The American Immigration Debate and the Statue of Liberty

(1). The Heritage Foundation recently released a report that concludes that proposed legislation legalizing illegal immigrants would cost US taxpayers a net $6.3 trillion over the next 50 years, or $126 million per year. Driving the costs in the Heritage report are simple demographics - illegal immigrants are more likely to lack a high school education, and more than a third of households headed by illegal immigrants live below the poverty line, meaning those households consume more in services than they pay in taxes. Heritage says legalizing them improves the situation in the short run but creates a negative balance over the longer term, when they would be able to access more public health programs and, eventually, Social Security and Medicare benefits. Over a lifetime, it means each illegal immigrant-led household would receive $592,000 more in government benefits than it would pay in taxes. The Heritage report produced a vociferous backlash from Haley Barbour, a former Mississippi governor and national Republican Party chairman, who said in a conference call that the analysis was “a political document” rather than a “serious” effort at debate : “This study is designed to try to scare conservative Republicans into thinking the cost here is going to be so gigantic you can’t possibly be for it,” Mr Barbour said, adding that Heritage used to support broad free-market immigration reforms to help the US economy, and that, Mr. Barbour said, is the conservative stance. But Heritage President Jim DeMint, a Tea Party leader and former US Senator who is seen as a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said the costs of the legislation should give conservatives pause. Under the proposed legislation, all illegal immigrants would be given quick legal status and agriculture workers and young adults would receive a quick path to citizenship, while others would have to wait 13 years for citizenship. In the meantime, the Homeland Security Department would have to make more efforts to secure the border and to track entries and exits at airports and seaports. Heritage said that current illegal immigrants who are put on a pathway to citizenship will use $9.4 trillion in services and benefits, while paying $3.1 trillion in taxes, leaving a net drain to taxpayers. Steven A. Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, said even assuming al llegal immigration is halted, the US would have to create more than 30 million jobs in the next decade to make up for job losses in the past few years and accommodate population growth and the surge of legal immigration envisioned in the legislation. He said the conclusions from the Heritage study are obvious given the demographics of the population in question. “What Heritage is showing is there’s a high cost to cheap labor,” he said. “If you really think that high school dropouts are good for the economy and good for taxpayers, we could produce them domestically. We are, actually.” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the conservative-leaning American Action Forum who joined Mr Barbour for the conference call, said he drew a different conclusion from the study : that Social Security and other big spending programs will have to change. “I read this in many ways as not a study that casts doubt on the value of immigration reform but as a ringing endorsement of the need for entitlement reform,” said Mr. Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director who has argued for a better legal immigration system to boost the economy. He said that Heritage made certain assumptions about illegal immigrants, including that they are likely to remain poor and have only limited economic mobility when they are legalized. Mr. Holtz-Eakin said his experience suggests it’s difficult to capture the exact demographics and prospects of the population. (2). In 1883, the American poet Emma Lazarus wrote "The New Colossus," to be auctioned as part of the effort to raise funds for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, given as a symbol of eternal friendship by the people of France to the people of United States on the occasion of America's 100th anniversary. The poem was forgotten and wasn't mentioned in the inauguration of the Statue of Liberty in 1886. But after Lazarus' death, friends launched an effort to have the poem mounted on the pedestal. It was engraved on a plaque and placed on Lady Liberty in 1903. Here are the lines of the immortal sonnet : Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, / With conquering limbs astride from land to land; / Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand / A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame / Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name / Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand / Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command / The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. / "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she / With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" ~~~~~ That, dear readers, is the dilemma inherent in the American debate over immigration reform. The extreme left wants to legalize all the approxinately 11 million now - criminals included? The extreme right wants to deport all of them now - at a cost of $500 per person, that is $5.5 trillion, unless we dump them into the nearest ocean with a set of water wings. The rest of America is weaving impossibly complex systems in an effort to please everybody - all with an eye to the growing Hispanic voting block - something I find demeaning; Hispanic Americans will vote for candidates and parties that represent their personal needs and interests; they do not offer themselves as prizes in an immigration popularity contest, nor should any American politician want them to or encourage such behavior. I have been saddened by the bitterness in the arguments because the illegal immigrants entered America in search of a job, food, education and a future for their children, and freedom. Didn't every "American" set foot on our soil for the same reasons? They are a cost item now and everyone who can use a PC is calculating the cost of letting them stay or tossing them out. They are a regional problem with some states bearing the brunt of the costs. They include criminals and drug dealers and mules but no estimates put this faction at more than 2-8%. And, yes, they broke the law to get into America - but for me that is America's fault, not theirs. The US needs to tighten its borders and immigrant and visitor visa tracking systems, but it seems grossly unfair to blame poor, freedom-seeking people for American failures - and please don't bore us with the pious idea that all Americans obey all laws all the tine because it is simply not true. I keep looking at the plaque on the Statue of Liberty. There is no footnore fine print that says - only white Europeans or Asians with IT or engineering degrees, or who are doctors or nurses are welcome. "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" The only requirement on the Statue of Liberty plaque is that immigrants should be searching for freedom. If America, that shining city on the hill, cannot afford 10 million new freedom-seeking immigrants, perhaps we ought to consider firing some congressional aids and bureaucrats to make way for people who might actually contribute to America's future, given half a chance.

