*il•le•gal adj: not according to or authorized by law. See also : unlawful, illicit
*un•law•ful adj: 1 : not lawful 2 : not morally right or conventional
*il•lic•it adj: not permittedGood, I needed that sanity check to make sure I understood the definition of “illegal”. Unfortunately, there are people out there who do not understand this word’s meaning.

What would these people say if I were to walk into their house, uninvited and started reading their books, using their medical supplies, eating their food, etc. Chances are they wouldn’t be too happy with this illegal activity. This is exactly what they are trying to justify though. There is no justification for illegal activity, no matter how minor the offense. Immigration activists claim that illegal immigrants have a “right” to cross the border illegally. Not only that, they claim that it is their “right” to demand free education, free healthcare and employment.

Yet when asked about what country they pledge their allegiance to, or what flag they fly, you’ll never hear them say the “United States of America” or the “Red, White and Blue”. Instead you’ll probably hear them say “Viva Mexico”. It’s funny though how they want to be here so much, but won’t give the common courtesy of obeying our laws and pledging allegiance to the U.S.

So why are we allowing illegal immigrants to enter in large numbers and remain in the U.S.? Charges of racism and the feared economic impacts are why politicians are hesitant to tread these waters. It is not racist, however to say that we don’t want criminals entering our country, especially if their first action in our country is illegal because there is no race involved.

In the May 1, 2006 edition of “The New American” there is a picture with a protestor of immigration reform holding a sign that reads “ALL EUROPEANS ARE ILLEGAL ON THIS CONTINENT SINCE 1492.” I guess that person is too racist to realize that there never was and never will be a law saying that Europeans can’t migrate to the United States. The Indians certainly didn’t have a law in 1492 prohibiting European immigration, because they didn’t even know Europe existed until Columbus landed. After Europeans began settling the East Coast I’m confident that they never passed a law prohibiting European immigration. These arguments in favor of illegal immigration are absurd, plagued with false information and lies, doing nothing but damaging our national sovereignty.

I’ll leave you with some quotes on the subject:
“No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“For an American citizen to vote as a German-American, an Irish-American, or an English-American, is to be a traitor to American institutions; and those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American Republic.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“The ongoing migration of persons to the United States in violation of our laws is a serious national problem detrimental to the interests of the United States.” – Ronald Reagan
“But the simple truth is that we’ve lost control of our own borders, and no nation can do that and survive.” – Ronald Reagan

* – definitions from http://www.m-w.com/

• Politics of Torture The eighth amendment to the US Constitution reads as follows: "Excessive...
• A Different America Imagine this: What if one day someone was to exercise...

• Review: Never Say Diet: Make Five Decisions and Break the Fat Habit for Good When it comes to weight loss, there are a number...
• A Special Day No finance post today. Just wanted to let my readers...

Imagine this:You’re a Mexican, living in a border town that is struggling to make ends meet, and are in search of a better life. You know it will be difficult to find a better job in Mexico with the skills you have, so you decide to go to the U.S. in search of better employment. Knowing that border crossing is dangerous (and illegal) you decide to seek information on entering the U.S. legally, with hopes of obtaining a visa. You put together a list of things to bring and things not to bring. You ask neighbors who know people who have made the journey what they brought with them, and how much it would cost to obtain a visa. It all seems too costly, but you know in the end it will all payoff.

Then, just as you thought you had thought of everything, you pick up a copy of El Libro Vaquero, a popular cowboy comic book in Mexico and out drops this free insert. It is a 32 page comic book published by Mexico’s foreign ministry titled The Guide for the Mexican Migrant. You think to yourself “hey that’s me!” With great enthusiasm, you open it up to see what advice awaits you.

After reading the first several pages, you realize that this comic book is not talking about the process of legally entering the U.S., rather it is teaching fellow Mexicans how to illegally cross the border, despite the warning on the cover which states that the Mexican government does not condone illegal immigration into the U.S. Feeling let down, you abandon all hope of legally entering the U.S., and continue reading the book. You find great advice such as: what to pack, what to wear when crossing rivers, so as to not feel weighed down, how to cross the desert and what to do if lost, how to deal with the border patrol if caught, and how to hide yourself in the U.S. Nowhere in the book does it mention how to immigrate to the U.S. legally. After all it is already 32 pages, and I suppose they have to “cut the fat” somewhere, right?

