In a wood so dark...*

Years ago I had the experience of being aboard the U.S.S. Boulder (LST-1190) in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yes, the same place that is now the Caribbean respite from the rigors of Jihad (Thank you, Rush!). The only reason we were there was to go through "REFTRA" - "refresher training." It was a custom in the fleet to take a ship that had been in the yards for overhaul down there to prepare her for reentering active duty. One of the more rigorous and life-like exercises involved taking care of a series of casualties that had occurred due to a direct "hit." The staff in Gitmo was very good at their simulations! It was there that I learned the true meaning of "triage." I was a young Ensign and rounding a corner near an athwartship passageway filled with smoke, I was confronted with one of the young men in my division who had lost his hand. "Blood" was spurting everywhere and for some stupid reason, I started looking for the lost limb (Dear reader, this was all simulated with EXCELLENT plastic make-up that would make Hollywood proud). "FOR GOD'S SAKE STOP THE BLEEDING!" a crusty Chief yelled at me.

Now with all the political talk in Washington and immigrants marching in the streets, I feel like that Chief. Could we first stop the bleeding, please?!! Before we discuss the nuances of amnesty and deportation, argue over whether its 3 million or 18 million illegals, let's shut the border and sort this thing out. In 406AD, the Vandals along with a large number of other Germanic tribes crossed the frozen Rhine River. It was the beginning of the end for Rome. She could no longer protect the western frontier, had to give up England and slowly withdraw out of Europe. We are not Rome, but the parallels of the Rhine to the Rio Grande are eerie. So, in the words of Tolstoy, "what then must we do?" Herewith, a rational plan to end the madness.

1. Shut the border down by mobilizing the National Guard. I know there are Constitutional issues at stake, and as a retired Navy man, I bridle at the notion of the military doing police work. But this IS military work: we are being invaded! Deploy the military with all the technological toys that they have. No, it won't stop the flood, but it will be a start.

2. Stop citizenship by birth. At least one of the parents of a newborn child must be a U.S. Citizen.

3. Eliminate benefits for non-citizens. Humanitarian life and safety needs must be tended to, but it is insanity to provide educational, welfare and health benefits to non-citizens.

4. PUNISH the firms that hire illegal aliens. Hey, I am deeply affected by the construction business, but I can no longer look the other way. There's a better way...I'll get to that anon.

OK, so there's your Draconian four-step process to the first step: stopping the bleeding. I am braced for the name calling: bigot! Hispanophobe! etc. etc. Let's look at some of the arguments for those advocating pure, open borders:

"If we stop the immigration, Mexico will implode...we have no idea what we'll end up with there!"

We cannot solve Mexico's problems of low productivity and corrupt government and economy. We ARE providing a safety valve that allows the system to continue in perpetuity. You want to change it? Force the change by taking away the safety valve. I have seen the poverty that illegal laborers live in...I know that many of them are sending the majority of their wages back home...and that our minimum wage is far above the imagination of most workers south of the border. We will never end that disparity under the status quo.

"These people come here just like the Irish, the Poles and all others before...they only want a better life."

Hmmm, the Irish didn't swim across the Atlantic...and there was this little place called Ellis Island. And yes, the Irish lived in squallid slums as they worked their way up... but this model has been repeated throughout our history: the Germans, the Italians, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Cubans....on and on it goes. I am not saying eliminate the opportunity for Mexicans or others from south and central America to immigrate...let's just get it under control.

"These people do jobs Americans won't do!"

Oh, so I'm the bigot? Let's let them in so they can clean our toilets? Americans would do the jobs for the right pay...industries need to adjust to that. That, my Republican friends, is the true free market. The open border policy espoused by free-trade elites falsifies the economics of the labor markets. Believe me, if we couldn't find an American to hang drywall, I guarantee you, we would find a way to do it with a machine and save money!

The sick, cynical reality of these people that spout these arguments is that they are either a) benefitting from the low wages of illegal immigrants or b) they are advancing a cause to enfranchise these people and gain a new voting bloc or c) they are in the Reconquista camp who believe that Texas, California and New Mexico still belong to Mexico.

Once the bleeding is stopped, let's re-examine the patient and see what needs to be done. I am in favor of a liberal, open immigration policy that allows those that wish to come here the opportunity to do so. Come and enrich us with your cultural traditions, skills and knowledge...but in so doing, assimilate into ours. The United States is a big hearted and open-minded place...we adopt customs and traditions from all who enter but we have to be allowed to keep our core. What follows flies in the face of my minimalist government approach, but there is a time and place for everything! Here we go:

1. Establish a guest worker program. Businesses that need basic manual labor would submit their needs on a annual basis. An interview and selection process would be set up south of the border to pre-screen applicants. Workers would be brought here along with their families and be provided all the benefits of employment. With this method, we would be providing opportunity and helping our labor intensive businesses. Let's bring them here in a controlled, dignified manner!

2. Set up immigration quotas based on our needs. The quotas would be established to ensure people from all corners of the globe have the opportunity to come here...just not all at once! This one is pretty self explanatory, and no doubt, inflamatory...but I'm on a roll!

3. Require assimilation. English is our national language and should be kept so. Accomodation for all these other languages is costly and counter-productive. The image of America as a melting pot has given away to an image of a cafeteria lunch line complete with the fruit in the jello! A requirement for citizenship must be that you learn our native tongue...I would even be in favor of having some English background (courses?) to move one up the line in the aforementioned quota system.

Amnesty? Deportation? First off, anyone who has raised a child will tell you that amnesty is a bad idea. If you want a behavior to stop, you don't reward it. Deportation has been given such an awful connotation. The reality is if you follow steps 1 and 4 that your humble scribbler has offered above, you will see Darwinian selection in the labor market. In the near term, the economic impact could be grave; in the long term, there is no other option except complete unconditional surrender to the invaders.

Open borders and multi-culturalism have become the frozen Rhine of our time and we find ourselves wandering in the dark wood* on the way to the Inferno. Adult leadership and firmness will help us find our way back. While this has been turned into a political volleyball match on both sides, this is a matter of national security in the near term and a matter of national identity in the long.