First Things First
By Steve Farrell (12/08/04)
Today is the anniversary of the first great sneak attack in America, at Pearl Harbor. Today is also the day where pending before Congress is a security bill, H.R. 10, which was designed to be a firm and level-headed response to the second great sneak attack in America on 9-11.
An attack, by the way, executed by 19 illegal immigrants, who had in their possession 63 US driver’s licenses.
The 9-11 Commission knew this. That’s why they recommended:
“Secure identification should begin in the United States. The federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as drivers licenses. Fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft. At many entry points to vulnerable facilities, including gates for boarding aircraft, sources of identification are the last opportunity to ensure that people are who they say they are and to check whether they are terrorists. …”
“It is elemental to border security to know who is coming into the country. Today more than 9 million people are in the United States outside the legal immigration system. ... All but one of the 9/11 hijackers acquired some form of U.S. identification document, some by fraud. Acquisition of these forms of identification would have assisted them in boarding commercial flights, renting cars, and other necessary activities.”
This is about common sense, and about duty to country, and about enough love of neighbor to want to make sure surprise attack #3 never happens.
“Happy are the men, and happy the people who grow wise by the misfortunes of others”, wrote John Dickinson.
Have we grown wise from the misfortunes of our countrymen on 9-11, misfortunes that were enabled by an immigration policy that was and still is way too permissive?
And yet, the proponents of H.R. 10, as it is now stands, refuse to insert vital illegal immigration provisions.
For his part, House Judiciary Committee Chairmen James Sensenbrenner is in danger of being “rolled” (so says Democratic Senator Harry Reid) for taking a hard line stand in favor of getting tough on illegals, for the sake of America.
Listen, you can’t be “tough” on security, and ignore how we got in this mess in the first place.
And Team Bush is a key element in this problem, as well. The “tough on security” party we swept back into power in November, has been doing everything in its power since the first days following the election, to not only pass this inadequate bit of legislation, but to push amnesty for illegals, and beyond that, to create a permanent open borders society under an America’s version of the European Union, dubbed the Free Trade Areas of the America’s (or FTAA).
Get real.
I’m thinking again of John Dickinson’s warning that “names [do] not change the nature of things.”
Intelligence measures are not necessarily about intelligence, security measures are not necessarily about security, nor are free trade agreements necessarily about free trade, unless they really are.
And these aren’t.
Isn’t it time for this ‘America First Party’ to decide which priority really comes first, America or the New World Order?
Because, I’m telling you, some of us in the real America First lobby are beginning to wonder.
For more information on what you can do to fight the illegal immigration problem, please visit WakeUpAmericaFoundation.com
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