Border Emergency

The current border emergency is a real emergency,  but the nature of it is NOT what you are being told,  especially by the politicians you have elected!   Most of the news media are failing you,  too,  because they also lie to you,  or at least they are not really pointing out the things that I point out in this article.

 Defining Terms

I'm going to use the term "migrant" (or the other form "immigrant") to include most everybody that comes to,  or across,  our southern US border.  There is a big-enough surge of these recently,  that our border towns (El Paso for one) are declaring humanitarian emergencies.  And migrant lives are being cruelly (and criminally?) endangered,  for the political stunt of busing them to non-border states.

Immigrants are not all the same.  There are people who want to be "guest workers",  meaning they want to fill some sorts of jobs up here in the US.  There are people who are "refugees",  meaning those who are fleeing for their continued existence,  perhaps even their very lives.  There are people who want to move here and “become Americans”.  And there are the "smugglers",  meaning those who bring across both guest workers and refugees,  and those who bring across illegal drugs.  See the figure,  and read on. 

Guest workers

The guest worker problem dates back to the end of WW2 and the end of the "Bracero" program,  when we sent all the guest workers (mostly agricultural) home to Mexico,  and set guest worker visa quotas rather low,  expecting our returning soldiers to return to the farms,  but they did not!  The Mexican guest workers actually want to be legal,  but that demand is an order of magnitude or more higher than the guest worker visa quotas,  and this has been true since then.  Statistically,  these people,  illegal or not,  are more law-abiding than most US citizens,  and they do pay taxes,  despite what you've been told!  And,  they are an integral and productive part of our economy,  there is no denying that!

The jobs are here,  the workers are there,  and they must feed themselves and their families.  If not legally,  then they must cross and do the work illegally.  Congress has ignored this since 1945,  which is why about 5 years ago it was estimated that the “illegal alien” population (then mostly illegal guest workers plus their families) was about 11 million in this country.  Fixing this ends the “DACA problem” in 1 generation,  but it requires staffing-up to track a lot more visas!   Congresses and Presidents have utterly failed in their duty to fix this,  for some 7 decades now,  by not staffing up and issuing more visas.

Refugees

Refugees are different.  We have a very long history under federal law of supposedly treating refugees very similarly to the way we treat lost people found at sea:  it doesn't matter who they are or where they came from,  you just pick them up and tend their ills,  and then get them where they need to go.  In particular,  refugees are entitled under federal law to a timely hearing before a real immigration judge for admission to the US.  That is long-established law,  and it does not care how they crossed,  to ask.

There are no guarantees about being granted entry,  but that timely hearing is guaranteed under those laws.  Anyone who denies them this right is committing a serious federal crime.  Refugees,  like guest workers,  statistically tend to be more law-abiding than most US citizens,  at least up to now.  The data on the ground so far say that the real terrorists and criminals are coming in elsewhere,  sometimes through the northern US border,  and mostly through the international US airports inside the country.  

The refugee problem used to be a small one,  which is why the low quotas for it were possibly sort-of appropriate long ago.  That has changed with so many failed,  and failing,  states in Central and South America,  in the Caribbean,  and also now around the world.   That situation is not under our control!  It never was,  and it never will be,  despite what your preferred political candidates may tell you!  All we can really do is respond properly. 

There are now roughly as many refugees as there are guest workers,  in any given year.  Yet the quotas and the number of immigration judges never rose,  and Congresses and Presidents have refused to staff up to meet the higher demand in recent years!   So,  hearings take years,  instead of the weeks that are appropriate,  thus violating the clear intent of established federal immigration law!  

The "remain-in-Mexico" policy violates that law,  because in all practicality,  you can't attend your hearing if you aren't inside the country,  since the border guards are unlikely to let you in. 

"Title 42" violates that established law in its entirety:  refugees get turned away with no hearing at all (fear of contagion is actually now known to be a bullshit excuse,  just now used as a political vote-getter). 

These are violations of federal law that were actually ordered by the very Congresses and Presidents charged with fixing this, of both parties.  They are at fault for letting these violations persist so long, unaddressed.  Plus numerous border-state officials,  doing evil for political advantage.  Oath breakers all!

