Turn the caravan around — the US is not a dumping ground
By Ned Ryun, opinion contributor — 10/25/18 08:00 AM EDT
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With all of the coverage regarding the Honduran caravan marching toward the U.S. border, it’s time to have a conversation about who we want to be as a country in the future. Not in the distant future, but in the very near future; maybe less than 10 years from now. Because what we decide to do today will set the tone for the next several generations.
Like nails on a chalkboard, we keep hearing Democrats and left-wing activists talk about these desperate immigrants seeking asylum and refuge from dysfunctional societies. We are told that it’s about “humanity first” and that we have a moral obligation to take them in.
However, we should not be fooled by the emotional reactions (and political maneuverings) of those who claim to speak for the caravan. The United States is under zero moral obligations to take citizens from misgoverned countries around the globe.
We are not an escape valve for the breakdown of civil society in Central America, nor are American taxpayers some sort of backstop for the Mexican government that refuses to fulfill its own obligations towards asylum seekers.
It seems that there is the new standard, which puts all of the responsibility on the shoulders of the U.S and no one else in the hemisphere. We are not obligated to accept anyone seeking asylum from anywhere in the world. And we’re not talking about thousands of people; we’re now talking about hundreds of millions.
The United States would become the great dumping ground for the problems of other countries. Countries who don’t have the ability or desire to deal with their problems, so their solution is to offload them on the United States and American taxpayer.
What’s even more insulting about all of this is the billions of foreign aid and taxpayer dollars that have already been sent to these dysfunctional countries over the last eight years.
Now certain segments of the left and the squishy middle think that somehow the taxpayer should be put upon again, despite the fact that we’re already funding some
$116 billion annually for the illegals already in the country. If we do not firmly resist this influx of illegal immigrants, our social welfare programs will be at even greater risk than they are now. The significant majority of our federal government’s mandatory spending goes toward social welfare programs and continues to climb yearly.
If we do not stop the current trends, what happens when mass automation hits, throwing many low skilled or unskilled workers out of work?
We cannot afford more of our national wealth being devoted to social programs, nor can we afford the social and civic degradation of tens of millions of people living dependent on others, especially if millions of them are first generation unassimilated immigrants.
Whether we go broke or are Balkanized, we will cease to be a free people. Instead, we will become serfs of the federal government, toiling away to fund the government’s massive obligations.
We are a generous and caring people. We have given much to the world: from helping rescue the world from Nazism, to standing firm against the expansion of communism, to providing the greatest amount of freedom and opportunity to men and women from all over the world.
Not to mention the millions of refugees and immigrants we’ve welcomed — according to legal processes — over the decades.
Because of who we are, we are a beacon of hope around the world. Don’t be fooled, “humanity first” is just a slogan. What the supporters, enablers and apologists of the caravan seek is great numbers of immigrants whom they believe will be beholden to the party of government, the Democrats.
Those who see through this smokescreen believe that “America First” actually offers a better way. We firmly believe that our experiment in self-government, rule of law and free markets requires national sovereignty and secure borders. Our values, our institutions and our future cannot thrive or survive if what makes America exceptional is not safeguarded.
We wish no ill will to other peoples; we simply do not wish for them to become our wards. If the United States was treated more as a model and less as a safety valve for failed states, we’d all be better off.
It is well past time to secure the southern borders, even to the point that we cease foreign aid to all countries that refuse to respect our national sovereignty and show gratitude for our generosity over the decades. If this caravan and others, is the future, there might well come a day when the United States is forced to turn its generous foreign aid into funding for border security. As
President Trump has said often, the days of the United States being taken advantage of are over.
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