What a joke....

I read an article by Douglas S. Massey, a professor of sociology and public policy at Princeton today where he provides some ideas for immigration reform. I agree with some of them and have proposed similar ideas, but I chortle at his either ignorance of border policy or his spin. His first idea is to create a visa that allows migrants to live in the U.S. and then return home. Like magic, it is done. Of course there has been this type of visa since prior to the Ellis Island days. People who migrate to this country can visit their homeland any time they choose. The problem with Massey's idea is that he is speaking of illegal aliens, not migrants. Some with less than even passing knowledge may think that the term illegal alien is derogatory. It is not, it is the proper legal term for someone who enters the country illegally. If you have doubts, read Title 8 of the U.S. Code, 8CFR, and any pertinent immigration law cases.

Beyond this Professor Massey refers to the militarization of the border. He needs to get out more, while troops have been used on the border in very small numbers, they are normally not used. When U.S. troops are used on the border, Mexico normally raises quite a fuss and makes similar statements. On the other hand, if you sit on the Rio Grande River bank some day or night, you will quite often see Mexican military moving along the border in humvees carrying G3 assault rifles, real assault rifles-not the media definition-black. They have made incursions into the U.S. on many occassions and have shot a number of people on the Mexican side.

I wish our agencies on the border would promote a more forceful image. A few years back something became apparent to U.S. Customs Inspectors. They had been working down South in very hot conditions, so they began to wear BDUs and T-shirts displaying the agency's name. Things went along very well, then came a change in uniform policy and they went back to the regular uniform. Traveler complaints went up immediately. When you promote the smile and welcome everyone to America image, hand out pamphlets outlining why they may have been subjected to scrutiny, and in general encourage the concept that being inspected at the border is an exception instead of the rule, you may as well just let everyone in for all the trouble it causes. The law is quite clear on the subject, everything and everyone crossing the border into this country is subject to inspection. This has been the law since 1789, it is not a new phenomenon. That is the image to promote, tell people the truth, when you cross the border, everyone is subject to inspection. It doesn't matter if you are White, Black, or Green. It doesn't matter if your are a citizen or visitor, EVERYONE. You are coming into the country and we are going to scrutinize you before we let you in, we aren't going to do random inspections, we do threat assessment. We choose who we want to look at based on how they behave, intell, where they are coming from, where they are going, and many other factors. That is how professionals work. Isn't that better than having a wand shoved up to you know where or your bags being searched while you are trying to go to work. I hope you think so, because I believe in the 4th amendment and think random searches are unprofessional and a poor way to secure the public. What ever happened to Terry stops, geez.

Anyway, I know I took off on a tangent, but back to the Professor's musings. His ideas aren't all bad and like I said, I agree with some of them. The problem is that his spin or lack of knowledge hurts him in the credibility department, you know "gravitas". So who can take him serious?


BT