"You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer disgrace. And I told them of the hand of God which had been upon me for good." - Nehemiah 2:17-18

" “Building the wall”, has taken on a variety of connotations, both positive and negative, depending on people’s political views, but the bible quotation above reminds us that “building a wall” includes the construction of gates for entry into the city or country. "Building a wall" means the construction of a means to protect people and control access, complying with the laws of the protected people. On a smaller scale, our homes have walls - and doors with locks to enable us to control entry.”
 
The content above and the article immediately below were authored by one of the builders of this website. This is the only content in this site that is an expression of the personal opinion of those of us who built the site, because this site is effectively only an organized "scrapbook" or "catalogue" of categorized articles, reports and other documents authored by others, with links to the sources for verification.

“On the subject of Immigration, I thought it appropriate to share my personal insights because my wife and I are immigrants to the U.S.A.

My wife and I  immigrated to the U.S.A. and we did so in compliance with the laws of the U.S.A., following the prescribed steps of (a) applying for an H-1 visa; (b) applying for a Green card; and (c) applying for citizenship. During this process, from the start, we paid federal, state and local income taxes. 

As an immigrant to the U.S.A., here are my insights on the topic of Immigration and Border Control:
 
1. Based on our personal experience and knowledge of others' experience, the process for legally entering the USA to work and to immigrate is functional.  My H-1 visa application was quickly approved because there was a need for people with my experience and skills. My wife and our daughter were approved because they are immediate family members. (Similarly, my sister in law and her husband were welcomed to come to work in the U.S.A. because the U.S.A. was experiencing a national shortage in their profession. They, too, were quickly processed, along with their children, and are now U.S. citizens.) 
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2. Condoning and facilitating illegal entry into the country is not fair to foreigners who obey the law and apply to enter legally, as my wife and I did. Existing laws need to be enforced while legislators focus on making revisions to laws as are agreed to best serve Americans and the U.S. economy. The Trump Administration’s recommendation of creating a point system of entry based on factors such as English-speaking ability, education level, and job skills makes sense. For a brief overview of this administration’s immigration policy, link here to the whitehouse.gov website: Trump/Pence Administration - Immigration Reform

 

3.  The numerous negative effects of failing to enforce the laws that control entrance to the U.S.A. and the lack of a border wall with controlled entry points include the following:

I. People are encouraged and emboldened to enter illegally. This has created a flood of people trying to cross the border.
 
II. Criminals are able to enter the country, thanks to the open border, leading to robbing, raping and murdering. (Refer to the article below, "The Human Cost of Illegal Immigration and Sanctuary Cities". In addition to the human cost, taxpayers are burdened with the related court costs and costs of imprisonment. Refer to the article below, “Immigration Tops U.S. Crime”.
 
III. The existing situation has created a flourishing illegal business of human smuggling. Smugglers take advantage of people, charging extortionate fees. Their customers become victims. Girls and women are frequently raped. In many cases, smugglers allow their customers to die horribly from heat exposure and suffocation in tractor trailers.
 

IV. Human trafficking is facilitated. Visit the site of PolarisProject.org to glimpse how extensive this horrible practice is:  Human Trafficking in the U.S. 

 

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V. Illegal immigration is estimated to cost taxpayers $116 billion annually. Link here for an overview of the comprehensive report by the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR) on the website of centersquare.com: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/report-illegal-immigration-costs-taxpayers-116-billion-annually-californians-texans-floridians-pay-the-most/article_f942e522-c5b0-11e9-93e6-0ff213e44ae5.html
VI. Those who enter the country and find employment are taken advantage of by employers. They are paid sub-minimum wages with no benefits. These employers wrongfully profit from under-paying for services that should have been provided by tax-paying Americans. Jobs given to illegal aliens are jobs lost to U.S. citizens who need work.
 
VII. The people who have entered illegally have not become integrated in American society, contributing to it and enriching it, as legal immigrants have done for generations. Instead, these people enter a sub-culture, living a shadow existence, cut off from the rest of society.  
 
