Ron Paul: What’s Missing in the Current Immigration ‘Crisis’ Debate

[Lucille]

The voice of reason.

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/july/13/what%92s-missing-in-the-current-immigration-%91crisis%92-debate.aspx


Over the past several weeks we have seen a significant increase in illegal immigration, as thousands of unaccompanied minors pour across what seems an invisible southern border into the United States. The mass immigration has, as to be expected, put an enormous strain on local resources, and it has heated up the immigration debate in the US.

Most liberals and conservatives miss the point, however, making the same old arguments we have all heard before. Liberals argue that we need to provide more welfare and assistance to these young immigrants, while conservatives would bus them to the other side of the border, drop them off, and deploy drones to keep them out.

Neither side seems interested in considering why is this happening in the first place. The truth is, this latest crisis is a consequence of mistaken government policies on both sides of the border.

In fact much of the problem can be directly traced to the US drug war, which creates unlivable conditions in countries that produce narcotics for export to the US. Many of those interviewed over the past several weeks have cited violent drug gangs back home as a main motivation for their departure. Because some Americans want to use drugs here in the US, governments to the south are bribed and bullied to crack down on local producers. The resulting violence has destroyed economies and lives from Mexico to Nicaragua and beyond. Addressing the failed war on drugs would go a long way to solving the immigration crisis.

I understand the argument of some libertarians that there should be no limits at all on who comes into the United States, but the reality is we do not live in a libertarian society. We live in a society where healthcare is provided -- often by over-burdened emergency rooms that cannot legally turn away the sick -- “free” education is provided, and other support via food stamp programs is also made available for “free” to illegal immigrants. Many even argue that they should be allowed to vote!

More at the link.

[Todd]

That we are not a libertarian society, but a social welfare state, is it in a nutshell for me. End that, and I don't care how many people cross the border.

[Brett85]

That we are not a libertarian society, but a social welfare state, is it in a nutshell for me. End that, and I don't care how many people cross the border.

So you don't think it's a national security issue as well? 16 out of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were here illegally.

[tod evans]

So you don't think it's a national security issue as well? 16 out of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were here illegally.

And none of the sitting federal judges ever stood for a vote in order to take the bench...

How does CIA inspired hijackers have any bearing whatsoever on South American immigrants?

Get government out of the mix, out of the aid business, out of interfering with property owners on the border and out of meddling in other countries politics and there'd be no problems on the border.

Government made the mess, more government is only going to compound it.

[donnay]

So you don't think it's a national security issue as well? 16 out of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were here illegally.

They were helped by CIA. Since we are talking about CIA... how about the CIA constantly meddling in south and central America and setting up tin-pot dictators who make the peoples lives hellish. Who wouldn't want to escape that? I certainly do not blame the people trying to escape those hell holes, I blame our government for their meddlesome ways.

[Todd]

So you don't think it's a national security issue as well? 16 out of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were here illegally.

No I don't. 16 hijackers came here illegally to bomb New York because of our Foreign policy over there....not Mexico or Canada.

Oh....And they didn't come across the Mexican border either.

[jmdrake]

So you don't think it's a national security issue as well? 16 out of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were here illegally.

Not true.

http://www.factcheck.org/2013/05/911-hijackers-and-student-visas/
The fact is, only one of the 19 9/11 hijackers came to the U.S. on a student visa, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. That one was Hani Hanjour, a Saudi Arabian terrorist who piloted the plane that was flown into the Pentagon, according to a 2004 staff report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. In his student visa application, Hanjour provided paperwork showing that he was enrolled in an English as a second language program in Oakland, Calif., but he never attended after arriving in America (a fact that would draw scrutiny today). He did not, however, overstay his student visa.
Of the other 18 9/11 hijackers, 14 came to the United States on six-month tourist visas and four came on business visas, according to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Once in the U.S., two of the hijack pilots applied to have their immigration status changed to vocational student, but neither used such a visa on their subsequent re-entry into the country.

