Be Careful What You Wish For

The government of Mexico was certainly opposed to Pearce’s valiant
efforts to do the job the government of the United States won’t do,
secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws.  Mexico is the
recipient of more than $20 billion each and every year in remittances
wired from the United States to Mexico and receives even more money in
other ways as well.  In fact, the money wired to Mexico from its
citizens who are living and working illegally in the United States
represents the second largest source of income for the Mexican economy!

So many illegal aliens from Mexico now live and work in the United
States that whenever there is a presidential election in Mexico, the
candidates for that presidency campaign inside the United States!

By exporting its citizens, the Mexican government also helps to
prevent insurrection by the young able-bodied men who work in the United
States.  The drug trade likely results in money flowing into the
coffers of corrupt politicians in Mexico and most likely, the United
States as well.

Therefore the leaders of Mexico have a number of very important
incentives to make certain the border that is supposed to separate the
United States from Mexico remain is ineffective as mere speed bumps.

Interestingly, Mexico does take one border seriously, the border that
separates Mexico from Guatemala.  Mexico has erected a fence along that
border while demanding that the United States does not build a border
along the U.S./Mexican border!  I have a theory as to why Mexico wants
to block the flow of illegal aliens from Guatemala and other Latin
American countries into Mexico- I suspect that they don’t want those
illegal aliens to make their way to the United States where they will
compete with illegal aliens from Mexico for jobs in the United States!

This past week, Senator Pearce lost his seat in the Arizona State
Senate because of a recall election- the goal of the open borders
advocates because of his position on illegal immigration and his
leadership in leading the charge where SB 1070 was concerned.  While
members of the immigrant community in Arizona and elsewhere across our
nation may be celebrating the outcome of this election, I would like to
provide my perspectives that are not based on hunches but are based on
my having served as an INS Special Agent for roughly 26 years and as an
Immigration Inspector for 4 years.

My real-world experience has provided me with a unique perspective
where the hotly contested issue of immigration law enforcement is
concerned.

Before celebrating the outcome of this recent defeat suffered by
Senator Pearce, people- especially in the immigrant communities of the
United States need to understand what is really at stake.

Senator Pearce’s action, in conjunction with other political leaders
of Arizona, was taken to fill a void created by the ongoing failures of
the federal government to secure the border that is supposed to separate
the United States from Mexico and enforce our nation’s immigration laws
from within the interior of the United States.

The failures of the federal government to enforce the immigration
laws and secure our borders heavily impacted Arizona and those who live
and visit Arizona.  According to published statistics, prior to the
passage of SB 1070, Phoenix, the capitol of Arizona suffered a
kidnapping or home invasion virtually every day!  Most of these crimes
involve drug-related crimes and aliens- often illegal aliens who are
directly or indirectly connected to the drug trade.

The political leadership found itself in an untenable situation- they
could not stand by and watch crime, especially crimes involving
violence and members of the immigrant community soar into the
stratosphere and not take action.  That action was to enact immigration
laws that paralleled the federal immigration statutes.

Gene Kranz, Flight Director for NASA’s manned space program during
the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs wrote a book that memorialized
NASA’s incredible achievement of returning the 3 Apollo 13 astronauts
back to earth after their service module experienced a massive explosion
halfway to the moon.  His book was titled, “Failure Is Not An Option.” 
For Senator Russell Pearce and his political colleagues, if a book was
to be written about the situation that drove them to enact SB 1070, you
could say that the title of that book could be, “Failure To Act Was Not
An Option!”

I was proud to provide an extensive declaration in support of SB 1070
when the United States Justice Department resorted to the extremely
unusual measure of filing a lawsuit in order to prevent SB 1070 from
being implemented.

While opponents of secure borders and immigration law enforcement
have worked tirelessly to combat these important measures by claiming
that the motivation for seeking to secure our nation’s borders and
enforce our nation’s borders was xenophobia, bigotry and racism, in
reality, our nation’s immigration laws are utterly and totally blind as
to race, religion and ethnicity.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is the all-inclusive body
of laws that address the entry of aliens into the United States and
their continued presence in our country.  The INA establishes the
requirements for an alien to acquire lawful immigrant status and even
become a United States citizen via the naturalization process.  Those
laws also define categories of aliens who are to be prevented from
entering the United States or deported from the United States when
foreign nationals violate terms of their admission into the United
States.

