The COVID Wall
Nearly two decades ago, syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin wrote Invasion, a New York Times bestseller exposing America’s lax immigration policies. Politicians, academia and mainstream media reject the notion that immigration can be subversive. They insist that arrivals from the Third World are not “invaders,” but “bring diversity,” and are just “doing the jobs that Americans won’t do,” etc.
The most basic, fundamental unit of a nation-state is citizenship. If anybody can walk into a country without a passport and stay indefinitely, that is de-facto citizenship. A nation is defined by its boundaries and immigration laws. An astonishing number of foreign nationals crossed the southern border illegally in the first half of 2019. Here is a monthly breakdown of apprehensions according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP):
By the middle of the year, the Trump Administration had managed to “flatten the curve” by threatening harsh measures on Mexico until they did something about the flood of people coming into the United States.
The busiest sector for illegal crossings is the Rio Grande Valley, where CBP houses on average 8,000 migrants per day, most of whom voluntarily surrendered. For all intents and purposes, “apprehension” means amnesty. It used to be called “catch and release.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released hundreds of thousands of individuals from custody due to overcrowding in detention centers, many making their way to other parts of the country.
Human trafficking is big business on both sides of the border. Private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic have lucrative contracts with the federal government to operate migrant detention centers. A shuttered Walmart store in Brownsville Texas was converted into a holding pen for unaccompanied male children. Warehousing human beings is a lot more profitable than shoes and socks.
In the barrios, pawn shops and check-cashing joints charge exorbitant interest on loans while bilking customers for other services such as wire transfer. Immigration lawyers promising visas and permanent residency prey on people who speak little or no English. Those from Latin America are especially vulnerable, paying thousands of dollars for legal services but no recourse upon being deported. Oftentimes families are stuck with the bill.
In her most recent book Open Borders, Inc., Malkin delves deep into the migrant-industrial complex:
You and I have watched in outrage as thousands of “migrant caravan” travelers swarm our southern border in unprecedented numbers…Hostile forces enable these masses to make their journey equipped with smartphones, transported by buses escorted by humanitarian guides or ruthless coyotes, and sheltered every step of the way. You and I have watched in outrage as hundreds of cities, counties and states ruled by Democrats and corporate elites openly defy federal immigration agents to provide sanctuary for millions of illegal aliens who provide an unrelenting supply of cheap labor and eventually (after the inevitable bipartisan amnesties) cheap votes.
She characterizes the migration phenomenon as “a colossal, profit-seeking venture cloaked in humanitarian virtue,” noting that in May 2019 it was reported that 87% of people released from detention had failed to show for their deportation hearings. What a surprise. Also, sanctuary state governors trying to contain the outbreak should take note that 74 Guatemalans tested positive for the virus upon being repatriated. Shocking.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to build a wall to stop illegal immigration. Walls work; history has shown this. In the early 1990s a border wall was constructed in California at Imperial Beach separating San Diego from Tijuana, extending forty-six miles inland. In 1996, an additional thirteen mile barrier was built, fortified with razor wire. Illegal crossings went from 100,000 per year to fewer than 5,000. People living in San Diego at the time will tell you what a difference a wall makes. By the end of 2019, Daniel Horowitz, Ann Coulter and other immigration hawks had lost faith in Donald Trump. He was a failure on his signature issue. The wall never happened.
Then came Covid-19.
Worldwide travel stopped. Flights grounded, cruise ships quarantined and ports-of-entry closed. With nations sealing their borders, global human trafficking networks were left at a standstill. Coyotes are out of business. Mexico is on lockdown. So are Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Venezuela was already a police-state. Nobody can leave anywhere. The entire world is under stay-at-home orders.
A nation without borders is not a nation. While our country is indeed in trouble, at least we have a country. Without borders, America is not a country, but a “landmass between Canada and Mexico” as Coulter puts it. In a sick way, Covid-19 has restored our sovereignty.
Trump recently announced plans to sign an executive order suspending immigration. There have been periods in our history when we did not take immigrants. With a record 22 million Americans unemployed, the last thing we need is a guest worker program. Building the wall would be a great way to get Americans back to work. Talk about shovel ready. Cost estimates to build the wall range from $20 to $45 billion. The $2 trillion stimulus package includes $29 billion in grants to airlines but not a penny for the wall. This tells you all you need to know about how serious Trump was about building it.
In the post-World War II paradigm, the United States used “soft power” to project a positive image throughout the world. Movies, television, sports and music made America culturally dominant. What China unleashed from Wuhan is not surprising. A nation built on slave-labor, intellectual property theft and neo-mercantilism was bound to export more than just shoes and socks. Pandemic diplomacy works. China is up and running while America languishes.
The irony is inescapable. The Chinese built an actual wall that for many centuries protected them during periods of upheaval; the United States got a wall comprised of genetic material that can move between cells, causing fever, sore throat, headache and in some cases difficulty breathing, and like everything else, was “made in China.” So instead of a real wall, we have fear.
Fear is a great motivator. For the past month the message has been clear: don’t come to America. You’ll catch a horrible disease and die.
Nothing lasts forever. Soon the coronavirus will pass and things will return to normal. Baseball games will be played. Schools and churches will reopen. Life will go on. The caravans will start up again and hordes of people will trek north. The invasion will continue.
Get well America.
Follow the author of this piece on Twitter @tonytarquinto.
