The southern border is a challenge. It always has been. Many borders are. Inevitably there is something on one side of any border that attracts people, and by the way animals from the other side. An international border’s objectives are many and often conflicting.
Why do we have borders? Most separate a cultural group from other cultural groups. Usually within a border there is a language or religious group that is predominant, or politically dominant to the point of suppressing other cultures or languages. Those within a border feel different from, perhaps superior to those outside. In some cases, a border exists to keep a certain population within, such as prisons or dictatorships. In almost all cases those maintaining the border feel privileged to defend it against all opponents.
Some borders are natural and easy to define such as islands like Australia, England, Hawaii, Iceland and Japan. Isolation helps protect them from aggressive neighbors. That does not defend them from naval powers though. Water also connects land; most major cities are ports. Rivers make convenient borders but not necessarily effective ones. Many cities are on both sides of a river, like Budapest or New York. Sometimes with two names like Philadelphia and Trenton or Milwaukee and St. Paul. Mountain ranges can be difficult enough to cross that they make durable if vague borders. In the current century there is a lot of pressure on the borders of well-off countries from poorer neighbors. It is natural for people to want to be better off, but no country wants to be overwhelmed like Lebanon, a country of 5 million, that has absorbed 1.5 million Syrian refugees in about a year. That would be like the U.S. absorbing 100,000,000, not 2 million. It would take us 50 years to catch up to Lebanon. England has a higher ratio of foreign-born residents than America.
We do have a problem, but not of the magnitude the out of power politicians complain. After all, we are a nation of immigrants. Even the Native Americans came from somewhere else once. Actually, every population outside of Africa emigrated from there, so let’s forget about the prejudicial “Blut and Borden” mentality. Immigrants are a necessary part of our amazing multi-ethnic culture.
Immigrants from all over the planet brought expertise here that melded into the world’s leader in almost every industry from mining and construction to aviation and weapons. Humble immigrants like Chinese and Irish labored to build the trans-continental railroad while Native Americans assembled skyscrapers and bridges.
It would be a good idea to know where immigrants are. The government keeps records on all of us, somewhat haphazardly. The price of entry should include a detailed dossier, such as photos, DNA and fingerprinting. It should also be linked to an employment registry. There are more unfilled positions in America than immigrants, legal or otherwise, so it’s really just a management issue.
Some can take jobs no American wants and others can bring the kind of special talent that makes America the envy of the world. Every new family is one or two workers, but also several customers to build the economy.
Who is advertising open borders? Not the administration. It’s the out of power politicians. Those who want the border for a political issue, but their slogan only makes it worse. It’s similar to treason, like giving an enemy in war a map of your weakness.
Almost anyone who has owned a dog knows how ineffective fences can be. While the owner only has a few minutes a day for fence maintenance, the dog who wants to get out, has nothing else to do. The same reason that prisons need almost as many guards as inmates. The guards only have so much time but the prisoners have nothing else to do. Emigrants have it harder than inmates, they have to sustain themselves while trying to become immigrants For them, the ‘huddled masses,’ failure is not an option.
To do all that needs to be done, we would have to hire more people and pay for them. The politicians who say they want a tighter border are opposed to that last part; they need a manufactured crisis to campaign against.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com
