Immigration Border Crisis

The wave of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border of the United States stirs heated debate, threatens America’s national security and paves the way for the prophesied one-world government.

 

By Rick Brinegar

“A lot of these people that are coming in from Central America have dangerous diseases. It’s a potential for a major epidemic,” said one of dozens of demonstrators who had gathered in downtown Dallas on July 18, 2014 to object to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkin’s effort to bring 2,000 undocumented immigrant children to the county for care. “We have many needy people here,” said another protestor. “There is no reason to be breaking laws. Clay Jenkins is being a law breaker.”

 

Others who had gathered there to support the plan to take in the immigrant children said that it is our human responsibility to care for the children. “Leaders can empower grace and mercy or incite fear and anger,” said Judge Jenkins, “but it’s the community that responds. Dallas County residents have overwhelmingly chosen compassion.”

 

There has been an emotional nationwide debate about the ongoing undocumented immigration surge across the southern border between the United States and Mexico. Church and government leaders have pleaded for compassion. When President Obama requested 3.7 billion dollars for the 50,000-plus immigrant children who had crossed the border, opponents argued that with a 17 trillion-dollar national debt, the United States just can’t afford it. Immigration reform amnesty, they contended, threatens to destroy the nation.

Dealing with the Ongoing Crisis

Lawmakers in the United States Congress continue to wrangle over how to deal with the ongoing crisis of the flood of mostly unaccompanied minors who have been fleeing violence and poverty in Central America to cross illegally into the United States. In June 2014 it was estimated that undocumented immigrants were streaming across the southern border of the United States at the rate of about 1,000 per day. By law, they must be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services, which works to find family or friends in the U.S. where the children can live while their deportation cases are being processed.

 

Some blame a 2008 law for the surge of undocumented minors. The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act provides for an advocate and court date to children who arrive illegally from non-neighboring countries.

 

The Obama administration does not send any of these undocumented children home. Instead, federal officials allow this wave of illegal minor immigrants to apply for green cards by applying for asylum. In the meantime, thousands of undocumented teenagers and children are currently being bused to different areas of the United States. Many are released, if they promise to return for a hearing, because there is no place to hold them.

Over 1,000 Illegals Dumped in Louisiana

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana announced that the federal government dumped over a thousand illegal immigrants in his state without notifying anyone in the state of their plan. “In my state,” he complained, “the Obama administration sent over a thousand children without telling us, without telling social services, without telling the schools.”

Protesters Blockade Buses Transporting Illegals

In July 2014, protestors in Murrieta, California began shouting, “Impeach Obama!” and “Deport! Deport!” as they confronted busloads of about 140 undocumented immigrants. The undocumented mothers and their children had been held in Texas where U.S. facilities are so overflowing that detainees are sent to other states for processing. The buses were forced to turn around and the immigrants were taken to the U.S. Border Patrol’s San Ysidro Station in San Diego.

Biden on Border Crisis: “These are Our Kids”

Vice President Joe Biden met with Central American leaders in Guatemala to discourage minors from making the perilous trip. “Make no mistake,” he said, “once an individual’s case is fully heard, and if he or she does not qualify for asylum, he or she will be removed from the United States and returned home. Everyone should know that.”

 

In a meeting of attorneys and legal groups formed to discuss representation of the thousands of children who have illegally entered the U.S., Vice President Biden said that the United States would be judged by how it treats these children. He warned that the U.S. would be forced to send some minors back to dangerous environments. “These are not somebody else’s kids,” he said, “these are our kids.”

Morality and the “Invasion” of the Children

At issue is the conflict between the humanitarian imperative to help children in need vs. the demand for border security and the need for jobs and limited public services in cash-strapped American cities. Dr. Russell D. Moore, President of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has called for sympathy and understanding in dealing with the immigrant surge. “As Christians, we don’t have to agree on all the details of public policy,” he said, “to agree that our response ought to be, first, one of compassion for those penned up in detention centers on the border.”

