The Berlin Wall was built starting on August 13th, 1961 and its destruction began on November 9th, 1989. The real purpose of the wall was to keep the population of East Berlin from knowing and enjoying the unlimited opportunities of liberty, freedom of speech, self reliance, prosperity and freedom of assembly in West Berlin. Gaps in the wall were sturdy fencing and even tank-resistant barriers. The ‘Cold War’ preceded the wall’s construction and was built by Erich Honecker who was General Secretary of the German Socialist Unity Party and leader of the German Democratic Republic in 1971.
By contrast, the great wall along the southern border of the United States is designed to keep people from foreign nations from entering the USA illegally. The intention of the border wall along the Mexican-US border is to maintain our nation’s sovereignty by halting the entry of aliens by illegal means. We can debate which of these walls has the greater benefit or the more significant consequences but a related fact is that the 143-mile fence erected along the southern border of Israel cut illegal immigration by 99%.
Refugees immigrate to other nations to escape tyrannical oppressive governments, to seek freedom, to gain prosperity and to find security and a peaceful happy existence. Three million refugees have come here since 1980 according to Pew Research.
One of the nations these refugees left is Syria, where over the past several years 7.6 million citizens have been displaced; 5.1 million have become émigrés. Records show that Turkey has absorbed 3.5 million refugees; Lebanon has accepted almost one million and Jordan has absorbed more than 650,000. About 33,000 have found refuge in Africa.
Russia accepts virtually no Syrian refugees and China has accepted 9 (nine) refugees of record. Germany has welcomed thousands of Syrians at a cost of €20 billion ($24.6 billion) in 2016 and the UK said their cost of bringing in 20,000 Syrians would amount to £1.7 billion ($2.37 billion). The shift is perilous economically, culturally and emotionally for both those finding new homelands and the generous nations who have welcomed these vagabonds.
Nations of opportunity and freedom are absorbing people and families whose level of existence is somewhere between nutrition by garbage, living under rusted corrugated steel and wearing rags without buttons. At the same time, a heavy burden of expense is levied on those productive and generous nations that willingly accept vast numbers of displaced people.
There are no easy solutions to the problems created by oppressive, abusive governments. Consider that to free the world of the Nazi regime headed by Adolph Hitler, a war that brought together many of the nations of the world to lose trillions of dollars of infrastructure while sacrificing the lives of brave combatants and innocent civilians. The centerpiece of shame caused by WWII was the ‘Holocaust’ causing the extermination of about six million Jews (and others) and a total of an estimated 50 to 80 million total victims of warfare, famine and disease.
Where does the USA come down on the perplexing challenges of immigration?
Consider Hazelton, PA where the population of the city in Luzerne County has hovered between 21,000 and 25,000 citizens. In 2000 Hispanics represented 4.9% of the residents; in 2016 Hispanics represented 46% of the population. Imagine such a demographic changes over 16 years. Unemployment in the city is approximately 7.5% while Pennsylvania’s unemployment is reported to be 4.9% and our national unemployment is about 4.1%.
The U.S. Department of education was unhappy with the Hazelton school system so 63 new positions were created, many of which were dedicated to ESL (English as Second Language). In California, the State Senate appointed illegal alien attorney Lizabeth Mateo as an advisor to the ‘California Student Opportunity and Access Program Project Grant Advisory Committee.’ To gain votes of ‘Dreamers’ and millions of other illegal aliens, progressive liberal Democrats are fighting the erection of a southern wall that would maintain our sovereignty.
Politicians with salty lips, mushy brains and devious intellects have overridden immigration law, subjugated enforcement regulations and created a mish-mash of confusing policies that compromise our sovereignty.
Dick Baynton
