Alright people let’s get something straight, if you are living in some foreign country, say Mexico for example, you are not automatically entitled to come to this nation and achieve “the American Dream.”

The following comment from a protestor in Phoenix who was one among the estimated 10,000 protestors marching on Senator John Kyl’s office:

“They’re here for the American Dream,” said Malissa Greer, 29, who joined a crowd estimated by police to be at least 10,000 strong. “God created all of us. He’s not a God of the United States, he’s a God of the world.”  said Malissa Greer, 29, who joined a crowd estimated by police to be at least 10,000 strong.

Excuse me Malissa Greer, you’re right, God did create all of us, but he did not create all of us in America.  Access to the American Dream is not a God given right; it is a privilege of those of us who are rightfully, lawfully, citizens of this nation.  In our wisdom, we have found it to be mutually beneficial for us to allow a limited number of immigrants to come to this nation and we have passed laws on how that is to come about.

Among those laws one will not find “Just come on in where and when you choose to.”

The members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, are in danger of completely misreading the tenor of the conversation of the American people on this issue. The laws Congress is currently discussing are not what the average American citizen believes to be acceptable. I have rarely seen Americans so exercised about an issue.  Illegal immigration and Congress’ failure to deal effectively with it is rapidly becoming the issue. 

I called this in my September 28^th editorial.  Over the past 6 months illegal immigration has steadily escalated to become the big issue of the election.  It will almost certainly eclipse the Iraq war as the most central issue of the 2006 election, and the party which grows the backbone to properly deal with this issue will have a lock on Congress. The party who’s member cowers in fear hoping to gain the Hispanic vote is going to end up holding the empty bag. 

At every coffee bar, in every conversation, the questions of what to do about illegal immigration and the possible destruction of our nation and our culture, arise.  Here in Texas, it is always accompanied by the “duck and peek” maneuver so typical of our politically correct society. Before bringing up the topic of Illegals, the speaker will always duck his head and peek out of the corner of his eye to see if someone of Hispanic heritage is nearby.

Americans are tired of having to worry about the future of the nation and their children’s future.

The real problem here is a problem of respect, or lack of respect, for the law.  How can you expect people to obey the laws, when they see millions of non-citizens flaunting the law in broad daylight?   We have police men who are not allowed to detain non-citizens for being here illegally.  This by City ordinance.

Local law enforcement is told that it is not their problem, so they simply ignore the small groups of “day-laborers” who gather at various locals throughout the community.  These “day-laborers” are Illegals who are waiting for people, mostly contractors who need unskilled labor, to come by and hire them.  If you spend any time watching them, you will see them rush to congregate around each pick-up truck that pulls up; each bidding against the others to get a job.

This is not a situation conducive to respect for the law.  Former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani proved that tolerance of smaller crimes leads to more serious crime when he cracked down on the panhandlers and street crimes in the Big Apple.  New York went from being one of the most crime-ridden cities in America to one of the safest.

The current proposals in Congress, in which illegal immigrants are required to pay fines, pay back taxes, and take English language lessons, are not credible.  How can you expect to force compliance with the new law, if you haven’t shown the will to enforce the current laws?  What would possibly compel these Illegals to do what is necessary to become citizens?  To be sure, most of the illegal immigrants are decent folks just trying to get a piece of the American dream, but as I said before, that dream is not an entitlement.  We already have provided a path to that dream, it’s called legal immigration.

What we are dealing with here are people who are not willing to wait in line to gain access to citizenship.  We also are dealing with businesses that are making higher profits by having access to below minimum wage workers, rather than being forced to pay competitive wages that would attract citizens to those jobs.  It is true that some of those jobs like agricultural jobs will probably not attract American citizens regardless of pay, especially in this society of entitlement.

The only reason farmers cannot draw American citizens to do this work is because those citizens aren’t forced to work.  If the choice was between performing this “backbreaking” agricultural work and starvation, there would be little difficulty in attracting legal residents to work the fields.

The only workable system is one of enforcement first.  Fine and jail employers who are found to employ Illegals, then round up and deport the illegal immigrants.  Then and only then will you be able to have a credible policy. Until then there is no incentive for them to obey the laws.

Many Illegals themselves will tell you that they come across the border because “everyone else does.”  So it doesn’t make sense for them to wait to do it legally. Contempt for the law is bred by the failure to enforce our current laws.

That truism is a universal truth, not just an illegal immigrant’s truth.  We see it in our society regardless of the population.  Enron and WorldCom occurred because of failure to sufficiently monitor and enforce the existing laws for corporate accounting practices.  Contempt for all law always follows a failure to enforce the smallest of laws.

Until President Bush, Congress, and the INS find a way to enforce our current laws, there will be little reason to believe that new laws will solve this problem and this is a problem which must be solved.

I truly believe that should the government fail to deal with this problem, there will be such a build-up of resentment and hatred among the American populace, that it will boil over and violence will ensue on a large scale.

Frankly, I would prefer not to see that happen, however Thomas Jefferson did admonish us:

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

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