Guest Post by David Erickson
President Trump frequently appears to have good instincts on a particular problem, but sometimes doesn’t understand how to solve the problem. The wall, which has been one of his signature topics since he was a candidate, is a good example of this. He understands that we need better immigration control, but he is fixated on the wall, which is a bad solution to the border control problem, and border control is only one aspect of overall immigration control.
For starters, walls don’t do any good if you leave the gates open. If Trump is successful in getting his wall built, five minutes after his Democrat successor takes office (and his successor will be a Democrat), the entry points at the border (the gates) will be wide open, and his wall will be nothing but an expensive, ugly, environmentally destructive white elephant.
Secondly, walls work both ways (if the gates are closed). I know most people haven’t thought about this, but there may come a time when Americans are trying to get out of this country for some reason. If the gates are closed at that time (and they will be), the wall will make it more difficult to get out.
The real problem with immigration is our immigration policy itself. It is hard to imagine how we could have come up with such a mishmash of confusing, ineffective, mutually exclusive, counterproductive laws and regulations unless the intent had been to create just such a mishmash of confusing, ineffective, mutually exclusive, counterproductive laws and regulations.
For starters, we create every incentive imaginable to attract immigrants here, with welfare, free health care, free education, citizenship for their babies (and eventually citizenship for them), and other incentives. Then, after attracting them here, we try to catch them at the border, but if they make it across the border without getting caught we automatically give them all of these benefits as a reward for making it across the border without getting caught. Then we make it extremely difficult to send them back, even if they commit crimes here (other than the crime of being an illegal immigrant). Explain to me in what universe any of this makes any sense.
The real solution to immigration control is as follows:
Eliminate all financial incentives for immigrants such as welfare, free health care, etc. (Actually, these programs as government programs should be eliminated for everyone, not just immigrants. Private charity can easily handle the truly necessary welfare, and handle it much more effectively than the government. However this subject would take an entire commentary by itself, which I will do another day.)
Eliminate birthright citizenship for all children of illegal immigrants. Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that the intent of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment was to provide citizenship for freed slaves only (and birthright citizenship for their children). Additionally, regardless of the intent of the 14th Amendment, birthright citizenship for the children of non-citizens of this country (regardless of whether they are here legally of illegally) makes absolutely no sense. Children born in this country should not be automatically granted citizenship unless at least one of their parents is a U.S. citizen at the time of birth.
Raise the white flag of surrender in the War on Drugs. A lot of the problems at the border are caused by or related to illegal drugs. Explaining all of the problems with, and all of the problems caused by, our War on Drugs would take an entire commentary by itself (which I will do another day), but for now suffice it to say that the instant we surrender in that failed, unwinnable war, almost all of those problems will vanish immediately. MS-13 and the other gangs and drug cartels will have little reason to exist if drug manufacturing and sales are legal. (Yes, I know. All Americans will immediately become drug addicts if that happens. That is why you and I and every other American are alcoholics due to the passage of the 21st Amendment which repealed alcohol prohibition.)
Once these preceding three steps have been accomplished, immigration at the border will slow to a small number of mostly peaceful people (as opposed to violent gang members), who are simply looking for work, and will not be a financial burden. They will mostly be doing the “jobs that Americans don’t want to do”, and satisfying the desires of the businessmen who want cheap labor. If we reform out guest worker programs to make it easier for them to get permission to temporarily work in this country legally, the problem of illegal immigration will be reduced to such a trivial level that the border can easily be controlled with just the existing monitoring and patrols.
However, having said all this, I realize that none of these reforms are possible with our current dysfunctional federal government. Most members of congress and the judiciary either like things the way they are now, are apathetic about the situation, or aren’t smart enough to figure out a solution (or some combination of these things). This means that our immigration problems are not going to get fixed, with or without a wall, especially after the Democrats take permanent control of the federal government, which is going to happen in the not-too-distant future. The only possible way to control the borders is to change the borders, with most of the Democrats outside of those borders. Ready for secession?
What a loon. Ever try to actually do anything in life, instead of just spouting on from up high? I guess Mr. Erickson is pissed that he lost his job at The Vape Shop. Great ideas, no wall and legalized drugs. Go visit San Francisco, and let me know how that’s working out. That’s why betas don’t make good leaders. The Democratic party awaits you. Get a life.
@starfcker,
Since I am not good at remembering names, when I began reading TBP I started a list of commenters by name, with their intelligence noted, based on their comment history. After reading your comment above I checked my list. I had you listed as “idiot”. I have since changed it to “brain dead”.
