A Nation of Immigrants

AGAINST CRIME
AND INVASION

Perhaps the most frequently repeated cliché about our country is that…

America is a nation of immigrants.

The visual expression of this idea is, of course, the Statue of Liberty, its base adorned by Emma Lazarus’ poem, “The New Colossus,” known for the famous lines…

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled Masses yearning to breathe free…

Like clichés in general, the nation-of-immigrants concept embodies a basic truth: there are no truly native Americans. Everyone residing in the Western Hemisphere has roots in some other part of the world.

Even those people we call indigenous are descended from ancestor groups that crossed the Bering Land Bridge or the Pacific Ocean in distant times. (There’s archeological and DNA evidence to suggest that some of their forebears were the offspring of visitors from across the Atlantic.)

Population in-flow has been a fact of American life from well before the founding of the United States. It continues into the present.

That in mind, let’s be clear…

Nobody objects to immigration, as such.

How could we? We are all immigrants, even if our presence here results from the movements of earlier generations.

So what’s all the fuss about immigration? Why has it become such a hot-button term and undoubtedly the dominant political issue of the moment?

Amid all the tumult, especially that happening Minneapolis, it would be wise to review what has brought us to this moment.

While unauthorized border crossings have occurred for centuries, the Biden administration instigated a huge surge of migrants in a very short period of time — around 15 million of them (possibly more). Border security was overwhelmed, and communities around the country were slammed by the sudden influx.

Housing was inadequate. Schools rapidly became overcrowded, with awkward adjustments having to be made quickly. Social service networks were stretched thin.

To make things even more challenging, many of the new arrivals had criminal histories and/or gang connections. Consequently, immigrant crime soared.

The surge was not an administrative error. It did not result from an unexpected breakdown in border control. It was intentional.

What were the motives behind it? There were several.

For one, it was a key element in the philosophy of government by sedition which we saw at work in both the Obama and Biden administrations.

At his first inauguration Barack Obama declared that his election signaled a turning point in history, the beginning of a period when America would be “fundamentally changed.”

It’s true that he deported large numbers of the “undocumented” during his time in office. I believe that was a ploy.

A tactical decision was made that Obama should be seen as the defender of American sovereignty. This was in response to the many questions raised about his origins and loyalty. It was also intended to counterbalance the continuous stoking of racial animus that was another tool in his “change” agenda.

But by the Biden presidency — over which Obama exerted profound influence — after four years of sabotaging Trump, the time was deemed ripe to fast-track the cultural and demographic changes which a tsunami of incoming foreign nationals could set in motion.

While Obama was acting in the capacity of a committed ideologue, and Biden was a malleable accomplice, other interest groups abetted the immigration surge.

Having largely alienated its traditional working-class constituency, and also having lost ground among minority voters, the Democratic Party, as a whole, was seeking a new voter base. Illegal immigrants were seen as a bloc that would be grateful for throwing open the U.S.’s gates. Accordingly, their votes in the “D” column would be virtually guaranteed for at least a generation (whether or not they participate in elections legitimately).

Disbursing groups of immigrants into targeted municipalities reflected this expectation. The plan was to enhance Democrat dominance in “blue” states and weaken Republican majorities in the “reds.”

Much has been said about employers wanting a large supply of cheap, imported labor. I think this motivation is real but not of primary importance. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence are rapidly eliminating many unskilled jobs (many skilled jobs as well). Even agriculture, the traditional specialty of guest workers from Latin America, is increasingly automated.

The one industry that benefits abundantly from mass immigration is public education.

School districts generally receive government funding based on head count. The new arrivals help to offset significant losses in revenue suffered as a result of shrinking class sizes, as the population of school-age children declines and more and more families opt for private education and homeschooling.

Teachers and their unions thus have a strong incentive to support immigration, legal or illegal. I suspect this accounts for many of those “spontaneous” demonstrations breaking out at schools around the country, with earnest young people excused from class to wave signs in support of anti-ICE protests.

Among many immigrants these days there is an assumption that they can live comfortably on U.S. welfare and other public subsidy programs, at least at the beginning and maybe even indefinitely. The most extreme expression of this motive has been seen in Minnesota among the Somali refugee community.

All the Minneapolis street theater has served to deflect attention from the exposure of Somali “entrepreneurs” siphoning government money into healthcare services that provide no healthcare and childcare facilities that contain no children.

A growing scandal points right at the state capital. It’s already prompted Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ erstwhile V.P. running mate, to declare that he won’t seek reelection as governor.

Perhaps the most sinister aspect of the immigration surge was its exploitation by those elements, both foreign and domestic, committed to weakening and, ultimately, destroying the United States.

The great Biden migrant caravans were arranged by a consortium of non-governmental organizations supported with money from dubious international funding sources. They were intended to trigger the famous Cloward-Piven effect. This theory holds that when public order and government programs become too stressed, civil society will collapse and people will rise up to demand a complete socialist reorganization.

The immigration surge provided opportunities for other subversive action as well. While the caravans undoubtedly included many individuals and families fleeing poverty, violence and oppression, among those desperate folks were thousands of single, military-age males, many coming from countries actively hostile to American society, culture and traditions.

Those young men remain largely unaccounted for.

All of this brings to mind an expression we’re constantly urged to not take seriously: conspiracy theory.

But this is no theory. It’s a clear pattern, observable to anyone who can get past the wild, persistent, neurotic hatred of Donald Trump that blinds so many to the truth.

The immigration surge was an invasion.

Americans have voted for border security and reversal of this active threat. Polling continues to show strong support for those goals. Even among Catholics, whose bishops have actively opposed current policies, deportation of illegals is widely popular.

But as Trump’s efforts to meet public demand are obstructed by court orders, street violence, and the unfortunate deaths of two committed protestors (not to mention ongoing attacks on federal officers), people are growing uneasy.

Such discomfort should come as no surprise, since the clash in Minneapolis is being filtered through ideologically tainted news coverage and popular entertainment that seeks to fuel anxiety.

So far, ICE has concentrated mainly on apprehending known criminals and gangbangers. But we’re being led to believe that the crackdown is a broad sweep of migrant families that reflects Trump’s fascist leanings and America’s anti-immigrant racism.

This propaganda barrage harkens back to the “mostly-peaceful” protests of the George Floyd incident and the claims of children being locked in cages that dogged Trump’s border-control efforts during his first term.

We must strive to see through all of this distortion and deflection to remain focused on the reality of our current situation.

It would be unrealistic to assume we can deport everyone who came here in the Biden immigration surge. And while unauthorized entry into the U.S. is itself a crime, there are legitimate concerns about the treatment of migrants who have done no more than that.

But with persistence and good sense, we can achieve a humane balance between security and human need. We can differentiate between those who would harm us and those who wish to make the kinds of contributions to our national life which generations of new arrivals have in the past — and, perhaps most importantly, who are willing to assimilate fully into American life.

We can keep this nation of immigrants the shining land to which people from all over the world have struggled to come, yearning to breathe free.

But first we must counter the invasion and the truly vicious criminals who have been part of it.

God grant us wisdom in that effort.

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Here’s a simple graphic that compares stats on deportations under recent presidents — and the reactions generated…

And here are two examples of propaganda appearing online in opposition to ICE activities and Trump’s other invasion reversal efforts…

…some of it pretty vicious…

 

But then there’s this little panel which gives due recognition the modern Democrat constituency…