I wrote a commentary that was predicated on that news report. Here is a link to my commentary:
No one should be surprised that huge corporations would want to eliminate the competition or that they would want borders opened to facilitate the movement of their trucks and the cargo they carry, thereby generating profits for their company. What is incomprehensible is that the governments of the United States, Canada and Mexico are yileding to the demands of these companies!
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution has been greatly abbreviated in the name of “national security.” Airline travel often requires a level of scrutiny that may approximate the intrusiveness of a physical exam at the doctor’s office!
Yet in the name of “Free Trade” the dangerous Visa Waiver Program is being expanded at the behest of the Chamber of Commerce, the travel industry, and other corporate entities and organizations that prioritize profit over security. Just check out the Discover America Partnership that continues to push for open borders and an expansion of the Visa Waiver Program and other related issues. In their words
“…The Discover America Partnership, under the leadership of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, National Restaurant Association, National Retail Federation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and U.S. Travel Association, is a lobbying and grassroots campaign to advance visa and entry reforms that will enable the United States to regain the 17 percent market share of overseas travelers it had in 2000 by 2015.”
It is clear that the Discover America Partnership is determined to increase the “market share of overseas travelers.” My concern is that by leaving our borders to found at international airports as well as along our land borders, open, we may well also increase another “market share” the share that relates to the influx of transnational terrorists and criminals who need to be able to move freely across international borders in order to carry out terrorist attacks and move contraband in conjunction with the drug trade and other criminal enterprises.
Here is the link to the website:
Here is the link and the report to be found on the website of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
Discover America Partnership Highlights Barriers to U.S. Maximizing Potential of Global Travel Market
WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Chamber of Commerce put its support behind
today’s launch of the Discover America Partnership, a broad coalition to
advance visa and entry reforms for international travelers.
“Our nation’s travel policies – and the perception of these policies –
have deterred business travelers and tourists from visiting the U.S.,”
said Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber. “In
addition to the impact on the travel industry, these policies discourage
international business travelers from coming to the United States to
train, purchase products, and participate in meetings and other business
activities.
“The creation of the Discover America Partnership is an important step
in highlighting the need for visa and entry reforms,” he said. “This
Partnership will educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the
economic significance of tourism and business travel, highlight the
barriers that prevent the U.S. from maximizing its potential in the
global travel market, and present the low or no cost solutions that are
necessary for the United States to stay competitive and create jobs.”
According to a report released today by the U.S. Travel Association,
long-haul arrivals to the U.S. have increased by less than 2 percent,
despite a worldwide increase of 60 million long-haul travelers over the
same decade. If the U.S. could restore its share of the global long-haul
travel market by 2015 to the 2000 level of 17 percent, and sustain this
level through 2020, it would add nearly $390 billion in U.S. exports
and create 1.3 million American jobs.
The Discover America Partnership, under the leadership of the American
Hotel and Lodging Association, National Restaurant Association, National
Retail Federation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and U.S. Travel
Association, is a lobbying and grassroots campaign to advance visa and
entry reforms that will enable the United States to regain the 17
percent market share of overseas travelers it had in 2000 by 2015.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation
representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all
sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and
industry associations.
It is obvious that companies are in business to make a profit- however, in an era when borders have become more important than ever before to attempt to thwart terrorists, criminals and smugglers from circumventing the inspections process that is supposed to prevent the entry of illegal aliens and contraband into our country, border must be made more secure, not less secure!
I would remind you that when aliens evade the inspections process, no record is made of their entry into the United States. Furthermore by running our borders, these aliens evade the scrutiny of our CBP (Customs and Border Protection) inspectors who are charged with preventing the entry of aliens into our country whose presence may be harmful or even deadly. It is said that you need not state the obvious, but isn’t it worth considering the name of that agency Customs and Border Protection? How can those inspectors protect us when unknown millions of aliens can circumvent the inspections process that is designed to protect us?