Is the Worldwide Terrorist Warning a Serious Obama Error in Judgment

Unnamed Yemeni security officials have confirmed a drone strike, suspected to have been launched by the US, at about 2 a.m. local time Tuesday. The strike killed four al-Qaida members riding in a car in the eastern province of Mareb where al-Qaida operates. Fox News has reported that a second drone hit a militant hideout, which, according Fox sources, makes six drone strikes in Yemen in the past six days. Yemeni sources believe one of the dead is Saleh Jouti, a senior al-Qaida member. Early on Tuesday before the drone strike, the State Department ordered the evacuation of most embassy personnel and urged all US citizens to leave Yemen because of the al-Qaida threat that triggered the shutdown of 19 American diplomatic posts this week. The US Air Force already has flown more than 80 State Department personnel out of Yemen to Ramstead Air Base in Germany. "The US Department of Defense continues to have personnel on the ground in Yemen to support the US State Department and monitor the security situation," Pentagon spokesman George Little noted. The Obama administration has offered few specific facts about the nature of the threat, but repeatedly has said it appears to originate in - and possibly be directed toward - the Arabian Peninsula, where Yemen is located and which is home to al-Qaida's most active affiliate. The department said in a travel warning that it had ordered the staff departures "due to the continued potential for terrorist attacks" and added that all Americans in Yemen should leave immediately because of an "extremely high" security threat level. Two hours later, the British government said it had "temporarily withdrawn" all staff from its embassy in Yemen due to the terror threat. In an official statement, the Yemeni government said it was taking "all necessary precautions to secure diplomatic facilities, vital installations and strategic assets." The AP has reported that Yemeni officials were also focusing on the strategic Bab al-Mandeb straits at the entrance to the Red Sea international shipping route as a possible attack target. Fox News has confirmed that a Yemeni intelligence official was fatally shot Sunday just south of Saana. The official's death is believed to be related to the latest terror scare - a negative result predicted by former US intelligence officials. On Monday, a US intelligence source told Fox News that the terror threat that led to the closure of many US embassies resulted from intercepted communications between Ayman al-Zawahiri - who is Osama bin Laden's successor - and Nasir al-Wuhayshi, head of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Zawahiri allegedly told al-Wuhayshi to "do something." Officials with the CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence would not confirm the details of any such intercepted communications. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said only that the threat potentially goes "beyond" the Arabian Peninsula. Some analysts pointed to the lack of specificity in questioning whether the threat was being blown out of proportion. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the world has been absorbed in this terrorist threat warning issued by the United States for five days. Like all of us, I was concerned and waiting for the Americans to stop yet another terrorist strike. But as the days pass, I have had time to consider these events and I have some questions. (1). If there was a plot underway, wouldn't the worldwide broadcast of its existence have caused al-Qaidi to stop. And doesn't this very US broadcast make drastic embassy closings and evacuations unnecessary. (2). Why would a message as innocuous as "do something" strike such fear into the US government. (3). Why would al-Zawahiri use a cell phone to give such an important order, knowing that the US is closely monitoring such communications. (4). What good does it do to close certain embassies if, as the US says, it does not know the location of the strike - but if the latest information suggesting a Yemen or Arabian Peninsula target is reliable, then why keep so many other embassies closed all week. ~~~~~ Dear readers, does al-Qaida now know how to produce maximun disorder with a minimum investment of its resources. And has President Obama over-reacted in order to prevent "a second Benghazi" on 9.11.2013. He is still not absolved in the Benghazi security disaster. Has he simply frozen al-Qaida in the best way possible, by going public worldwide based on routine inconsequential intelligence information. And, most importantly, is the collateral damage of the President's over-reaction the entry of al-Qaida into the Yemeni capital in force - as is being reported by CNN. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! Perhaps President Obama will feel obliged to answer some of these questions now circulating. He owes us an explanation.

