Our Leaders Betray Us - Continued

[Frosty]

Wake Up America! If we sit on our duffs as we have done in the past then we deserve what we get because we won't fight for it!

Everyone of us needs to write and keep on writting, not email but write your Senators & Congressmen along with Pres. "O"No ASAP!!!!

Our Leaders Betray Us – Thoughts in Closing

Note: We will continue to use the words “illegal alien†because they are the precise, legally-defensible definition of the status. We will use the word “amnesty†because aliens use that word; they understand the reality and do not play semantic games. And finally, we will say this again and again lest we be misunderstood: When we speak of “Americans†or “American workers†we include by reference all the legal aliens in this country who have come here under the rules and who play by the rules. They suffer right along with American citizens from the ill effects of illegal immigration. There are no racists or nativists or xenophobes here: if that’s what you’re looking for, go somewhere else.

In their misdirected efforts to handle the ongoing immigration crisis, our leaders are betraying the American people, the Constitution, and the very reasons that America was created. We do not lightly accuse them of betrayal. We certainly take no pleasure in saying it, but we do not believe it is an overstatement of the case. While the betrayal is not likely one of malice or hostility, the effects are pernicious for Americans nonetheless. Even the most cursory examination of what is going on shows that. Damage done through ignorance or misplaced sentiment is just as harmful as damage done deliberately. Our leaders should take care that they not increase the harm to those who have put them in their positions of authority; that is, American citizens as individuals. Our leaders also owe a grave debt of protection to the institutions and the history of this nation.

We see a stunning lack of the care they should take when they propose amnesty as a solution to the problem of illegal immigration. Almost no one likes the situation as it exists with respect to millions of illegal aliens in the United States. Where we part ways is in the solutions we think should be used.

The first amnesty, in 1986, under Ronald Reagan, was a mistake. The results were predictable by those who know immigration and illegal aliens, but it had never been tried before, the numbers were relatively small as a part of our population, and the predictable social impacts were thought to be negligible, so it seemed to be a reasonable solution.

It turned out not to be harmless, or even helpful. It immediately benefitted a population of aliens that turned out to be twice as large as projected, over 3 million instead of the 1.5 million that were expected. Hundreds of thousands of them gained permanent residence (and by now, citizenship) through fraud, hardly what an American would hope to see in his fellow Americans. The follow-on population, family members coming to join those who legalized, brought an increase to our population of another 12 to 15 million people. Since most them were laborers with no education and few skills, they immediately became a drain on our social service network and public institutions. Because their income levels are low, even when they file income taxes they do not pay anything. Instead, they receive the Earned Income Tax Credit, a payment of up to nearly $5,000 per family with children.

The long-term effect of the 1986 amnesty was what we see today: illegal immigration out of control. Within a year after the 1986 Act, immigration officers were hearing from illegal aliens that they had come here to be around for the next one. Millions remain here for exactly that reason. Ed Meese, President Reagan’s Attorney General, looking back from a historical perspective, has said that the 1986 amnesty was one of the biggest mistakes made by Reagan’s administration. He is right.

Mistakes of that nature have continued to be made by every administration since then, all with ill effect for the people of this country. Do we learn nothing from our mistakes? With its deliberate refusal to enforce immigration laws within our borders, this administration is carrying out the largest abandonment of responsible behavior ever in that respect. Worse still, their thoughts on amnesty, along with those of Congressional leaders, are properly characterized as an outright betrayal of the people who look to them for protection; that is, those who have a legal place in the United States. Our leaders are willing to sacrifice your well-being, your jobs, your money, for . . . for what?

You will have noted a recurring theme in the previous editorials in this series. It is that we must ask of our leaders and legislators, “Why? Why are you willing to damage Americans, to damage me, to damage my family, for the sake of foreigners who have broken our laws?â€

We must demand an answer. Do not accept the predigested responses they usually serve up: “They do work Americans won’t do.†“We need them for the future.†“It’s only fair.†And worst of all, a variation of the last one mentioned; “We should bring them out of the shadows.†In reality, it is we who must ask them, “What about American workers who have been placed in the shadows by your failures to enforce our laws?â€

Our leaders are wrong, wrong on every count. Anyone who calls himself a leader and who echoes those thoughts is either lying outright to us, or is so woefully ignorant of the history and effects of an overflow of immigrants, or so beholden to special interests, that he ought to be sent home with a clear message from the voters. It is this; “you represent us.†He certainly has no place in a responsible position, one where his acts will damage the very people he is supposed to represent and protect.

So ask of them, “Why?†If they come up with one of the thoughtless answers, reply with something you may have seen in our editorials or from our website, answers that address the reality of the situation. And if they still can’t come up with a good answer, then tell them that since they are obviously not interested in protecting the people who elected them, you’re going to work to see them thrown out come the next election. Tell your family and friends of their betrayal; tell anyone who will listen that we must change all this. That’s how it’s supposed to work in the United States of America; if your leaders betray you, get rid of them.

Kent Lundgren

Chairman

National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers

www.nafbpo.org