Obama Executive Order Means Open Door Amnesty

America Free Press By Victor Thorn (Part II of III)

When Barack Obama delivered his June 15 speech in the White House Rose Garden where he provided amnesty to more than 800K illegal aliens through an executive order (EO), he failed to mention one crucial point: The parents of these future citizens would also not be deported.

The announcement was part of a shrewd political move on the part of Obama to bypass Congress and enact the DREAM Act, a major piece of legislation that legalizes the children of illegal aliens, known as “DREAMers,” who came to the United States as minors.

During a June 15 interview, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, “Should the parents [of amnestied DREAMers] be concerned that they could be deported?”

Napolitano replied: “No. We are not going to do that. We have internally set it up that parents are not referred for immigration enforcement if the young person comes in for deferred action.”

On July 5, this writer spoke with illegal immigration activist Glenn Spencer, who founded American Border Patrol over a decade ago.

When asked what impact Obama’s EO will have on America, Spencer explained, “We’re importing poverty into this nation, and it’s bankrupting states like California. Demographics are destiny, and it won’t get any better in the future. We’re erasing our tax base and facing huge pension problems. At some point the feds will have to bail out California.”

Spencer continued to use California as a microcosm of a much larger problem.

“California is a basket case because of illegal immigration,” he said. “Some 60% of all the uninsured are Hispanics, and they’re in California because the feds won’t enforce our laws. In fact, these uninsured were one of the reasons given as to why we needed Obamacare. Where did these uninsured people come from? Mexico.”

In terms of estimates given as to how many DREAMers will receive amnesty, Spencer commented, “I spoke with a chief border patrol agent, and he said there’s so much fraud in the system that they have no ability to check everyone’s status. So they’ll pretty much have to accept their word for it, especially when this administration is so biased in favor of illegal aliens. What we’re going to see is a spike in the number of illegal aliens that will be much larger than anyone imagined. It’s a slap in the face to all of us who are here legally.”

When AMERICAN FREE PRESS inquired as to Obama’s ultimate goal, Spencer didn’t hesitate: “It’s the same agenda as the European Union—globalism. Very powerful people decided after WWII that there would be no borders. They’d put the whole globe under one rule. Mexico will retake the Southwest and put it under its flag.”

To convince doubters, Spencer referenced a quote by Mario Obledo of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “California will be a Hispanic state,” said Obledo, “and anyone who doesn’t like it should leave.”

As further evidence, Spencer spoke of another nefarious individual. “Do you know who’s the chairman of this year’s Democratic National Convention?” asked Spencer. “It’s Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. This guy joined with the president of Mexico and engineered the killing of California’s anti-illegal immigration bill. He subverted our laws in favor of Mexico, yet this traitor to the U.S. is coordinating the Democratic National Convention.”

Moving from the concept of Mexican allegiance, Spencer illustrated why Hispanics favor Obama’s EO, even if it costs them jobs.

“Ethnicity trumps the dollar,” he said. “As they say, once a Mexican, always a Mexican. The nationalistic glue of these people is very strong. They’re unified and tribalistic. Their culture trumps everything.”

Sadly, by selling out our country via his DREAM Act EO, Obama vividly showed that he doesn’t possess this same sense of nationalistic pride in America.

If Obama’s decision isn’t reversed, Spencer envisions a horror story in the future.

“With the system now in place, it’s illogical to think that Obama’s people want anything other than open door amnesty,” he said. “They’ll rubber stamp everyone claiming to be a DREAMer, keep this information secret, and then in four or five years we’ll have given amnesty to 5M illegal aliens.”

Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and the author of over 30 books.

Cooking the Immigration Books

America Free Press By Victor Thorn (Part I of III)

Government accused of hiding real number of illegal aliens in U.S.

Over the past two years, federal agencies and think tanks have provided what would sound like good news to most Americans, reporting that there has been a dramatic decline in the number of illegal aliens crossing into the United States from Mexico. Three primary reasons are cited for this supposed reduction: a stagnant economy that has never rebounded out of recession, tougher border enforcement and a higher cost of living in regard to food and housing.

According to a study in 2010 conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, the flow of illegals into the U.S. has slowed by a half-million per year compared with the previous decade. The Obama administration has also boasted about what officials call a considerable increase in the number of illegal aliens sent back to Mexico.