Be Courageous, Aung San Suu Kyi

Winston Churchill said that "Without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning." Currently in Myanmar, a rather non-traditional spin is being put on CAung San Suu Kyai hurchill's observation. Twenty-something punk rockers with pink hair, leather jackets and skull tattoos are clearly rebels but it's not their fashion preferences that their fellow-citizens are talking about. It's their willingness Kyaw, the leader of the punk rock group Rebel Riot, whose new song slams religious hypocrisy and an anti-Moslem movement known as "969." ''They are nationalists, fascists. No one wants to hear it, but it's true." says Kyaw Kyaw. Radical monks are leading a bloody campaign against Moslems, and the vast majority of citizens in Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people, are unwilling to speak against them. The actions of 969 are a fundamental aberration in a country where being Buddhist is an important part of being Burmese, and where monks, the most respected members of society, are beyond reproach. Those willing to speak, even anonymously, about 969, say most Burmese are afraid to speak out, while others are simply in denial, or buy into claims that the Moslem "outsiders" pose a threat to their culture and traditions. The silence is dangerous because mobs are razing mosques and cheering as Moslems are hunted down and beaten to death with chains and metal pipes, according to Michael Salberg, director of international affairs at the US-based Anti-Defamation League. "The problem here," he told AP, "is not the perpetrators," pointing to conditions that paved the way for the Holocaust in Germany and the genocide in Rwanda. "It's the bystanders." After a half-century of tyrannic military rule, a quasi-civilian government installed two years ago has brought in sweeping reforms, freeing pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, relaxing restrictions against peaceful assembly, opening up the media and eliminating censorship. The nationalist monks are calling for boycotts of Moslem-owned shops and a ban on marriages between Buddhist women and Moslem men. The monks also warn that a higher birthrate could lead to Moslems increasing from from 4% of the population to a majority. Critics look at the teachings of Buddha and ask, "...is this what he meant?" For Ye Ngwe Soe, the 27-year-old frontman of No U Turn, the country's most popular punk rock band, the answer is clearly 'no.' He wrote the song "Human Wars" after violence against Rohingya Moslems in Rakhine state migrated into other regions. "When I go to some urban areas, I hear talking about 969, hating Moslems, being violent. It shouldn't be this way." Wirathu, the Buddhist monk who is the leader of 969, is often defended by progressive Burmese, who would normally oppose religious violence, calling it madness, "...but they don't dare to say that openly," says Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist who has written several books about Myanmar. "If they do they will be attacked by these new nationalists, religious bigots, accused of being friends with Moslems....It's a very difficult situation." A good example is President Thein Sein, who has been embraced by the US and others for his reform agenda. He banned an issue of Time magazine that splashed Wirathu on the cover and called him "the face of Buddhist terror," and issued a statement saying he supports 969 and considers the extremist monk a "son of Lord Buddha." With national elections scheduled for 2015, opposition leader Suu Kyi also has said nothing, worried, analysts say, there will be a backlash at the polls if she is perceived as anti-Buddhist. During military rule, the tiny punk rock community practiced and performed in secret for small groups of close friends. While others were intimidated by the constant threat of arrest and imprisonment, they screamed out about abuses at the hands of the army and asked why politically-connected businessmen were getting rich while everyone else suffered. And they aren't about to shy away now. Kyaw Kyaw of Rebel Riot likes to say that while he can't change the world, or Myanmar, or even Yangon, his hometown, he can at least influence those around him. ~~~~~ Dear readers, international media have reported on violence against Rohingya Moslems in Rakhine state, but this more widespread anti-Moslem violence is less publicized. I cannot confirm the details of this report and relied on AP Newswire for the facts. But if the report is true, it is extremely unsettling. That even the Myanmar president and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi are afraid to speak out against the anti-Moslem violence of 969 is difficult to accept, especially Aung San Suu Kyi's silence which is apparently based on her political goals. We know that she has courage and has used it to oppose political tyrants, but when her own politics overtakes her sense of right and wrong, something is out of joint. It's time for Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out, explain her position, and bring the weight of her persona to bear on the unacceptable violence against Moslems that is sweeping over Myanmar. Here's an anecdote about French President Mitterrand. He was the underdog in 1981 when he ran for president. His socialist party had never won a French presidential election. But when asked during a presidential debate about abolishing the death penalty, which was supported by a majority of the French at that time, he said he opposed tbe death penalty and would abolish it if elected and that he knew that his French co-citizens would respect his Christian-based stand. His advisors thought the comment had cost him any chance of winning. But François Mitterrand won. So, Aung San Suu Kyi , be brave. Trust the power of your convictions and trust in the fundamental goodness of the Burmese people who love and respect you.

