Americans Are Dying at the Hands of Illegal Immigrants. Build the Damn Wall.

December 12, 2018

Why are we still discussing the border wall? Haven’t enough Americans died yet? Illegal immigration has been a thorn in America’s side for over three decades. Thanks to the inaction of our elected officials, approximately 60,000 Americans die each year at the hands of illegal immigrants. Most of these deaths are the result of people dying from overdoses of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine. 30,000 Americans die each year from overdoses of fentanyl and 16,000 die from overdoses of heroin. Another 15,000 die from overdoses of cocaine. Eighty percent of these drugs enter our country through our southern border. Do the math. The drugs coming in through our southern border kill 48,000 Americans each year. The Government Accounting Office (GAO) estimates that each year over 5,000 Americans are victims of homicide at the hands of illegal immigrants. These homicides include Americans who are outright murdered and deaths caused by unlicensed, uninsured illegals on our highways. The total number of Americans killed by illegals is almost 60,000 per year.

How should we classify these dead Americans? Should we just put them into the category of collateral damage? Maybe we should just say that sacrifices have to be made so that Democrats can get more votes and make our country more socially just. Nancy Pelosi recently stated that it would be immoral to build a border wall. What’s immoral, Mrs. Pelosi, is that you and others of your ilk continue sacrificing American lives for the sake of illegal immigrants.

People like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and other bleeding-heart liberals want you to think that they actually care about these people. Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that their only motivations are gaining political power and obstructing the President. They have a virtual scorched-earth policy. They will do anything, sacrifice anyone, sell out their own country and their fellow citizens to obtain power. Nothing is off the table. 

In addition to the human cost of illegals, the murders, the rapes, the drugs and the deaths that they cause, there is also a financial cost to the country. Proponents of illegal immigration argue that illegals pay taxes and contribute to the economy. What they don’t tell you is that the cost to the US taxpayer is far greater than what they contribute. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates that the combined cost of these illegals to federal, state, and local governments is $135B per year. When you take into account the amount that they contribute in taxes, which is $19B per year, the number nets out to $116B per year. Another fact that those who advocate for these illegals, and the complicit media, never tell you is that between twenty and twenty-five percent of the money they make while here is sent out of the country to their families. FAIR also estimates that the total number of illegals in our country, including DACA, is 12.5 million. Other estimates range as high as 22 million. As I have written numerous times on this blog, our country is $22T in debt with absolutely no possibility of ever paying it off. Our debt will just continue to grow until we are unable to continue borrowing. When we reach that point we will be defenseless and at the mercy of our enemies. The bottom line is that even with their contribution to the economy and the amount of tax revenue that illegals generate, it’s still costing the American taxpayer tens of billions of dollars every year. Also, with more and more illegals invading our country every year, this cost will only increase.

Another argument touted by the left is that the crime rate for illegal immigrants is lower than that of native-born Americans. While this claim may be true, the logic of their argument is flawed. Their premise is that the greater the number of illegals we let into our country the less crime we will have. In addition to being totally untrue, this argument is irrelevant. If there is a larger number of people living in the country, there will be a larger number of crimes committed. Whether or not the crime rate is lower is irrelevant. What is relevant is that if these people were not here those dead Americans would still be alive. The women and children who were raped and brutalized by illegals would not be suffering from the trauma of those attacks. Where is the outrage? Has this become so commonplace that it is now acceptable? It is a sad situation when Americans feel more sympathy for illegals than for their own countrymen.

Why is this being allowed to continue? It’s continuing because the more poor immigrants that are allowed into this country, the more Democrat votes there will eventually be. The other reason is that social change requires sacrifice. And just who, you ask, will be sacrificed? Just about everybody who is working for a living or who has worked for a living and has now retired. People like my wife and I who have worked hard our entire lives and are able to supplement our social security with investment income. There are other Americans who after working their entire lives supplement their social security with pensions. The wealthy, some of whom are working or still in business, will probably be hit the hardest. The short version is that Democrats want socialism, and if you work for a living, socialism is not cheap. The plan is to get back to Barack Obama’s first two years in office when the Democrats had both Houses of Congress and a veto proof majority in the Senate. At that point they would also have the White House and could pass any legislative agenda they wanted. Their agenda would be to tax everybody to death, provide Medicare for all, universal basic income, free tuition, defund our military, and at that point we would all live together in peace and harmony and sing folk songs. If that wouldn’t make you vomit, I don’t know what would.

