The Southern Border Problem

IMMIGRATION

There’s A National Emergency On The Border, But It’s Not What You Think

Trump says there’s a crisis on the border, but the crisis reaches far beyond the border into every institution in Mexico and Central America.

By John Daniel Davidson
The Federalist

During negotiations to end the government shutdown last week, President Trump said he might declare a national emergency over the southern border in order to bypass Congress and build his wall with defense funding. Trump repeated this threat on Sunday, then on Monday morning announced he would address the nation tonight regarding what he called “the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border.”

Do we really have a national emergency on the border, or is Trump just trying to leverage the language of crisis as part of his negotiations with Democrats? Yes and no. There is indeed a crisis on the border, but it’s not what you think.

The crisis is not, as Trump would have us believe, that record numbers of illegal immigrants are entering the country.

Unable to See the Wood for the Trees

Monty Python's Flying Circus in Full Swing

An "immigration case" recently hit the headlines in New Zealand.  It is the kind of case that makes people's blood boil.  It reflects the potential of bureaucratic madness breaking out at any time.  

The case is as follows:

Nilani Suhinthan couldn't conjure the words to explain to her daughter Bumikka why she wasn't granted a visa to live in New Zealand, but the rest of her family were.  "Bumikka has Down syndrome, she doesn't understand. I couldn't explain to her. She's just been asking 'where my mummy is?'" Nilani says.  "My younger girl broke into tears, she was very disappointed."

The Irish mother of three has been living and working in Auckland since September 6, after being recruited as a IT consultant for a multinational US tech company.  The plan was to relocate her entire family here from Dublin, including her husband, Nagarajah, her eldest daughter Tanya, 19, her youngest daughter Saumia, 14, and Bumikka, 15.  Up until November 2 that plan was on track, after Nilani's husband - a computer engineer with decades of experience - was granted a New Zealand work visa, and her youngest daughter a student visa.  Her eldest daughter Tanya intended to continue studying medicine in Bulgaria, but eventually settle in New Zealand. 

Then the news arrived on November 7 that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) had declined Bumikka's student visa because she did not have an "acceptable standard of health".  INZ's medical waiver assessment for Bumikka's stated because she had Down syndrome she was "likely to impose significant costs on New Zealand's special education services".  Specifically, the issue was that Bumikka would require the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) special-ed service to undertake schooling in New Zealand.  [NZ Herald]

 Here is a family that will likely generate far more income taxation dollars for the State than the average New Zealand family.

New Zealand Has Become a Criminal's Paradise

Justice and Occam's Razor

New Zealand is embroiled in an immigration case so bizarre, so extreme, that the instinctive reaction is to wonder how much money a convicted criminal paid the Immigration Minister under the table to get residence in this country.  What else could explain such apparent malfeasance on the past of Iain Galloway, NZ Immigration Minister?

Here is Kiwiblog's summary of the case:

The full background of the guy given residency by Labour

I blogged yesterday on how (Minister of Immigration) Iain Lees-Galloway has granted permanent residency to a prisoner (Jan Antolik) who was due to be deported when released. Well his full record is worth looking at. Here it is:

2003: Entered NZ with a false passport

2010: Arrested with two Hells Angels on aggravated robbery and blackmail charges. Guilt not proven beyond reasonable doubt.

2011: Found guilty of using false passport and giving false details to Immigration officials

2011: Arrested as part of Operation Ark, a covert investigation into Ecstasy-like pills.

2012: Discharged without conviction on false identity charges

2014: Convicted of manufacturing Class-C drug from Operation Ark arrest. Conviction overturned but Crown abandons second trial

2014: Arrested importing 5kg of MDMA, a Class-B controlled drug, used in Ecstasy.

2016: Convicted of importing MDMA and jailed for five years and nine months
It is bad enough that he has been granted permanent residency, but even worse the Minister won’t explain why.

The Parole Board is not known for its hard line when it comes to deciding whether a prisoner is granted parole.

When All Else Fails . . .

Temper Tantrums

It appears that the Left these days has lost its credibility.  It seems as though any action, any words, any opposition immediately calls down the Left's dreaded indictment: Racist!

Nowhere does this appear more the case than in the United States.  The Left cannot seem to get through a twenty-four hour news cycle without shouting "Racist" at someone, or some thing or other.  "Racism" would appear to be the unforgivable sin.  Once hurled at an opponent there is nothing more to do or say.  It's all over, Rover.  The accusation is the verbal equivalent of taking careful aim and fatally shooting someone.