However, in the course of confirming my previous “idiot” designation, I researched your previous comment history and while doing that I ran across a guest post by Doug Casey titled “The War on Some Drugs”. I no longer have to do a post on the failed drug war, as I indicated in this post that I would do, because he says it perfectly. I have absolutely nothing to add. So thank you for that.
For those interested in Doug’s post it is:
This is a rough place, Bubba. Don’t let my snarking at your failed ideas stop you from contributing. Honestly, it is appreciated. I use the San Francisco example because it exists. We can see exactly what those policies lead to. Care to comment on that? If pointing that out makes me brain dead, okay, I’m cool with that. I’m always going to be on the side of people who get things done, and mistakes will be made for sure. But repeating them is suicide. Z-man has a piece today on exactly that. Peace, and Happy New Year to you and yours. Your brain dead friend
I can’t follow most of your ramblings above, but I read the Z-Man’s post. I agree with a lot of it, but not his part about past performance as a predictor for the present. If a person has been wrong about something 100 times in a row, he will probably be wrong on the 101st time also. But I appreciate you sense of humor, and your John Wayne gif below is hilarious. I will elevate you back up to “idiot”. Happy New Year to you also.
Though, in fairness, your point about leaving the gates open is certainly valid.
The problem is that your piece is neither observant of reality–walls work–nor mathematically sensible. Walls are a lot cheaper than humans, and intimidating as well.
“However, having said all this, I realize that none of these reforms are possible with our current dysfunctional federal government.”
Says it all, right there. Doesn’t matter whether I agree with your solutions or not.
Several years ago I had an outline and short summary for a book about ‘Politics At Ground Zero’ (the name I had chosen). I had what I thought were viable solutions, some of which would have required an Amendment or 2. Several people of various levels of political and historical savvy were positive about the short versions of the proposals, at least to the point where they thought I should develop them. Then, as I researched more and thought deeply about it, I realized these efforts would never be allowed by our present gov. system and there just wasn’t enough time left to actually accomplish any of those proposals by any other means.
Oh, well…
‘If there are no legal consequences for profiteers who defrauded the global economy into a collapse, what will deter those profiteers from doing that again?’ For all you old timers that came from REs site and it’s a damn good question. I’ll ask another damn good question, you know happens to your economy when it falls into 3rd place? Here let me give you a hint, Argentina, South Africa, Japan. It’s game over, look at South Africa it’s been over there for 30 years ( a few people try to hang on ) and with their immigration problem they were quickly overwhelmed. Now did you know they changed their constitution as to make it legal to confiscate land and property owned by white people? Do you understand pillage as a way to pay an army?.. The Romans understood. So how long will it be till our progressive left and their illegal immigrants friends (along with those mentioned at the top) decide to change ours? Will good become evil will evil become good
A wonderful expose on the futility of a (fucking) wall in particular (which won’t get built) and campaign promises in general. It’s populist catnip. It gets enough of the rabble to vote in the next MIFEOOL (most important fucking election of our lifetimes) to sustain an immoral and fraudulent process. I’ve enjoyed ranking on the (fucking) wall as a way to bash people over the head who imagine we can vote our way out of this 4th turning. Those led down the bunny trial by political hucksters playing the same fear and follow scam used successfully by the dominate few for a millenia. We’ve earned a killery Vs trumpster destiny. The diseased system at present must crash and burn so a new stateless (I pray) system may emerge.
I also love that the harvey wall bangers show themselves as useless idiots. Star, take a bow.
You can take a punch Star. I’ll give you that. A useful trait for a voter.
Which is why Israel’s 3 walls have failed–oh wait, they’ve been 100% effective!
Right. Because israelis are committed to stay an ethnostate. Do you get the sense that same commitment to racial and cultural purity exists in the u.s? Ever hear an israeli politician say diversity is our strength?
Read the book “The Iron Curtain Over America” by John Beaty and you will get a clear idea as to why we are having immigration problems; even with immigration laws in place.
It is the Democratic Party who is at fault. They do it for votes. They put their votes at a higher priority over the welfare of the nation. They have a history of doing this all the way back to WW1.
The people who control this party are a danger to our country. They are not nationalists. They support the communist agenda.
The Bolshevik mentality does not comprise. They will lie, cheat and murder to get their way. Those who think they can compromise with them are delusional. There is no compromising with them. They have to be dealt with straight up. They use administrative laws when it suits their purpose and administrative judges in their camp to block their opposition.
President Trump knows who he is dealing with.
T-Bird..