Title 8, United States Code section 212 is section of law that enumerates the various categories of aliens who, under the Immigration and Nationality Act, are supposed to be prevented from entering the United States and are supposed to be removed if they are found here:
Here is a link to that section of law:
Please take the time to review the contents of this section of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
Among the categories of aliens who are supposed to be kept out of the United States are aliens with dangerous communicable diseases, aliens who suffer serious mental illness and are prone to violence, aliens who are convicted felons, aliens who fugitives from justice in other countries, aliens who are human traffickers and drug smugglers, aliens who are war criminals and aliens who have committed human rights violations. Also aliens who are engaged in terrorism and espionage are among those who are, by law, supposed to be prevented from entering our country and are supposed to be removed if they manage to evade the Border Patrol and enter the United States.
It must be presumed that an alien who seeks to evade the inspections process belongs to one or more categories of aliens who would be deemed inadmissible under the provisions of this section of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
Finally I want you to give consideration to how capitalism is supposed to work.
Capitalism should generate competition. There are two winners as a result of this competition. Obviously the company that is the most effective and most efficient gains the most profit and excels because of economic Darwinism, so to speak. The other winner is the consumer who gets the best product or service for the best price.
When companies find more efficient and productive ways of doing business through innovation, every one benefits. However, when companies seek lower operating costs and greater profits at any cost, then a real problem develops. When, forty years ago, the Ford Motor Company sold the Pinto with a faulty fuel system that was prone to explode in flames in a fear-end collision, people died. An investigation showed that a cheap fix could have prevented these deaths, but the executives who made the decision to save about $10 per car over-road decency and commonsense.
For those of you who are too young to remember the outrage of the Ford Pinto, here is a link to a succinct Time Magazine article about this example of greed running amok:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658498_1657866,00.html
They shoot horses, don’t they? Well, this is fish in a barrel. Of course
the Pinto goes on the Worst list, but not because it was a particularly
bad car — not particularly — but because it had a rather volatile
nature. The car tended to erupt in flame in rear-end collisions. The
Pinto is at the end of one of autodom’s most notorious paper trails, the
Ford Pinto memo , which ruthlessly calculates the cost of reinforcing
the rear end ($121 million) versus the potential payout to victims ($50
million).
Conclusion? Let ’em burn.
When companies put profit over the safety of our nation or the livelihood of Americans, then they are demonstrating a level of greed that is utterly unacceptable!
All too often, naked greed motivates companies to take all sorts of steps to minimize costs and causes companies to outsource jobs, hire illegal aliens, seek to employ foreign workers who may demand lower salaries and fewer benefits. Meanwhile Americans and lawful immigrants lose their jobs and the money earned by the foreign workers are sent from our country to the countries from which these foreign workers come. This money, more than one hundred billion dollars, each year, is not spent in America and not invested in America.
The claim that open borders will generate new jobs does not mean much if Americans don’t get those jobs and if we permit criminals and terrorists to enter our country.
The immigration laws are supposed to protect American workers from the harm that a massive influx of foreign workers would have on wages and working conditions. This is why, in fact, that prior to the Second World War the enforcement and administration of the immigration laws was the responsibility of the Labor Department.
We are often told that America was built by immigrants. In point of fact, immigrants did have a huge impact on the United States and other countries on this planet, however, what distinguished the United States from every other country has been our large and upwardly mobile middle class. This resulted in people understanding that by securing a good education and/or improving their skill levels, they could attain amazing goals and not only score personal successes, but also create incredible opportunities for the United States.
This drive for profit may also result in companies producing substandard products or taking other unsafe and unethical shortcuts.
This is where government needs to make certain that certain standards are adhered to.
When huge companies or conglomerates are able to make huge campaign contributions to get favorable rulings, treaties and laws that help them and hurt their competition or harm our country, then we get into the area of what can only be referred to as corruption.
If a motorist offers a police officer a twenty dollar bill when he stopped for running a red light he is offering a bribe to that cop and this is a felony.
However, when multi-billion dollar corporations provide political parties with huge campaign donations, this is a normal business practice!
NAFTA is apparently not only compromising our nation’s security but, as claimed in the news article, is driving small companies out of business. By driving companies out of business, competition is also driven out of the marketplace. Ultimately the companies that survive will be able to boost their prices because they were able to defeat the competition- not by competition in the marketplace but through the political process.
You can come to whatever conclusions you want- but to my thinking, NAFTA is contrary to our nation’s best interests by not only compromising our safety and security but by forcing smaller companies out of business in an unfair and Un-American way!
A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!
