The Spotlight On Immigration: U.S. Borders Must Be Protected

• Unlimited immigration -- particularly illegal immigration -- can destroy a country as surely as an armed invasion. Populism has the answer, if Congress will listen.

America's social service infrastructure is collapsing under the weight of immigration. Hospitals in states such as California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas report more births by alien mothers (both legal and illegal) than by citizens.

Children of illegals have swamped the public school systems of border states and you're paying for special instruction in their native language. Meanwhile, immigrants indefinitely pick up tax-funded goodies originally designed to help Americans who were temporarily displaced and/or unemployed until they got back on their feet.

Knowing this -- and it isn't a secret -- why hasn't Congress acted to stem the alien flow and preserve America for Americans? Let's listen to ex-Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) who chaired the Judiciary Committee before his retirement. He said his colleagues "don't want an illegal immigration bill" and accused them of "straining the fabric of the country" through inaction. And he's not the first member of Congress to recognize the problem. More than 60 years ago, Congressman Martin Dies saw the same problems as seen by Simpson.

Writing in the National Republic (March 1934), Dies said: "During the tragic days when industrial greed and legislative stupidity encouraged millions of impoverished aliens to invade our shores in hungry quest of jobs and fortunes, many patriotic people in America exerted their influence to the utmost in an attempt to obtain a reversal of this short-sighted policy and avert the social and economic evils which unrestricted immigration has never failed to procure in the experiences of nations and peoples.

If the nation had awakened at that time to the perils of its immigration policy and promptly excused the 20 millions or more aliens that have since joined the competitive ranks or labor, agriculture and business, it is reasonable to believe that the unemployment problems would never have assumed such serious and unprecedented proportions in this country." Does that sound familiar? It could have been written today. Dies was writing as this country was slipping into what would become known as the Great Depression. He saw the problem and the lack of action on the part of Congress.

FAILED POLICY

Editorialized the San Diego Union Tribune on February 11 of this year: "The government's new estimate of illegal immigrants in America is a disappointment, and a tribute to a failed national immigration policy. "The 5 million illegals, 2 million in California -- the Immigration and Naturalization Service's latest estimate -- are nearly as many as a decade ago, while Congress passed a law designed to stop illegal immigration." The Union Tribune goes on: "By failing to give the government the powers it needs to prevent illegal immigrants from working in America [in the Immigration Reform and Control act of 1986], Congress guarantees that illegal immigration will continue."

The 5 million illegals represent a 28 percent increase despite what has been described as "explosive growth in the immigration service enforcement budget and intensified border control initiatives during the same period." The last official INS estimate of illegals living in California was 1.4 million -- and that was four years ago. Other states with large illegal populations include Texas with 700,000; New York, 540,000; Florida, 350, 000; Illinois, 290,000; New Jersey, 135,000 and Arizona, 115,000. Those are conservative estimates. It is known that illegal immigrants make up 1.9 percent of the U.S. population and 6.3 percent of the California population.

MEXICAN PROBLEM

The 2.7 million Mexicans living illegally in the United States accounted for 54.1 percent of the nation's illegal population, according to INS figures. California Gov. Pete Wilson (R) estimated that illegals will cost taxpayers $3.2 billion a year for health care, education and prison expenses. Dies pinpointed the problem back in 1934 -- the greed of industry leaders for cheap labor. Said the Union Tribune: "In California, the farm and textile industries, the largest users of illegal labor, are not likely to participate in voluntary programs [to identify and eject illegals] ..." The editorialist could have been quoting from Dies, who said: "Industrial greed which subordinated the ultimate good of the country for the immediate and temporary profits that cheap pauper labor seemed to promise ... dictated this unwise and destructive policy." Dies then identifies the philosophy that brought on the problem -- internationalism as opposed to nationalism. It is the same theme articulated by Jean-Marie Le Pen in France; a theme which strikes a cord in the hearts of nationalists and populists everywhere.

Said Dies: "Permit me at this time to make myself clear. I am disgusted with all this unintelligible jargon about internationalism. Others may boast about their cosmopolitan views and their freedom from the limitations of a nationalistic conception of society. Others may boast that their allegiance, devotion and interest are not confined by national boundaries and that the world is their country. But as for me, I am proud to acknowledge with deep gratitude that this is my country, my own, my native land, and that I am first, and at all the time an American ... I do know, and this much I do declare, that what our unhappy country needs today is more so-called selfish patriotism and less internationalism, more devotion to the needs and problems of our own people and less sentimental and unappreciated concern for the affairs of other countries."

Dies and Simpson were right. Last week, Vince Ryan told you that The SPOTLIGHT and Liberty Lobby provide the answers. The answer to many of America's problems lie in proper immigration reform. That action must come from Congress.