When illegal immigrant children started coming into our country, I hoped most of the opponents of illegal immigration would have enough sense not to direct their protests at the children. The children are not the problem. Our problem is the politicians aiding and abetting their illegal entry into the United States. If the politicians were doing their job, the children would not be trying to cross our borders. Unfortunately, there are a few people who have not given the matter enough thought.
Here is how Youth for Tomorrow Hires Off-Duty Police to Guard Entrance (bristowbeat.com) starts.
Following the controversy over Youth For Tomorrow’s Unaccompanied Minor Program, the Bristow facility that houses at-risk youth has posted off-duty police officers at its Linton Hall Road entrance as a precaution.
According to Prince William Police, they are not doing so at the county’s expense.
“YFT is paying for the officers to be there,” said police spokesperson Officer Jonathan Perok. “This is an off-duty detail not paid for by the county or department.”
While Youth for Tomorrow did not immediately return calls for comment on the issue, many speculate YFT is concerned about the strong emotions the controversy is garnering with the public and local politicians.
Tuesday, a resident contacted Bristow Beat soliciting support for promoting demonstrations in front of the facility. [Editor’s Note: The editorial staff refused the request.] (continued here)
Consider why Democrats think they can get away with bringing illegal immigrant children into our country. They are children. We are suppose to love children, not hate them. Therefore, if anyone opposes letting hordes of unaccompanied children cross our borders, the Democrats figure they can accuse them of hating children. Never mind the fact the Democrats have purely selfish reasons for bringing all these children into our country.
So what should we do if we want to protest illegal immigration? Try the following:
- Visit and protest at the office of our congressman and two senators. We should be respectful, of course.
- Send letters to our congressman and to our two senators. No curse words. We just need to tell them that if they don’t promptly fix this mess we are going to vote for someone else.
- Send letters to the editor of our local paper. Here we can focus on the fact our leaders need to protect our country, not import more welfare dependents.
- Support candidates who advocate limited government. If we are going to keep voting for increased funding of Social Security, Medicare, public education, food stamps, unemployment benefits, tax loopholes, and so forth, why should our leaders care what we think about illegal immigration?
- Participate in the Tea Party protest movement and fight for our constitutional republic.
- Join the Republican Party and fight for our constitutional republic.
- Study the history and the traditions of the United States and pass that history and those traditions onto our children. Because we do not appreciate what the founders accomplished — because we don’t know how to make what they built work — our constitutional republic is dying.
We in America still have a distinct culture, one that even now has the potential to continue flourishing as the cradle of liberty. However, if we do not protect our borders, devious political leaders will succeed in completely dividing us by language and culture. You say that is not possible? Don’t our leaders already seek to divide us by race, sex, religion, age, wealth, …….? And you don’t think they won’t try to divide us by language and culture?
Consider what this phrase means: God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Is it not just about living and letting others live in peace? Unfortunately, we have put a bunch of busybodies in charge, and busybodies are not content just to do the minimum government needs to do and then leave the people they seek to “serve” in peace. Instead, they want to make all our decisions for us, and that’s why our government now runs our healthcare, our schools, our retirement, our banking industry,… That’s why our government is putting the coal industry out of business, is forcing us to subsidize windmills, insists upon regulating Christian religious practices out of the public square,…. That’s why this country is going broke.
So leave the illegal immigrant children in peace. Pity them. If they had any sense, they would have stayed home. If we must protest, then we ought to give our elected officials some grief.
Other Views and Other News
- Lies, leaks and children in crisis (www.moonhowlings.net)
- Border crisis kids being housed in Prince William (thebullelephant.com)
- Prince William Not Funding Illegal Immigrant Program for Youth (potomaclocal.com
- Child immigrant crisis reaches Prince William County (http://www.wusa9.com)
- Flood of undocumented children crossing border reaches Virginia county (watchdog.org)
- Candland Opposes Illegal Immigrant Children Housed in County (haymarketbeat.com)
- D.C. NPR Station Hounds Virginia Pol About Using Illegal Minors As a ‘Wedge Issue to Fearmonger’ (newsbusters.org)
- As Virginians protest illegal immigration, Alexandria facilities house undocumented minors (sayanythingblog.com)
It’s really no trouble at all, Keith. I just do this in my spare time. And I find it takes very little time to not understand what Tom is saying. Thank you for your concern, nonetheless. And, I have no
“leftwing arguments” to offer. I don’t run in those circles. Sorry. Perhaps you have other friends who can supply those needs.