Now stop imagining that you are that Mexican. Now you are you, an American citizen. You know the troubles we have had in the past with porous borders, not only from a illegal immigration but also from terrorism. You think to yourself, “hey, this has to be stopped!” Why are we spending millions of dollars on tsunami relief, while we should be focusing on stepping up our border patrols? You should be outraged, I know I am.

As far as I can tell, the President has yet to make a statement on this issue, but I don’t hear any whiny liberals complaining that he hasn’t acted quickly enough on this issue. Unfortunately the way liberals see it, is when we are going to be helping out another country, we need to jump to action as quickly as possible. But when it’s our own borders being threatened it isn’t all that big of a deal. It’s a back burner issue, that the President can get around to if he wants, but its all the better if he doesn’t.

If this were my presidency, there would be an increased border patrol presence, backed up by the military. I would have the illegal immigration rate drop to almost zero, and a very clear message would be sent to Mexico. It would be very similar to Bush’s post-9/11 “You’re either with us or against us” speech. It would be accompanied by a small can of gasoline to help start the fire that would burn all of those comic books. I would make it absolutely clear that our borders are not open for anyone to waltz right in. We are the greatest nation in the world, which is why people are willing to go to such extremes to get into our country, and I can’t blame them. If you want a piece of this great nation though, you’re going to do it under our rules and our terms.

• Think Before You Act Ordinarially, I wouldn't post an article sent to me via...
• Post Election Whining It's been a week since the election, and we're already...

• Guide to Wallpaper Borders This is a quick, no nonsense kind of guide dedicated...
• Roy Rogers Toys Memorabilia -> United States -> 1940-49 Roy Rogers toys weren't...

Only in America, can the government simultaneously claim to tighten our borders to keep potential terrorists out, while granting blatant violators of federal law temporary visas, just because they found a job. Amazingly, millions of illegal immigrants to this country are going to be given a 3 year, temporary, renewable work visa despite the fact that there is no conceivable reason that we should even entertain any thought other than deportation.To the best of my knowledge, the President is proposing that the temporary visa only applies to the illegal immigrant who has found a job, not his family. Also, the illegal immigrant under the new system has the right to collect social security, but only when they have returned to their home country. What this is supposed to do, is give the illegal immigrant an “incentive” to return home.

Out of the millions of illegal immigrants that are in this country, even if they are working, how many of them have families that they left behind? My guess is that there are not a relatively high number, but just for arguments sake let’s say that 75% left families behind. That would leave 25% with either no family left behind, or with families that traveled with them to America. With a total illegal immigrant population that can claim a temporary status in America of about 8 million, 25% would equal 2 million people. (Bear with me, I do have a point here). Of these 2 million people, who either have no family or have family that came with them to America illegally, how many will end up having children within the next 3 years that they are living here? For arguments sake again, let’s say that it’s 25% of the 2 million, or 500,000. Since the child will be born in the U.S. the child is as much of a U.S. citizen as anyone else born here (see Fourteenth Amendment). Because of that, the child will be able to make its parents citizens as well. Assuming that the child has 2 living parents, this will effectively make 500,000 children + 500,000 fathers + 500,000 mothers = 1.5 million people, who came here illegally, instant citizens. What a precedent to set for these new citizens. Basically what we’re telling them is “go ahead, illegally sneak into our country, take our jobs, and reap the benefits of living in a free country. No problem! By the way, since we see just how much you are enjoying yourself here, we’re going to allow you to stick around a little while longer, just as long as you keep our your job.”

And then, we feel that it’s necessary to give these people an incentive to return home! As if obeying a country’s laws wasn’t enough incentive for them to stay home, we have to allow them to keep their social security money when they go back home. How about this for an incentive, about 20 heavily armed INS agents searching for the illegal immigrants to have them deported.

To make matters even worse than they already are, there are some left wing lunatics who are saying that this plan isn’t good enough because it doesn’t give these illegal immigrants enough rights. But what they don’t understand is that people who enter the country illegally don’t have the same rights as anyone else who is here legally (not to mention the fact that in many other countries, these people would have been shot on the spot if caught sneaking into the country). If they want the same protection, then they can go through the same application process that anyone else who immigrated to the U.S. went through.

Only in America can we give criminals temporary work visas and still have people crying for more.

• Is it Harder to Kill Terrorists or Get a Job? Note: The following article was originally posted by Todd Manzi...
• Dictators' Empty Promises "Let them hate us so long as they fear us."...

• Financial Freedom First? A funny thing happened when I wrote about my new...
• Money May Satisfy But Does Not Bring Happiness I am intrigued by the relationship between money and behavior....