyone who crosses our borders? Enforce the deadlines on all student visas, business, and vacation travel plans. It is especially important that foreign students return to their homelands, take their new knowledge and help grow their countries educationally and economically; after all, a rising tide lifts all boats and the more international growth, the less people will see the need to sneak into the United States. Create real jobs in those countries and help reduce the drug trade. Strengthen the drug laws in this country, and get people the help they need to become clean and sober.

We are a generous nation - to a fault - and it is our fault that we have allowed millions of illegals to take advantage of our generosity to the tune of billions and billions of dollars for decades. Free medical care, free public school education, granting in-state tuition for illegals, food stamps - which deserves a separate column of its own, welfare, drivers licenses which becomes costly as many illegals fail to procure auto insurance. The United States must turn off the spigot and force illegals to self-deport - which many will do, if they have the above reason to return home.

The current crisis is yielding some interesting, yet damning, statistics. Under the Obama administration families released after the maximum 20 day holding period were issued a court date to return for their asylum hearing. The Department of Homeland Security indicated that 97 percent of those people - all in the United States illegally - failed to return for their mandatory hearings. Catch and releasae must be abolished.

On the other hand, the visual of housing many of these illegals on military bases until their hearings, is being identified as akin to the internment camps during World War II when more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans were held under the Franklin Roosevelt administration. The huge difference was that FDR was wrong to incarcerate Americans. Under President Donald Trump these people, are here in the United States illegally. Let’s not sugarcoat it with euphemisms. They chose to come to the United States and illegally enter this country without permission; they have broken the law. Emotion versus fact.

The outcry regarding the separation of children from their mothers is disingenuous. If an American mother robs a bank, is captured, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to prison, naturally this American mother will be separated form her children. There is no outpouring of sympathy here to keep children with their mothers; but for the illegals, a demand for speacial treatment. Emotion versus the rule of law.

We are a nation of law and order; we abide by the rule of law or there are consequences - certainly for the Americans, but why not for the illegals? They must pay the price for their truculent, criminal behavior. Entering the United States was their choice. No one coerced them to commit breaking and entering against the American people.

While the United States is a nation of laws, and admittedly some tinkering of the law to streamline the process of admission would be beneficial to those who are applying legally, one drastic change need be made to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. We need to end the birthright mishegas - and immediately. When righting the serious wrong following the War Between the States of granting citizenship to freed slaves, the authors unlikely considered illegal aliens as a group who should benefit from the amendment, yet, via the “anchor baby” system of birthright, illegals are gaming the system like no other. Why is the United States rewarding illegal aliens for giving birth on US soil after sneaking into this country? But that is exactly what is happening; and that reward is American citizenship and permanant status in the US for the illegal. Shame on us.

I have long said, like the concept of fruit from the poisonous tree in a courtroom when a judge denies the use of evidence obtained from a bad search, the child born to an illegal alien should not be considered an American citizen. Amend the 14th Amendment. Amend it now.

Our elected officials are too busy running for reelection and trying to be all things to all constituents, which is not possible, especially when they should be doing their jobs. The members very quickly forget they work for us, not the other way around, and what the people want and need are secure borders and immigration reform that actually favors the United States for a refreshing change. Make it happen Congress, or the next change will be you.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.