America Issues Worldwide Travel Alert

Hi, dear readers. I'm back from a week on the beach with two long-time friends and their 10-year-old grandson. It is truly amazing how much energy children have. He kept all of us hopping. But, there was no WiFi or internet or TV where we were, so I had a lot of catching up to do when I got home late last night. The return trip itself was newsworthy because I travelled by train - and there were police and border agents and even a sniff dog on our train, checking passports and opening suitcases and handbags. It was only after I got home and put on my TV that I realized that the United States had issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans on Friday about the threat of an al-Qaida attack. America also closed down 22 embassies and consulates across the Moslem world for the weekend. The closings and warning appeared to be the determined effort of the Obama administration to prevent a second Benghazi-type attack such as occurred last September 11 in Libya. The administration's actions have received broad bipartisan support in Congress. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared on ABC News Sunday to say that the threat is "more specific" than previous ones and the "intent is to attack Western, not just US, interests." The US State Department has advised Americans traveling overseas to take precautions, citing potential dangers involved with public transportation systems and other prime sites for tourists and noting that previous terrorist attacks have centered on subway and rail networks as well as airplanes and boats. The alert expires on August 31. The warning emphasized that possible attacks may occur on or come from the Arabian Peninsula. US officials pointed specifically to Yemen, the home of al-Qaida's most dangerous affiliate and the network blamed for several terrorist plots on the United States, including the foiled Christmas Day 2009 plan to bomb an airliner over Detroit to the explosives-laden parcels intercepted the following year aboard cargo flights. The current threat is particularly serious in areas from Yemen to northwest Africa to Afghanistan. Eliot Engel, House member from New York and the House Foreign Affairs Committee's top Democrat, who was briefed on the State Department's decision, said, "I don't know if I can say there is a particular threat...there is concern over the potentiality of violence." The "blinking red intelligence seems to be pointing toward an Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula plot," said Seth Jones, counterterror expert at the Rand Corp. who taljed to AP News, referring to the branch of al-Qaida known as AQAP. Britain also took action Friday, telling British citizens in Yemen to leave and those considering such travel to delay it. Britain, which closely coordinates on intelligence matters with Washington, stopped short of releasing a US-type region-wide alert but added that some embassy staff in Yemen had been withdrawn "due to security concerns." British embassies and consulates elsewhere in the Middle East were to remain open. Germany announced the closure of its Yemen embassy on Saturday. US Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican and the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said the embassy threat was linked to al-Qaida and concerned the Middle East and Central Asia. Royce said the US is doing all it can "...to better protect our personnel and, out of an abundance of caution, we should." He declined to say if the National Security Agency's much-debated surveillance program helped reveal the threat. On Friday night, the New York Times said that American officials said the US had intercepted electronic communications among senior operatives of al-Qaida. US Representative Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence panel, said the communications picked up is more serious than the usual chatter among militants and would-be terrorists on the Internet and otherwise. ~~~~~ These terrorist threats will continue, dear readers, and while they should not make us change our lives dramatically because that would mean victory for the terrorists, they should remind us that our world is a riskier place today and we should be attuned to its darker aspects. And, for me, the terrorist threat is a constant reminder that people of all religions and political persuasions should work together to build economic and cultural and social bridges that will deprive these faceless terrorists of their prey among poor, uneducated and cast-off young people worldwide.