The Constitutional right to be an illegal alien

To hear the Latino lobby tell it, Arizona’s tough new state law passed to halt illegal immigration into that state, is just short of establishing concentration camps for Mexicans. Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderon claims the law “opens the door to unacceptable discrimination” and many liberal pundits in the US claim the law is unconstitutional because it impinges on the federal responsibility of protecting the US border. Others claim it opens the door to racial profiling, as surely no white American who was stopped by police in Arizona would be asked to provide valid proof of legal residency.

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Be that as it may, America is facing a crisis today and the ruling elite does not have the moral compunction to do the right thing to stem that crisis. America is literally being invaded from its southern borders by tens of millions of people seeking to enter the country by any means. The result at the local level is chaos and pandemonium with rampant crime thrown in for good measure. There’s a reason why Phoenix, Arizona, has the highest number of kidnapping in the US. Today there are between 10 million and 20 million (depending on who’s counting) illegal immigrants in the US and the numbers are climbing. It is the constitutional responsibility of the federal government to regulate America’s borders and to deal with immigration policies. The fact that generations of federal politicians from both sides of the aisle have refused to deal with this issue has left the state of Arizona and possibly all US states bordering Mexico no other choice but to deal with this issue on their own. A lot of noise is being made about fixing the problem in the guise of “comprehensive immigration reform”, which is the current liberal buzzword for amnesty. But amnesty is one of those concepts that seem to look good on paper but leaves one hell of a mess when implemented. The last time “comprehensive immigration reform” took place in the US was under Republican President Ronald Reagan whose Immigration Control and Reform Act of 1986 granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegal immigrants, the bulk of whom were from Mexico and points south. Since legalizing nearly 3 million undocumented residents one would think that this might have solved the problem. Wrong! The problem has increased in size, scope and complexity on the order of four to six times. The reason for this increase is not hard to discern, given that successive administrations, both Democrat and Republican have behaved as if the US/Mexican border does not exist. This has caused those wishing to enter the US without the formality of a legal visa to act the same. Even Mexico’s president considers Americans protecting their own border a personal affront. There are those in the US who are in favor of an open border policy, which would grant anyone that enters the country for any reason from any border immediate amnesty and acceptance. That’s the functional equivalent of giving high school students who can’t read, write or do math a diploma just because they’re over 18. A country, in order to be sovereign, must have control of its own borders and must exercise that control on an ongoing basis in order to maintain their sovereignty. Anything less will quickly result in that country’s invasion, as the Romans found out in the 5th Century AD. The U.S. is at a crossroads. The federal government’s abrogation of its responsibility has resulted in a virtual invasion from south of the border. If the US does not begin to seriously enforce its immigration laws and secure its borders, then the states whose citizens deal with the resulting chaos must act to protect themselves from this invasion. The state of Arizona has acted. The ball is now in the federal government’s court. But the real question is: Do Congress and the president have the moral courage to do the right thing?