Frankly, I didn’t consider your responses particularly detailed or substantive. Hence my negligible direct response. They appear to be just bald assertions. I say that illegal immigrants don’t vote and are not eligible for welfare benefits. I think the law supports my position. You apparently have another view. Your views strike me as counter-factual. Perhaps if you could embroider your comment with some sort of factual data on how many illegal immigrants voted in this or that election (I’ll let you choose the ones that you think best illustrate your point) and whether they had impact on the outcomes. My impression is that there are few, if any, documented instances of illegal immigrant votes swaying an election in this country. I welcome correction if you have good data on this point. As for welfare, I guess hospital care might count, because we don’t throw people to the curb when they show up at the ER. But I doubt that that is a motive for desperate desert treks, but rather a by-product of extensive illegal entrants. By law, we also provide access to public schools, but I don’t consider that “welfare” and view those costs as probably less than the cost of not educating so many people in our midst. Given the data we have seen in the past few years about the quality of American education, I’m not sure getting access to American public schools would be a material step up for the average young scholar from Central America (Tom would probably agree with me on at least that point) But things that we generally regard as “welfare” (e.g., food stamps, health care, etc.) are generally reserved for citizens and, in some cases, permanent residents. Once in a while one hears of fraud in these areas, but these cases tend to be statistically insignificant and are cited more as an exception that proves the general rule that illegal immigrants don’t get to dip into those troughs, despite the fact that illegals do pay non-trivial sums in taxes both locally and federally.
Moreover, if immigration is an advantage to Democrats, it is only because we Republicans are too thick to understand that immigration from Latin America (and Asia and Eastern Europe for that matter) has within it very strong strains that should favor the Republican Party. Latino immigrants tend to be industrious, often come from religiously and culturally “conservative” backgrounds, and have seen enough of government dysfunction to be skeptical of governments that promise everything. One of the real problems in the current immigration debate is that, starting several years ago, many opportunistic, low-grade Republican candidates fell for the siren song of how easy it is to get cheap votes on this issue by ignoring its complexity and its potential for benefit to the Nation and instead decided to mine the corrupted vein of dross that preys on fear of the next wave of immigration. This country always has feared the next wave, even as the previous wave assimilates and adds strength to the alloy that is America.
Moving on a bit to other points. I don’t particularly see this Administration as the root of immigration problems (although I have serious complaints about other aspects of its current foreign policy or lack thereof). My view is that people who leap to that conclusion are folks who tend to have a kind of embarrassingly reflexive, discrediting boogey-man reaction to this Administration across a wide range of issues. I’ve been paying close attention to immigration policy since the mid 1980s. This Administration has been a more aggressive enforcer of Immigration laws than any in my adult lifetime (which may be about double yours – I’m not bragging about that, mind you, I’m just saying that I have had a while to watch these things). I see the issue as one that spans partisan lines, goes back many years, and is typified by fear more than leadership. Immigration is complex – it is not just Honduran children being used by smugglers as a sideline to their drug dealing. It is also about competing worldwide for the best and the brightest physicists, chemists, engineers, medical doctors, etc. who will come and become Americans dedicated to the welfare of this country. It is about eliminating the underground world in which illegals work outside of the record-keeping and responsibility of the lawful economy. It is about adjusting to seasonal demands for particular kinds of labor. it is about remedying the endless delays and bureaucratic nonsense that makes it virtually impossible in a human, as opposed to geologic time, to procure visas and other permissions to travel here. And, importantly, it is about efficient, user-friendly, effective border controls that give us reasonable assurance that we catch security threats while at the same time providing incentives for productive labor to move in recordable channels, as opposed to finding that desert treks, whatever their dangers, are preferable than waiting for 15 years to get a visa to hammer nails into roof shingles. Thus, I do take exception, as I did in previous comments in this thread to Tom talking about Democrats bringing immigrants into this country. Wherever there are marked economic and/or liberty opportunities on either side of any border anywhere in the world, one will find a strong current running toward liberty and prosperity. If the lawful immigration policies don’t manage that tide well, it will still happen, but much of it is forced into illegal channels. Our system is completely inadequate to modern conditions. Hence we have a lot of illegal activity around it.