But many border agents in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California remain skeptical that the influx is actually waning. In a May 14 article for The Washington Examiner, Sara Carter quoted an unnamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official who said: “The guys in my office were laughing when we heard the Pew Report and when we see DHS [Homeland Security] flat-out lie.”

T.J. Bonner, former president of the National Border Patrol Council, agrees that certain reports of decreasing numbers are not substantiated by what he sees.

The most vocal critic is undoubtedly Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who blasted the funny numbers on Oct. 18, 2011.

“The Obama administration is cooking the books to make it look like they are enforcing immigration laws when in reality they are enacting amnesty through inaction,” he said.

Smith added on Feb. 6, “The Government Accountability Office recently found that less than half of the southwest border is under operational control.”

With the actual unemployment rate in the United States hovering above 15%, it is estimated that 7M illegal aliens currently work in America.

The negative impact of illegal aliens on American workers, who are still suffering through a non-existent recovery, is glaringly apparent. Most illegal aliens arrive in America without even a high school diploma. They accept low wages and often work under the table. And even though they do not pay taxes at the local, state and federal level, they still receive benefits such as healthcare and free education.

Believe it or not, some illegal aliens even receive tax credits and get money back from the Internal Revenue Service. Although exact figures vary, illegal aliens generally cost American taxpayers more than $100B per year.

In a June 22 article for Law Enforcement Today, Juli Adcock uncovered another scheme where refugees are brought into this country, then placed on welfare. In return, their handlers receive kickbacks from these foreigners. Since very little is done in terms of verifying their status, the corruption continues unabated.

A study by the Center for Immigration Studies confirms these findings.

Some 51% of Mexican immigrant households used at least one major welfare program, while 28% used more than one.

Also, 62% of all “undocumented immigrants” in the United States work for cash and don’t pay taxes, leaving American taxpayers to pay out $52B each year to educate the children of illegal aliens.

Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and the author of over 30 books.

Some facts on illegal immigration for the political season

by D.A. King Columnist  

In the Republican-controlled state Capitol, the Georgia General Assembly that ended March 29 was the first legislative session since 2004 in which no (zero!) illegal immigration legislation was passed.

This less than a week after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released an annual report on illegal aliens living in the U.S. and which states contain the most illegals.

Georgia officially ranks number six nationwide and suffers more illegal alien fugitives than Arizona. Georgia unemployment hovers around 9 percent. The conservative estimate is that 7 percent of Georgia’s workforce consists of black-market labor. English is an optional language.

At least one dual language Communist Party banner (“We don’t have an immigration problem, we have a Capitalism problem’) was openly displayed at last week’s May Day organized by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) rally on the Capitol steps demanding an end to any enforcement of American immigration laws. That fact went unreported by nearly all media outlets. But several Democrat state legislators attended.

In 2010, gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal repeatedly promised to “do everything possible” to keep illegal aliens out of publicly funded Georgia universities and Tech Schools. In 2012, Gov. Deal did nothing to fulfill that promise while two such bills expired in the session.

With the business lobby howling about state illegal immigration enforcement that is successfully driving black-market labor out of Georgia, voters should be asking why Deal didn’t mention his signing of the famous HB 87 in his January State of the State list of proud first-year accomplishments.

An extremely important piece of legislation, SB 458 incorporated a ban on illegals in the University System with some badly need corrections to existing state law regarding the way numerous official agencies administer public benefits and collect officially recognized ID. The corrections would have made life much easier for literally every legally present Georgia resident and for numerous official agencies, including virtually all of Georgia’s municipalities and counties, the Department of Driver Services and the Secretary of State office.

The bill had the votes to easily pass — but because of the silence from the governor’s office and the refusal of House leadership to allow a floor vote on SB 458, it is as dead as Pancho Villa. When asked why SB 458 was not called for a floor vote, House legislators continually express their amazement and make it clear no one seems to know. More than one has told this writer “I don’t know, D.A. I am as stunned as you are.”

It is even more of a mystery considering House Speaker David Ralston was integral in passage of last year’s HB 87 by standing up to the lieutenant governor, who was adamantly opposed to the job-saving E-Verify mandate now in state law.

