"Laboring Under a Misconception"

Hi Gang:
Here is my most recent commentary for the CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization) website.
As you likely know, I have been intimately involved in the immigration issue for more than four decades.  I entered on duty with the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) in October 1971 as an Immigration Inspector.  Four years later I made a career change and although I continued with the INS, I became a Criminal Investigator/Special Agent where I served out the balance of my 30 year career.  I rotated through every squad within the investigations branch and spent nearly half of my career working in close cooperation with local and state police as well as with nearly every federal law enforcement agency and even with the governments of Israel, Canada, Great Britain and Japan.
I truly had a front row seat to the burgeoning immigration crisis that now profoundly impacts just about every challenge and threat our nation faces.
You can imagine my consternation and frustration when those who are adamantly oppose the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws are referred to as being “Pro-Immigrant” while those of us who understand the importance of enforcing these laws are referred to as “Anti-Immigrant” or worse!
The immigration laws are not about bigotry or racism but about preventing the entry of aliens into our country whose presence is harmful or dangerous to the wellbeing of our citizens and our nation.  
There is nothing charitable or “Pro-Immigrant” about encouraging desperate foreign nationals (aliens) to risk their lives so that, if they are successful in evading the inspections process and don’t die in the process, they will be “rewarded” by being put to work on jobs where working conditions are so substandard as to often be patently illegal and for wages that are no less substandard!
The only reason that an employer would routinely knowingly hire illegal aliens is to be able to exploit them.  These greedy employers fire their United States citizen and lawful immigrant employees and replace them with illegal aliens.  Yet anyone who would dare call for an end to these unlawful and illegal employment practices will likely be branded “Anti-Immigrant,” “Bigot” or “Racist!”
While there is much written about the plight of the illegal alien, reports about the plight of Americans who are losing their jobs, their homes and their share of the “American Dream” are few and far between!
There are few articles written about how foreign countries such as Mexico not only see in their citizens a valuable commodity to be exported so that they can send back tens of billions of dollars in remittances- money they are paid for toiling away in horrific work environments, but also that when these workers leave their families behind to run our borders, the Mexican oligarchy gains something even more important- the greatly reduced likelihood of insurrection!  Most of these illegal who come to the United States are young, able-bodied men who, if they could not make their way across the border might well rise up and demand opportunities in their own country!  Simply stated, the United States serves as and economic and a societal “safety valve” for a country that has all of the ingredients for a much higher standard of living for most of its citizens, except that most of the wealth is owned and controlled by a tiny percent of the Mexican population and the wealthy are not about to allow this to change!
Today, in fact, rather than having the United States serve as the role model for Mexico, as impossible as this might have been a couple of decades ago, Mexico is now the role model for the United States! 
This evening, Sunday, December 18th, the CBS News program, “60 Minutes” ran an extremely disturbing report that was entitled:
“There Goes the Neighborhood”
Here is a link to this report that I urge you to watch:
The news report will explain the reason that the houses in the photo were bulldozed- you have to see this to believe it!
More and more American families are losing their share of the “American Dream” and all too often, the culprit, or at least a major contributing factor is greed- the sort of greed that would cause employers to fire American workers and the sort of greed that caused bankers to make the sort of decisions that exacerbated the situation.
As I have noted on many previous occasions, you would be hard pressed to find a candidate for a political position who would not promise to help create jobs, but when politicians on all levels of our government refuse to enforce the immigration laws, ever more foreign workers replace American workers at all levels of the economic scale.  
Poverty begets poverty and it is time that this madness be brought to a screeching half!
Let’s start out by getting a couple of terms straight- anyone who opposes the effective enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws and the securing of our borders, especially in this particularly perilous era is not “Pro-Immigrant” but “Pro-Exploitation!”
They are also richly deserving of the title, “Anti-American Worker!”
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!

I

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!

I also believe that the original purpose of our nation’s immigration laws need to be be brought “front and center” to make certain that our nation does not permit the entry of aliens into our country whose presence in our country is problematic for the citizens of our nation and that if such aliens do succeed in entering our country that our nation have the resources, integrity and dedication to do everything possible to make it impossible for such aliens to function within our country so that even if they are not apprehended, they will find it pointless to remain in the United States.

As I have noted on a number of occasions, “No one would break into the amusement park if they could not get to go on the rides and no one remains in the amusement park at the end of the day when they turn shut down the rides and turn off the lights!” 

If our government’s failures 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!


-michael cutler- 


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Laboring Under a Misconception

By Michael Cutler, Senior Special Agent, INS (Ret.), CAPS Senior Fellow, December 17, 2011

There
are currently a number of arguments being made for having local
governments ignore the immigration laws and, on closer scrutiny all of
those arguments fail to make sense or protect our nation and our
citizens in a number of ways.  Those who pose these arguments are often
identified in the media as being “Pro-Immigrant.”  In point of fact they
are “Illegal Alien Exploiters” seeking to profit by the exploitation of
vulnerable and desperate illegal aliens.  These exploiters are also
oblivious to the harm the hiring of illegal aliens does to American
workers and their families and oblivious to the harm that the presence
of these millions of illegal aliens does to national security and
community safety.

I have written extensively about the huge impact on national
security, community safety and criminal justice that our extremely
porous borders and failures to enforce our immigration laws from within
the interior of the United States pose.  Simply stated, the presence of
unknown millions of illegal aliens whose true identities, backgrounds,
potential involvement with criminal or terrorist organizations is
unknown and unknowable represents a major threat to the safety and
security of our nation and our citizens.

