Bob Thomas: Immigration hasn’t helped U.S. in decades

“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”

­­— George Bernard Shaw

Considering the recent talk about immigration, I decided to get my feet wet and join the fray. It’s really a brawl because neither Congress nor the president has the fortitude to stand up and enforce our present laws. I’m opposed to immigration in any form for the next 10 years. We need to stabilize.

There are no provable data suggesting that immigration from any source over the past 40 years has strengthened our nation. Every technical innovation that we now take for granted in our everyday lives had its origins in the 1940s through 1970s, our high-tech revolutionary era. Television, 1948; transistors, 1952; jet travel, 1955; main-frame digital computers, 1950s; space travel, 1968; microchips, 1960s; personal computers, 1970s; satellites, 1970s; and on and on.

The birth of our space program began in the mid 1940s, greatly aided by immigrant German scientists. Our nuclear program began in earnest in early World War II, again, with immigrant scientists from all parts of Europe. I might mention that none of these immigrants entered our country illegally. But from the early 1980s until now, nothing cosmic has occurred, only outgrowths of previous technical breakthroughs.

During the past 40 years it can be argued that immigration has served our country, well but it cannot be proved. Genuine scientific achievements were few, if any. Oh, we’ve learned how to improve satellites, energy efficiency, robotics, solar cells and almost everything affecting our environment, but those exercises involve technology that was born decades ago.

I think I’ve made my case. Immigration today is strictly power politics. Democrats know full well that legalizing unemployed minority immigrants will result in far more Democrat registrations than Republican or independent registrations. Democrats actively recruit minorities.

Now, we must admit that our country was, at earlier times, owned and occupied by other civilizations, be it Mexicans, Indians or whoever. But that was yesterday. Any citizenry that doesn’t remain strong enough to hold its territory from invaders deserves to lose it, period! That goes for us, too. If we don’t stay vigilant both overseas and at home by being selective about immigration, we will lose our country from without and from within.

So where do we draw the line? 1) Seal our Mexican border with two-year draftee soldiers. Give high school grads and drop-outs a chance to grow up before entering the workplace or continuing their education. And 300,000 soldiers can guard 2,000 miles of border on three shifts. 2) Give illegal aliens presently in the U.S. renewable visas, but no citizenship for them or their children. To earn citizenship, parents and children would be required to return to parents’ country of origin, get in line and apply for U.S. citizenship through a U.S. embassy, and remain in that country until U.S. citizenship is granted. 3) All non-citizens would possess and carry an ID card with photo, fingerprint and country of origin. The only thing anyone has to fear from that data being public is breaking the law. 4) Establish an in-and-out worker program for visitors working in agriculture and agricultural processing.

That’s about it. Workers with renewable visas would pay income tax and Social Security taxes like U.S. citizens. They would then be entitled to any and all benefits earned through working and paying taxes. No additional visas would be issued for 10 years for any reason, and then only to immigrants applying through legal channels.

No, this isn’t amnesty. This is reality. They’re here! It’s our own fault that our government didn’t enforce our immigration laws. Either we are a sovereign nation or we aren’t. If we are, then we must take drastic action, and I don’t mean negotiation, on our borders.

Bob Thomas is a retired high-tech industrialist who later served on the Carson City School Board, the state welfare board, the airport authority and as a state assemblyman. His website is www.worldclassentrepreneur.com.