These illegal aliens are not immigrants It is a real irritant when liberals and journalists refuse to use the word “aliens” when referring to the hordes of law breakers already in the United States with more continuing to invade our nation on a daily basis. So I grabbed my trusty old Noah Webster 1828 Dictionary (the first dictionary published in America, also devoid of political correctness), and looked up the word “alien.” The word is defined as follows: “A foreigner; one born in, or belonging to, another country; one who is not a denizen, or entitled to the privileges of a citizen.” A denizen would be someone between a citizen and an alien. Today we would refer to them as a legal or resident alien, whether their status be or temporary or permanent. They have some rights such as owning property but not full citizenship rights, such as voting. According to the U.S. Constitution, one of the highest callings or responsibilities of the federal government is to protect our nation from “invasions.” It does not matter whether the invasion is armed or not, even though on our Southern border the invasion it is becoming ever more armed and violent. There are Mexican Federalies, drug runners and coyotes who make incursions back and forth on a regular basis. The numbers of aliens in our nation today number in the millions, perhaps tens of millions. They are in every state in the lower 48 and their sheer numbers are jolting many American citizens awake to the problems associated with their presence. Our federal government continues to stall at dealing with these problems or at best the progress is slower than a snails pace. Therefore, many states, burdened by the excessive social costs presented by these aliens, are beginning to deal with these problems within the confines of a state’s ability to do so. Oklahoma is leading the way, with the passage earlier this year of HB 1804. Of course passage of 1804 has caused no small stir. Many in Oklahoma are opposed to the measure because they have profited greatly by hiring these aliens and paying below a fair market wage. Others oppose 1804 as they suffer from “compassion at any price” and still others stand in opposition because they have built personal relationships with some of them and have become their friends. While they are all lawbreakers, some of the aliens are wonderful people. Others are violent criminals or irresponsible and immoral drunkards, killing and injuring American citizens every day while driving intoxicated or high on drugs. There has been a great deal of discussion about the high costs associated with their being here in the realm of health care, education, incarceration and the strain on our infrastructure. However, I believe all of those concerns pale in comparison to the problems related to our culture’s future. A nation is defined by its borders, language and culture. Our borders leak like a sieve, ever larger numbers of people don’t speak English and huge sub-groups are forming rather than assimilating into an uniquely distinct American culture. What we are seeing today are large numbers of people coming to our nation, to access our prosperity. Yet they have no desire to learn our language, learn of our history, our rules or the ideas behind what it takes to make a nation successful or great. In fact some simply want to import their culture to our nation. This has the potential to tear our nation apart. Worse still, large numbers in parts of Texas, Arizona and especially California are involved in the Aztlan or MechA movements with the intentions bringing parts or all of six state back under the jurisdiction of Mexico or creating an completely new nation. Through organizations like the La Raza Unida Party, it appears to me their strategy is to use our political system and explosive numbers to obtain their goals rather than an armed insurrection. Therefore, we should be cognizant of and use the term alien rather than immigrant. An immigrant would be a person with the intention of legally coming to America to become a resident and citizen. A properly controlled number of immigrants with quality character, talents and skills valuable for America is good for America, an uncontrolled invasion of aliens is not. Charlie Meadows is chairman of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee. |