You know what is true? Some of the hijackers were let in through the unfortunately legal "Visa Express" program where Saudi nationals were allowed to come to this country without in person screening. Bush started this program prior to 9/11. Obama recently renewed it.

http://cis.org/HowTerroristsGetIn
While some terrorists received inadequate interviews, others never had any contact with a consular officer. At least three of the September 11 hijackers (Abdulaziz Alomari, Salem al Hamzi, and Khalid al Midhar) obtained their visas through a system called "Visa Express" used by the American consulates in Saudi Arabia, which allows applicants to submit their applications and supporting documents through a designated travel agency. Although the applications are reviewed at the consulate and the names are run through the watch list, the applicants are never interviewed by a consular officer. Without having an in-person interview, the issuing officer cannot be sure that the person applying for the visa is actually the person named in the submitted documents and application. All varieties of deception and fraud become much more difficult to detect.

The Visa Express system was set up to make things easier for Saudi Arabian applicants and to reduce the workload of the consulate. But such a system is completely inappropriate for a country like Saudia Arabia where, as was known even prior to September 11, a large share of the population was sympathetic to bin Laden's ideology.

This is why 9/11 truth is so vital to this movement. Real 9/11 truthers study every angle and find out what really happened and don't go along with the propaganda. Yes I know that a lot of Republicans and conservative talk show hosts have falsely stated that hijackers were here illegally. But that's just bullshit. The truth is far more sinister. The CIA was using the U.S. consulate in Jeddah Saudi Arabia to let assets into the country.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ut2vKqnCpE

People ask "If there was government involvement in 9/11, where are the whistleblowers?" Well fuck! Whistleblowers keep coming forward and the cowards that don't want to face the facts keep ignoring it. That wouldn't be such a big deal if people, including people in the "liberty movement", weren't making decisions about which policy to support based on misinformation. In 2003, 70% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06-poll-iraq_x.htm). In 2012 70% of Republicans STILL believed Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 (http://hudsonjournalist.blogspot.com/2012/06/poll-republicans-severely-misinformed.html). And some of you thought that Ron Paul was somehow going to win the GOP nomination criticizing the Iraq war and talking about fucking "blowback"? Really?

The "conspiracy theory" that Saddam Hussein was somehow involved in 9/11 is what killed Ron Paul's campaign hopes. And some prominent Republicans like Sarah Palin still believe that crap. But what prominent Republicans believed was irrelevant. Rank and file GOPers believed that, and since they did, nobody who was critical of the Iraq war stood a chance of winning the election. And talking "blowback" didn't do squat. In invading Iraq, Bush gave rank and file morons in this country a target to vent their frustrations which were not satiated by the cakewalk that was the initial Afghan war. (Nobody would call it a cakewalk today. Invasions are easy. Occupations are difficult.)

This is what has to happen. Get yourself informed. REALLY informed. Know everything that you possibly can about 9/11. Even research the arguments that you think are crap. Fact check. Double fact check. Triple fact check. Once you've done that, start informing others of the facts that you can verify. This is an information war, and some of the best warriors have been neutralized by the self appointed censors of this movement who freak out every time some third rate blogger or first rate political hack attacks any so called "liberty" politician based on "9/11 truth." It matters not how badly the politician handles the aftermath (*cough* Debra Medina *cough*). All that matters is someone who was criticized about 9/11 truth lost and so that must be the reason. These same self appointed censors violate their own "correlation doesn't equal causation" rule. And of course, the fact that Kerry Bentivolio got elected to congress even after starting in a political satire movie that straight up said "Bush did it" (9/11) gets totally ignored by the censors.

Anyway, enough soap boxing. The bottom line is this. Whether it was through "bungling" or malfeasance, the hijackers were let in through "normal" immigration policies. That has nothing to do with this debate on immigration reform, unless you want to use it to point out that it's borderline treason for Obama to renew the Saudi Visa Express program. (http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/032213-649054-obama-approves-saudis-for-trusted-travelers-program.htm)

[jmdrake]

No I don't. 16 hijackers came here illegally to bomb New York because of our Foreign policy over there....not Mexico or Canada.

Oh....And they didn't come across the Mexican border either.

Except they weren't here illegally. They were helped to come here legally through the Saudi Visa Express program. And as donnay has pointed out, that was with the aid and abetting of the CIA. This is how the shadow government works. They cause the problem (letting terror suspects in the country), to get a reaction (people mad about foreigners) to propose a solution (seal up the borders so that no one can get in....or out.) Remember Ron Paul pointing out that the border fence could be used to keep us in?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kAbkDyYQJQ