Mainers For Responsible Immigration

 The Honorable Senator Susan Collins: I read of your proposed compromise to end the federal shutdown, and I was appalled by your suggestions. In his January 4, 2019 letter to Congress, President Trump says: “…. our first task should be to reopen the Government and to deliver on our highest duty as elected official: the security of the Nation and its borders.” Why are you selling out our President? As stated by the President, your highest duty is to the security of our nation After your vote in 2013 for S.744, that atrocious “comprehensive immigration reform” bill that, I truly wonder where you loyalties lie. When was the last time you read Article. IV. Section. 4. of the U.S. Constitution? “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion….” What is going on at our southern border is an “invasion.” Have you blinders on? Haven’t you seen the videos of young out of control throwing rocks at our Border Patrol agents, and attempting to scale our fences? You should be supporting President Trump; he is trying to protect us, and you are selling us out.

A physical barrier on a nation’s border is a-moral. Neither immoral, nor moral, but rather a physical entity created for some purpose. The purpose may be immoral, like the Berlin Wall, designed to keep people from fleeing communist totalitarianism imposed by force of arms by the might of the Red Army. The purpose may be moral, like the Israeli border wall designed too keep suicidal terrorists from blowing up teenagers at a pizza parlor.

So what would be the purpose of a wall on the southern border of the United States? To keep people from fleeing to Mexico to avoid the strictures of the Bill of Rights? Or to reduce the incidence of MS-13 gang-bangers killing junior high-school students on Long Island?

Cassandra

The local newspaper recently featured two opinion pieces, one advocating immigration as was way to follow the teachings of Christ, and another today extolling how personally enriching it was to interact with a certain immigrant family. This is relevant to the policy implications of mass immigration to the social, environmental and economic interests of Maine citizens. The assertion that immigration makes the authors feel good about themselves does not inform the need to institute policies that reduce social rancor, raise wages and avoid additional congestion of our cities, schools and jails. There are plenty of needy, and worthy people who are our neighbors and fellow citizens, who these authors could assist and help, and obtain the grace and fulfillment they recommend to the reader. One suspects the authors recognize that it is more effective to signal one’s virtue to the public by saying you loving a stranger, than in the actual work of loving your neighbor.

Issues of the day and the problems of mass immigration and thoughts on public policies that affect it: Scroll down and feel free to comment.

A physical barrier always makes management of human traffic easier. Amusement parks, for example are fenced off to manage entry. And though the fence can be climbed or cut or tunneled under, it discourages most people from entering the park without paying. Likewise, a border wall, or a fence, or any physical barrier discourages illegal entry and reduces the resources required to manage the border.

The current system of allowing most of the border to be open terrain is highly inefficient and objectively ineffective.

The resistance of our elected officials to the construction of a wall is a troubling indicator of their lack of seriousness about controlling illegal entry.