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| JOHNSON |
Border
Infiltration Down 21% In 10 Days
by Mac Johnson [writer,
physician] 6/20/06 |
How many illegal aliens does it take to change a light bulb? AY CHIHUAHUA!
The National Guard is coming, change it yourself!!!
That pretty
much summarizes what was undoubtedly the most important news
story of the last week, a report that was all but buried by
the mainstream media. While the press continues to pretend
that the real central story in the ongoing illegal immigration
debate remains in Congress, where the liberal Senate amnesty
bill just had its feeding tube removed by House Speaker Dennis
Hastert (R.-Ill.), a miracle has taken place in the deserts
of the Southwest.
Contributor
Mac
Johnson
Mac
Johnson is a freelance writer and biologist in Cambridge,
Mass. Mr. Johnson holds a Doctorate in Molecular and
Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He
is a frequent opinion contributor to Human
Events Online. His website can be found at macjohnson.com [go
to Johnson index]
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Total detentions of
aliens attempting to sneak across the Mexican border have plummeted
an unimaginable 21% in the first 10 days
of June compared to the same period last year. This drop occurs
at a time when enforcement efforts are at a recent high, due
to political concerns, and reflects a precipitous drop in total
attempted border crossings. According to an Associated
Press report, Jorge Vazquez, a director of “Grupo Beta,” an
agency funded by the Mexican government and that works to aid
and abet Mexicans seeking to enter the United States illegally,
his agents have seen a similar drop in traffic on his side of
the border.
The shocking drop-off
in human smuggling is attributed to one factor: the arrival
of the National Guard on the border. That’s
quite an accomplishment for just 55 guardsmen, who did not even
arrive until June 3 and are working entirely in support roles
with the Border Patrol. What has really stemmed the tide is just
the idea that troops are coming to the border—a fact that
has found widespread exaggeration in the Mexican media.
The small National Guard deployment that started as a political
stunt by President Bush and the other proponents of amnesty has
ended up disproving one of the most cherished myths of the open
borders propaganda machine: that nothing can stop the human tide
that has been allowed to flood across our borders. It seems that
just the rumor that we might be getting serious about enforcement
can stop thousands of aspiring illegal aliens in their literal
tracks.
The AP report quoted
the operator of one “shelter” for
infiltrators waiting to cross the border as saying, “Some
migrants have told me they heard about the troops on television
and, because the U.S. Army doesn't have a very good reputation,
they prefer not to cross.”
Actually, it sounds to me like the U.S. military has an ideal
reputation. It must be the Border Patrol that has a poor reputation
within the Mexican smuggling community.
The snipe at the military’s reputation was in reference
to “reports of abuse in Iraq.” If this explanation
is true, then it should forever end any claim that the war in
Iraq has not made America any safer. I mean, really, we should
get Lyddie England a Sombrero and new digital camera immediately.
One pixelly snapshot of her pointing menacingly at some muchacho’s
machismo and we may not even need to build a border fence.
But of course a better
explanation might be that the fear of the military among so-called “migrants” has more
to do with their own experiences with the Mexican military. The
Mexican army is hypocritically stationed on the southern border
of Mexico to intercept illegal aliens trying to sneak into Mexico
from Central America and is reported to routinely beat, rob,
bully and rape the Guatemalans and Hondurans that are just trying
to do the jobs that no Mexican will do. But whatever the true
source of the fear, its stark result shows just how effective
it can be to declare that the “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” games
are over.
Compare the chilling
effect that the talk of enforcement has had on border infiltration
to the opposite effect that all the
previous talk of amnesty had, when border apprehensions and crossings
spiked. Francisco Loureiro, apparently the same shelter operator
that the AP quotes last week as saying that his shelter was nearly
empty due to the fearsome reputation of the U.S. military, was
credited in a separate
article during the Senate’s slide
toward a guest-worker amnesty last April as saying that "he
has not seen such a rush of migrants since 1986, when the United
States allowed 2.6 million illegal residents to get American
citizenship."
The drastic change
in traffic through Loureiro’s hidey-hole
hotel is powerful proof that amnesty cannot be part of the solution
to illegal immigration. Amnesty simply encourages illegal immigration.
Enforcement, pure and simple, is the only effective solution
to illegal immigration. When the law is taken seriously, it is
obeyed. When it is declared optional, it is not.
The government and
the media can bury it, or ignore it, or distort it, but the
incredible change on the border this month demonstrates
beyond any reasonable doubt that the illegal alien invasion has
been an invited one, caused by government sending all the wrong
signals about America’s commitment to border enforcement.
The only way to undo such damage is to send a new message, loudly
and clearly: anonymous border infiltration is illegal and will
result in summary deportation, or worse. Those who wish to immigrate
will apply, be screened and wait for our permission to enter
our country.
The problem is already 21% solved. Failure to follow through
now would be a waste of a huge opportunity to speak through actions. CRO
First appeared at Human Events Online
copyright
2006 Mac Johnson
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