Aliens who are admitted into the United States generally fall into
two categories, immigrants and nonimmigrants.  Immigrants are provided
with an Alien Registration Card also known as a “Green Card.”  They are
permitted to work and remain permanently in the United States and are
eligible to seek to become naturalized citizens when they meet certain
additional requirements.  Nonimmigrants are admitted for a defined
period of time for a variety of visas issued in conjunction with lawful
purposes such as tourists, students, journalists, diplomats and those
who have various categories of work visas.

The guiding principle behind these laws is to protect America and
Americans from aliens whose presence would create problems.  This
includes aliens who have dangerous communicable diseases, aliens who
suffer mental illness and are prone to violence.  Under the Immigration
and Nationality Act, aliens who are convicted felons, are members of
violent gangs, engaged in human rights violations, have committed war
crimes, or engage in human tracking, alien smuggling, narcotics
trafficking, money laundering, prostitution, espionage and terrorism are
among the categories of aliens who are supposed to be prevented from entering our country.

The immigration laws
are also supposed to prevent foreign workers from entering our country
if they would displace American and lawful immigrant workers or have an
adverse impact on the wages and working conditions of American workers.

Most Americans who are surveyed are adamant about their desires that
our nation secure its borders and enforce its immigration laws simply as
a way of defending our nation against the entry and infiltration of
terrorists and criminal aliens including the members of the extremely
violent Mexican drug cartels and transnational gangs such as MS-13.

The most likely victims of transnational gangs are the members of the
immigrant communities of the same ethnicity as the gang members.  This
does not only apply to the gangs from Latin America but from gangs from
across this planet.  It applies to the Russian mob, Jamaican drug
posses, Asian Organized Crime and all of the others.  This is not
conjecture on my part, but what I observed during my career at the INS
where I spent half of my career engaged in conducting narcotics
investigations in conjunction with the NYPD and various other city and
state police departments, the DEA, FBI, ATF, US Marshals Service and
other federal law enforcement agencies and even with law enforcement
agencies of foreign governments including the Israeli National Police,
the Royal Canadian Police, British Customs and the Japanese National
Police.

Consider the fact that most of the home invasions and kidnappings in
Arizona involved narcotics and members of the immigrant community.

While Arizona was the first state to enact its own immigration laws,
it has been joined by other states such as Indiana and Alabama and South
Carolina.  Even cities and towns have taken to seeking to enact laws
and ordinances that parallel the federal immigration laws.  Hazleton,
Pennsylvania also enacted ordinances in an effort to address the serious
problems that are related to the influx of large numbers of criminal
aliens.  I was pleased to be the final expert witness at the federal
trial that resulted when the ACLU filed a lawsuit against that
beleaguered city.  Today Lou Barletta, the former mayor of Hazleton who
was the force behind the Hazleton ordinances is now Congressman Lou
Barletta who was elected because of his leadership in this matter.

Often the news media refer to those who push for open borders and
oppose the enforcement of our immigration laws as being
“Pro-Immigrant.”  This makes as much sense as saying that a person who
places cheese on a mousetrap is a compassionate “animal-rights activist”
who is simply trying to feed hungry mice!

Most of those who push for open borders do so seeking personal gain
and all of them know that illegal aliens will, more often than not, face
horrific exploitation in the United States by unscrupulous employers
and others and will all face violence at the hands of criminals who have
entered the United States to be able to ply their criminal “trades” in
the United States.

Lawful immigrants have generally come to the United States seeking
freedom- freedom from crime and the freedom to live their lives in
peace.  That freedom and security can only be achieved by enforcing our
nation’s immigration laws and securing our nation borders.  Russell
Pearce demonstrated true leadership in leading the charge to get SB 1070
enacted.  I hope that if he decides to run in the next election that
commonsense prevails and that he is returned to his seat in the Arizona
State Senate or, perhaps will be elected to the United States Congress.
where he can continue to demonstrate leadership to effectively deal with
the immigration crisis that is doing such profound harm to our nation
in so many ways- and not just in Arizona!