SB 458 also brought forward an urgent public safety, no-brainer issue the now campaigning legislators would do well to remember: The official acceptance of what can only be described as “undocumented foreign passports” as verification of lawful presence in the United States. Currently, illegal aliens who escape capture at our borders and make it to Georgia simply go to their home nation’s Atlanta consulate and then obtain a passport. These issued after-you- arrive-passports do not contain the federally issued documents and stamps proving lawful, inspected entrance through an official border Port of Entry or the date the alien is supposed to go home.

Lacking these U.S. documents is proof that the bearer is here illegally — the opposite of the intent of the law.

Expect undocumented passports to be an unavoidable issue on which candidates for election — and re-election — would do well to have an educated position.

An amusing note: Considering the ongoing, inflammatory and shameless race-baiting struggle by the illegal alien lobby to stop the use of the legally correct and far-too-accurate term “illegal alien” to describe illegal aliens, pro-enforcement Americans are finding it quite difficult to disguise their knowing smiles of vindication at the fact that in the April 1-hour, 20-minute Supreme Court hearing on the Obama/Mexico/ACLU suit against Arizona’s 2010 illegal immigration/public safety law, the term “illegal alien” was used 11 times.

Each time by a Justice. Seven times from the self-described “wise Latina” Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

D.A. King of Marietta is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society and a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration. He has assisted Georgia lawmakers with legislation since 2006.

Underclass workers

By Galan Stewart in Salt Lake Tribune April 27, 2012

It was great to see the editorial "Enforce E-Verify: It’s time to provide penalties" (Our View, April 13).

Utah law "mandates" that all businesses with 15 or more employees use the free federal E-Verify program to determine if prospective employees are legal to work in the United States and to prevent ID theft of names of children for employment purposes.

About 5,461 Utah employers use E-Verify, with about 468 in the hospitality industry — hotels, restaurants and fast food. The hospitality industry has become the primary employer of illegal labor in Utah. Two large hotels have recently been busted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Grand America and Stein Eriksen).

Unlike jobs in manufacturing and technology, jobs in hospitality, construction, farming, etc., cannot be exported to cheap-labor countries such as China, so employers use cheap illegal labor instead.

Illegal labor serves the same purpose as indentured servitude and even slavery. It creates an underclass that must work for depressed wages. This flood of underclass workers suppresses the wages of Americans who would otherwise take these jobs.

E-Verify does not deport anyone; it simply levels the playing field for the unskilled American workers forced into poverty by employers ignoring the law.

Gaylan Stewart

Spanish Fork

There is no California

By Victor Davis Hanson August 16, 2012 

 

Driving across California is like going from Mississippi to Massachusetts without ever crossing a state line.

Consider the disconnects: California's combined income and sales taxes are among the nation's highest, but the state's deficit is still about $16 billion. It's estimated that more than 2,000 upper-income Californians are leaving per week to flee high taxes and costly regulations, yet California wants to raise taxes even higher; its business climate already ranks near the bottom of most surveys. Its teachers are among the highest paid on average in the nation, but its public school students consistently test near the bottom of the nation in both math and science.

The state's public employees enjoy some of the nation's most generous pensions and benefits, but California's retirement systems are underfunded by about $300 billion. The state's gas taxes -- at over 49 cents per gallon -- are among the highest in the nation, but its once unmatched freeways, like 101 and 99, for long stretches have degenerated into potholed, clogged nightmares unchanged since the early 1960s.

The state wishes to borrow billions of dollars to develop high-speed rail, beginning with a little-traveled link between Fresno and Corcoran -- a corridor already served by money-losing Amtrak. Apparently, coastal residents like the idea of European high-speed rail -- as long as noisy and dirty construction does not begin in their backyards.

As gasoline prices soar, California chooses not to develop millions of barrels of untapped oil and even more natural gas off its shores and beneath its interior. Home to bankrupt green companies like Solyndra, California has mandated that a third of all the energy provided by state utilities soon must come from renewable energy sources -- largely wind and solar, which presently provide about 11 percent of its electricity and almost none of its transportation fuel.

How to explain the seemingly inexplicable? There is no California, which is a misnomer. There is no such state. Instead there are two radically different cultures and landscapes with little in common, each equally dysfunctional in quite different ways. Apart they are unworldly, together a disaster.