Take the matter of immigration rules, regulations, and policies.

History Curiously Repeats

California Seeks Effective Secession From the Union

Life has a tendency to throw up some unexpected turn of events.  Or, as the saying has it, beware unintended consequences.  

The American Civil War was fought over the principle of States' rights.  The fundamental question was how much original authority resided in the states versus how much resided in the Federal government.  Did the Federal government hold a higher authority than the states when it came to managing their own affairs?  The signature issue at the time was slavery.  The Civil War "answered" the question: federalism triumphed over states' rights--by force of arms.

In recent years we have seen the re-emergence of the doctrine of states' rights, however.  It has come from an unexpected quarter.  Cities (and states) in the US have begun to assert a "sanctuary status" for illegal aliens, which means that they refuse to support or comply with Federal Government law on immigrants.  Leading the charge for this recrudescence of doctrines of states' rights has been California, one of the most "liberal" States in the union.

Loose Lips Launch Ships

Ardern's Moral Posturing Has Consequences

During the Second World War, in Britain the warning was, "Loose Lips Sink Ships".  As the U-boats hunted for convoys of merchant vessels, sinking hundreds as they made their way to Britain carrying vital supplies, people were made conscious of the need for secrecy.  Given German intelligence operatives were active on radio listening posts, information often deemed to be harmless might have been sufficient for security leaks, leading to focused U-boat efforts on expected convoys. 

Now circumstances have changed.  We need to update the slogan from "Loose Lips Sink Ships" to "Loose Lips Launch Ships".  Several years ago Australian waters were invaded by boats launched out of Indonesia, carrying "refugees".  The Labour government of the day welcomed them into Australia.  At its height, one boat a week was arriving on Australian shores.  Most of these "boat people" were not genuine refugees: they were economic migrants who had paid money for passage to Australia.  They arrived, as the scam requires, with all their documentation mysteriously missing.  No passports, no documents proving provenance.  No UN refugee certification.  Nothing. 

Then Labour lost an election, and the Liberal administration stopped the boats virtually overnight.  They simply deployed the Australian navy to detect the ships and turn them back to Indonesia.  They continue to patrol in this fashion, and they continue to turn boats back.

But those in the business of people-running on the seas are smart, well-informed, cunning, and business savvy.

An Ancient Evil

Slavery is Growing in the West

We expect that "history" will record the early 21st century to be one which allowed international slavery to flourish.  Most of this new slavery manifested itself as people from less prosperous socio-economic regions and countries migrated illegally to more wealthy countries.  They were smuggled across national borders, or brought into countries under pretext, then forced to work as slaves.  

A recent headline in The Guardian claimed that slavery in the UK has increased by 300 percent.  It went on to clarify that this huge increase was due not to an explosion of slaving into the UK, but to better reporting.  In other words, this modern form of slavery has existed for some time, and is only now coming to be exposed.

Going Way, Way Back To The Present

Humanitarianism, Open Borders, And Slavery

In a modern country in 2017, how would you define slavery?  The definition would surely include someone being forced to work against their will--in other words, someone who does not have the option or opportunity to resign or quit and walk away.  It would apply to a person who has no access to the protection of the country's labour laws.  It would include those over whose heads dire consequences hang if they refuse to work or neglect to do what they are told.  It would cover those who are held against their will and forced to work.

Do such things exist in the OECD countries today?  You bet they do.  It's not just that they exist: in truth such things have multiplied to the point where, we are told, they are now endemic.  We have incidents reported occasionally in New Zealand.  People seeking work or student visas pay large sums of money to "agents" who process them through the system.  Then they turn upon their "clients" and demand services and work against their will, until they pay off their debts.  But their "remuneration" is little more than a meagre sum of money to keep them physically moving.

In New Zealand, when such circumstances come to light and are reported to the authorities, interdiction and state vengeance follow, provided the abuse can be proven.  But whilst such things remain underground they continue.  In the UK, we are now told, slavery operates in every large town and city in Britain.  Europe has become one of the fastest growing regions for slavery in the world.

The European Problem

Drinking Sea Water to Overcome Thirst

We continue to muse over whether Europe will ever survive as a union of states--with a Federal bureaucracy holding final and absolute power.

