Trump's wall and the mission to save America

Donald Trump won the election expounding on his goals for what he wanted to accomplish. Foremost on the list was to build a wall!

No, it wasn't a reflection of his experience as a real-estate developer – it was his goal to cut the number of illegal aliens getting into this country across our southern border by building a wall along that border. The basic idea: prevent illegal crossings

From the reaction by the liberals in government and the media, you would have thought Trump advocated gun towers along the border to deter and stop illegal crossing.

No, he didn't do that, but he wants that border barrier. Trump also wants restrictions on legal immigration – cut the annual number of legal immigrants and have some standards – for example, speak English and have skills that we need, not just warm bodies.

Again, the liberals went crazy, but Trump's proposal isn't unheard of. A number of years ago, I inquired as to the immigration policies of Australia and New Zealand. Guess what. I was told I could visit, but if I wanted to emigrate, I had to have a skill that their country needed. Without that, forget it. I admired their standards.

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California has gone particularly crazy. Gov. Jerry Brown has made the state essentially a sanctuary for illegals.

Many cities and counties have declared themselves sanctuaries, and even BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco, has declared itself a "sanctuary" – meaning there is to be no cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents dealing with illegals who have broken laws and face deportation.

California Labor Commissioner Julie Su has ordered her department not to deal with ICE agents unless they have warrants for information.

With the announcement that the Trump administration wants to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities, there's more uproar. Lawsuits are flying, and congressional rhetoric is never-ending.

The reality is that the current situation amounts to an open-door policy. There are a few places – near San Diego, for example – where there is a wall that works. But the rest of the thousands of border miles, mostly undeveloped desert, make it almost impossible for the Border Patrol to survey the area and apprehend the lawbreakers.

And like it or not, they are lawbreakers.

That the border is a sieve isn't up for debate. For decades, the flood of illegals into our country has been a shameful reflection of the government – state and federal – ignoring a situation that's gotten worse over the years.

Border states have been the hardest hit, but there are enclaves of illegals in every state – people who, we're told, live in the shadows while at the same time working at jobs that – as we're told repeatedly – Americans don't want and won't do.

Actually, the reason these people get the work they do is because they're paid such low rates that citizens can't afford to take the jobs, and the illegals need work and money to survive. They also need the money to send home to their families.

That money is called "remittances." According to a report by the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank, it totaled more than $69 billion in 2016, with some 40 percent going to Mexico. In fact, remittances are the biggest source of income for Mexico. No wonder it wants the border open.

Illegals are important for agriculture. Farmers need people to pick the crops. It's hard, hot and dirty work, Frankly, most Americans aren't interested. They like to buy the produce but don't want to get in the fields to pick it.

I spent several summers in my teens working in the fields, picking strawberries and blueberries. It's stoop labor. I was the only white person in those work crews; the rest were black, and a few were Mexican. It was hot, dirty and hard work. It was OK for me as a teen to earn money, but it wasn't the way I'd want to spend my life. Fortunately, I had a choice.

For most of the illegals in agriculture, there's no choice. They not only need the work, but they usually have no other skills, do not speak English, and cannot read or write even in their own language.

After World War II, we had the "Bracero Program" – farm workers were legally brought across the border to work in agriculture. When the season was over, they returned home.  That was ended in 1964, and nothing replaced it.

Today, we have illegals in the fields, in most construction jobs, and even in tech. We have thousands of illegals in every city and town. They go to schools, use hospitals, benefit from social services and are involved in our criminal justice system.

Sympathy for them has grown. Don't call them "illegal aliens," even though that's exactly what they are as per the legal definition of someone in a country without legal documentation.

Call them "undocumented." Some even call them "undocumented citizens"! There are jurisdictions allowing them to vote in local elections, and a growing number of states issue driver's licenses.

In the two years since passing a law allowing illegal immigrants to receive driver's licenses, California has issued more than 806,000 to illegals. The drivers' written test is given in 32 different languages!

I just renewed my license. The appointment dates are backlogged two months. The location was so crowded, it took four-and-a-half hours to get everything done!

A full 22.4 percent of students in California schools are English language learners – the highest of all the states.

My insurance company says the state is requiring it to provide "interpretation and translation" services for all customers.

Does any of this illustrate that we're losing the idea we are one country united by language and history and our system of laws? If that breaks down, we not only lose our history, we lose our country.

Donald Trump does not want that, and the people who voted for him don't, either.

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