Immigration Tunnel Vision

Time and again, politicians who discuss immigration and the need for what they deem “reform” talk about the need to “first secure the border.”

On January 28, 2014, President Obama gave his State of the Union address and, not surprisingly, called for passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. He did not spend much time on this, apparently so as to not alienate the Republicans whose support in the House of Representatives is essential if this legislative betrayal of America and Americans is to succeed.

Afterwards, Senator Rand Paul discussed the President’s State of the Union Address. When he got to immigration he made some statement about the need to have annual reviews of the security of the U.S.-Mexican border to determine if more visas should be issued each year.

He did not say how he would measure border security. He also ignored the obvious – there is no nexus between securing the U.S.-Mexican border and the issuance of visas for foreign workers.

Stop and consider the many ways in which aliens gain entry to the United States. Go back to the point I have made innumerable times about America having “50 border states.”

The United States has northern and southern borders. The United States also has an estimated 95,000 miles of coastline dotted with marinas and seaports, as well as many international airports. All of these provide access to the United States.

Yet Senator Paul, like most politicians, focuses purely on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Certainly that border must be made secure, but the myriad other components of the immigration system must also be effectively addressed. Most aliens who run our borders or stow away on ships or violates the terms of lawful entry into the U.S. do so to gain low-paying jobs.

Aliens who are granted work visas, such as the H-1B visas, are legally admitted into the United States to do highly skilled jobs that pay considerably more than the relatively menial jobs illegal aliens take. The process by which these visa applications are adjudicated has absolutely no relevance to securing America’s borders against illegal aliens.

The challenge in the visa adjudications process is to combat fraud, to make certain that the job for which the visa application is filed actually exists and that the alien has the requisite skills and education to do that job. Additionally, it is vital as the law (Title 8, United States Code, Section 1182) stipulates:

I) there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified (or equally qualified in the case of an alien described in clause (ii)) and available at the time of application for a visa and admission to the United States and at the place where the alien is to perform such skilled or unskilled labor, and

(II) the employment of such alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed.

All too often lawyers game the process. Consequently, highly qualified and experienced Americans lose their jobs to foreign workers. Unlike the immutable laws of nature, the immigration laws are meaningless unless they are enforced. Not one politician who advocates for “Immigration Reform” has ever advocated for hiring many more agents for ICE to address rampant fraud or the other failures of the immigration system, focusing purely on the security of the border that is supposed to separate the United States from Mexico.

Politicians who are supposedly in favor of “getting tough” on immigration by securing the border simultaneously call for increasing the number of visas such as the H-1B visas, blithely ignoring the plight of American STEM students and American STEM workers.

Two cases in point:

1. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who was called upon to provide the Republican rebuttal to the State of the Union address, talked about attracting more highly skilled foreign workers.
2. Senator Ted Cruz, however, is truly leading the charge against American STEM professionals. He has been consistently very specific about what he wants where H-1B visas are concerned. He provided an amendment to S.744 referred to as “Cruz 5” which, incredibly, provides for a 500 percent increase in the cap for H-1B visas. His amendment would have increased the current cap of 65,000 such visas to an outrageous 325,000 high-tech workers. The video of statements by Cruz at a Senate hearing on this issue make his anti-American worker position abundantly clear.

Meanwhile, American high-tech workers are suffering an unemployment rate that is more than that of other American workers.

Furthermore, the “9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel” warned about the nexus between visa and immigration benefit fraud and national security. Page 47 of this report noted:

Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States. Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program, after falsely claiming that he picked beans in Florida.

On November 21, 2013, The Washington Times reported on members of the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations making false claims of credible fear as a means of entering the United States: “Mexican drug cartels exploit asylum system by claiming ‘credible fear’”

On December 12, 2013, the House Judiciary Committee conducted a hearing on the subject: “Asylum Abuse: Is it Overwhelming our Borders?”

While the hearing focused on the impact poltical asylum fraud committed by members of the Mexican drug cartels had on the situation along America’s southwest border, political asylum fraud and other examples of visa and immigration benefit fraud permeate the entire immigration system and impact all of the United States.

On May 2, 2013, I was interviewed by Megyn Kelly of Fox News about the terror bombing of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013: “Immigration Expert: The System Failed in Boston and Keeps on Failing”

On September 20, 2013 CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization) posted my article about the failures of the vetting process for alien applicants who apply for immigration benefits: “Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Background Checks Require a Reality Check”

The Summer 2013 Edition of “The Social Contract” contained my article on political asylum that was entitled: “Political Asylum: Where Compassion and National Security Intersect”

On November 20, 2013 ABC News reported: “Exclusive: US May Have Let ‘Dozens’ of Terrorists Into Country As Refugees”

Clearly, this is NOT a new problem.

The lack of integrity in the immigration system imperils the future of our nation and the future of our citizens, undermining national security and the survival of the middle class. The time has come for our elected representatives to shift their laser-like focus from the southwest border and consider all of the other parts of the dysfunctional immigration system. Most of what is wrong with the immigration system can be solved by COMPILE (COMprehensive Immigration Law Enforcement).

Take action through CAPS and tell your elected officials “No” to amnesty and “No” to increased immigration.