Pope Francis: “Children…must be Welcomed”

As he addressed the Mexico-Holy See Colloquium on Migration, Pope Francis voiced his opposition to “racist and xenophobic attitudes” that often face undocumented immigrants. “This humanitarian emergency requires,” he said, “as a first urgent measure, these children be welcomed and protected.”

Unaccompanied Children Fear Conditions Back Home

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees found that 58 percent of the unaccompanied children are motivated by safety concerns. The majority of undocumented immigrants are teenagers from countries that are known for criminal and gang activity, with high rates of murder and drug smuggling. Most of them are not from Mexico. Three out of four illegal aliens captured by the Border Patrol are from Central American countries such as Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Criminals Too – Not Just Needy Children

Criminal cartels and terrorist organizations are tirelessly working to exploit undefended American borders. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in July 2014, that a lot of people coming across the border are here “for criminal purposes”. “In addition to the tens of thousands of children and women who are coming across the border,” he revealed in a Fox News interview, “we are seeing very dangerous cartel members, MS-13 gang members, some of the worst of the worst.”

Border Crisis Opportunity for ISIS

Experts have asserted that the border crisis could provide cover for Islamic terrorists attempting to sneak sleeper cells into the United States. Of the estimated 60,000 who have surged across the border illegally, there is a small percentage of “Special Interest Aliens”, or SIAs. “The one thing that all of the squabbling jihad groups in the Middle East and North Africa have in common,” according to retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, “is that they want to strike the U.S., both for what they view as vengeance and because, in terrorist circles, striking the U.S. is how you confirm that you’re a major player.” Texas Governor Rick Perry agrees that the record wave of illegal immigrants includes large numbers of SIAs.

 

On September 10, 2014 Francis Taylor, Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed to Congress that there is an active plot by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to attempt to cross the southern border and enter the United States.

A “Manufactured” Crisis?

In July 2014, Governor Perry ordered the deployment of up to 1,000 National Guard troops to the Texas southern border, in support of Operation Strong Safety, which focuses on combating criminal activity in the region. Governor Perry believes that increased lawlessness in the region is directly related to the federal government’s failure to secure the border. Both Governor Perry and Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, have accused the president of purposefully creating an environment on the border so that Congress or the President is forced to enact some sort of amnesty. “I think the White House, they make a lot of mistakes, but I think they knew what would happen,” said Sheriff Joe. “I think they wanted the controversy so they could either force Congress to do something or he’ll shove some more executive orders down our throats.” Governor Perry was quoted as saying, “We either have an incredibly inept administration or they’re in on this somehow or another.”

A Border Crisis and a Health Crisis

Doctors are troubled about the public health risk that the thousands of teenagers and children streaming across the border may be posing. The Obama administration has failed to subject a large number of these children to proper medical screening processes. “We don’t know what diseases they have currently,” said Dr. Austin King, the President of the Texas Medical Association. “They need to be screened because of a humanitarian gesture but also because of the public health standpoint.”

 

By law, when the federal government sends unaccompanied minors to various U.S. locations to live with relatives or as foster wards, they must be allowed to enroll in local taxpayer-funded public schools, with no questions asked, even if they have no home and no documentation concerning their health or immunization status. California attorney Orly Taitz maintains that the transport of unscreened immigrants to other states spreads scabies, tuberculosis, measles, whooping cough, swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and lice.

Obama: “I’m Going to have to Act Alone”

In August 2014, President Obama accused House Republicans of trying to pass an extreme and unworkable version of an immigration bill even though they knew it could not succeed in the Senate. “I’m going to have to act alone,” he said, “because the government is running out of money to deal with it.”

An “Excuse to do Nothing”

In September 2014, when President Obama discussed his reasons for postponing executive action on immigration reform, he accused Republicans of using the surge of undocumented immigrant children as an “excuse to do nothing.” According to President Obama, the surge of unaccompanied children drew a lot of attention. “And a lot of Americans started thinking, ‘We’ve got this immigration crisis on our hands,’” he said. “So, the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem.” He also denied that the real reason he is waiting is that he has been pressured by Democrats to hold off on controversial executive actions until vulnerable Senate reelection races are over.

