Open Borders…..again?

Seems like only yesterday, Bill Clinton had followed George Herbert Walker Bush as President and all the talk was about “Open Borders”.  In these halcyon days we recall that the Euro was just a concept, reunification of Germany was just in its infancy and West Germans were trying to figure out how to pay to upgrade their East German brothers and sisters into the soon 21st Century.  The Unification of Europe bolded well for another prime competitor to the United States as far a GDP was concerned.  The projection was that a Unified Europe could even eclipse the output of the United States.

These were scary times and Bill Clinton started pushing the Bush 41 NAFTA concept, Free Trade and controlling the costs for paper towels, fraternal pins and badges and plastic cups.  Heck, the USA could even get some good stuff from Canada too, like native made moccasins, wood carvings and sub-contracted General Motors engines and parts.  Sounded good on paper.  We already had Mequiladoros scattered along the Mexican border, with greedy American Manufacturers producing goods without environmental or wage controls, just across the border and trucking them back for little expense.  Of course, they still charged prevailing rates for those goods – whatever the dumb public would pay.  Heck, the Clinton White House was pushing for General Motors and Ford to send their manufacturing to Mexico, to avoid the environmental impact to America and make their pick-up trucks at 40% of what they cost to build in America in Guadalajara.  Little did he know that these same companies were going Global and sending all their ill-gotten profits to foreign banks for tax exempt safe keeping and accounting.

Meanwhile, after President Reagan had offered 2.6 million immigrants Amnesty, they soon brought in their parents, brothers, sisters and neighbors that were fed up with the terrible corruption in Mexico.  We now had much stronger consumer base of 6 million additional participants in the process.  More people needed cars, housing, restaurants and consumer goods.  If the Federal Government paid the states a little more in the way of Social Security and Disability payments, the trade off seemed worth it.  Because it was Reagan, no one questioned his concept of compassion for hard working immigrants and Amnesty – after all:  The President can Pardon anyone!  So, it just so happened to be 2.6 immigrants, Reagan was still the President and had the power to do it.  Jimmy Carter had done the same thing for the Cuban Boat People in the late 70’s.  No one questioned Jimmy Carters compassion for the Cuban, Angolans and Nigerians that came to this country without papers.

It is beyond shocking that people today forget that Presidents have always had the power to pardon folks, in spite of immigration laws, quotas or set asides.  As folks got off the boats from Europe at the turn of the century they had no papers on Ellis Island.  When our country was founded our forebears and other people came here as indentured servants or land owners – without papers from any Indian tribe.  Exceptions aside, our Nation of Laws has been a gigantic joke when it comes to immigration.  Our key ingredient for success in the United States has been Public Safety.  We found that volunteer fire departments saved lives after bad guys burnt out many law abiding indians or minorities and sometimes just political enemies -they became cleansed over a period of time. Some people had to die on the job or retirement or age – but things changed at least.   Then, we founded the great Police Departments of this country, which took payoffs from the rich to police the poor.  It took years and years and is still taking strong over-sight to keep our Public Safety Institutions clean and to keep routing out the bad guys that infiltrate from time to time.  Then came our immigrants that did these tough jobs:  Irish Fire Fighters in Boston, German cops in the mid-west, Italian and Irish cops and fire fighters in New York City.  Many came to our United States by way of parents without papers.

Today, we have the strongest military in the world.  This is the hype we face on a daily basis in our newspapers, our televisions and computerized hand held equipment.  Many of our soldiers are not citizens of this country.  Many barely have a Green Card and then only after they have served our country in war zones and deadly spots around the globe.  Perhaps, the biggest lie we face every day is that the immigrants of this country should be sent home – if they have no papers.  Sounds a lot like Nazi Germany doesn’t it?  “Where are your papers?”  “Do you have relatives in Eastern Germany?” “What Church do you attend?” “What kind of car do you drive?” “How long have you been living in Germany?”

Even the Germans during the 1960’s invited in Italians, Yugoslavians and Greeks to West Germany, during their spiking economy years as “Gast Arbiters” –  Guest Workers for short!  They had to check into their local police departments in the town they lived and had to leave their passports until they either wanted to move to another city or town or wanted to leave the country.  Why the Dept of Homeland Security, INS and the Border Patrol has not done the same explains why the United States is considered “cheap”!  Americans are so concerned that their e-mails are being monitored that they can’t figure out simple, tried and true solutions to so-called tough questions.

The time has come to understand that Open Borders are not coming – Open Borders are already here and we better start to do something about it.  President Obama has made the right decision to get 5.6 million “known immigrants” into the process.  How many years did this take?  The Republicans have sat on their hands since 1998, pretending that after NAFTA everything would be fine.  News Flash – Everything is not fine and you better grab your backsides and start fixing the stupidity that abounds in this country.  We need to get every immigrant into to the system as soon as possible.  We need to send the criminals and morally corrupt back home.  When they come back we need to incarcerate them until their home country takes them back.  We need to document and control our borders by making people sign up for their Social Security and their tax responsibilities.  We need to report anyone that goes to a Hospital that does not have an immigrant status assigned.  Not to incarcerate them – but to get then into the system.

Open Borders…again?  We suppose when we get over 100 million undocumented people in the United States that we can just give up and forget any chance of making our country safe for viable Public Safety.  This is what they call it a Clear and Present Danger to the Security of the United States and the if Tea Party or other people disagree – they are the ones that need to leave our country – hopefully, with their own papers in hand.  When they get to Belize or some other Central American country….don’t complain – you made your choice!  Unless of course you become illegal for some reason.


About Ron & Anna Winship

Independent News Producers/Writers and Directors for Parker-Longbow Productions. Independent Programming which includes a broad variety of Political, Entertainment and Professional Personalities. Cutting Edge - a talk show...is the flagship of over 30 URL websites developed or under development. The Winships have been blogging for the Orange Juice since back when nickels had buffalos on them, and men wore onions attached to their belts, because it was the fashion back then.