Between the perfidy of George Bush, John McCain, Ted Kennedy, their business paymasters, the ethnic lobbies and now the Mexican government, any of us who thought our US citizenship was being protected as our Constitution provides might as well whistle in the wind.

In an AP story printed on Tuesday, January 10 in the Washington Post, we are told that "Diplomats from Mexico and Central America on Monday demanded guest worker programs and the legalization of undocumented migrants in the United States, while criticizing a U.S. proposal for tougher border enforcement." [Mexico Demands U.S. Allow More Immigration, By Mark Stevenson]

These aggressive border-buster foreigners baldly state that

"Migrants, regardless of their migratory status, should not be treated like criminals."

And the Post reported:

"The countries represented at the meeting—including Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Panama created a working group to design a regional policy to avoid migrant abuse and to follow the course of the legislation."

Real immigration reform might cause Mother Mexico to lose some of the $16 billion a year that Mexicans living in the US remit home.

So: First, we see outsourcing of our technology to anybody who can give us a cheaper worker.  This practice, as we now see with GM and Ford, will create competitors all over, most recently China.

And of course this is touted as "free trade" which can now be clearly defined as "Send us your technology and we will steal it and turn your domestic manufacturing plants into empty shells and make your communities dysfunctional."
 
Next, we find our own Federal government won't enforce our borders despite the cost to our own citizens, especially our poorest.  Our labor unions are so weakened that some unions now look to signing up these illegals as the only means of boosting their bargaining impact.

Then, when these illegal non citizens (often called "undocumented aliens") use public services, bring in relatives, particularly the aged ones who are in need of health services, we wonder why we are going down the drain as a nation.

The members of our government have been presented with a golden opportunity to reverse this immoral, lawbreaking trend with the House bill HR 4437, which does many good things to seal our borders and enforce our broken immigration system. 

However, it is widely reported that this legislation may not survive intact in the US Senate, where Bush's amnesty demands are most respected.

Folks, we citizens really need to clean house.  In the mid term elections this coming November, one question is all it should take for any thinking citizen to decide on whether his or her Congressperson should return to DC:  How did you vote on HR 4437 as amended and passed by Senate/House conference?  

If the final enacted legislation contains another amnesty or had the teeth of enforcement badly pulled from HR 4437 as passed by the House, then unless he or she fought like a tiger to stop those diminutions, vote against them.

It's getting very serious.  Mired in a war in Iraq, which has cost far more than Bush or Congress will admit, our international reputation for fairness and morality tarnished to the point of no return, our national deficit huge, our trade deficit burgeoning, and our national debt over $8 trillion with perhaps another $2 trillion as yet uncounted, America is looking very sick.  And it just doesn't look that much better, regardless of which major party controls the government.

My message to Americans: what the hell, stay in your gated communities, watch the Super Bowl, and continue to believe things are just dandy.  You have been told and told, but most of you haven't listened and you may not be listening now, so I'm seriously considering spending more time on the golf course to enjoy my golden years while the fiddling continues. 

Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.