Securing border at home, defending our values globally

With migrants now flooding our Southwestern border at a reported 10,000 seeking entry daily, it is essential that we take steps to crystallize a national immigration policy. Republicans insist that $74 billion in funds that the Biden administration is asking in aid for Ukraine and Israel be part of a larger package that deals with border security and comprehensive immigration policy. Agreement on such a package will benefit the whole nation. At first glance, linking U.S. immigration policy and border control to aid to Ukraine and Israel may seem like a politically motivated version of linking apples and oranges. But that’s not the case. The issues are related. We are dealing with the issue of national territorial integrity. The current conflicts in Ukraine and Israel are the results of such violations — in Ukraine, aggression from Russia; in the case of Israel, the crossing of the Gaza border into Israel by Hamas operatives who murdered and committed atrocities against more than 1,200 Israeli citizens in one day. Nations are physical entities that are based on principles that define what their existence is about. Borders define the area where this unique national reality exists. Whether borders are violated by an army, by terrorists or by undocumented migrants amounts to the same thing: a violation of national integrity. Those who have violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine and Israel — Russia and Hamas, backed by Iran — are also our enemies and look to hurt our country as they have hurt the nations they have violated. Let’s recall that the pilots who flew planes into the World Trade Center and crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, resulting in the death of almost 3,000 Americans, trained on American soil. The price of being lax in a dangerous world is high. Israelis are paying a dear price for some moments of laxness toward an evil and lethal enemy. Every day that we allow hordes of migrants into our country without knowing with clarity who these individuals are threatens our national security in two significant ways. First, the most obvious, is the horrible damage that can be done by one terrorist among the hordes we are letting in. Second, demonstrating laxness, humanitarian inclinations devoid of the values that define our national integrity, broadcasts to our enemies that we are confused and weak. Perceived confusion and weakness encourage evil forces to act. For sure the hasty exit of America from Afghanistan broadcast this message to an evil and ambitious Vladimir Putin, who then took aggressive action in Ukraine he might not otherwise have done. Iran and their Hamas operatives are for sure very happy to see American leftists celebrating the atrocities that were committed against Israelis. Last June, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi traveled to Latin America in a visit that included Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. Iran is doing business with the most corrupt and mismanaged countries in Latin America to solidify its anti-American and anti-Israel base there. In 1994, the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was blown up and 85 were killed. Investigations in Argentina concluded it was the work of Iran. Republicans are right to push for raising the bar for defining asylum, setting up a border extradition authority and exercising greater care in allowing anyone into our country without a visa. Regarding the many already here undefined and undocumented, I propose reopening some of our closed military bases to house these individuals until their status is clarified. They would have status as refugees but without constitutional rights that would include 14th Amendment coverage granting automatic citizenship to the newly born. We can’t forget that the eternal principles that define freedom in our country are relevant everywhere. We must defend them at home and abroad to the interest of all who want to live in a better world. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education.

Star Parker