Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

Time to slam shut the 'golden door'
by Henry Lamb

A plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty says:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

For centuries, people from around the world have accepted this invitation to become a part of America – the great land of freedom and opportunity. Most of these people complied with the law that allowed them to melt into the American culture and become contributors to this great nation.

Now, however, most of the people entering this country do so by ignoring the law and have no desire to become either Americans or contributors to the nation. It is time to close the golden door.

No one wants to stop immigration altogether, but it must be controlled. Immigration cannot be controlled until the borders are closed and secure, with entry permitted only to those who have legitimate reason to be here and then only for the time specified at the time of entry.

To become an American citizen, an immigrant should learn and demonstrate facility with the English language. The bilingual fad is not a show of compassion – it's stupid. American taxpayers should not be required to provide written instructions to government services in dozens of languages. This practice is a waste of resources.

Students and workers who enter this country legally bear the responsibility for their own communications. If they or their employers are unwilling to bear this responsibility, why should taxpayers be forced to pay? There could be exceptions to this principle to accommodate individuals seeking political asylum whose life may be in imminent danger, but as a general rule, ability to speak and read English should be a fundamental requirement of entry and of citizenship.

When the golden door is opened for students, workers or asylum seekers, there must be an effective way to track their activities and enforce the expiration date on their visas. This function has been essentially absent from immigration policy for many years. The technology to achieve this objective is available; the political will to use it is not.

The idea of a national ID card generates sharp opposition from many Americans who point to Fourth Amendment guarantees of privacy. These guarantees do not apply to non-citizens. The federal government can track the movement of a panther through the everglades, but has no idea what happened to millions of non-citizens who violate their visas. This lunacy should stop, instantly.

These people who enter the country legally are far less of a problem than the millions of people who seek to avoid the law altogether and sneak across the borders to take whatever gold they can from their taxpaying victims. Communities across the country, particularly in the Southwest, are saddled with heavy costs of social services provided to illegal immigrants. And we need to call them what they are – illegal immigrants – not simply "undocumented workers."

The golden door should be slammed shut in the face of these illegal immigrants. If it takes a wall across the Southern border, build it. If it takes Special Forces to repel the invasion, field them. If it takes racial or ethnic profiling, profile. Whatever it takes to close, secure and control America's borders must be done. The consequences of inaction are not acceptable.

There is no hope of identifying and preventing teams of terrorists who are hell-bent on destroying America if legal immigrants are lost once they enter the country, or if illegal immigrants are free to enter at will and do what they wish.

Opponents of closed borders are quick to raise the argument that "these people do jobs that Americans won't do." If that were the case, which is doubtful, an immigrant worker program that adequately tracks the worker and holds the employer responsible could be devised. But no program will succeed unless there is political will to make it succeed.

At the moment, there is insufficient political will in Congress to close the golden door. But as evidence accumulates that the illegal immigrants crossing America's borders are more akin to the "wretched refuse" who attacked the World Trade Center than to those who helped build America's greatness, political will is changing. Perhaps, with enough urging from concerned voters, this is the Congress that will do what must be done.

 

Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization and chairman of Sovereignty International.

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest /  White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN