Tell your Senators to Build the Border Fence

3/10/08

This week’s action alert asks readers to e-mail their Senators in support of Senator Jim DeMint’s Complete the Fence Act, which requires that 700 miles of physical fence be built along the Mexican border by 2010.

Background: We should not actually need the Complete the Fence Act, as it merely repeats the mandates spelled out in the 2006 Secure Fence Act. However, Congress and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff weaseled their way out of their commitment.

The most ridiculous moment of the fence farce came three weeks ago, when Michael Chertoff proudly announced that the first 28-mile stretch of “virtual fence,” which had been substituted for the real fence demanded in 2006, was ready to go operational. However, five days later, the media reported that due to technical problems, the virtual fence would not be ready for another three years!

So now Sen. DeMint is going to tell Congress yet again that America wants a real fence, and you can help him out by sending this e-mail.

Thanks for doing your part.

Subject: Support the Complete the Fence Act

Body: Please support Senator Jim DeMint’s Complete the Fence Act, which requires that 700 miles of physical fence be built along the Mexican border by 2010.

We really shouldn’t need a new piece of legislation to get this fence built. After all, in 2006, Congress passed the Secure Fence Act, which promised to build a 700-mile physical fence. After its passage, however, Congress and Michael Chertoff dragged their feet and watered the act down. As a result, only five miles of fence following the act’s specifications have been built, plus a 28-mile “virtual fence,” which doesn’t work and wouldn’t be effective even if it did.

By refusing to obey the will of Americans, Congress demonstrates that it has succumbed to the pressure of the liberal press, Hispanic lobbies, and the Mexican government, all of whom labeled the fence “racist” and “xenophobic.” However, our interminable failure to take action on illegal immigration shows that America’s problem is not lack of respect for others, but lack of respect for ourselves.

A strong fence standing proudly on our border would be a slap in the face to all of those who trade in white guilt. The fence would state unambiguously that Americans will not be bullied into surrendering their homeland to aliens.

After all, Americans oppose Hispanic immigration not because of irrational prejudice, but because of legitimate and well-founded concern over the effect that Hispanics are having on America. Consider these statistics:

• Only 52 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school, the lowest rate of any American ethnic group. (Source: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research)
• Hispanics whose families have been in the US for three generations or more are twice as likely as whites to be high school dropouts. The moral: Hispanics don’t assimilate. (National Center for Education Statistics)
• Hispanics, even those whose have been in America for three generations or more, are less than half as likely to graduate from college as whites. (National Center for Education Statistics)
• Hispanic men are more than three times more likely to be in prison than white men. (Bureau of Justice Statistics)
• Hispanics are 50 percent more likely than whites to have children out of wedlock. (National Center for Health Statistics)
• Immigrant households impose $200 in additional taxes on native households. High rates of Hispanic welfare use are the major reason. For example, 34 percent of Mexican immigrant households use welfare. (Harvard professor George J. Borjas)

If America is to retain her prosperity and her pride of place among nations, we need a population that can live up to the standards that made this country great. We need a nation of educated and morally responsible taxpayers, not one of criminals, high school dropouts, and welfare users.

And that means we need to stop illegal immigration now.

Sincerely,

Instructions for sending: Edit the message above as you like and send it by e-mail to your Senators or submit it through their online contact form. Contact information for your Senators is available on the Senate website. Put the sentence labeled Subject in the subject line of the message and the rest in the body section.

If you live in South Carolina, please send Sen. DeMint a thank you note. Non-South Carolinians can do this too, of course.

After you send the message, it is crucial that you either leave a comment below or send me a private e-mail telling me you sent the message. I need to know how many people are sending these messages to gauge interest.

Confidentiality: If you wish your e-mail to remain confidential, add this sentence to the end: “I wish this e-mail to remain confidential and for my identity to be protected.”