"Border Crossing"  A stature in the center of the University of Texas in San Aantonio, a state funded university, memorializing the illegal alien's struggle to come to the USA.


Ah, yet another example of multiculturalism in our country run amok. Before anyone dismisses me as a racist angry white male conservative, let me qualify myself. I am only a second generation American. Immigrants are on both sides of my family, both Mexican and German.

I have nothing but respect and sympathy for the people who come here illegally from Mexico. They want what all immigrants who come here want: to better their lives. But, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it, and memorializing the wrong, illegal way is not what a state university should be doing.

This is moral relativism. We might as well erect a statue commemorating a poor and desperate father holding up a convenience store to get money to feed his family. Or how about the dope dealer who’s working what he feels is the only job he knows, and is feeding his family doing it?

It’s not the same, you say? All of these activities, although done with good intentions, are illegal and have consequences to society. The problems: the flood of people who come here illegally overwhelm public services so much so that the affected counties and states have sued the federal government to offset the cost. We all pay for this with higher taxes, and reduced available services. Loose borders and illegal crossings are also associated with drug smuggling and all the illegal activity that goes along with it. There is a huge underclass that is not assimilating or learning English, creating situations like the border town of El Cenizo near Laredo, TX, that declared Spanish its official language. In fact, the Mexican journalist, Elena Poniatowska, said in the paper El Imparcial, that through the masses of poor immigrants who come here illegally, Mexico is recovering its lost territories. Sadly, crossing the border is dangerous. Hundreds of Mexicans die every year attempting the journey, either from the trip itself or by the actions of greedy, unscrupulous “coyotes”. Lastly, this may well be the way a WMD is brought into the country. In a post 9/11 world the borders must be secured and illegal crossing stopped.

What about the cheap labor we seem to need? Americans won’t do certain jobs anymore, you say. We didn’t have this problem during the depression. People traveled across the country to work in the farm fields (read any book by Steinbeck). We also didn’t have the welfare state yet: if we ended welfare except for extreme circumstances, and reduced unemployment benefits to a bare minimum, I think Americans would work jobs they don’t like (what’s the old saying? If you don’t work, you don’t eat). Lastly, punish employers harshly that hire illegals. If the jobs aren’t there, they’re less likely to come.

Another huge incentive to circumvent the system and come here illegally is the anchor baby. It is our current law that any baby born here, regardless of the status of the parents, is automatically a US citizen. To my knowledge the US is the only country in the world that allows this. This issue was brought up in the debate of the 14th Amendment (see the Congressional Record), and the current situation was never intended to be the case. Speaking before Congress in 1866, Senator Jacob Howard, a co-author of the 14th Amendment, laid out the clear intent of law: "Every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons.” This practice should be ended immediately. Citizenship implies a level of commitment and identification with a nation and a society, not the geographical circumstances of one’s birth. In a world in which millions of people are living outside of their countries of citizenship, it is critical that the United States adopt citizenship policies that reflect the intent of the Constitution and the realities of our times (www.fairus.org).

Don’t misunderstand: this is a country of immigrants, and we want immigrants to come. But we want them to be legal, to learn the language, to assimilate and feel like a part of America. It’s a legal, economic, security and culture issue, not a xenophobic or racist issue. UTSA choosing to allow the glorification of the illegal alien, however noble the intention, only serves to confuse the issue with multicultural psychobabble.