Act of Love

Former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, has created a bit of a huff and puff with his comments about those immigrants who come to this country illegally because they want to do well by their families. As per Bush, their breaking of the immigration laws of the United States is actually done as an “act of love,” an obviously unwise generalization … see: Breitbart Commentary.

Of course, in many instances … who knows the exact percentage … he is correct. But there are also many other nefarious reasons why our porous borders are breached by those who are less family-affectionate … the sex trade, drug smuggling, gang member recruiting, terrorist activities, those looking for our government’s handouts, those escaping criminal prosecutions at home, etc. The trouble is that there is no filtering process on this illegal immigrant influx to try to exclude such undesirables.

And even if 100% of these illegal immigrants were acting out of familial love, there still is the problem of America eventually becoming overrun with everyone in the world who is devoted to one’s own … there must be billions of them. The United States cannot possibly absorb all such caring people without imploding. Therefore, Jeb Bush has crawled out on an emotional limb which is easily pruned with simple logic.

Blanket amnesty cannot be the solution to the years of lax enforcement of our immigration laws … even if it is well-intentioned. This issue is now so thoroughly wrapped up in political motivations that it cannot be solved by naive utterances by would-be presidential candidates … of any party. I believe that the American people, in general, understand the conundrum we face … and such simple answers will not suffice.

I have previously offered my thoughts on this issue … see: Carrying Water in a Sieve. I believe that any real solution to this problem needs to stop the bleeding by strict enforcement of our existing immigration laws … including exporting of criminals and  those who overstay their visas … tighter inspection of amnesty claims … and an unbreachable barrier on our southern border. If this were done, maybe in twenty or thirty years this national problem would naturally dissipate ... without the granting of impassioned amnesty.

And I firmly believe that politicians who claim that they will enforce our immigration laws and then don’t ... are not acting out of love of country or compassion for those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” They (yes, you know their names) are craven and self-serving.