Executive Action So that Illegals “Can be Legal”

President Obama also said in September that “in the absence of congressional action,” he would take unilateral action so that illegal aliens can “be legal”. The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the authority over the immigration process. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution states: “Congress shall have power … to establish a uniform rule of naturalization.” House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer said that President Obama “can’t legalize” the illegal aliens in the United States. “He can’t make them citizens,” he said, “not according to the law.” Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, and other congressional colleagues, emphasized that the President must follow the Constitution. They called President Obama’s plan to take unilateral action to legalize illegal aliens “lawless”.

 

One of the things the President could do is direct the immigration apparatus of the federal government to act as if amnesty has been already passed. We will see whether the President presumes authority to use executive action to “legalize” the illegal aliens in the United States following the mid-term elections in November.

DACA Blamed for the Surge

Senate Republicans have been accused of blocking immigration reform and voting to deport unaccompanied minors instead of protecting their right to due process. Republicans have made it clear that they oppose Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the federal program which allows undocumented minors, who have been brought to the United States illegally as children, to remain in the U.S. temporarily, and work and receive Social Security numbers, without fear of being deported.

 

DACA does not apply to the flood of Central American children crossing the border because the program requires U.S. residency since 2007. Nevertheless, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and other Republicans blame the border crisis on DACA, because it creates the expectation that minors arriving illegally will be able to eventually get legal status.

National ID Hidden in Immigration Reform Bill S.744

An 867-page-long immigration reform bill was introduced by New York Senator Charles Schumer and passed by the U.S. Senate on June 27, 2013. The official title of this bill is “S.744 – Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” Also known as the Gang of Eight amnesty bill, because of its support by a bipartisan group of eight senators, S.744 would have granted amnesty to the approximately 12 million illegal aliens in the United States and would have dramatically increased legal immigration.

 

According to the New York Times, S.744 concealed a national biometric database of U.S. workers. Driver’s licenses, photographs and biometric information of most Americans “would have been accessible through an expanded Department of Homeland Security nationwide computer network.” The bill had called for implementing “photo tools” as an “identity authentication mechanism”. The Department of Homeland Security database would have expanded the E-Verify system to be mandatory nationally to confirm worker eligibility. Senator Schumer had previously stated that he wanted a biometric national ID, which “is used in all instances the Social Security card is used.”

Concern: E-Verify, Photo Tool “…will Become a National ID”

The “gang of eight”, a group of four Republicans and four Democrats who worked on the bipartisan immigration bill, determined early on to drop the idea of a high tech biometric ID card in favor of the expansion of E-Verify. E-Verify is a program offered by the federal government which allows employers to run prospective employees’ information through government databases to check on employment eligibility. Expansion of E-Verify would have included the addition of a facial recognition “photo tool”, and would have made it mandatory for all employers. Anyone who applied for a job anywhere in the United States would have had to have been screened through the E-Verify system.

 

Although U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is in favor of the passage of an immigration reform bill, he opposed S.744 because of the “photo tool” expansion of E-Verify, and because the bill failed to provide for a secure southern border. Regarding the E-Verify and “photo tool” employment verification methods, Paul wrote in the Washington Times, “I worry that they go too far…I will fight to remove the photo tool from this legislation because I think it will become a national ID.” If an electronic employment verification system were in place, the government could easily extend it to other uses such as housing, financial services, health care or travel. Charles Kuck, a Georgia immigration lawyer, countered that, “Without the photo tool, all you’re checking is the name and Social Security number of somebody. It does nothing to stop identity theft.”

Immigration Reform Stalled in the House

Even before the Senate version of immigration reform was passed, House Speaker John Boehner asserted that he planned to make it difficult for a similar measure to succeed in the U.S. House of Representatives. “The House is not going to take up and vote on whatever the Senate passes,” he said. “We’re going to do our own bill, through regular order.”

 

As S.744 was passed by the Senate in 2013, the Federation for American Immigration Reform issued a statement claiming that the bill would have rewarded 12 million illegal aliens, flooded the labor market, increased unemployment and driven down wages of American workers. The president of FAIR, Dan Stein, vowed to work with members of the House of Representatives to produce a “workable plan to secure our borders, enforce immigration laws in the interior of the country, and protect American jobs and tax dollars.”

