For decades polling has confirmed public dissatisfaction with our immigration policies. In response, politicians and their mainstream media collaborators have constantly repeated that “the system is broken.” They often claim that to “fix” it we need “comprehensive immigration reform” — hence, enact another amnesty for those who have managed to evade law enforcement and then take additional measures to “make sure it works” (cf. Reihan Salam, the Bangladeshi-descended executive editor of National Review, “A Way Out of the Immigration Crisis,” The Wall Street Journal, September 22-23, 2018, pp. C 1-2).
In this issue of The Social Contract, Michael Cutler, a retired Special Agent of the former Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) — one of our foremost experts on immigration enforcement and national security — invites readers to view our immigration system from a different perspective. Here he argues that the system appears to be “broken” only to the general public. To the special interests—be they economic, political, social, and religious—the system is working just the way they want it to: business interests get a steady supply of cheap, exploitable labor; the enrollment of educational institutions is swollen with hundreds of thousands of foreign students; churches look to re-fill their emptying pews with folks from around the world; politicians see immigrants as new voters they can manipulate against their opponents; and the Immigration Lawyers Association (ILA) views the continuing entry of various categories of immigrants as an endless flow of clients they can bill for services.
In his lead article, Mr. Cutler explains that in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act in 2002, creating the Department of Homeland Security. They added “Customs” to the responsibility of the new agencies, including Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), an area that has nothing to do with immigration enforcement. Mr. Cutler goes on, “The very structure of DHS and the immigration enforcement elements of ICE obstruct rather than facilitate the enforcement of our immigration laws…. However, the most effective way to block the vital work of ICE is to make certain that there is an abject lack of personnel to carry out their missions.”
Other articles and reviews in this issue of The Social Contract are sure to be of interest. Please share the contents with your associates and public officials.