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U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo is one of the few government officials who has stood up and consistently told the truth about our immigration crisis. In the spring of 2006, an estimated two million protesters in cities across America demanded a blanket amnesty for illegals, as well as the granting of all rights enjoyed by legal immigrants. The author believes that Americans are confused about their identity and even ashamed of their status as "privileged" members of American society. We have a generous welfare state, and Democrats see immigrants as potential new party members. Many businesses are happy to have cheap labor, and to offload health care costs on local emergency rooms. This is a recipe for demographic disaster. Our current situation is very different from previous generations. The Mexican homeland is right next door; and new arrivals do not feel the same need to break with the Old Country. In earlier times, the immigrant faced a "sink or swim" environment, but now it's more like being handed a new yacht (with instructions in Spanish). Can we depend on the public schools to make good citizens out of this flood of strangers? Not likely, says Tancredo, when the teachers' unions want to teach them in Spanish that America is a racist country that stole their land and mistreats newcomers. Many immigrants are hardworking, and even though here illegally, mean no harm to Americans. But the border has become so porous that large numbers of Mexican gangs, like the notorious MS-13, are coming in as well. There are credible reports of al-Qaida activity in Mexico, as well as drug smugglers being trained by former Mexican special forces. Tancredo punctuates his argument with a firsthand account of his visit to Beslan in 2004, shortly after the massacre of hundreds of schoolchildren by Islamic fanatics. Confronting this horror, Tancredo asks if we are really doing all we can do at the borders to prevent similar fanatics from entering our country. Watching grandmothers being frisked at airports does not inspire confidence. As a Representative from Colorado, a state with a large illegal immigrant population, Tancredo has seen the effects of mass immigration up close, and he knows it will be no simple matter to turn the clock back. Any solution must include reducing incentives to come to America illegally, seriously policing our borders, getting business on board, and reclaiming the real meaning of citizenship. We need to slow down and take a deep breath. Most importantly, America must pick and choose the immigrants who can help our country the most. This is critical to our survival as a free and prosperous country. (WND Books, 2006, 209 pp, $24.95) |
If you think, as Tancredo does, that such an approach would make a travesty of this country's laws, then you are just a racist, according to the open-borders cheerleaders.
