Congress and Borders

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Why Congress Won’t Guard Our Borders

By Reed Benson

For the love of money is the root of all evil…" (1 Tim. 6:10). Any reasonable person who is willing to look at the facts will be forced to concede the existence of an unusual incongruity. While Congress and the President are squeezing the United States’ financial turnip dry in an attempt to provide security to Iraqi and Afghani borders, what about our own? In the initial aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, our border with Mexico was profiled as a weak point. And indeed it was. Sadly enough, years later, it still is. Initially a handful of National Guard units were deployed along our Mexican frontier, but even that has now been withdrawn, and it is as porous as it has ever been.

Yes, our armed forces are stretching themselves to the limit guarding the frontiers of Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Korea, while our own remains wide open. While Syrians, Pakistanis, or Iranians dare not attempt to sneak into Iraq or Afghanistan for nefarious purposes such as smuggling in contraband that would destabilize the new American-Iraqi government, Mexican drug warlords have few similar constraints. They continue their trek northward into the United States, the routine journey almost a real snoozer so lax and undermanned is our security effort. And perhaps even worse, the vast flood of other illegal Mexican invaders continues unabated. No one even knows how many—estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000 annually. So while the President and Congress deploy our highly trained and expensive crack military units to guard the borders of Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Korea, ours are left wide open.

Meanwhile, Congress continues to seriously consider naturalizing an estimated three million illegal Mexicans. We know they are serious because they did it once before, just before the 1996 election!

This, however, may be unnecessary. You see, the Mexican government of Vincente Fox (he is aptly named) has been issuing a Mexican government ID card, called the matricula consular. This bogus piece of plastic is given to "undocumented" (illegal) Mexicans so they have an identity. Incredibly, American banks, municipal governments, and even police departments (!) are tripping all over themselves to provide services to anyone who holds such a card. The matricula consular is being used to obtain driver’s licenses, state medical insurance, and in-state tuition at state colleges!

Why can’t we stop the Mexican government from passing out these cards before the illegal Mexicans get across the Rio Grande, you may ask? Well, actually, they are not being issued in Mexico at all, but rather by the 65 consular offices the Mexican government operates inside the United States. All an illegal Mexican need do, is visit the nearest of the 65 Mexican consulates, introduce himself, and in a matter of minutes he will be issued his own personal matricula consular!

Why doesn’t Congress do something about this? "For the love of money is the root of all evil…" (1 Tim. 6:10). It is not complicated. Many of the largest American corporations want cheap labor. They know the most inexpensive labor supply is illegal, or quasi-illegal Mexican immigrants. They encourage, even recruit, such labor routinely. Profits are maximized in this manner. Anyone who upsets this arrangement will not receive the favor of the many corporations who utilize this strategy. Congressmen and Senators need the financial contributions these corporations offer in order to fund their re-election campaigns. Such contributions are often the difference between winning and losing an election. So, Congress does nothing, the many corporations that "invest" their money in various congressional campaigns continue to maximize their profits, and the Mexican illegal aliens continue to flood this country. Everyone benefits. Everyone, that is, except for blue collar working citizens of the United States who are forced to reduce their standard of living as they compete with illegal Mexicans in a competitive job market.

Thus far, few Senators or Congressmen have had the courage to openly deal with the issues regarding our porous Mexican border and the national catastrophe it forebodes. Those that do are persecuted and denounced as "racist," and so forth.

If we do not do something soon, it is not the invasion of an enemy across the borders of Iraq, Afghanistan, or South Korea that will be our undoing, but the ongoing invasion of the lowly Mexican peon as he trudges northward. La Reconquista, so it seems, is underway. Like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage, we will have sold ours for a peso.