Today, however, I want to focus on another component of the
immigration crisis that confronts our nation today- the impact that the
presence of unknown millions of illegal aliens has on our nation’s
economy and the impact that this has on beleaguered American workers.

The Orange County Register ran an article on December 7, 2011 entitled: “State measure would let illegal immigrants work legally”

Here is a quote from that article that is important to consider:

“Those who support the measure said the state stands
to make up to $325 million in new tax revenue from those who are working
in the country illegally, the Sacramento Bee reported. The initiative
needs 504,760 voter signatures to qualify for an upcoming ballot.”

Every politician now seeking public office promises to create new
jobs yet here is a proposal to enable more illegal aliens compete with
American and lawful immigrant workers for scarce jobs!

The tax revenue that is promised in this article is a falsehood.  I
am not certain as to how that number of $325 million dollars in tax
revenue was reached but what is obviously being ignored is that often
illegal aliens work “off the books” or lie about the number of
dependents that they have so that they illegally receive an earned
income tax credit.  Additionally, virtually all foreign workers have the
same goal when they are paid- to send as much of the money they receive
back to their family members in their home countries.  This is
understandable, after all for those who seek employment in the United
States one of their goals is to support their families.  However, the
fact of the matter is that each and every year, tens of billions of
dollars is wired, or otherwise sent out of our nation’s economy, by
foreign workers whether they are working illegally or if they have
nonimmigrant work visas.  The money that they send out of our country is
money that is completely lost to our nation’s economy.  The money
removed from our economy is not spent or invested within our nation. 
For all the good that this money does, it could be tossed onto a
bonfire!  In fact, if the money were tossed onto a bonfire we would at
least get some light and heat from it!

The administration embarked on a series of incredibly costly economic
stimulus programs to “jump start” our nation’s hobbled economy.  In so
doing they have plunged our nation into a level of debt that is
unprecedented in the history of this country.

The idea was that money that would circulate through the economy
would create an economic multiplier effect; every dollar earned
generates more spending and more employment, etc., etc.  To hire foreign
workers whose goal runs contrary to that principle makes as much sense
as filling a swimming pool in the time of an extreme drought and then
not securing the drain.  The next day when the hapless owner of the pool
eagerly dons his bathing suit to take a dip in his pool he unhappily
finds that the pool is empty- the water having disappeared down the
drain!

Meanwhile, not only is our nation losing the benefits that the money
accrued by the illegal aliens might have provided to our economy,
American and lawful immigrant workers are kept from working, priced out
of these important jobs because the real benefit to hiring illegal
aliens is that they are easily exploited and work for substandard wages-
wages that are often so low that an American worker could not support
himself and/or his family on those wages.

One of the ways that illegal aliens manage to subsist on those wages
is to share filthy, squalid apartments with many other illegal aliens in
conditions that are beyond anything most people could imagine!

When I was an INS Special Agent, I often encountered such dwellings and was horrified at what I found!

There were few, if any furnishings to be found in those apartments,
generally just filthy bare mattresses laid end to end and side to side
with often a dozen or more adult men jammed into an apartment that had
been designed for a family of four!

Often the filth was so extreme that the stench would remain in my
nostrils for weeks!  The huge numbers of insects that infested these
apartments often resulted in what we came to refer to as the “Moving
wall.”  This was a wall that was encrusted with so many roaches and
other insects that when you turned on a light, all of the insects would
start fleeing in all directions!  You could not determine the color of
the wall because it was utterly covered with scurrying insects!  It
looked a bit like a football stadium with the crowds doing the “wave!”

Mice and sometimes rats would scurry around these apartments and their droppings could be found everywhere!

Imagine the impact that such a situation has on the families who might live next door to such an apartment!

It is also important to remember that when we are dealing with
illegal aliens we do not know the true identities or backgrounds of
these individuals.  Hiring illegal aliens exposes those who work with
them to the potential that such illegal aliens have serious criminal
histories or are carriers of dangerous communicable diseases.  As an INS
Special Agent I arrested a number of illegal aliens at their jobs where
they concealed their true identities and arrest records including one
individual who was located working at a glass factory.  He had been
previously deported from the United States after having pleaded guilty
to manslaughter.  He unlawfully returned to the United States, was
prosecuted for unlawful reentry to the United States and escaped from a
federal penitentiary while serving a prison sentence!  In an era where
workplace violence is a matter of serious concern it is of great
importance that employers know who they are hiring!

The point is that illegal aliens who violate our nation’s immigration
laws by running our nation’s borders leave no record of their entry and
may well have evaded the inspections process that is supposed to
prevent the entry of aliens into our country whose presence would pose a
problem or threat to the safety and well being of our nation and our
citizens.

Title 8, United States Code, Section 212 enumerates the reasons why an alien should be denied entry into the United States and is well worth reviewing.

Prior to the Second World War, the enforcement and administration of
our nation’s immigration laws was the responsibility of the United
States Department of Labor.  It was widely understood that a massive
influx of foreign workers would have a serious deleterious impact on
American jobs and wages.  The enforcement of our nation’s immigration
laws helped to build America’s large and upwardly mobile Middle Class. 
It was this factor, more than any other, which enabled the United States
to create the American Dream for so many of its citizens.

When “leaders” of cities and states ignore the immigration laws they
are betraying United States citizens and lawful immigrants.  They are
undermining national security and community safety so that they can
profit from the labor of exploited illegal aliens.  Meanwhile ever more
Americans are denied their thin slice of the American Dream and are
falling below the poverty line!

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