Both parties are equally corrupt. It astounds me how many TBP’rs still think the R’s are not completely corrupt.
about 1/3 of the reps are honest,1/3 are crooks,1/3 are idiots–
100% of dems are either crooked,stupid,or both–
About 80% of the Freedom Caucus is not corrupt
Both PARTIES are equally corrupt. How big is 80% of the freedom caucus. Nobody pays any attention to them in D.C. If 1/3 of the R’s were honest they would have been found with Kiddie Porn on their hard drives or walked backwards into a knife 24 times in Rock Creek Park because they would have felt compelled to be honest.
People that understand that we need The Wall should start holding signs on corners that say something like “Honk 4 the Wall” starting 3Jan2019. It would be helpful if our State Republican Parties would print up some signs and distribute them ASAP. We should also support Congress approving the money for The Wall and for all Federal employees. If Congress can pass $60B for Food Stamps, $38B for Israel and $10B for Central American Development, they can pass $5B for our National Security.
The beauty part would be all the “no Wall” fuckers who would honk out of anger and then be “no, wait…”
border security
Will that work in conjunction with the wall???
I’m thinking that one every tenth of a mile might eliminate the need for a wall, especially if they step on an activation switch..
Legalization is a death sentence. Legalization is ignorant and desired by people that do not want accountability or denied pleasure. Will it be okay when your surgeon/brake specialist/combustion engineer/Air Traffic Controller takes a hit of heroin/cannabis/cocaine before clocking into work? Or maybe on their break at work? People are irresponsible now just risking their lives and ruining their family’s lives and to believe all of a sudden when someone’s body is addicted to these chemicals they will responsibly decide, “Hey, I’m working on someone’s brakes/brain/electrical wiring in house/flying this 747/answering a robbery even though I’m going into detox I will abstain.” This perspective and opinion is offensive. We have an opioid crisis not because they are illegal, it’s because these chemically dependent bodies cannot get enough, legal or illegal. Would you pour acid on your head if it was legal? Just because a substance doesn’t cause immediate damage that is visible, this is not reflective that it should or should not be kept out of the hands of the public.
How many of you would be okay if I came into the hospital room of your daughter/son/father/mother/wife/husband and mistook the measurement of a drug in micrograms to milligrams because I’m only 85% sharp from doing juuuuuust a bit of coke on my break? There is only a thousand times difference for a neonate.
How’s this, as an aviation mechanic, jusssst a bit buzzed before work, I reuse an aluminum alloy fatigued bolt on that wing you see out your window at 10,000 feet.
Great comment, traumaman. The drug legalization morons don’t think these things through. Dogmatic positions are seldom helpful
when people comment upon drug legalization,either pro or con,it would be nice to know whether they believe alcohol should be considered an illegal drug–
Add caffeine to the list too
Life is a hazard…shit happens. That doesn’t mean we make laws to prevent something that most people won’t experience.
Responsible people won’t take drugs when they are working.
Don’t you think there are many people that are responsible? If not I would not want to walk in your shoes.
Just because it’s legal, IOW there are no criminal ramifications for possession or use, doesn’t mean a company can’t prohibit it’s employees from using. Right now in CO there are many companies that drug test before employment and further you agree to random tests. You fail, fine, no jail time, but no job either.
I believe I’ve even heard of businesses that prohibit off the clock tobacco use.
So that aspect of your argument is bullshit.
No more or less than if they had a fifth of Jack Daniels.
Alcohol is legal (and addictive), and yet incidents of drunken surgeons and Air Traffic controllers is rare (though hardly unheard of). I wonder why?
The reason mass migration is happening is because the globalists want it to happen.
The wall is either a symbol or a distraction; a flag or a false flag.
Something to rally around. An object of attention.
It’s whatever we think we see.
Super succinct…+1000 and extremely (((focused.))).
A guy keeps calling the cops because every time he comes home he finds some fucking intruders in his house eating his goddamn food and harassing his daughters. The first cop says “what you gotta do is stop making the place so inviting. Stop keeping food in the house. Stop letting your daughters traipse around in shorts. Make ’em wear some long dresses like they’re Mennonites. And it wouldn’t hurt if they’d gain forty or fifty pounds apiece and get some lesbian haircuts. Next, you get some motion detectors. That way, an alarm will go off, we’ll get a notification, we’ll get here within 15 minutes of when they’re done raping your daughters. Finally you get some hidden cameras to record them.” Then the other cop says, ” yeah, you could do all of that shit. Or… you could put a fucking DOOR on that giant gaping hole in the front of your house.”
The third cop says, “You’re aware that your whore daughters keep inviting these degenerates in, aren’t you? So if you get a big, solid, door with the best locks it won’t help any, because your little tramps will just make sure the thing stays unlocked and ajar.”
