Krauthammer and Me on Immigration

Would Krauthammer Support Trump’s 4 Pillars?
The View from the Middle

I will sorely miss Charles Krauthammer’s point of view on just about everything. I always felt comfortable when I agreed with Charles, and we agreed on much, including Ronald Reagan’s policies, climate change and abortion. Even when I didn’t agree, I appreciated his intellectual honesty, his dependence on facts not allowing emotion to sidetrack his logic and also his civil treatment of his opponents. Now, let me try to apply those principles to the argument of separating families and immigration in general.

The first truth that Charles espoused is that we do have borders. In fact, every country on earth has borders and every country has the right to control who comes across those borders and for what reason. Neither side of this argument will ever suggest (or admit) that they are for open borders because 80% of Americans oppose that idea. So, open borders is a losing concept existentially and politically in America and virtually every country in the world, even in Germany. Ask Andrea Merkel how her policy is working out.

Fact number two is that virtually all of these people are making these long, treacherous and sometimes fatal trips because America is an opportunity for safety and prosperity when compared to their home countries. However, as much as our hearts ache for these refugees, we as a country do not have an unlimited ability to care for them. Every person who comes into this country puts pressure on our schools, hospitals, law enforcement, etc. which are all funded by the taxpayer. I often have to remind people that the government has NO money. Anything that our government provides is underwritten by the taxpayers. Helping the origin countries solve their economic and gang (violence) problems at home would be cheaper and more effective for us.

Fact number three, our policies send signals to the people in these dysfunctional countries. Establishing a policy that allows adults with children to be released into this country with a promise to return at a later date for a court hearing would cause a stampede of illegal adults with children crossing our border. And the fact is, currently 97% of our “catch and release” illegal aliens do NOT return for their day in court.

Dianne Feinstein has a great idea. Her proposed legislation would prevent our law enforcement people from arresting suspected illegal aliens anywhere within 100 miles of our borders. Since her proposal doesn’t differentiate between the Mexican or Canadian borders or even our coastlines, that would create a safe space for illegal aliens in America the size of the country of India. It is a space that is six times the size of France, and I haven’t even included Alaska in my calculations. What do you think the result would be of passing Senator Feinstein’s bill? The result would be the unmooring of American sovereignty in an area larger than the states of California, Alaska and Texas combined.

Three other facts that I’m sure Charles Krauthammer would agree with is that the detention camps being created to house these people are not the equivalent of Auschwitz, Trump is not Hitler and Trump voters are not Nazis. This rhetoric trivializes one of the darkest eras in human history and demonizes tens of millions of Americans who sincerely believe that strong border security is not only the most prudent policy but even the most compassionate.

Ben Shapiro, author and political commentator, suggested that people who make these vile and ridiculous claims should “read a book”!! We’ve all seen the pictures of starving, emaciated prisoners inside the Nazi concentration camps, and those were the survivors. Compare that to the pictures of the young people who were caught illegally entering our country carrying cafeteria trays with hamburgers, pizza and fresh fruit back to their picnic tables three times a day or watching the world cup on big screen TV’s or playing video games. The contrast cannot be more stark and it is an insult to Holocaust survivors and their families to compare the two. Hitler and the Nazis murdered 11 million people in those camps from Jews to Catholics to homosexuals. Charles, I’m sure, would suggest that these super-hyperbolic comparisons are signs of weak minds and weak arguments.

Finally, Charles Krauthammer and I totally agree on the solution for our current immigration problem. I’ve attached a link below to a short video that Charles did for Prager University. It’s only 5 minutes long, but it is well worth the time investment.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/06/19/krauthammer_gives_prager_u_commentary_build_the_wall.html

Just copy and paste this link into your browser to view.

His point is simple. We need to secure the border, before we do anything else. He suggests a wall, technology and people, and I agree. Once we secure the border, that act will send a message to the people in Central America or Mexico not to even attempt the treacherous journey north to come to The United States. This is actually the most compassionate thing we can do for those people. We don’t even have statistics on the rapes, robberies and murders that occur during that journey, but I would suggest that our detainment camps look like an oasis compared to the perils experienced on the way.

Then, and only then, can we look to the 11 million illegal aliens we already have living here. Charles suggests legalization for this group, with which I concur. I would go even further, as President Trump has indicated, and offer a path to citizenship to the DACA kids, which my wife constantly reminds me are adults now.

For the most part, all of this is already on the table through President Trumps “Four Pillars” plan, but as of now that plan doesn’t have quite enough Republican support and does not have a single Democrat vote in either house. This would suggest that our politicians would prefer to have this problem as a divisive wedge than to solve it. A curse on both their houses, but Democrats must begin to explain why they will not support a plan that involves a path to citizenship for almost two million DACA immigrants.