by Lady Liberty
09/08/2003

There was a time when American citizens enjoyed a birthright of freedom that had many in the rest of the world scrambling to set foot on our shores. Foreign nationals scrimped and saved to purchase passage; then they worked 18-hour days to learn English and be productive citizens. They earned their citizenship and thus their freedom, and their contributions to American society are many and significant.

Things are different now. It's American citizens who are fighting to restore the freedoms they'd begun to take for granted, while aliens are entering the country both legally and illegally only to take advantage of welfare programs, or get jobs where they demand Americans speak their language. Instead of enjoying American culture while keeping their own particular traditions alive, they segregate themselves and complain that others in their communities aren't sufficiently supportive. They hyphenate their national identities, and maintain a bizarre dual loyalty, half of which is to a country they couldn't wait to leave.

There are immigration laws in the United States that require certain things of would-be Americans. Unfortunately, many of those regulations are ignored or bent on a regular basis. For example, at one time people had to show evidence of a means of support to immigrate. They had to have a viable skill so that they could be gainfully employed, or they had to have the sponsorship of family members already in the country or a sympathetic organization that would promise to see to their support if for some reason they failed to support themselves. But today, many immigrants - legal and illegal alike - take advantage of welfare programs such as health care to the extent that some localities are going broke trying to provide services.

Consider the matter of the prohibitive cost for the health care of illegal aliens, a problem that looks like it will be getting worse before it gets better. In Arizona, Medicaid providers pleaded  with a court to be permitted to pay only for emergency care for illegal immigrants. The court denied the request. Meanwhile, as a result of welfare reform (something which I do support), Americans are limited as to the amount of services they can receive over a lifetime.

Illegal border crossings, particularly from the south, are rampant. In fact, a recent report issued by the GAO calls our borders "porous". Despite the fact that crossing the border without sanction does remain a crime, and despite the stories of group arrests that occasionally make the news, the flow of illegal immigrants is undiminished. Part of the problem may be the fact that even those members of the Border Patrol who do try to do their jobs are stymied. Certainly a lack of training for border guards and serious under funding issues play a significant role in the problem as well. But also having a significant effect on the lack of enforcement of immigration laws is an ongoing effort to either mitigate those laws or to circumvent them, and when these factors are added to circumstances that actively encourage illegal immigration, the problem is multiplied many times over.

The cost to American taxpayers, for example, to educate the children of illegal immigrants is in the billions of dollars. But the immigration reform group that worked to determine those numbers and issue a report  accordingly is being criticized for it. It seems that at least some school authorities consider educating such children to offer a good return on a "small investment". Never mind that, in any other endeavor, it's illegal to invest money in an illegal venture. Consider too that it's an unfortunate fact that American students don't always get to pursue a college education because they can't afford it. It seems to me that that would be an even better investment in the country's future if law-abiding parents and their children could take advantage of a "small investment" instead, with the added bonus that any expenditures would be rewarding those families who aren't currently engaged in a criminal venture.

Although some states have tried to recoup education costs from the federal government (on the grounds it should be enforcing immigration law) and even from Mexico, all have been unsuccessful. And a Supreme Court ruling in a case found that, if a free public education is offered to some students, it must be offered to all students, including those children of illegal aliens. Those children tend to be around long enough to take advantage of an education paid for by the American taxpayer, too, because schools won't do anything that might let law enforcement authorities know that the parents are illegal aliens. Yet if you or I are witness to a crime and we choose not to report that crime, there's a very real potential that we will, ourselves, be charged with breaking the law.

Meanwhile, police departments across the country frequently wink at illegal immigration  anyway. The police claim they'd lose "valuable informants" if people were afraid to come forward because of their illegal status. While this is not a lot different than the accepted practice of cutting a deal with an informant in cases where testimony is given in exchange for immunity or a reduced charge or sentence, it's not the same. The latter type of immunity is given after the police know what the informant has to offer. In the former, blanket immunity is offered even before anyone knows what the information entails. At the same time, good and decent American citizens are being stripped of their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights under the USA PATRIOT Act and other similar legislation.

Perhaps the measure that most undermines immigration law is the now widespread acceptance  of the Matricula Consular ID cards across the US. Many police departments, banks, libraries, and other institutions accept these cards as valid forms of ID and so offer services to the people presenting them. The problem, of course, is obvious to anyone who bothers to look at it straight on: the Matricula Consular cards have no bearing on immigration status. They're also cheap, easy to get, and contrary to the claims of Mexican officials, not all that difficult to forge, either. Those in favor of the cards say that immigrants need some form of ID, and that's a valid argument. It's an argument that's easy to counter, however, in that legal immigrants already have several forms of ID readily available including passports and green cards. Anyone who says that the Matricula Consular cards are "necessary" forms of ID is, in essence, saying that criminals should have their crimes facilitated by officialdom. And yet law-abiding Americans - with American-issued IDs - are questioned and searched and sometimes held back merely for trying to get on an airplane.

There is, of course, a great negative economic impact from illegal immigration. But what some don't realize is that there's a significant negative social impact  as well. All of this has resulted in some Americans taking immigration matters into their own hands, including citizens' groups in Arizona and Texas who patrol the border regularly, and now a citizens' "army" of volunteers based in Missouri is threatening to do the same. Local authorities, particularly in Arizona, have been none too happy with the assistance offered by civilians, and some members of the public have also been critical of the effort. At the same time, both the FBI and the General Accounting Office have expressed gave concerns that laxity at the borders means a much greater likelihood that a foreign national bent on terrorism will, with little effort, get across the border and from there be able to wreak havoc.

There's a tremendously mixed message being sent from Washington today, and much of it is knotted up in immigration reform. While on the one hand Americans are more closely monitored than ever before in the name of the War on Terrorism, illegal immigrants are scarcely being watched at all. While US citizens must repeatedly prove their identity and their innocence under some provision of the USA PATRIOT Act, illegal immigrants are wandering around with easily obtained - whether legally or illegally - foreign ID cards that are accepted with a nod and a wave.

While I certainly continue to oppose the USA PATRIOT Act, PATRIOT II, and the VICTORY Act, it's adding insult to injury when authorities pretend this alphabet soup of invasive law is necessary to prevent further terrorist acts on US soil. If the authorities were really serious about preventing more terrorism, they'd take a look at foreign nationals who are slinking into the country by night. They'd consider far more seriously the ease with which a false ID can be obtained, or a legal ID utilizing false information, when that ID comes from foreign governments. And if they had any respect for the rule of law at all, they certainly wouldn't permit criminals to be rewarded for the commission of their crimes as illegal immigrants are rewarded in America.

The USA PATRIOT Act, et al, may have become law by virtue of a Congressional knee-jerk reaction to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. It may have been enacted on the grounds it would help fight future terrorism. It may have even been successfully used to find a potential terrorist or three. But when taking other obvious anti-terrorism steps into account and seeing how those measures aren't being taken at all, it become patently obvious that the PATRIOT Act is intended less to suppress terrorism than it is to subvert the Constitution. Maybe that, in the end, will do something to stem the flow of illegal immigration. After all, they ostensibly come here for freedom. And freedom is rapidly becoming something in short supply.

Lady Liberty