People Wanting to Become Americans

There are people who just want to move here and become Americans.  Some of these are guest workers,  some refugees,  and some just want to come here and become citizens without either of those other two reasons.  I did not choose a word by which to label them,  although others have used “immigrant”,  which confuses needlessly with the other categories I named. 

Those numbers were often (but not always) fairly small long ago,  but they are much higher now.  Statistically,  these have mostly been good people,  who become positive assets to our society.  We are in fact a nation originally built of such people!  These are,  and always have been,  people that we should want to admit.  Although,  we have not always done so,  usually for racist reasons.   And THAT needs to change!

Smugglers and Related Criminals

As for the smugglers and related criminals,  there aren’t,  and never were,  very many of them.  Our border patrol agents are,  and for many years have been,  completely tied up chasing illegal guest workers and illegal refugees,  when those people are illegal only because multiple Congresses and multiple Presidential administrations,  of both parties,  have not done their jobs!  Fix the guest worker and refugee problems properly,  and our border patrol agents are freed-up to deal with the smugglers.  And they can,  and they will!

How to Properly Fix the Problems

Walls and fences on the border don't fix this problem.  National guard troops on the border don't fix this,  either.  Those are political lies to get your vote based on fearing all migrants as criminals,  when they are not!  Truly fix the guest worker and refugee problems by staffing up properly and setting realistic quotas,  and most of this "migrants-at-the-border problem" inherently goes away,  leaving our border patrol able to catch the smugglers and criminals.  Simple as that.  And the cost will be worth it,  in the long term far cheaper than any of those political lie “solutions”!

But it does require that we have Presidents and members of both houses of Congress,  that will actually do the jobs they swore to do,  when they took their oaths of office!  That is something I have not seen in decades!  Such oath-breaking should be a crime!  (If it already is,  it is clearly unenforced.)

In lieu of that,  I generally do not vote to re-elect incumbents,  unless I can verify that they did a good job (most do not).  That's the “term limits” that we have always had,  and too many folks do not use it!  Which in turn is exactly why we have so many idiots in public office,  not doing their jobs properly.

I would also favor criminalizing political lies,  limiting sources of campaign funding,  and limiting the intervals in which campaigning can be done.  Billions spent on mostly-lies for a midterm election (or any other election) is preposterously ridiculous!  So also are big-money interests buying the offices of elected officials for them!  And all these campaigns for re-election throughout the holder’s term-in-office are just abysmally wrong!

Regarding My Proposed New Crimes

Oath-breaking:  officials take an oath of office quite similar to the oath taken by those who join the military.  Breaking that oath by failing to do the job properly,  should have very serious consequences,  as it does in the military:  oath-breakers in elected office need to go to jail.  I think everybody understands that.  Not fixing the immigration crisis properly is oath-breaking.  (And it is not the only thing they do that is oath-breaking.)  We all saw the recent President break his oath of office by fomenting an insurrection,  instead of heading it off or putting it down,  as was his sworn duty! We also all saw the danger to the country that particular oath-breaking episode did.

Political lies:  there are limits to the right of free speech:  it is not absolute,  and never was.  One may not yell “fire” in a theater when there is not a fire,  because it is both untrue and it endangers people!  There are serious consequences for doing such,  and rightly so.  Political lies are not just untrue,  they also endanger people (as we saw Jan. 6, 2021 because of the “stop the steal” lie).  Thus,  there need to be serious consequences for political lies!  

If something is offered to the public at large as “true”,  it really does need to be true!  I think everybody understands that.  And this applies to outlets on social media and cable TV,  as well.  It applies to talk radio.  And it applies to candidates running for office:  their qualifications cannot be based on lies,  as is true in the recent self-admitted case from New York.

Campaign contributions not identifiable to the public:  we need a codified law to make such things criminally illegal,  since the Supreme Court wouldn’t rule correctly about this.  We could even take this further,  and give all candidates an appropriate campaign budget out of tax funds.  Then we jail those who campaign with funds from outside that budget!  I would vote for that,  as long as no other sources were allowed.  That’s one of the few things they do in the UK that I think we should adopt,  adapt,  and improve here.

Campaigning outside an allowable interval:  elected officials out on the campaign trail are simply not at work doing their sworn jobs!  For an official to be out campaigning for 80+% of his term in office,  is patently ridiculous,  to the point of criminal fault for not doing his sworn job!  We need a law to limit campaigning to a defined short interval appropriate to the office and the constituency,  and we really need to jail violators.  That’s the other thing they do in the UK that I think we should adopt,  adapt,  and improve here.  (As for most of the rest of what they do in the UK,  that’s why we had a revolution.)

