Speaking of Immigration...
Here's an essay I wrote last year on it. If you remember, there was a news report, complete with video of a leaky boat full of Haitians grounding in Florida and the occupants running across the freeway to avoid law enforcement. I'm sure some of them might turn up voting in the next election. Anyway, here it is:

Amongst all the disgusting things there are to watch on television, this one took the cake. Never mind that Bill and the Hildebeeste were at a rally disguised as a memorial service. Forget Fear Factor. Even Phil Donahue’s resurrection was not as sickening, as appalling, as downright vomit inducing as what was shown during the nightly newscasts.

A rickety boat, jammed to the gunwales with Haitian, ahem, “refugees”, ran aground in Biscayne Bay, Florida. The boat’s passengers then jumped overboard and started swimming/wading ashore, many of them eventually climbing onto an elevated highway, there to become targets for careless motorists, or maybe attempting to beg/borrow/steal a ride before authorities closed in on them. And of course, the obligatory news chopper was on hand to tape the entire thing. Governor Bush of Florida immediately grandstanded about the need to treat these people as refugees and to rail against American immigration policies vis-à-vis Haitians and Cubans. Well, that’s to be expected, as it is an election year.
However, a few questions need to be asked:

1. Where the hell was the Coast Guard?
2. What happened to this Homeland Security bullshit we’ve been hearing about?
3. Does said Office of Homeland Security have a color code for an invasion from a third-world pisspot? (I recommend a white flag, since that seems to be the case here).
4. How is it that a news chopper can get to the scene before the military or police authorities?
5. When the heck is someone going to realize that fighting the “War of Terrorism” (which seems to have stalled, thanks to the democrats, Kofi Annan and the French) means controlling points of entry and regulating who gets in and who doesn’t?
6. When will this insanity end? And who must I kill to see it end?

This is getting way too serious to be treated lightly anymore. We are living with twin threats in this country and our political leadership seems unconcerned about it. Those twin threats are terrorism and unchecked, illegal immigration. Sure, the politicos know how to flap their gums about these issues. We’ve heard lofty speeches, what seem to be sensible ideas floated for correcting these problems – and then Congress sits down and undermines the entire thing. We have an immigration agency in this country (INS) that seems to be perfectly able to arrest illegal immigrants, but which can’t manage to send them back where they came from. We have a Border Patrol that is so understaffed that local citizens in the Southwest have taken up arms to protect their property from incursions of massive numbers of Mexicans and Central Americans. The Canadian border is left practically unguarded. The Mexican Army (or rather units of the Mexican Army, usually in the employ of drug dealers) has crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and traded gunshots with Border Patrol agents. GUNSHOTS. I believe that this used to be called an invasion, and in days of yore, was repulsed with violence. We respond by asking the Mexicans to stop, please. This is insane! The American government has a duty to protect its citizens and seems very unconcerned about doing it. But it can show concern that illegals are not getting schooled properly, or not receiving good medical coverage, or maybe they should be granted amnesty and forgiven the sin of breaking the law.

I can guarantee you that had one of those Haitians been hit by a car whist trying to escape across a freeway, some lawyer (usually claiming to be standing up for the rights of the oppressed) would have been on the spot to file a lawsuit against the poor bastard who hit him. I’ll bet that if the Coast Guard had reason to believe there were drugs or maybe terrorists on board that boat, they would have stopped it, with the media on hand, so that they could revel in the spotlight. The truth of the matter is that no one seems to care that millions of people are entering this country, without permission and against the law, and ruining this great land from the inside, like a cancer.

Now let me just say for the record (again!) that I do not have any problem whatsoever with people from foreign lands coming to the United States, gaining citizenship and then becoming productive members of society. This country was founded and built by immigrants. I am the descendant of immigrants. I would never deny to others the same opportunities that were given to me and my forebears. This IS America, after all. There’s room for everyone that wants to be an American. But part of being an American, of being a good citizen, is obeying the law. We DO have laws in this country, you know? People cannot expect to become American citizens or to take advantage of the benefits of American society when their VERY FIRST ACT ON AMERICAN SOIL IS TO BREAK THE LAW BY ILLEGALLY ENTERING.

I understand the process of obtaining visas and so forth can be lengthy and expensive. I totally agree the process should be streamlined as much as possible without sacrificing security. I sympathize with those who are in such dire straits that they may not be able to wait, or maybe not able to afford, the process. I am completely cognizant of the fact that sometimes, sometimes, someone’s life is actually endangered by the wait, but this situation is getting out of hand, rapidly. The American people have only themselves to blame for it too. Allow me to explain.

Americans are a generous lot. We have done more, given more to the rest of the world than any other society known to mankind. We have given our treasure, our blood, and in many cases, our lives, in order to defend others, to feed others and to provide succor to others. We genuinely sympathize with those that might live in abject poverty or under political oppression, and we welcome anyone who wants to breathe the fresh air of freedom. We welcome those that only want a better life for themselves and their families. It’s in our nature to be generous and conscientious of the plight of others. Sometimes, however, in our zeal to do good we very often don’t think of the consequences that follow our good intentions. Remember – the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

We are now living in a time when English will very rapidly become a foreign language in this country. The rate of immigration from Central and South America (and the birthrate of those who emigrate from there) will ensure that Spanish will become, de facto, the chief lingua franca of the United States. Think about the consequences of that for a moment. This means the government (on all levels) must operate in two languages. That means that all federal documents, all laws, all federal broadcasts on TV or radio, voting forms, all kinds of applications, etc, must be printed in Spanish as well as English. Guess what? Your government already does that. It does it in Spanish, Creole, Farsi, Chinese (three different kinds of Chinese, no less!), Hindu, Korean, Vietnamese, French, Polish, Italian, Swahili, Cherokee, Portuguese, Tagalog, Aluit, Hawaiian, and Russian, just to begin with. Do you realize just how much money that requires? The time and effort that is required to print, for example, the same form in 52 different languages, in quantity (just in case they’re needed someplace. Like Billings, Montana or Virgin, Utah. Never know when someone might show up to vote in Mandarin in Utah). To ship and store that much paper is an enormous expense, and a logistical nightmare. We’re so nice we’ll allow you to come into the country and not even trouble you to learn English.