It is doubtful that it will.  Hungary is now setting an increasingly independent course--independent, that is, from the "Europe with no borders" commitment of Angela Merkel and the reigning bureaucracy in Brussels.  The way the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban puts it, the nations of Europe should, on the one hand, be thoroughly committed to European values, while, on the other, it must (therefore) close its borders to the migrant horde.

In Orban's view, there is an evil empire operating within Europe, tearing it apart from the inside.  And that empire is both led and controlled by another Hungarian, one George Soros.

Slow Tortuous Suicide

Europe is Taking the Slow-Release Poison Pill

As Europe’s migrant crisis enters a new phase, it’s clear that European leaders have neither the will nor desire to preserve their own civilization.

John Daniel Davidson
The Federalist

On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would not limit the number of refugees coming into the country. “On the issue of an upper limit, my position is clear,” Merkel said. “I won’t accept one.”

Setting aside the electoral implications of Merkel’s statement, which defied her party’s long-term coalition partner just two months before federal elections, it perfectly captured the refusal of European leaders to face the migrant crisis head-on—a refusal that in turn epitomizes the slow suicide of European civilization.

President Trump’s Warsaw speech earlier this month provoked predictable cries of racism and xenophobia from a mainstream media worried that even the term “western civilization” was a dog whistle for alt-right nationalists. Implicit in such criticism is the dubious notion that western values are not really western, that people of all cultures and religions desire more or less the same thing.

His critics say Trump was playing on white Europeans’ fears that Muslim migrants won’t adopt western values and won’t assimilate into European society, and therefore pose a direct threat to western civilization. But there’s another group that Trump no doubt had in mind, a group that also rejects western civilization and has little interest in defending or preserving it: European elites.

European Elites Refuse to Defend Women

Without splitting hairs over what we mean by “western civilization,” let’s stipulate that, at minimum, it encompasses things like freedom of speech and religion, equal rights for both sexes, and democratic rule of law.

Judicial Rebellion Quashed

Radical Lower-Court Justices Body Slammed

The US Supreme Court has handed down a momentous decision.  Yes, said the justices, the President of the United States can stop visitors and migrants from entering the United States when national security is at stake.

This case is momentous for a number of reasons.  At the top of the list is the Supreme Court's body slam of judicial overreach where the un-elected judicial branch of government was arrogating to itself more and more powers over the legislative and executive branches of government.

David French reviews the case and decision:

Nothing to See Here; Move Along

Sweden: Men of Migrant Families Responsible for 90% of Gun Violence

Virginia Hale
BreitbartLondon

Almost all murders and attempted murders in Sweden using firearms are carried out by people with foreign backgrounds, according to a new study.

According to research carried out by Dagens Nyheter, 90 out of the 100 offenders and suspected offenders examined by the liberal daily newspaper have at least one foreign-born parent, the vast majority having roots in the Middle East and North Africa.

In around half of the cases, the men were born in Sweden whilst others migrated to the country at a young age. The study looked at 53 convicted and 47 suspected perpetrators involved in shootings in public places which have taken place since 2013.  “The fact is that street gangs, and violence are phenomena that occur in some areas, and most of the people who live in these areas are of foreign descent,” said Amir Rostani, a sociologist at Stockholm University.

Around 80 per cent of the men have roots in the Middle East and North Africa, with offenders having roots in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, Somalia, and Eritrea.  “This is well in line with a study I previously conducted, on members of criminal networks,” Amir Rostami told Dagens Nyheter.

Demonising Immigrants

The Other Side of the Coin

The NZ Labour Party leader, Angry Andy Little has vowed to reduce immigrants coming into New Zealand by thousands.  It's a populist policy--a kind of Trumpism. Loud, bold, and oozing with braggadocio.

Here is a response from one of his friends:

Andrew Little is a regular at my restaurant. Here’s what I’d like to say to him about immigration

Yael Shochat
The Spinoff

Israeli-born Yael Shochat is the owner of much-loved Fort St institution Ima Cuisine. She writes about the essential role immigration plays in her restaurant – and why the Labour leader’s vow to slash immigrant numbers by ‘tens of thousands’ has her deeply worried.