Those ideas could work but the people in control prefer to keep us at each others throats in order for them to continue their personal wealth programs. Government should not enable wealth accumulation by bureaucrats. Immigration is way down the list of problems for them to consider(not even solve).
Really dumb…Walls are quite cheap, and as Israel has shown, are highly effective…A 5 billion wall can stop most of a 100+ billion problem.
Illegals keep labour well cowed. By allowing them to think they snuck in means they have to work like dogs and shut up. They also keep wages down. Marx or Lenin used that argument and it’s still true. The R’s and D’s both like the cheap tame labour. They don’t mind handing out welfare because you’re paying for it and cheap tame workers who work their butts off are all they care about. Knowing they have no rights and the fear of jail or deportation keeps it that way. The progs in Silicon Valley want that cheap labor as much as Mittens Romney. They’ve kept us distracted long enough to get complete control. Soon they will be telling us to thank them for cutting our chocolate ration.
One thing America produces better than anyone else is Useful Idiots.
The parasites are attracted to the GIANT PILE OF MONEY that is sitting on the table. Those parasites come from outside our borders AND inside our borders. The pile of money is the problem. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was NO pile of money…none whatsoever. There was a pile of OPPORTUNITY, with virtually NO federal or state government bullshit standing in the way of anyone looking to seize some of that opportunity to better themselves, their family, or their community. We didn’t need a wall to stop these folks because their presence (also the fact that they came with mostly northern European values), was something this country needed and could embrace.
Today, NO WALL, of any height, thickness, etc. will ever stop the ultimate problem of non-stop parasitism on the health and wealth of our nation. Folks will always find a way in, and once in, will feed upon the pile.
Unless we end the government monopoly school system once and for all, end all food welfare, housing welfare, lending welfare, corporate welfare, and every bit of government wealth transfer, we will never survive the never-ending onslaught of parasites – both foreign and domestic.
Spending all of one’s time talking about a wall, is either a convenient way to avoid the hard discussion about the failure of the welfare state, or a sign that you are ignorant about the vast impact the welfare state is truly having on incentivizing all of the wrong behaviors in our society. And remember, any wall big enough to keep everyone out, is also big enough to keep everyone in…and a time may come when you see no other way to survive, than to get the hell out.
So basically, you have the same position as Chuck Schumer.
Since when is Schumer against the welfare state? HE is the POSTER BOY for the welfare state.
Something to behold..an unpolluted culture….God Bless them.. How refreshing..
You know, it’s fucking okay to be white..
Where were the niggers and mohammedans?
Just saw that the USDA says that EBT Food Stamp Cards will stop on 1Feb2019 as things now stand. That will be a SHTF event.
That would be a SHTF event if it came to pass. The longest shutdown was 21 days, over 20 years ago.
2 good reasons to build the wall that do not get mentioned enough–
potential terrorists,of which quite a few have been nailed coming across,and
DISEASE–how many of you have heard that ebola is raging in the congo,in the middle of a war zone?
now we have an idiot american health care worker in isolation in nebraska,waiting to be checked out–
let a few of those come across and make it into tuscon or san diego,then we’ll really have a par
You don’t need a wall to carry out health inspections, etc. End the welfare state and the flow will slow to a trickle that can easily be addressed, with health inspections for all, etc. And ebola, etc. will come in on a plane, possibly in the body of someone with a valid passport and legal approval for entry.
1) welfare should be eliminated for everyone
2) birthright citizenship is a Constitutional issue, and would quite likely require an amendment. That is nigh on impossible to accomplish.
3) legalizing certain drugs would see a massive increase in deaths. I really do not care about that, but some will. There are a great many unintended consequences involved in legalizing all drugs.
You are making this too hard. Simply enforce existing law on employers, and illegal immigrants will sprint to the exits. Also, you might want to prevent money from being transferred from non- citizen individuals in the US to Mexico.
I am for the Wall but we need a lot more than that to fix our immigration problem. A lot more.
O’cliff, Mattis just said it’s not a wall, it’s a beefed up BP. That makes more sense than constructing a wall in places where there is no threat of illegal passage, where nature provides a natural barrier. Get the fucking wall off your mind, blockhead. The wall was a simple campaign slogan like – a chicken in every pot, change you can believe in, he kept us out of the war…
Mr. Erickson: I think most of your ideas are sound and certainly more than worth considering. However, let’s face it, none of it will happen. The Dimwits want voters and the Repubes want cheap labor. And since the moronic Dimwit donors are too stupid to realize they are voting against their own self interest, and the Repube donors are the big corporations, it looks like we are royally screwed.