My view of immigration issues generally is that they rather transcend cable news politics and are more a manifestation of economic and liberty disparities. As a general rule, immigration tends to benefit the recipient countries and harm the countries being abandoned. I accept that, like any generalization there are exceptions to my general outlook, but view those exceptions, in the case of current conditions in the United States as a reflection of failure of the political system across both parties and across the Articles I and II branches, to build a workable system for the 21st Century.
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What did you say that wasn’t just a bald assertion?
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To be fair to scout, he has taken some of my suggestions to heart and is now employing left-wing arguments openly. He’s also still amusing: For example, his guess at relative ages. I’ll give him a hint: My father was a teenager during the Roaring Twenties, working in coal mines. Does scout still think he’s twice my age?
He describes Obama as not particularly responsible for the illegal immigration crisis. That is true, to an extent
Our leftist scout asserts: “I say that illegal immigrants don’t vote and are not eligible for welfare benefits.” That reality thing trumps his assertion:
More on this, in an older (pre-Obama) report directly from the GAO which was and is motivated to downplay it:
http://www.gao.gov/products/HEHS-98-30
As for illegal immigrants voting, he says it doesn’t happen because it’s against the law. Amusing. Another post will address this.
On welfare, there is a subtlety here — one that scout is evidently not cognizant of: States are highly motivated to reduce their reported fraud percentages. Not their actual fraud rate: That buys votes. Here’s how California accomplished this: Their legal team was able to prosecute cases of fraud because the applicant signed the application “under penalty of perjury of the laws of the State of California.” They had quite a few successful prosecutions, such as one in which a woman local to me had been submitting several names, collecting several monthly checks and reselling other benefits, bought property (two duplexes to rent out and a nice home for herself), and was only caught because her mentally challenged son was a bit too open about the arrangements.
California’s punishment of this person? She had to pay a fine, easily accomplished by refinancing one of her properties. She kept everything. But this and countless other cases were reported as fraud, of course, which made California look bad. So they changed the rules: Applicants no longer have to sign the application, they can get help filling it out and it is signed by the official helper with no legal consequences. The fraud rate, mirabile dictu, improved dramatically, and prosecutions dropped.
Scout also suggests that “[t]his Administration has been a more aggressive enforcer of Immigration laws than any in my adult lifetime,” evidently because he has been told that the reported number of deportations is up. He seems not to be aware of how this was accomplished, which was by changing the rules of counting. Now, simply sending a fresh-caught illegal back across the border right after the capture counts as a “deportation”; it never did before. The actual number of deportations through the legal process has dropped radically, and now of course illegals are being bused into communities all over America and turned loose. That has never happened before. Obama also famously ordered the release of tens of thousands of convicted illegal alien criminals into American communities. Amazing.
Scout does not track on the selection process. We do not require that illegals or legal immigrants be self-supporting, as do most countries. And we run ads inviting them in to partake of welfare benefits, and offer government navigators to help them through the process. Scout gets around this to an extent by narrowly defining what he thinks of as welfare.
There are many non-governmental programs as well that are aimed at providing benefits to illegals; it may surprise scout to learn that I am on the board of one of them. These provide many billions of dollars of aid every year to this group — instead of US citizens or legal residents who could also use it.
===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle
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If you want to post that comment on your website, I would be pleased to link to it.
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Tom – I’m not trying to issue “rebukes” to you and the other guys in your “we’s”. It’s just an exchange of opinions. I do think Keith has a tendency to make things personal, as opposed to talking about ideas. But that’s his problem. Rebukes probably won’t help that much.
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Once again, foolish scout, you go to tremendous trouble to pretend to misunderstand Citizen Tom in order to distract the conversation. He wasn’t talking about a rebuke from you, and you know it.
In the meantime, with a very substantial set of replies to your issues, just as you asked, you have nothing to say. Perhaps to you, getting drawn into a discussion of serious issues is a trap. You struggle mightily to avoid it, obviously.
===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle
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