“All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected, but in every place in this country, are rightfully disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”
That statement didn’t come from Donald Trump, it came from Democratic President Bill Clinton in his State of the Union address from January 25, 1995, and it was met with bi-partisan applause and support. President Clinton went on to call for strengthening our borders, hiring more border agents, deporting criminal aliens, and issuing no welfare benefits to illegal aliens. Twenty-two years later, our problems with illegal aliens and immigrants are even worse, first because of terrorists threats which have escalated since 2001, and second because of increased numbers of refugees fleeing from war torn Muslim nations.
To address that problem, former President Obama identified seven nations (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen) known to have terrorist training camps, and who lacked proper vetting of and documentation for people leaving from or through their respective countries. Further, in 2011 he issued a six month ban on all refugees from Iraq. Yet when Syria began to flood western Europe with refugees, Mr. Obama rejected the idea that those refugees posed a threat to our national security, so before he left office, he authorized acceptance of 10,000 refugees to settle here beginning in 2017. Hillary Clinton went further, promising that if she was elected, we would let in 65,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees. All this, despite the fact that Obama’s own intelligence officers admitted that Isis terrorists were posing as refugees in order to enter other countries.
Throughout the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump pledged to do what three former presidents failed to do. He promised to strengthen and protect our borders, not just with a wall, but with policies that would control the flow of illegal immigration, and keep us safe from radical Islamic extremists who might try to enter our country, legally or otherwise. And so, on January 27, President Trump issued an executive order that would ban residents of Obama’s seven nations from entering the United States for 90 days, ban refugees from Syria indefinitely, and ban all other refugees for 120 days. In point of fact, the President shouldn’t have called the order a “ban” because it is actually a moratorium, but that’s water under the bridge.
On Saturday, January 28, some 325,000 people attempted to land in America from foreign countries, and of those, only 109 were detained for extensive questioning. Meanwhile, some 60,000 visas were lifted, but with the proviso that the Department of Homeland Security could issue waivers for military personnel and other legitimate travelers. Trump’s order created chaos in several airports, which morphed into full blown protests. That led James Robart, a federal judge in Seattle, to issue a nationwide stay of the President’s executive order. But Robart is only one of about 3,000 federal judges who can issue such rulings, and so the White House immediately began looking for another judge who would issue an emergency stay of the Seattle ruling.
Crusading bleeding hearts like Judge Robart, believe that we should accept anyone who wants to settle in America. That same belief is shared by many church leaders and neighborhood groups around the country who say they will sponsor the refugees. But sponsoring is one thing. Monitoring and supporting them is quite another. Howard Shultz, the CEO of Seattle-based Starbucks says he will hire 10,000 refugees to work as baristas. But a refugee family can’t subsist on minimum wage. Meanwhile, taxpayers are stuck with the bill for educating the refugees and providing them with medical care and other social services. But the economic burdens we face are only part of the problem. Safety and security is the other.
In 2012, right after President Obama lifted his temporary freeze on entry to the United States from the aforementioned seven countries, Mohammed Al-Jayab, an Iraqi refugee was welcomed here with open arms. One year later Al-Jayab traveled to Syria to join a murdering terrorist group, then returned here in 2014. Despite his public postings, proving his status as a terrorist, Al-Jayab was allowed back into America, no questions asked. His was not an isolated case. Last year, Senator Jeff Sessions and the Senate Judiciary Committee gave examples of forty other terrorists who entered our country posing as refugees or translators. The committee concluded that the incidents they reported might just be the tip of the immigrant terrorist iceberg.
I am troubled by the protests of ill-informed, naive folks who don’t grasp the economic or security risks posed by an open-door immigration policy, but I’m also repulsed by the hypocrisy and partisanship of Washington Democrats who feign outrage over President Trump’s executive order. Senator Chuck Schumer is the worst offender. Last week he sobbed during a press conference as he proclaimed that Trump’s refugee ban was, “mean spirited and un-American.” That’s the same Chuck Schumer who, in 2014, pushed for a re-set on our refugee program until we could insure proper vetting.
If folks like Schumer, Robart, and Schultz really want to help those in need, then they should start here at home first, by helping our own down trodden and disenfranchised citizens, like homeless veterans, hungry children, battered wives, and the elderly who can’t afford their medicines. But then, that would cost money that politicians would rather spend on foreign aid, bank bail-outs, and Congressional pensions.
Bill Clinton had it right in 1995, and Donald Trump has it right in 2017. We can only accommodate a finite number of legal immigrants, and we shouldn’t accommodate illegal immigrants at all, especially those who might do us harm. To do otherwise is “wrong and self-defeating.”
