Immigration Crisis, Causes & Cures

For over three decades the U.S. Congress, together with more than a half-dozen presidential administrations, have carried out a two-pronged immigration policy:

1) Increase the number of legal immigrants by significantly raising the quota of legal immigrants permitted into the country

2)Increase the number of illegal immigrants by severely limiting enforcement of immigration laws both at the border and internally

[Congress alone is lawfully charged with "Rules of Naturalization" and to "repel Invasions" (Article 1, Section 8, Paragraphs 8 & 15 respectively, of the Constitution for the United States of America)]

Presidential administrations and congressional dominance have come from both sides of the bipartisan monopoly in the interim, but there hasn't been a public outcry until now -- after decades of irreparible damage has already been done.

And what exactly -- until very recently -- has been the response of The People to the initiation and on-going execution of this congressionally legislated and presidentially executed policy?

Little to nothing.

But now, with easily 10 million illegal immigrants (twice that, by some estimates), some Americans (many, in fact) are calling for the criminalization and deportation of these millions, apparently without giving much thought to the feasibility and ramifications of such a task.

Sure, they're lawbreakers. (Their entry into the U.S. was illegal, right?)

But if after three decades of indifference, it has suddenly become the will of The People that immigration laws be tightened and/or enforced, should the illegals really be justly punished for Americans' willful ignorance and apathy concerning what their own government was allowing to happen? After all, this wasn't done in some dark corner of Washington. The Congressional Record is in the public domain, as have been illegal immigration numbers.

Do Americans really have a right to abandon the requisite “eternal vigilance” and then project their own guilt onto those who embraced the opportunities created by their negligence?

The Founders long ago insisted that the American experiment in republican liberty would only succeed to the extent that The People held their government accountable to themselves and the Law. In this (as in other matters), The People have failed to do their part. And now, rather than deal with the consequences of their failure in a reasonable, responsible, and humane fashion, they're effectively demanding that Congress ratchet up the American police state, in which a Gestapo-like army chases down and forcibly hauls off illegals for deportation ("You're papers, please."), oblivious to the inevitable impact on the liberty of both citizens and immigrants (legal and otherwise).

Perhaps a more sensible solution would begin with The People's owning up to their responsibility in fomenting this crisis, then pursuing a solution that places no additional power or responsibility in the hands of the already demonstrably inept (and already demonstrably bloated) federal government.

The forcible deportation of many millions (most of whom work for a living, to the benefit of American society and economy) is nothing more than a scapegoat policy guaranteed to yield untold violence, racial tension, and the further erosion of liberty -- not only for illegal immigrants, but for all Americans. The blame lies squarely with The People and Congress -- not the majority of illegals who sought a better life for themselves and their families by taking advantage of a do-nothing government policy and a do-nothing-about-it People.