A postmodern narrow coastal corridor runs from San Diego to Berkeley, where the weather is ideal, the gentrified affluent make good money, and values are green and left-wing. This Shangri-La is juxtaposed to a vast impoverished interior, from the southern desert to the northern Central Valley, where life is becoming premodern.

On the coast, blue-chip universities like Cal Tech, Berkeley, Stanford and UCLA in pastoral landscapes train the world's doctors, lawyers, engineers and businesspeople. In the hot interior of blue-collar Sacramento, Turlock, Fresno and Bakersfield, well over half the incoming freshman in the California State University system must take remedial math and science classes.

In postmodern Palo Alto or Santa Monica, a small cottage costs more than $1 million. Two hours away, in premodern and now-bankrupt Stockton, a bungalow the same size goes for less than $100,000.

In the interior, unemployment in many areas peaks at over 15 percent. The theft of copper wire is reaching epidemic proportions. Thousands of the shrinking middle class flee the interior for the coast or nearby no-income-tax states. To fathom the state's nearly unbelievable statistics -- as the state population grew by 10 million from the mid-1980s to 2005, its number of Medicaid recipients increased by 7 million during that period; one-third of the nation's welfare recipients now reside in California -- visit the state's hinterlands.

But in the Never-Never Land of Apple, Facebook, Google, Hollywood and the wine country, millions live in an idyllic paradise. Coastal Californians can afford to worry about the state's trivia -- as their legislators seek to outlaw foie gras, shut down irrigation projects to save the 3-inch delta smelt, and allow children to have legally recognized multiple parents.

But in the less feel-good interior, crippling regulations curb timber, gas and oil, and farm production. For the most part, the rules are mandated by coastal utopians who have little idea where the gas for their imported cars comes from, or how the redwood is cut for their decks, or who grows the ingredients for their Mediterranean lunches of arugula, olive oil and pasta.

On the coast, it's politically incorrect to talk of illegal immigration. In the interior, residents see first-hand the bankrupting effects on schools, courts and health care when millions arrive illegally without English-language fluency or a high school diploma -- and send back billions of dollars in remittances to Mexico and other Latin American countries.

The drive from Fresno to Palo Alto takes three hours, but you might as well be rocketing from Earth to the moon.

Obama Favors Illegal Aliens Over U.S. Citizens And Safety

Conservative Daily August 9, 2012

Amnesty for More Than One Million illegal aliens … Including Criminals!

“We feel like the administration is against us and not against those who are violating our laws,” says Chris Crane, President of the National ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) Council.

Desperate to win re-election in November and unable to run on his dismal record, Obama continues to divide America in order to conquer another four years in the White House.

• To get the gay community’s vote, he went on national television and said he supported same-sex marriage.
• To get the women’s vote, he accused Republicans of launching a “war on women” and put free birth control in the headlines when he should have been concentrating on our flailing economy.
• To get the welfare vote, he issued an executive order essentially overturning welfare-to-work requirements that had been painstakingly legislated over a decade ago through a bipartisan Congress.

Now, his focus is on the Hispanic vote. He’s working to get the DREAM Act into law, even expanding the parameters of the original bill, despite the fact that Congress wouldn’t pass it because the American people were so opposed to it.

This new amnesty policy will provide safe harbor to millions of illegal aliens, including criminals and will lead to a “capitulation to lawlessness” according to Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL).

Senator Sessions calls Obama’s plan “a direct threat to the rule of law and to the demonstrated desire of the American people for a lawful system of immigration. I believe this administration has utilized this policy to basically undermine and negate the ability our local police and immigration officers to do what they have been hired and paid to do.”

Morale among ICE agents is, expectedly, “In the toilet,” according to a recent report. Crane says “Most of the guys out in the field are just in an uproar.” After all, they really aren’t needed because the Obama administration refuses to let them do what they were hired to do, and they are afraid to speak out against Obama’s policies for fear of losing their jobs.

The Department of Homeland Security will implement the new amnesty plan—also known as “deferred action”—on August 15^th.  At that time, illegal aliens caught using a stolen or fraudulent Social Security number will not be charged with a crime.