Give Us Your Tired, Your Terrorists
That statement didn’t come from Donald Trump, it came from Democratic President Bill Clinton in his State of the Union address from January 25, 1995, and it was met with bi-partisan applause and support. President Clinton went on to call for strengthening our borders, hiring more border agents, deporting criminal aliens, and issuing no welfare benefits to illegal aliens. Twenty-two years later, our problems with illegal aliens and immigrants are even worse, first because of terrorists threats which have escalated since 2001, and second because of increased numbers of refugees fleeing from war torn Muslim nations.
To address that problem, former President Obama identified seven nations (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen) known to have terrorist training camps, and who lacked proper vetting of and documentation for people leaving from or through their respective countries. Further, in 2011 he issued a six month ban on all refugees from Iraq. Yet when Syria began to flood western Europe with refugees, Mr. Obama rejected the idea that those refugees posed a threat to our national security, so before he left office, he authorized acceptance of 10,000 refugees to settle here beginning in 2017. Hillary Clinton went further, promising that if she was elected, we would let in 65,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees. All this, despite the fact that Obama’s own intelligence officers admitted that Isis terrorists were posing as refugees in order to enter other countries.
Throughout the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump pledged to do what three former presidents failed to do. He promised to strengthen and protect our borders, not just with a wall, but with policies that would control the flow of illegal immigration, and keep us safe from radical Islamic extremists who might try to enter our country, legally or otherwise. And so, on January 27, President Trump issued an executive order that would ban residents of Obama’s seven nations from entering the United States for 90 days, ban refugees from Syria indefinitely, and ban all other refugees for 120 days. In point of fact, the President shouldn’t have called the order a “ban” because it is actually a moratorium, but that’s water under the bridge.
On Saturday, January 28, some 325,000 people attempted to land in America from foreign countries, and of those, only 109 were detained for extensive questioning. Meanwhile, some 60,000 visas were lifted, but with the proviso that the Department of Homeland Security could issue waivers for military personnel and other legitimate travelers. Trump’s order created chaos in several airports, which morphed into full blown protests. That led James Robart, a federal judge in Seattle, to issue a nationwide stay of the President’s executive order. But Robart is only one of about 3,000 federal judges who can issue such rulings, and so the White House immediately began looking for another judge who would issue an emergency stay of the Seattle ruling.
Crusading bleeding hearts like Judge Robart, believe that we should accept anyone who wants to settle in America. That same belief is shared by many church leaders and neighborhood groups around the country who say they will sponsor the refugees. But sponsoring is one thing. Monitoring and supporting them is quite another. Howard Shultz, the CEO of Seattle-based Starbucks says he will hire 10,000 refugees to work as baristas. But a refugee family can’t subsist on minimum wage. Meanwhile, taxpayers are stuck with the bill for educating the refugees and providing them with medical care and other social services. But the economic burdens we face are only part of the problem. Safety and security is the other.
In 2012, right after President Obama lifted his temporary freeze on entry to the United States from the aforementioned seven countries, Mohammed Al-Jayab, an Iraqi refugee was welcomed here with open arms. One year later Al-Jayab traveled to Syria to join a murdering terrorist group, then returned here in 2014. Despite his public postings, proving his status as a terrorist, Al-Jayab was allowed back into America, no questions asked. His was not an isolated case. Last year, Senator Jeff Sessions and the Senate Judiciary Committee gave examples of forty other terrorists who entered our country posing as refugees or translators. The committee concluded that the incidents they reported might just be the tip of the immigrant terrorist iceberg.
I am troubled by the protests of ill-informed, naive folks who don’t grasp the economic or security risks posed by an open-door immigration policy, but I’m also repulsed by the hypocrisy and partisanship of Washington Democrats who feign outrage over President Trump’s executive order. Senator Chuck Schumer is the worst offender. Last week he sobbed during a press conference as he proclaimed that Trump’s refugee ban was, “mean spirited and un-American.” That’s the same Chuck Schumer who, in 2014, pushed for a re-set on our refugee program until we could insure proper vetting.
If folks like Schumer, Robart, and Schultz really want to help those in need, then they should start here at home first, by helping our own down trodden and disenfranchised citizens, like homeless veterans, hungry children, battered wives, and the elderly who can’t afford their medicines. But then, that would cost money that politicians would rather spend on foreign aid, bank bail-outs, and Congressional pensions.
Bill Clinton had it right in 1995, and Donald Trump has it right in 2017. We can only accommodate a finite number of legal immigrants, and we shouldn’t accommodate illegal immigrants at all, especially those who might do us harm. To do otherwise is “wrong and self-defeating.”