How about the problems of bilingual education? Right here in New York City, for example, we have bilingual education programs for just about any language you can think of. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t too long ago that the Board of Education up here (or whatever they’re calling it nowadays) issued a report that stated that the newest class of immigrants to New York are Central Americans that do not speak Spanish. Instead, they speak a dialect common to the Indian tribes of Central America – for which there are no bilingual teachers available. So, these kids are sitting in our schools, taking up space, totally unable to communicate or be educated? Well, yes…But only until we get more money to remedy the problem!

Here’s something else to think about – politics and voting. Many of the people entering the country illegally nowadays have never voted before…anywhere. We’re talking about people who come from places where a democratic tradition is unknown. They have no idea of what political discourse is. They haven’t a clue as to how the American government is supposed to work. They haven’t the faintest scintilla of a notion of how to participate in a democratic society. Consequently, they cannot be expected to use the franchise correctly. Instead, we see immigrant communities voting with other people’s pocketbooks. They’re told, expressly, to vote for whoever is “on their side” or willing to spend other people’s money on them. Unless the people in question happen to be educated, what usually happens is that these people will vote for the highest bidder, since no one ever gave them anything where they came from. Just ask yourself the following question: How many Gore voters in Florida were illegal immigrants, particularly in the districts he SPECIFICALLY asked be recounted? Remember, there were credible reports floating around on that Election Day that Hispanic voters in many states were given mimeographed voting documents, signed by Bill Clinton himself. Who would question the right of someone to vote who had a document with the imprimatur of the President of the United States on it, and backed up by an Executive Order, if need be? Where are the arrests and prosecutions of those who allow illegal immigrants to a) be registered to vote, and b) allow them to do so? This kind of expansion of the franchise, to those who are unschooled or have no tradition of it’s responsible use, and who have learned to use the dual weapons of race and sympathy (based on race, economic status, the terrible conditions in their own homelands) against the perpetually-guilty liberal consciousness, will ultimately destroy the American way of life.

Consider for a few moments the premise advanced by most liberals and just about all proponents of amnesty for illegal immigrants, that cultural ideas are secondary to the process by which one acts and behaves as an American citizen. Assimilation is the first line of defense, in my opinion, against wholesale envelopment by the unwashed masses. In this theory, people come to America, they learn English and then they learn how the systems of government and society work, and then they conform to them. It was this process, once called “the Melting Pot”, that caused masses of Irish, Italian, German, Polish, Russian and Jewish people to coalesce into America. Along the way, their cultural traditions and languages were never forgotten, but subordinated to the need to be able to participate in all levels of this society. The new generation of immigrants, are not only encouraged to NOT assimilate, they are given every opportunity to not do so. Bi-lingual education, the rise of multi-ethnic and multi-lingual institutions (television, press, international banks, government institutions, etc.) ensure that none will make an honest effort to be Americans in the traditional sense: English-speaking, democratically-educated people, resolved to make their fortunes on the dint of hard work and personal talent. We already live in a world were people are separated by language – there are certain neighborhoods here in New York where I dare not go, not because I’m afraid of crime, but because my command of Spanish is limited and where the people have been indoctrinated to believe that because I’m white, I’m the enemy, and thus unwelcome, and risking bodily harm if I show up. I’m sure the same situation exists in every major city in America. Just replace Hispanic with Arab, Chinese, Muslim or Black.

There is only one (and dare I say it?) final solution to this kind of insanity. The political parties of this nation, especially the democrats and Republicans, must get off of this idea that unchecked, illegal immigration is a good thing. Democrats are in favor of it because it gives them an endless supply of “aggrieved” people that they can manipulate for political gain. For Republicans, having given up on trying to win the votes of American Blacks, they will eagerly cater to illegal Hispanics, believing that their Catholic heritage gives them qualities that the Republican party espouses (such as importance of the family, work ethic, opposition to abortion, etc) and which they can manipulate for political gain. We are very close to that dangerous point in history so eloquently elaborated by Alexis D’Tocqueville(spelling?) – we have entered a period in time in which the multitudes of the poor and shiftless have found a way to manipulate the political system (by voting in blocs with the democrats or pretending to be Republican) to their advantage, and to have the productive, established elements of the society (vis-à-vis the Americans who have been here for several generations and assimilated) to pay for it.

I wonder what would happen if there was a mass exodus of real Americans into Haiti, for example. The first ones there would decide the place was a shithole, even if the climate was nice, and within two weeks that island would have air conditioning, running water, good hospitals, schools that taught English, paved roads, luxury hotels and resorts, and walls around the whole thing to keep the natives out. The exact opposite of what illegal immigrants bring here: barrios and ghettos full of unproductive, people who refuse to assimilate, and whose refusal to assimilate very often ruins the institutions they come into contact with such as schools, hospitals, etc. And their “paradise” is walled off by language and hatred of the people off of whose fat they “live”. The Americans in Haiti would make the argument that since they built it, they should enjoy the fruits of their labor and defend against those that would only destroy it. The illegal’s defense in this country is simply that of entitlement – they’re entitled to circumvent the law in the name of finding a better life. They’re entitled to education (or rather, indoctrination) in the language of their choice, and they’re entitled to have everyone else pay for it, because we’re a racist, imperialistic society. Personally, I would opt for free-roaming firing squads made up of REAL Americans.