• Shortsighted U.S. government policies on illegal immigration disregard massive numbers of dependent aliens, criminals, kids being given sanctuary at expense of U.S. taxpayers.
Ronald L. Ray —
The unending torrent of illegal aliens entering the United States will cause the collapse of the country if not reversed. Officially numbered at 11.4 million, these unassimilated foreign lawbreakers may comprise up to 10% of the population.
Harmful federal policies regarding alien minor children and the government’s exploitative use of labor by immigration detainees, present conflicting ethical issues and demonstrate Washington’s complete unwillingness to maintain the integrity of our nation and its borders, leading to only one conclusion: treason at the top.
Our border situation is an ongoing disaster, but the political prostitutes in Congress and bureaucratic badminton-players in the Obama administration would rather court foreign criminals than protect the American people. Liberals count the unconstitutional votes of non-citizen invaders while alleged conservatives ballyhoo the “benefits” of millions more illegal outsiders as wage-slaves in order to destroy completely what little remains of a job market for U.S. citizens. In both cases, it is moneyed mandarins, political and plutocratic, who profit.
But there is an odd twist to the wage-slavery issue, says Carl Takei, of the American Civil Liberties Union, in a New York Times report. Federal law prohibits the use of illegal aliens by any employer, including the federal government. However, that same government is paradoxically the largest single employer of these illicit workers—as many as 60,000 in the past year.
They are civil detainees awaiting resolution of their immigration status, who are provided a “voluntary” opportunity to work, for purposes of morale and reducing costs of internment. Many, however, are actually legal residents or even citizens. The pay is a relic of the 1950s—one dollar per day, or even nothing at all—and has not been formally authorized in law since 1979. Some call that good business, saving taxpayers’ money.
In reality though, it is often only a handful of private prison companies that profit, like The GEO Group, Inc. and Corrections Corporation of America. Privatized detention of illegal aliens is highly lucrative, with net dollar profits of hundreds of millions each year, and more so since significant labor costs disappear through the use of interned foreigners.
The practice additionally raises legal and ethical questions. With no explicit legislation for the work program, both the Obama administration and Congress have so far refused to develop guidelines similar to those for the Bureau of Prisons, leading to increasingly heated complaints about the issue.
Moral questions arise in response to allegations that detainees are mistreated—and sometimes threatened with solitary confinement if they do not work—and due to the fact that the practically non-existent wages undermine the local labor market, depriving honest Americans of additional jobs. Ironically, the original 1950s legislation intended to achieve just the opposite.
But no one in Washington has the integrity to correct these problems. In a cynical act of corporate welfare, they do, however, mandate filling some 34,000 detention beds each night—less than 2% of the caseload—without addressing needed deportations.
Perhaps worse than the way illegal immigrants are coddled in this country is the tenfold increase of unaccompanied minor children, even in diapers, crossing illegally into the U.S. In 2011, 6,000 have become more than 60,000. Over 130,000 are expected in 2015, which will cost taxpayers roughly $2 billion. On the one hand, it is a serious humanitarian crisis, but on the other, this crisis, involving human trafficking, is partly caused by Obama administration policies, admitted Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske.
Federal Judge Andrew S. Hanen has castigated the Department of Homeland Security for repeatedly reuniting smuggled children with their illegal alien parents in the U.S., at taxpayer expense, instead of reuniting and immediately deporting them.
Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies, told this reporter on June 2 that interviews showed most of those arriving came because “they heard there was a policy that they can stay.” She said it has “completely overwhelmed enforcement.”
As many as 900 children appear at the border each day, turning immigration officials into babysitters. Huge sums are paid by relatives to drug cartels and traffickers to smuggle the children, risking that the minors could be diverted to prostitution or worse. And “parents” need not prove their relationship to claim a child from federal officials.
Over 500,000 illegal youths already here have been granted two-year Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status along with work permits and renewal possibilities. But the program has no statutory or regulatory authority and apparently is funded illegally by tax dollars, instead of fees. Legal immigrants must wait, as DACA applicants now take first priority.
It is no wonder that thousands of foreigners flock across our borders each day. The White House and Congress have destroyed the rule of law by promoting the illegal invasion, while deliberately undermining our culture, our economy and our government. That is called treason and should be punished.
Ronald L. Ray is a freelance author and an assistant editor of THE BARNES REVIEW. He is a descendant of several patriots of the American War for Independence.