Two years ago, after 17 years living here, I received my New Zealand citizenship. Now I can say that I am proud to be both a New Zealander and a first generation immigrant from Israel. In 1998 I followed my Kiwi husband here because as a scientist in Israel, a country with one of the highest science and engineering degrees per capita, he couldn’t find a job. When I arrived in Auckland I found the cultural scene to be, quite frankly, dull. As a lover of food I had the option of either pies, eggs benedict or sushi, if I was lucky. The Jewish community that offered me a feeling of home was – by numbers – absolutely miniscule. These were hangovers from a post World War II immigration policy that only “opened the door” to Brits while discriminating against poorer migrants and refugees.

I was determined to make something of my passion for food. In the 14 years since I started running restaurants and cafes specialising in Middle Eastern and Jewish cuisine, I have not only employed hundreds of Kiwis and immigrants alike, but I’d like to think I’ve had a hand in contributing to the new culinary renaissance in this city and left it a more exciting place than how I found it.


YAEL SHOCHAT OUTSIDE HER FORT ST RESTAURANT, IMA CUISINE. PHOTO: SIMON WILSON

To Mr Andrew Little, and to dear Jacinda, whom I consider a friend: you’ve been to my restaurant, Ima Cuisine, many times. You’ve shared my company and enjoyed my most beloved dishes – immigrant food from all over the Jewish diaspora, and Palestinian food, the indigenous cuisine of my country. What are we going to say to each other next time you come in? Are you going to give “compliments to the chefs”, half of whom are not welcome here under your immigration policy? Am I welcome here? I certainly don’t feel welcome now that you’ve promised to cut “tens of thousands” of immigrants.

An Offensive Decision

Bent And Twisted Moral Compasses

Every so often decision are made by bureaucrats which defy common sense.  We use that term deliberately.  There are some things which are beyond the comprehension of the ordinary bloke.  And so it has come to pass in New Zealand in a matter of deportation.

An immigration official has made a decision not to deport a twice-convicted sex offender, whose victims have included young girls.  This chap--an immigrant--has been allowed to remain in New Zealand, provided he does not re-offend over the next five years.  Cynics have opened up by asking the question that is begged loudly and insistently: what would it take for an immigrant to be deported?  Let's think.  Mass murder? Spitting on an immigration official? Refusing to vote for the Greens?  Unreasonable and stupid questions, we hear you mutter.  Quite.  Immigration New Zealand appears to be nonsensical, stupid, without rhyme or reason.  Unreasonable and stupid bureaucrats deserve to be mocked in the same vein in which they have assailed and mocked their fellow citizens, whom they ultimately, in this life, serve.

Following Canada's Example

Immigration and the Control of Borders

The EU has failed miserably to control its borders.  Weighed down by utopian idealism, it has opened its borders virtually to anyone who comes.  It sees itself as the great beacon of humanitarianism.  It's utopian dreaming has caused dislocations not only in the host countries of Europe, but in the "sending" countries as well.  Germany has led the ideological charge towards utopia.  If the European Union breaks apart as a result, Germany will largely be to blame.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the United States is having its own struggles over immigration.  Under President Obama, the US followed in Chancellor Merkel's train.  Obama's grand progressive humanism became more and more evident as he instructed immigration and border agents to ignore the law and turn a blind eye to the folk streaming across the southern border.

Now Trump has announced that he favours a different system--a points-based system, which is far more discerning, selective, and enables the aligning of US interests with the aspiring immigrant.  This, we believe, will prove to be a huge step forward.

Myopic Folly On A Grand Scale

Sweden: An Example of How Not to Handle Immigration

We’ve taken in far too many people and we’re letting them down badly – especially the children

Tove Lifvendahl
The Spectator


 

For a British boy to be killed by a grenade attack anywhere is appalling, but for it to happen in a suburb of Gothenburg should shatter a few illusions about Sweden. Last week’s murder of eight-year-old Yuusuf Warsame fits a pattern that Swedes have come slowly to recognise over the years. He was from Birmingham, visiting relatives, and was caught up in what Swedish police believe is a gang war within the Somali community. Last year, a four-year-old girl was killed by a car bomb outside Gothenburg, another apparent victim of gang violence.

For years, Sweden has regarded itself as a ‘humanitarian superpower’ — making its mark on the world not by fighting wars but by offering shelter to war’s victims. Refugees have arrived here in extraordinary numbers. Over the past 15 years, some 650,000 asylum-seekers made their way to Sweden. Of the 163,000 who arrived last year, 32,000 were granted asylum. Sweden accepts more refugees in proportion to size of population than any other nation in the developed world — when it comes to offering shelter, no one does it better. But when it comes to integrating those we take in (or finding the extra housing, schools and healthcare needed for them), we don’t do so well.

