Defend Against Invasion?

Unidentified Mexican Army unit on U.S. soil.

Article I, Section 8: The Congress shall have Power To ...To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

And in case we have forgotten...

Amendment XIII, Section 1.Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Now that the Republicans have gotten themselves thrown out of office by a highly ticked off electorate, let's see if the Democrats will do what the Republicans have failed to do, in this case, defend the United States against invasion.

Somehow, I doubt it.

Whether we like it or not, the United States has been under an invasion of illegals from Mexico for some time. The Republicans have favored it, being a source of cheap labor. The Democrats...long since having abandoned its stand for "the working man"... have failed to do anything about it, seeing illegals granted amnesty as a means of regaining popular political power.

Most naturally, "border states, " and states with more liberal leanings have been the hardest hit. The toll of the invasion has made its hand felt in crimes too numerous to mention. In Los Angeles, local illegal "sanctuary" laws...like those passed in many other cities and counties...have prevented local law enforcement officials from doing anything about the problem. Some results:

• In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.
• A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in southern California is illegal; police officers say the proportion is actually much greater. The bloody gang collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons, on complex drug-distribution schemes, extortion, and drive-by assassinations, and commits an assault or robbery every day in L.A. County. The gang has grown dramatically over the last two decades by recruiting recently arrived youngsters, most of them illegal, from Central America and Mexico.
• The leadership of the Columbia Lil’ Cycos gang, which uses murder and racketeering to control the drug market around L.A.’s MacArthur Park, was about 60 percent illegal in 2002, says former assistant U.S. attorney Luis Li. Francisco Martinez, a Mexican Mafia member and an illegal alien, controlled the gang from prison, while serving time for felonious reentry following deportation. (Article: http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html).

This problem has found its way to seemingly "immune" places. North Carolina, a state largely considered to be socially conservative, has been a welcome sanctuary for illegals. The southern building boom from the migration of Americans from the nothern states and agriculture has welcomed the arrival of cheap illegal labor. This has played havoc with North Carolina employment, a state hit heavily from the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), whose many textile mills and manufacturing jobs have left the country and left whole communities unemployed.

Why such a welcoming stance towards illegals? Its simple: Just call it Neo-Slavery.

Many people see this as an exploitable pool of cheap labor, without the costs associated with hiring an American citizen: Social Security taxes, income taxes, local taxes, local employment law regualtions, etc. In short, they're "doing the jobs Americans won't do" at third world wages that American's can't afford to work for. After all, if you cheat a citizen, he has a host of resources for seeking redress. Who is the illegal going to go to for help? That is, outside of a gang?

206,000 illegal aliens resided in North Carolina as of 2000, according to INS figures. This is 836 percent higher than the previous INS estimate in 1996 and 1,112 percent higher than the estimate for 1992, giving North Carolina the ninth largest illegal immigrant population in the country.(1) This influx of extremely cheap labor also has the effect of wage depression. This has an immediate, and far reaching impact on citizens. One-third of Greensboro/Winston-Salem area residents cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment, and 41 percent cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment, according to the Brookings Institution.(2) The average hourly wage needed to afford a one-bedroom apartment is $8.87 in Greensboro, $9.40 in Charlotte, and $ 10.58 in Raleigh—versus the median wage for janitors of $7.30 in Greensboro, $7.47 in Charlotte, and $7.46 in Raleigh. Sales clerks earn a median wage in the same three cities of $7.78, $8.10, and $7.99, respectively. (3) North Carolina authorities requested $9.7 million in compensation from the federal government in FY’99 for the incarceration of illegal aliens in state and local jails and prisons, but it received only $3.7 million in compensation, leaving $6 million in uncompensated costs to be borne by North Carolina taxpayers. That is, the State of North Carolina is paying to defend the borders on North Carolina soil, because the Federal government is either too unwilling, unable, or corrupt to do it!

The problem doesn't stay neatly tucked within state borders, but it spills over.

South Carolina, a state steadfastly opposed to illegal immigration, has seen the same issues: loss of textile and other manufacturing jobs to NAFTA, and a growth in the construction and service industry, and argribusiness that attracts very low wage workers. Many of the illegals have made their way there via North Carolina. The South Carolinians, to their credit, aren't taking it lightly.

State Attorney General Charlie Condon is working to find ways for South Carolina to make arrests under federal immigration law. Current state law makes it unclear whether the state has that authority. Under Condon's plan, officers would be able to make arrests based on federal immigration laws and house prisoners in local jails at federal expense until they can be shipped to a federal facility. In the past, local law enforcement officers have contacted Condon's office in the past, complaining that INS has told them not to bother holding small numbers of illegal immigrants for the agency.(4, Source: www.fair.org)

Then again, South Carolina hasn't let the Feds tell them, "No," before!

Paul Groeschel, co-director of the Hispanic Office of Legal Assistance on Hilton Head Island, estimates that anywhere from half to three-fourths of the 4,000 to 5,000 Hispanics on Hilton Head are illegal (5, Source: www.fairus.org). Hospitals throughout the state say they have been left with at least $4 million in unpaid bills after delivering babies for illegal immigrants who disappear before filing Medicaid paperwork. Hospitals in Spartanburg, Greenville, Charleston, and Horry counties are the most affected. Under federal law, hospitals cannot refuse service to anyone, regardless of their citizenship status (6, Source:www.fairus.org).

The so-called conservative Republicans have done nothing but token measures for the most patronizing of apperances on this issue. They are beholden to corporate donors who have no loyalty to their country, and only to the shareholders. In fact, adding insult to injury, they call for a "guest worker program." Amnesty with a smiley-face button. Hey, George! Just remember the line, "A rose by any other name smells just as sweet." Most of us aren't Skull and Bones frat boys, but most of us are literate!

The Democrats are just as bad, and they are exploiting the situation in order to change electorate demographics, creating a new "victim class" of block votes that will supposedly help sustain a party that has ever-shrinking relevancy to the American voter.

It is about time that the American citizens wake up and prevent their nation from becoming a third world country!

Endnotes

1. “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: 1990-2000,” Office of Policy Planning, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, January 2003.

2. Lani Harac, “Greensboro’s Population Up, Jobless Rate Down,” News & Record, August 15, 2000.

3. Jennifer Loven, “Affordable Housing Crunch Persists for Poorest,” Associated Press, December 23, 2001.

4. “Condon Calls for State, Local Authority to Arrest Illegal Immigrants,” The Herald, October 3,2001.

5. Rob Dewig, “Legal Assistance Helps Hispanics Understand Laws,” Carolina Morning News, December 30, 1999.

6. “Hospitals Say Illegal Immigrants Often Leave With Unpaid Bills,” Associated Press, August 12,2001.