A Wall By Any Other Name???

What is the definition of a crisis? Circumstances leading to unacceptable loss of human life by my definition.  Are we there yet?  Absolutely!  A lack of foresight and an unwillingness to comprehensively address the issues surrounding immigration over the course last three Presidencies at least have set our nation upon a collision course with "crisis."  This crisis breathes to life in many forms as outlined by President in his oval office address to the nation:  1) influx of Drugs, 2) Human Trafficking, 3) invasion by Gang members, criminal elements and potential terrorists*, 4) Loss of innocent lives both citizen and non-citizen, 5) Loss of Law Enforcement Lives.  This crisis is the primary reason I chose to move my family out of Texas.  People who don't live in border states don't seem to fully understand or feel the impact of a broken immigration system on a daily basis and to hear the powers-that-be (i.e., politicians and a complicit propaganda-driven media) 'preach' to the rest of us about morality and 'reality' is beyond unbearable.

[*This statement by no means implies that all immigrants are criminals, merely that there is a significant criminal element among the illegal immigrants who violate our immigration laws in coming here through unauthorized channels and that this criminal element is capable of wreaking unacceptable havoc upon citizens and people living here legally in the United States of America.]

To his credit, President Trump did a great job of laying out the facts, complete with numbers, statistics and actual stories of real people who have lost their lives as a direct result of unchecked illegal immigration.  The latter provided a substantial justification for the rationale behind the need for a physical border along our nation's southern border with Mexico.  A border wall is not the end all solution to our nation's immigration crisis by any means, rather a border wall is the long overdue action required to stem the tide of loss of innocent lives.  Furthermore, a border wall will become the cornerstone for taking further measures (e.g., appointing more immigration judges, hiring additional immigration border personnel, deploying enhanced technology assets such as drones and additional aerial resources) necessary to further secure our nation's border.  The end goal being bi-partisan congressional legislation that will comprehensively address immigration reform, chief among this legislation being securing a permanent legal status for the Dreamers.

"A border is an immorality and its not who we are as a nation." ~Nancy Pelosi

Image Source: NBCNews.com

In watching the Democrats response to President Trump's insistence that he finally receive the funding necessary to begin addressing a border wall,  I find myself contemplating what exactly falls within the definition of "immoral"? Probably leaders who think that they must govern in spite of the people.  Leaders who have previously, under both Presidents G.W. Bush and Obama, supported securing our southern border with a physical barrier where possible, now refusing to give even a fraction** of what is being requested by the people on the front lines working to defend our United States border with Mexico.  Leaders who have the audacity to call this "Trump's Wall", as if the building of this wall would merely be yet another feather in 'the real estate mogul's cap.'  Seriously?!?  It's not Trump's wall you elitist hypocrites who retreat every night behind the safety and security of your own walls:  it's our wall, the wall of "We the People."  And We the People are tired of being told what to think --what is acceptable to think.  You bring no substantive arguments or actual facts to the table (e.g., verifiable numbers, in terms of actual existing walls, here and around the globe, showing where walls work --and they do work despite ambiguous, non-fact-based claims to the contrary-- comparative costs and related statistics).  Meanwhile the deaths of countless innocents pile up at your doorstep and you can't even blink?  Furthermore, your quasi-math just doesn't add up, in terms of cost to "We the People" in the long term.  I guarantee you that the long term cost of doing nothing to tangibly secure our border will be a far greater cost to the taxpayers than the mere 5.6 billion dollars currently being requested to begin construction on additional sections of a border barrier along our southern border.  And at the end of the day, can you really put a price on any one human life?

[**Based upon actual recent engineering calculations and surveys the estimated amount of funding to engineer the full border barrier in parts where a barrier is possible is 25 billion dollars.  5.6 billion dollars is a mere fraction of this estimated total.  Moreover, under President Obama the Congressional "Gang of Eight", which included Chuck Schummer, was ready to allocate a whopping 48 billion dollars towards addressing comprehensive immigration reform the bulk of which would have gone to building a southern border wall.  Funny kind of sad how time changes the politics of any given situation???] 

I didn't have it in me to watch the Democrat response to the President's speech, as given by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schummer last night, nor the subsequent media rebuttal of irrefutable facts.  So I watched the responses today.  I must say, the repeated claims that the President's statistics were "actually misleading" --not factually incorrect-- seems to be an all new low for those who still claim to be bonafide journalists.  The cookie-cutter talking point that Trump had in point of fact "Manufactured a crisis based on FEAR" leaves me wondering, if you can supposedly manufacture fear --although I have a moral problem with reducing the loss of actual innocent lives (e.g., Kate Steinle, Ronil Singh and so many others ) to the status of "manufactured"-- does that then leave hope for the manufacturing some actual common sense where immigration reform is concerned?  What really gets to me is that the Left has the audacity to call the immigration crisis "manufactured" when there is a mountain of documented evidence to support the facts that countless innocent lives have been lost as a result of a "do-nothing", broken immigration policy in the United States.  Meanwhile, the Left are practically beside themselves with dire predictions of future loss of life due to the perceived threat of "Climate Change", something there is little evidence to support that we can actually control. This when the actual climate data over the course of the past decade deviates grossly from what climate scientists' heavily parameterized models --the exception being the Russian model which tracks pretty closely with reality-- have predicted.  The lack of truth in perception, response and balance between these two different crisisies  is truly bewildering?!  But maybe it is not so bewildering when you view each crisis through a political lens? One is left wondering, can the truth really set you free in an age run rampant with dishonest politicians and a wholly complicit media?

Despite what the "thought police" have told us, we can in point of fact be both a nation of laws, with tangible borders, and still be a nation of former immigrants that remains committed to welcoming new immigrants.  These two ideas are not mutually exclusive.  Quite frankly, I have to give President Trump for having the courage and the foresight to finally, and firmly, begin addressing comprehensive immigration reform, starting with a shoring up our nation's southern physical border. The Republicans should take a page out the Democratic playbook and finally, for once, march in lock-step on this crucial issue.  Call me dreamer, but I actually think the Republicans could pull this off for "We the People" if they get their (**stuff**) together.  And Democrats, I challenge you to put your words into action.  If you truly care about immigrants then come to the table, swallow your pride, and actually hammer out a deal that helps to solidify the status of the Dreamers.  The time has come to look beyond the next election in order to do what is right by the people --both citizen and non-citizen alike-- to do what will be remembered for centuries to come in the annuals of History.  Stranger things have happened????