Illegal aliens convicted of felonies or misdemeanors can be allowed to stay.

And anyone who claims they are under thirty and have been in the United States since age 16 will be granted amnesty.

Sessions says Obama has “debilitated enforcement – placing every officer in a conflict between his duty to enforce the law – and the policies of his supervisors. If this stays in effect, I’d say this ends the ability to have effective border security.”

In fact, more than 1,200 illegal aliens whose cases were pending, or who were about to be deported, have been granted the ability to stay. Beginning August 15^th, millions more will be able to latch onto the President’s amnesty and avoid deportation—even if they have been convicted of one or more crimes.

Consider the implications of such a plan.  Already, an illegal alien who injured an ICE agent during an attempted escape was released because he wasn’t a “priority target!”

And in Newark, Delaware, a veteran ICE agent is facing a 3-day suspension because he picked up an illegal alien for a traffic violation and found the man had ten previous violations. Under Obama’s orders, the man was not considered a priority and was supposed to be let go. Believing the man was a threat to the community, and wanting to carry out his job of border enforcement, the ICE agent refused. Now, the American citizen agent is facing a suspension and the 35 year-old illegal alien has been released.

The American people are going to be increasingly unsafe because of Obama’s shameless pandering. Sure, you or a family member could be killed or injured in an accident involving an illegal alien, but traffic violations are just the tip of the iceberg. Consider the time, pain, and expense of having to deal with an illegal alien using your Social Security number, as a mother of a 3 year-olds stolen number just discovered.

The Department of Homeland Security has refused to answer questions about Obama’s amnesty order.

Don’t you think we deserve answers? And don’t we deserve a President who keeps us safe and protects American citizens above those who have illegally entered this country?

‘Big Ag’ Favors Illegal Immigration

May 28, 2012   AFP   By Keith Johnson 

Thousands of illegal aliens have fled the southeastern United States thanks to strict migrant labor laws being enforced in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. This has come as bad news to the multibillion-dollar agriculture industry, which has long relied upon these undocumented workers to provide a hard day’s work in exchange for a slave’s wage.

In an attempt to dissuade other states from following suit, Big Ag has embarked upon a ruthless media campaign, insisting that the recently enacted legislation has crippled the growth of the fruit and vegetable industry and left farmers with no qualified pickers to harvest their crops.

“These businesses make claims that they have produce rotting on the vines, but there’s very little evidence of it,” said Jon Feere, a legal policy analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies, who recently spoke with AFP. “If there’s produce to be pulled, they’re going to find a way to do it. That means paying a better wage that attracts a legal workforce. In many of these states, unemployment is at an all-time high. So to suggest there are no willing workers is just silly.”

Contrary to an oft-recited cliché, said Feere: “There is no job that Americans can’t do. What these businesses are really saying is that they can’t find willing workers to pull produce at the wages they’re willing to offer.”

Feere goes on to say that even if farms did have trouble finding workers, other options are still available. “Most industries can be mechanized so that fewer humans are needed for harvesting,” he said. “However, there are some upfront costs to mechanization, and businesses have been unwilling to invest in the needed technology because they assume there will be a continuous supply of cheap, exploitable labor.”

Concerns that a higher wage will drive up food prices are unfounded. According to Feere: “We’ve learned that the average labor cost for a piece of produce is somewhere around three cents to a dollar. These businesses could actually double the wages they were offering and you really wouldn’t see more than a few pennies tacked on.”

This reporter also spoke with D.A. King, president and founder of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society. King has been deeply involved in the creation of Georgia’s illegal immigration legislation since 2004. He tells AFP that farmers have long had the option of legally hiring foreign nationals through the H-2A guest worker program.

However, according to King: “The agriculture industry which collects taxpayer benefits in the form of subsidies, is now howling that it’s too expensive to obey the law. Here in the state of Georgia, during last year’s legislative process, the Ag lobbyist came to committee in a very arrogant manner and told everybody that the H-2A program is ‘like a Cadillac, and not everybody can afford it.’”

King goes on to say that part of the Ag lobby’s agenda is to put these illegal laborers on a path to citizenship. “But if you legalize the laborer who is working in a 110° onion field in south Georgia, those people are going to go to work in an air-conditioned Walmart, thereby still leaving a big hole,” said King. “The farmers are still going to have to either raise the wages or continue to hire the next wave of illegal aliens.”