SAFE Act

It seemed unlikely that Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress would be able to agree on all provisions of a comprehensive immigrations bill. So, the SAFE Act, HB 2278, was created by the House of Representatives in an attempt to split up immigration reform into individual bills. SAFE stands for Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement. The bill emphasized that enforcement has to come before any attempt to fix the broken immigration system. The SAFE Act would give authority to state and local law enforcement agencies to identify, arrest, detain and charge undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Religious groups that minister to immigrant communities are concerned that it would not only make it a federal crime to be undocumented in the U.S., this law would also make it a criminal offense to be associated with any undocumented immigrant.

Blanket Amnesty – an Easy Solution to the Social Security Crisis?

Some have suggested that a massive influx of younger, amnestied immigrants will work “on the books” and pay their share into the Social Security fund. Ben Wattenberg, of the American Enterprise Institute, has argued that increased immigration is the “easy solution to the Social Security crisis.” However, according to NumbersUSA, it is a myth that an amnesty for illegal aliens, and increased legal immigration on top of that, would solve the Social Security funding crisis. It would only remedy a small portion of the Social Security deficit. Also, the Heritage Foundation concluded in 2007 that low-skilled immigrants consume far more dollars-worth of government services than they pay in taxes, inflicting a heavy burden on the American taxpayer.

Nations Without Borders

As we hear spokespersons, commentators, pundits and immigration “experts” comment about the borders crisis, we find very little emphasis on securing the border between the United States and Mexico. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has told us with a straight face that our southern border is secure, even though the massive surge of illegal minors from Central America has overwhelmed federal agencies. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson warned Congress in July 2014 that as many as 90,000 illegal minors would be apprehended by the end of September.

“Forged in the Heat of Conflict”

In 1972, the Club of Rome proposed dividing up the earth into ten geopolitical regions. Region number one consists of Canada, the United States and Mexico. In 2002, a conference on North American integration called “Toward a North American Community” was held in Washington, DC. Representatives from Canada, Mexico and the United States met to discuss how to re-shape beliefs about national sovereignty and identity to create a North American Union. At the conference Stephanie R. Golob of the Council on Foreign Relations indicated that the United States was “the greatest obstacle to this process” of integration into a globalized system. Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Bruce Stokes told the conference that if we are to come to terms with globalization we must “embrace the rough spots” like illegal immigration. He went on to say that a true North American Community will be “forged in the heat of conflict, not through a rational discussion.” 

Kindness to the Sojourner

Kelly Monroe Kullberg, of Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration, maintains that, although the Bible teaches us to be kind to the sojourner or “resident alien”, it also requires that we not be unjust to local citizens and their unique culture. “We should secure our borders,” she wrote in a letter to members of Congress. She went on to urge lawmakers to work to “pay off our national debt, give jobs to millions of unemployed Americans, and become a productive nation, once again, in order to sustain voluntary generosity to our neighbors and to the world.” This seems to be the Biblical approach to the immigration problem. God wants us to treat the “sojourner” with respect and dignity. God loves the “sojourner”. He also loves the citizen.

Nation-States Ordained by God

In Genesis 11, we see where God first established nations as a judgment against an attempt to start the first world government. After the flood, God instructed Noah and his sons to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” But many of the descendants of Noah and his sons rejected God’s command to spread out over the earth. Instead, they stayed grouped together in one place and devised a plan to build a very high tower, the Tower of Babel, and to make a great name for themselves. They were united, but they were united in opposition to God. The Lord scattered the world’s population and created the diverse languages in an effort to subvert man’s efforts to unite in a global kingdom under a false universal religion. God caused men to do what He originally wanted; to fill the earth, to scatter and to cover the planet.

 

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord. Acts 17:26-27

 

Nation-states were a deliberate creation, intended to restrain Satan’s efforts to create his one-world kingdom on earth. The debate about illegal immigration and the surge of undocumented children is ultimately a debate about national sovereignty. The breakdown of the barriers of nation-state sovereignty is not very much different from what happened in the days of the Tower of Babel.