President Obama has requested $3.7 billion dollars to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants crossing our borders, many of them minors. It is no secret that this administration has, in fact, put out the welcome mat by refusing to enforce many of our immigration laws and ignoring others.
The president has all the authority he needs to send these people home immediately. The William Wilberforce Act, which Obama has used as an excuse to allow this crisis to continue, has a provision that allows him to limit its application in "exceptional circumstances." If this isn't an exceptional circumstance, I would hate to see one.
Unfortunately, when the going gets tough, Obama can't make a decision. This was predictable. That is why he voted "present" 129 times as a state legislator.
Furthermore, the law he is hiding behind was intended to protect unaccompanied alien children who are victims of sex trafficking. However, it appears that the overwhelming majority of these young people have families who have paid thousands of dollars to have them smuggled into the United States. Some of these families are already in the U.S. illegally. Others are hoping to use their children as anchors once they receive permanent status.
According to Border Patrol agents who have risked their jobs to serve as whistleblowers, most of these young people are, in fact, older teenagers. No doubt many are young adults. Without a birth certificate or the proper paperwork it is impossible to know for sure.
As I pointed out in a previous column, if Obama really wants another law to fix this problem (or this one repealed) he could have it on his desk in a few hours.
Instead, he is asking for $3.7 billion to drag out the process, but the end result will be that the vast majority of these recent arrivals will be permitted to stay. This is unacceptable!
Meanwhile, the House and Senate are getting ready to offer their own bills, which will provide a billion or so less.
We don't have an extra 2 to 3 billion to throw at this crisis. The U.S. is working with borrowed money, most of it from Communist China, which will have to be repaid by our own children and grandchildren.
Have we lost sight of what a billion dollars really is? One billion is a thousand million.
If you put in a 40-hour workweek, you'd have to work for 114,155 years to work a billion hours.
If you earned $45,000 a year, you would have to work for 22,000 years to earn a billion dollars.
If you had a great year at work and made $100,000, you'd have to bring in the same income for 10,000 years to earn a billion dollars.
But that $3.7 billion is just a down payment. The Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR) did a study on the cost of illegal immigration. In 2010 it was estimated at $113 billion a year.
Another shocking statistic from FAIR shows that since 2000, all of the net gain in jobs has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal) even though native-born Americans accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the total working-age population.
Don't misunderstand. I am not against legal immigration. Legal immigrants play by the rules. They work hard to get here. By the time they pass our citizenship test they know more about our laws and history than most native-born citizens. They deserve a shot at the American dream, but that dream is out of reach for many because of those who are being rewarded for breaking into the country.
This is getting worse with each passing day because of a Congress and a president that will not take the necessary action to immediately deport the trespassers and secure the border.
America has been a land of opportunity, and its citizens have been richly blessed. In turn, they have been able to bless others. International assistance by individuals, corporations and our government totals some $50 billion a year.
We're all familiar with the story of the man who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. America's goose is sick. In case you haven't noticed, it is no longer laying golden eggs. If we don't start enforcing our laws and stop spending more than we take in, our goose is cooked.
I've got a message for all those do-gooders (with their own agendas) who want to admit everyone. If we don't change our ways, it won't be long before we are unable to help anyone.
Media wishing to interview Jane Chastain, please contact [email protected].
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