Human Trafficking

Insight – Organized Crime in America

The United Nations estimates that human trafficking through the Americas represents a $7 billion per year business for organized criminal groups. They draw this money from the nearly three million people, mostly immigrants from the region moving north to the United States, who relocate every year, paying between $2,000 and $10,000 per trip.

The reasons for these migrations include economic hardship, political persecution, and family ties. These migrants have become vital providers for their families at home. Remittances sent from the United States to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala represent close to ten percent of the GDP of these three countries combined.

Organized criminal gangs exploit these vulnerabilities. They extort entire families, sometime several times over several different borders, during one single trip. The gangs also sell their cargo into indentured servitude where they are virtually enslaved until they pay off their “debts.”

The massive trade in humans starts as far south as Argentina and almost always passes through Mexico. The entry points, while often well guarded, rarely change. They include Tijuana, Mexicali, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros. The migrants are often held in “safe-houses” on the U.S. side while relatives or friends pay off the remaining sums demanded by the traffickers. The vast majority – close to 90 percent – are from Mexico.

Most of the rest come from Central America. These Central American migrants pay more money and face more obstacles en route, including criminal gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha 13, drug trafficking groups like the Zetas and corrupt police who kidnap and extort them during their journey. Still, the United Nations estimates that many of the migrant smuggling routes are still controlled by smaller, “mom and pop” operations.

Other migrants include Chinese who are trafficked through Latin America, most notably Colombia and the Darien Gap in Panama, on their way to the United States. Wealthier Asians are known to purchase false passports in places like Guatemala and Venezuela, which allow them to transit into European countries like Spain easier.

Migrants are often used as mules to carry drugs and other contraband.

Resources

• “Posture Statement of General Douglas M. Fraser,” United Air Force Commander, United States Southern Command, before the House Armed Services Committee, 18 March 2010. (pdf)
• “The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment,” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 17 June 2010.
• Trafficking in Victims Protection Act·(United States, 28 October 2000).·
• "Trafficking in Persons Report 2010," United States Department of State.

SEEING RED WHEN GREEN CARDS LEAD TO PINK SLIPS FOR AMERICANS

BY Michael W. Cutler - December 2, 2011 (Part II of II)

Consider the H-1b visa. This is the category of nonimmigrant visa that is often given to high tech workers such as computer programmers.

Consider that Green Cards that signify that an alien has been granted lawful immigrant status may be granted such status based on a number of factors, with their professions being one such factor.

On May 15, 2007 an infuriating video was aired on Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN. The video runs about four and a half minutes and features an immigration lawyers’ conference in which lawyers were being coached to “not find qualified U.S. workers!” The lecturer who is instructing the attorneys is a guy by the name of Lawrence M. Lebowitz, the Vice President of Marketing for the firm of Cohen & Grigsby. This video was posted on You Tube by the Programmer Guild, an organization that is comprised of computer programmers.

This video was, I believe, made clandestinely. This is the link to that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU&feature=player_embedded

The American Express commercials have used the phrase, “Membership has its advantages.” It is time that the American government embrace a similar phrase- I would suggest, “Citizenship has its advantages!”

It is time for our nation’s leaders, on all levels, to come to terms with the fundamental fact that the purpose of our immigration laws is to protect our nation and our citizens from aliens whose presence has the potential to have a serious adverse impact. Ignoring those laws exposes our nation and our citizens to a variety of serious threats and challenges ranging from national security and criminal justice and public safety to the economy, the environment, healthcare and education!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!

We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.

My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.

The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

The practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

For far too long our citizens demonstrated apathy which emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups.

It is therefore understandable that the politicians of both parties, are greatly concerned about the demonstrations currently sweeping our nation just as did the creation of the Tea Party. Clearly more and more of our fellow Americans are demonstrating that they are not as dumb as the politicians from both parties had expected us to be!

I am encouraged that more and more of us, We the People, are not willing to simply sit on the sidelines anymore!

I believe our nation’s is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world. However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda!

If our government’s failure to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport! Lead, follow or get out of the way!