It may be news to the rest of the world, but gang warfare has been a feature of our country for years now.

Dialogue of the Deaf

A Swedish Gaffe That Wasn’t 

The world guffawed when it thought Donald Trump was hallucinating about Sweden. But he wasn’t really wrong.

By Jonathan S. Tobin
National Review Online

Late-night television hosts got another gift from President Trump over the weekend, but it turns out the incident wasn’t so much comedy gold as it was an illustration of everything that is wrong about the colloquy between Trump and his critics on immigration and refugees.

On Monday evening, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers made a meal out of the latest Donald Trump gaffe. Trump was lambasted for saying that there had been a terror attack in Sweden on Friday night. Since there had been no such attack, it prompted the usual avalanche of mockery in the president’s direction. But while Trump’s vague language and willingness to fabricate facts to suit his talking points often justifies the brickbats thrown in his way, in this case there were two problems with the hilarity: Trump didn’t actually claim there had been a terror attack, and the facts about Sweden actually do back up his claim about a surge in violence by Muslim immigrants in Europe.

During the course of his campaign-style rally in South Carolina on Saturday, Trump said:

We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris.

Given the context, in which he appeared to be referencing violence in Belgium, France, and Germany, it sounded as if Trump was saying there had been an attack the previous evening in Sweden. Except he wasn’t.

Shameless

Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

The old saw asserting there are "lies, damned lies, and statistics" will afflict us until educational and schooling standards rise once more.  For the present we see commentators and reporters and government officials and politicians misusing statistics frequently.  Largely, they get away with it.

To this imbroglio we must add the recent phenomenon of the main stream media being captured by political animus against conservatives in general, and the Trump administration, in particular.  The sobriquet "fake news" has been deployed to characterise how en masse the media are framing everything they can find to ridicule and undermine the new US federal administration.  As Churchill used to say, by the time a lie is corrected, it has gone around the world, before the truth gets out of bed and puts its pants on.  Never was this more the case than in our days, where the animus of the media is so extreme.

Here is one "little exchange" to illustrate the point.  The topic: immigration to the US.

Another Fundamental Human Right Is Discovered

The New Transnational Man

The brouhaha over US immigration policy changes has produced some interesting developments.  For some time now it has been touted about that visa free travel between nations is a tangible benefit of globalisation.  The promise of a united, nation-less human race seemed to be coming one step closer.  It was both boon and benefit.

Then, before you could say "Brer Rabbit"  visa free travel suddenly transformed into a fundamental human right.  You can tell that this mindshift has occurred because folk all around the world (we are told) are protesting passionately against the recent US immigration and visitor restrictions as a violation of fundamental human rights.  Why else would the dear folk of Swaziland be otherwise protesting a change in another country's immigration policy?  Why else would the Left in New Zealand be stamping its collective foot, demanding that the Prime Minister protest more vehemently and forthrightly?  How did such a fundamental mindset shift come about?

Back when Noah was a lad, were a nation peremptorily to tighten up its visa requirements, the standard form was for other (objecting) nations to make quiet diplomatic representations via the normal channels.  No longer.  Now it's "Man the Barricades" time.

We have recently travelled to a country which required a formal visa to be issued.

Border Protections

The Return of Common Sense

The United States seems to have taken a leaf or two out of NZ's immigration policy.  President Trump has signed an executive order introducing more stringent screening of entry permits.  According to reports in Stuff, the new policy runs as follows:

The draft order instructs the US government to screen visa applicants for their ideologies.  "In order to protect Americans, we must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward our country and its founding principles," or do not support the Constitution, the draft order reads.

The order says the United States should screen visa applicants to block access to those "who would place violent religious edicts over American law" and those who "engage in acts of bigotry or hatred" including "honour" killings, violence against women, and persecution on the basis of religion, race, gender and sexual orientation, a description that human rights groups say also appears to be geared toward Muslims, without naming Islam explicitly.

This reads as if the Administration has taken notice of New Zealand's immigration policy.  Imitation, they reckon, is the best form of flattery.

Needless to say the usual suspects in the US will be screaming blue murder over this reinstatement of a much more controlled immigration and visitor policy.