Border Security Is Not Always About Illegals

     

      There, on a modest, bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, a poem is etched.  The words bring life to the towering monument it serves as awe-inspired visitors silently hang on the meaning of every written line.  The American essence, if for just a moment, finds perfect perspective in a sonnet...

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

      But how should the visitor interpret this, today?  Is this a carte blanche call for amnesty of illegal immigrants living inside the U.S.?  Should suspected affiliates of terrorist organizations be permitted reentry into America?  Is it permissible for gravely ill Ebola victims to be admitted for medical treatment?  

      Politicians frequently cite the language in this poem to rally emotional support for immigration reform.  Often inspiring pro-amnesty sentiments, these politicians encumber America with a perverse moral obligation to accept illegal entrants to this country.  With little realistic concern for national security or the general health and wellness of American public works, politicians sensationalize the desperation of immigrants intruding upon our borders and strive to increase their civil protections.  In a humiliating effort to reduce federal law in a sovereign country and court the ever-increasing hispanic vote in America, red and blue politicians downplay the importance of the naturalization process and avoid any fear-mongering reference to "border security."

      Well, here's a wake up call, America.  Border security isn't just about illegal migrant workers, refugee children, and expired work visas.  It's also about terrorism, drug trade, sex trafficking, and healthcare!  Do the people involved in terrorist acts, exportation of drugs, sale of women and children, and spread of deathly illnesses sound like "your huddled masses yearning to breathe free?"  Politicians need to get serious about border control and give the Emma Lazarus "Huddled Masses" soundtrack a breather. 

      Emma Lazarus, the poet of the afore written poem, was not a constitutional scholar.  Neither was she a TSA agent, a law enforcement officer, a uniformed service member, or a healthcare practitioner.  She wouldn't have to frisk a bomb-laden airline passenger, interdict a shipment of drugs, or disinfect the sores of an Ebola victim.   

      A well-intending and inspirational writer, Lazarus rightly captures America's longstanding reputation to charitably and hospitably welcome the world's endangered, disaffected, and persecuted.  But a reasonable reader should avoid the overly romantic belief that all of the world's people come here to obey American laws, speak the national language, and become proud U.S. citizens.  There are very real threats to the health and security of this country.  Reducing the importance of border security with a 36-word sonnet seems a bit shallow.  Don't you think?

      Politicians would more deftly serve their constituents by playing the Francis Scott Key "Miraculous Flag of My Awesome Country" soundtrack.  The final stanza of his Defence of Fort McHenry ("The Star-Spangled Banner") reads like a thankful and proud free man...

O!  thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!