I am not unsympathetic to the plight of these people. However, when one’s mind leaves nirvana and returns to the real world, it becomes apparent that the US can barely afford to deal with its own problems, let alone the problems of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Just look at our European allies. Half of them are in a lot worse financial shape than we are. Some of them are on the verge of going under. They took in millions of refugees from North Africa with open arms. They are now dealing with the unintended consequences of their decisions. Native-born citizens are unhappy with the refugees and the refugees aren’t happy with their situation. They think that the government owes them a better living. Most of these refugees have not assimilated into their new environment and jobs are not plentiful. It’s not a good situation for either side. If this influx of uneducated and unskilled migrants continues here, we will suffer the same fate.

Most Americans do not agree with the open border policy of the left. This open border policy became even more distasteful to many Americans this past week when two splinter groups from the current caravan delivered letters to border patrol officials demanding a $50,000 payment for each migrant. In return, they would go back to their home country. Of course, we all know that if we met their demands there would be 50 million people banging on our southern border asking for money. So now in addition to being murderers, rapists, and drug smugglers, they have added the crime of extortion to their resume. Don’t worry, they are still committing crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans.

The US is a sovereign nation. It therefore has the right, and more importantly the duty, to secure its borders and protect its citizens. Building a border wall is just one part of accomplishing that mission. As tax-paying citizens who pay billions at the federal, state, and local levels of government for law enforcement, we deserve to get what we pay for.

Senator Schumer and Nancy Pelosi were at the White House last week discussing this very subject with the President. During this discussion Senator Schumer stated that, according to “the experts,” border walls are not effective. To show you just how disingenuous Senator Schumer is, he is well aware of the fact that Israel has constructed a border wall which surrounds, virtually the entire nation of Israel. It is roughly five hundred miles long and has cut illegal border crossings to almost zero. In addition, terrorist attacks have decreased by ninety percent. Border walls do work senator, so do your job, build the wall, and save 60,000 American lives every year.

Border wall, West Bank

My final reason for building “the wall” is because we now have a new threat right here in the western hemisphere. For the past few years the Chinese have been approaching countries like Greece, Djibouti, and Portugal who are strapped for cash, and offering their assistance. This assistance comes with a price. Although I do not know the exact terms of this generosity, the three countries listed above have either leased land to the Chinese for the purpose of installing military bases, or, in the case of Greece, given China access or possibly even control of a Greek port.

The latest endeavor by another country who is hostile to the US, Russia, are advances to the bankrupt country of Venezuela. The Russians—and probably to a lesser extent, the Chinese—are talking to President Nicholas Maduro about helping his country survive financially. My guess is that the price will be a military base in Venezuela. If that’s not a direct threat, or as they say in the intelligence business, a clear and present danger to the US, I don’t know what is. In the 1960s the Soviet Union tried to install a missile base in Cuba. Missiles launched from that base would have been capable of hitting the mainland US. President Kennedy invoked the Monroe Doctrine as the reason for blockading the island of Cuba. The result was that the Russians turned their ships around and brought their missiles back home. My feeling in this case is that it won’t be as easy to convince the Russians to turn around. If illegal immigrants can enter our country through our southern border, how difficult do you think it will be for trained soldiers to sneak in?

A couple weeks ago I watched an old Jimmy Stewart movie on TCM. As I was writing this post and thinking about how our elected officials have put politics above what’s best for the country, I began to think about another Jimmy Stewart movie. In my view Jimmy Stewart’s most memorable character was Mr. Smith. The movie was called, “Mr. Smith goes to Washington.” Where is Mr. Smith when we need him? The truth is that right about now we could use a few dozen Mr. Smiths.