CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, June 26, 2006

Infiltration/Abdication/Fornication/Reunification

In October, 2006, the U.S. population will top 300 million. Within that 300 million will be about 12 million illegal aliens. Of those, about six million entered the U.S. legally but then failed to leave the U.S. when their temporary legal status expired. The other six million simply entered the U.S. illegally and stayed.

Recent polls show 84-percent of Americans think illegal immigration is a big problem. They want it fixed. But no one knows how to fix the problem except to say that a large majority of Americans want the U.S. to have secure and controlled borders. That’s the relatively easy part because all that requires is the will to do it, more money and more people assigned to border control duties.

The hard part is dealing with 12 million illegal aliens who are not going to leave voluntarily in order to enroll in some kind of guest-worker program and then hope they can get back into the U.S. on a timely basis. Thus, many of them live in the shadows. Some may pay some taxes. Many do not. But almost all place demands on tax-paid services of one sort or another. That breeds resentment among taxpayers. Nor is it good for the illegal aliens.

But it is not as if there isn’t a good place for many of them to be. There’s this country almost three times the size of Texas that’s bordered by huge bodies of water with beautiful beaches, terrific sport and commercial fishing, a climate ranging from tropical to desert, with high mountains, rain forests; silver, copper, gold, lead zinc, natural gas, timber, enormous petroleum reserves, a rich cultural and religious history and, at age 18, universal voting suffrage. Unfortunately, it has always had a corrupt political and economic system that favors a handful of elites over the masses. Almost 50-percent live below the poverty line. (Source: CIA World Factbook).

And so it is that a country that should be the envy of the world and full of hope has produced generations of young people whose best hope is to emigrate to another country where even the most menial jobs pay much higher wages than they can earn at home. We’ll call that: Infiltration.

Except for Bush Administration efforts to beef up the U.S. Border Patrol and to use federal tax dollars for the National Guard, acting as State Militia, to back up the Border Patrol with better technology and logistics, Congress is at an impasse on immigration reform. Let’s call that: Abdication.

Next, we get to: Fornication. The 14th Amendment says to be born within the U.S. grants instant citizenship. There is, however, some “jurisdictional” language in the 14th Amendment that could be construed to mean the illegal alien mother must be legally within the “jurisdiction” of the U.S. for the 14th Amendment to grant instant citizenship to her newborn. The Supremes might rule on that.

Finally, there is Reunification. That’s when the illegal alien mother sends for the father and other relatives. So, there you have it: Infiltration, Abdication, Fornication and Reunification.

But wait, there’s more: We haven’t discussed: Re-conquest or Revolution. We could cede back to Mexico the lands originally explored by the Spanish Conquistadores. But that would only make the lower portions of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California poorer than they are now and Infiltration would continue. Or, we could re-conquer the upper half of Mexico that we won by force of arms or purchased following the Mexican War of 1846-48 and incorporate the northern Mexican States into the U.S. But that would really, really drain our welfare resources.

Then, there’s: Revolution. We could arm millions of illegal aliens and send them home to create a decent government to match up with Mexico’s marvelous natural resources. But then we’d have to stomp Cuba and Venezuela to keep them from making Mexico a communist state.

So, what’s the answer? Tell Congress to knock off the Abdication and do something.

William Hamilton, a syndicated columnist, a featured commentator for USA Today and self-described “recovering lawyer and philosopher,” is the co-author of The Grand Conspiracy and The Panama Conspiracy – two thrillers about terrorism directed against the United States.

©2006. William Hamilton.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com