Well into the wee hours I watched with horror and sadness the carnage wrought by so few on so many in Paris. Before even a day had passed we learned at least two Americans were among the victims brutally gunned down by a small band of well-armed Islamic terrorists.
The United States reacted as it always does when confronted with the latest horrific tragedy inflicted by Muslim jihadists on those who do not share their twisted religious beliefs; proffering condolences to the survivors of those killed and disingenuously pledging to do something, without specifying what that something will be.
We did light up some of our great skyscrapers with the French Tri-colors. A colorful gesture. President Obama reaffirmed our shared beliefs in liberty, equality and fraternity. A rhetorical gesture. At best, sentimental, timid responses which may only embolden ISIS and its ilk.
Weakened by eight years of placating and leading from behind we need to infuse strong new marrow into out national spine with common sense measures.
If I may be so bold, Mr. President and members of Congress, here are a few suggestions.
1. Immediately stop issuing visas to enter the United States until we locate every person who has overstayed their visa and been duly accounted for and sent back to the country from which they came. Remember the 9/11 hijackers - most were in this country on overstayed visas. In addition, require a trackable visa for everyone entering this country, but only after we have a proven, secure visa system in place. This would create some considerable consternation with our European allies and undoubtedly invite retaliatory measures on the part of some. But it would help keep our shores safe from the lax measures that are clearly responsible for the lack of security within, and between, European countries. Let the hue and cry begin from multi-national U. S. companies that park large sums of capital offshore to avoid U. S. taxes - and higher education institutions in the U. S. that rely on the tuition largess of foreign students. Pass the earplugs please!
2. Declare a one year moratorium on new immigration, political asylum, etc., including NOT allowing any Syrian refugees or other refugees from the middle east chaos to enter this country until our visa system is overhauled.
3. Pass an immediate federal law outlawing sanctuary cities and cutting off all federal education, highway, and whatever other federal funds a sanctuary city has been receiving until it abides by the new law. Such a law would affect over 300 U. S. cities. Mayors and municipal governing boards which continue the practice of sanctuary should be held personally liable, as elected city officials, for civil and punitive damages payable to we the people of the United States.
4. To offset the draconian economic impact of some of these measures how about Congress passing common sense tax reform. Lower corporate tax rates might go a long way toward abating the sting of tightened visa controls and bring jobs and investment back to our shores. Mary Poppins said it best; a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
Last, but not least, let's issue a 24-hour warning to civilians and then try a little "Trump" and bomb the hell out of ISIS in all its lairs in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, the Sinai, etc. and especially any oil fields from which this pseudo-caliphate of terrorism derives its wealth. We pulverized German and Japanese cities in World War ll with much less sophisticated warplanes. It worked then. It can work now.
I agree immigration is a problem but for different reasons than you.I will say why later. Your wanting to identify illegal immigrants should be taken seriously but it has several problems. One is that immigration law enforcement is a federal government responsibility. This creates a turf battle between federal government and local law enforcement. Local law enforcement has proven to be very prejudiced against minorities and thus giving them reasons to enforce immigration would just extend the problems in this area. With the dysfunction of government at state and federal level, I cannot imagine them being able to implement an effective tradeoff here even though citizens like you and I can easily see the answer. Politicians get too much attention by shouting about this for them to actually make something happen. The federal law to identify non-citizens has not been enforced since the 1980's when Ronald Reagan was president. This law requires that every worker have a social security number or green card so that taxes can be collected from their wages. This law is disregarded at all levels but in particular large corporations which have many low wage employees such as Walmart and all the meat packing companies. Walmart gets around this law by subcontracting services such as janitorial to a local firm. This local firm then get this work by hiring illegal immigrants, not with-holding taxes form there wages, and no benefits such as medical etc. I view immigration is a problem because it's net affect lower wages for our citizens and impoverishes these same immigrants. The jihadists who just killed 14 people in CA are examples of this. We didn't let jihadists in, we created jihadists by making them second class illegal immigrants with no rights and an inability to prosper and integrate in to American life. Let me also say that I find the majority of immigrants from Mexico to be good, christian, hard-working people.The wage depression is starting to affect both of my sons who are degreed computer professional with many years experience. There has been a huge influx of computer people from India that is creating job instability for even highly skilled employees such as them. This is so severve that information technology degrees at many major univerities has very few students. An immigrant from India with a degree from there gets a top wage of $35 per hour.
ReplyDeleteOops! We did let the woman in as a committed jifhadist.
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