Even Merkel admits wide-open immigration was a mistake

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump’s first few weeks in office have been exhilarating. There is a renewed interest concerning the importance of border security. While all would agree that some level of border protection is required, there are vast disagreements about what that suggests.

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The Trump administration has made it clear, strong border security is indispensable to the well being of any sovereign nation-state. A country that cannot control its borders cannot maintain order and security for its citizens. Borders ascertain a system that directs the flow of goods and services as well as people into a country. The controls are designed to maintain the strength and safekeeping of a roughly homogenous group of people who have agreed to live together under a set of rules in a specific region. Ultimately they realize that a lack of border integrity makes them vulnerable. The consequences of little to no border security are evident all over the globe. Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Afghanistan are all examples of countries with inadequate border protection. Both terrorists and refugees have flooded across those borders. Guns and munitions have done the same exact thing. And as a result, those countries are considered failed nation-states. Failed nation-states are characterized as countries where the central government no longer has the capacity or capability to maintain economic and physical order to significant parts of its geography.

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Even countries in Western Europe have witnessed a drastic decrease in economic stability and physical security with eroding border security. The vast influx of refugees from Northern Africa and the Middle East into countries like Germany, Belgium and France has resulted in deadly terrorist attacks and deterioration in cultural homogeneity. Germany’s Prime Minister Angela Merkel now openly admits that radical Islamic terrorists pose a severe risk to her homeland. Some approximate that an upwards of 400 individual threats have infiltrated Germany because of the lack of border control. It is fundamental that the United States not make the same mistakes that other countries have and continue to make. We must strengthen and uphold our own border security. The southern border has been ignored for years. While many have crossed our borders for economic opportunity, the lack of an effective and locked border now forces the U.S. to deal with 11 million undocumented individuals living in this country. The predicament grows when DREAMERs, or individuals who were brought to the United States illegally as young children, are inserted into the equation. Many identify the U.S. as their only home. How should the U.S. deal with the DREAMERs? How should the U.S. deal with young children who by birthright have full rights, but whose parents do not?

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These are complicated and emotional issues. Accordingly, the flood of traffic across our borders into America includes not only those looking for a better future, but drug and criminal cartels as well as terrorists. The threats today are momentous and it is time to restore border integrity in the United States. Our immigration system is broken. We mustn’t close our eyes and ignore the predicament. It will only continue to grow. If the federal government had properly reformed and implemented the immigration legislation of the 1980’s the United States today would see a safer America and protected borders. The problems that continue to confront and divide this great nation would not exist to this degree if our legislators took the necessary precautions to properly defend our borders. Consequently, two major issues confront America today. We must agree that a strong and workable border system should be developed and implemented. The second concern is seemingly more difficult to tackle: how does America deal with the tragic outcome of 30 years of failed border policy? Both of these issues have got to be resolved. But we ought to understand that these are two separate dilemmas and should be considered as such. Border security in and of itself is about providing protection and stability to our great nation. Dealing with the dire consequences of failed border policies is another issue to be measured. The United States should come together in its efforts to halt the repetition of history. The risks 30 years later are detrimental to the sovereignty of the United States of America. A former Chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, Pete Hoekstra is a senior fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism and a graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Business. Readers may write him at IPT, 5614 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 34, Washington, D.C. 20015

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