Final Comments

The politicians we elect are quite clearly not going to fix our very serious immigration problems,  until we the voters eliminate their ability to ignore us by throwing them out of office!  Campaign rallies,  party agendas,  and political slogans are all bullshit!  The way you actually do this is to routinely vote them out of office,  no matter who they are or what party they claim.  Period! 

That won’t happen until all you voters out there ignore party,  and stop re-electing incumbents.  You do this again and again,  until you find somebody willing to adopt and enforce the laws we actually need.  That’s actually what the Founders had in mind when they wrote our Constitution! 

Then,  once you find a candidate for office who will try to do the right things,  you keep that one for only a short while (a term or two),  until he/she shows signs of corruption (and they all eventually do,  if left in office long enough).  Then you go looking for new ones willing to do what is right.  Simple as that.

The words “political party” are NOT in the Constitution (go look for yourself)!  Think about THAT!  George Washington warned us in his Presidential farewell address NOT to go the political party route,  and I think he was right.  All of which is EXACTLY why I have been a lifetime independent voter!

By the way,  if a political party told you what “the right things to do” are,  then you can bet your very life those are lies!  (That applies to both parties,  and most everything that is on social media and the internet,  and also what is on most cable TV and talk radio.)  Hear what they say,  but DARE NOT BELIEVE ANY OF IT!  You need to decide FOR YOURSELF what is the right thing to do.  Period!  End of issue!

That being said,  I hope my “exrocketman” internet site is one of those very few who attempt to tell you the truth.  This site is not monetized or funded.  I am beholden to no one.  THAT should tell you a lot! 

The most nearly reliable sources I can find are the 3 major TV broadcast networks,  the PBS broadcasts,  and some (but not all) of the newspapers,  here in the US.  They at least attempt to self-police themselves to standards of accurate journalism.  Some are more successful than others at this. 

This “standards of journalism” stuff gets thrown off a bit by trying to “balance both sides for fairness”,  instead of just pointing out the obvious lies and wrongdoing of individual powerful politicians or political organizations,  the way they really should.  There is no “fair balance” of reporting to be had,  if one side is misbehaving more than the other.  But,  even so,  we still do need to know about it,  including the asymmetry of the misbehavior. 

The other problem that I see,  even among the best sources out there,  is too much focus on the bottom line instead of the public-service aspect of news reporting.  This is less of a problem with PBS,  which is not commercially funded.  The others really do suffer from this,  more so in recent decades.  The last third of a half-hour news broadcast on the commercial networks,  is now more commercial time than time spent actually reporting the news.  Time it yourself,  if you don’t believe me.  That’s just not right!

If you are aware of those two shortcomings,  then you can otherwise trust those sources.  You probably want to hear from more than two of them,  before you decide for yourself about any particular story.

Related Prior Articles (all on this site,  all written by me):

To find other articles on this “exrocketman” site quickly,  jot down titles and dates that you want to see.  Then use the navigation tool on the left side of this page.  Click on the year,  then the month,  then the title if need be (if more than one article was posted that month).  Here the list of other articles that are closely related to this article: 

#1. “Invasion At the Border?  No,  I Don’t Think So!”,  7 December 2022

#2. “Border Crisis?  Nope”,  17 January 2019

#3. “Immigration Politics and the Nazification of America”,  7 July 2018

#4. “Forget the Stupid Wall”,  4 March 2018

#5. “Why So Many Illegal Immigrants?”,  23 September 2017

#6. “More Troops and Fences on the Border Won’t Fix Our Troubles”,  10 September 2010

As for more technical topics,  I have an article on this site with lists of other articles in multiple topic areas.  That one is “Lists of Some Articles By Topic Area”,  dated 21 October 2021.  Topic areas include “ramjets”,  “aerothermodynamics and heat transfer”,  “rocket propulsion and vehicles”,  “space suits and atmospheres”,  “radiation hazards”,  “pulsejets”,  “ethanol and blends in vehicles”,  “automotive care”,  “cactus eradication”,  ”forensic analyses”,  and “towed decoys”.  More may get added in the future.