By J.D. Longstreet ——Bio and Archives--June 20, 2013
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Senators on Tuesday rejected building the 700 miles of double-tier border fencing Congress authorized just seven years ago, with a majority of the Senate saying they didn’t want to delay granting illegal immigrants legal status while the fence was being built. The 54-39 vote to reject the fence shows the core of the immigration deal is holding. The vote broke mostly along party lines, though five Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio and the rest of the bill’s authors, voted against the fence, and two Democrats voted for it.Consider this from Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma: “This is an amnesty bill that fails to address the serious problems and dire need for reform that is plaguing the U.S. immigration system." Over in the House of Representatives, Speaker John Boehner is reported to have said that immigration reform is his top priority and that he may allow the bill to be brought to the floor without majority support. Already, republican voices are being heard demanding that Speaker Boehner lose his job as Speaker if he allows this to happen. Many in Washington suspect there is a leadership plan to attempt to push the immigration reform bill through both houses BEFORE the Senators and Congresspersons leave DC for summer recess when they are sure to be confronted by their voters at home. I cannot fathom how any government can even consider gracing anyone who is a known lawbreaker with amnesty for his/her crimes and confer citizenship upon that person to boot. In the real word they would be rounded up, locked-up, and in some cases, deported. In other cases, they must stand trial, serve their sentence if found guilty, THEN be deported at the completion of their sentence. There is no deal the American people will accept that does not include securing the border. So far as this scribe is concerned, the ONLY bill I will support is a bill securing the border -- period. I cannot, under any set of circumstances I can conjure up, support amnesty or citizenship for anyone breaking into our country. NONE. There is right and there is wrong. What the political leadership of America is trying to foist on the American people is WRONG and every last Senator or Congressperson supporting the Immigration Reform Bill should be voted out of office when next they stand for reelection. There is no room for compromise here. This is as clear cut a choice as ever there was. It is a choice between right and wrong. It seems to me that it says a lot about a people when the leaders they have elected actually feel they must discuss whether to do something that is right or something that is wrong, something that is good, or something that is bad. It says, frankly, that moral relativism has replaced God-given common sense and the ability to discern good from bad and right from wrong. Ultimately, it says we are a people bent on self destruction and that we will accept no other choice. Look. If we can dig a ditch from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, called the Panama Canal, we can, sure as heck, build a wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Senators: Introduce a bill to that effect and watch the support pile up and your numbers at home sky rocket! Of course, it won't happen. That takes the kind of courage no longer found in the halls of Congress. We can reform immigration, right now, by simply stopping ALL immigration. Pull the plug. Hang a sign around Lady Liberty's copper neck saying: "Closed Temporarily." Then take as much time as is necessary to build the wall along the southern border, and make it far more difficult to immigrate LEGALLY. If it takes a decade or two, or three, fine. Make a real effort to get it right this time. The plain truth is that if we don't do it, we will be revisiting this issue every few years with the same heated passions on both sides as there is today. All the while, we will be suffering the largest land invasion in the history of the North American continent. © J. D. Longstreet
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(Editor’s note: J.D. Longstreet passed away in 2014. He will be greatly missed.)
Longstreet is a conservative Southern American (A native sandlapper and an adopted Tar Heel) with a deep passion for the history, heritage, and culture of the southern states of America. At the same time he is a deeply loyal American believing strongly in “America First”.
He is a thirty-year veteran of the broadcasting business, as an “in the field” and “on-air” news reporter (contributing to radio, TV, and newspapers) and a conservative broadcast commentator.
Longstreet is a veteran of the US Army and US Army Reserve. He is a member of the American Legion and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. A lifelong Christian, Longstreet subscribes to “old Lutheranism” to express and exercise his faith.