 
 
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The Human Cost of Illegal Immigration and Sanctuary Cities: One Example: The Rape and Murder of Maria Fuertes

President Trump and Daria Ortiz at White House 02/18/20 event to honor heroes from the U.S. Border Patrol
February 18, 2020:


“My grandmother was very generous and educated,” Daria Ortiz said. “She’s a shining example of when people come legally to this country, work hard, and do the right thing and are law-abiding citizens.”
Maria Fuertes, Ortiz’s grandmother, was raped and murdered last month in Queens, New York. She was 92.  Police charged illegal immigrant and alleged repeat criminal offender Reeaz Khan with Maria’s murder. Khan, from Guyana, had been arrested previously for assault. New York City released him from jail despite a detainer request from U.S. immigration officials.
Across the country, these so-called “sanctuary” policies put dangerous, often violent criminals back on our streets. After all, “sanctuary cities” have nothing to do with protecting law-abiding immigrants. They stop the United States from deporting illegal aliens with criminal charges and convictions.


“The man that is responsible for this should have never had the opportunity to do this, had his multiple offenses not been ignored,” Ortiz said of her grandmother’s killer. “The system not only failed our family, but it failed our city.”
Ortiz joined President Trump at a White House event Friday to honor heroes from the U.S. Border Patrol. She thanked the Administration for acknowledging her family’s tragedy while so many others ignore the human cost of sanctuary cities.


“Not one more American life should be stolen by sanctuary cities,” President Trump told her. “That’s why we’re calling on Congress to pass legislation giving American victims the right to sue sanctuary cities and hold them accountable for the suffering and the damages that they’ve caused.
The foregoing paragraphs are excerpts from the February 18, 2020 report appearing on the website of the White House.

The above content is copied from a report on the website of the White house. Here is a link to this report: Sanctuaries-law-abiding-immigrants-citizens-come-first 

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Immigration tops U.S. crime: One-third of all sentencings

May 13, 2019
Immigration crime, virtually all involving illegal male, Hispanic immigrants, was the top offense in federal courts last year, according to the United States Sentencing Commission,” Paul Bedard reports for the Washington Examiner. All told, immigration crimes accounted for more than one-third of all sentencing cases. These crimes include trafficking U.S. passports, smuggling, transporting, and unlawfully entering the United States.
“Immigration cases accounted for the largest single group of offenses in fiscal year 2018, comprising 34.4% of all reported cases. Cases involving drugs, firearms, and fraud were the next most common types of offenses after immigration cases. Together these four types of offenses accounted for 82.9 percent of all cases reported to the commission in fiscal year 2018,” said the 2018 Annual Report and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics.
The immigration crime numbers from fiscal 2018:
- There were 23,883 cases, 34.4% of all sentencings.
- Of those, 22,782, or 96.3%, involved Hispanics.
- Most, were male, 22,106, 92.7%.
- Just 866, or 3.6%, involved those under 21 years old.
- 21,835, or 91.5% were noncitizens.
- 94.7% of the immigration cases led to prison sentences.
The foregoing paragraphs are excerpts from the May 13, 2019 article appearing on the website of the Washington Examiner. Here is a link to this article on this site:  Immigration Top- US Crime

COMPARE:

Trump/Pence Administration

2017 to Present:

President Trump’s plan to stem border crossings gets results. Border arrests are plummeting after Trump crackdown.

 

September 8, 2019
President Donald Trump’s plan to force Mexico to stem the flow of migrants across the southwest border of the U.S. appears to be working.
Border arrests, a metric for illegal crossings, plummeted to 51,000 in August, according to preliminary government figures obtained by POLITICO Wednesday, down more than 60 percent since a peak in May. And border watchers say it’s largely because of an agreement Trump struck with Mexico in June. Mexican authorities, backed by the newly formed National Guard, are now cracking down on migrants traversing Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, monitoring river crossings and stopping buses carrying migrants from Central America through Mexico. At the same time, the U.S. is making tens of thousands of asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their applications are considered.
Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Bárcena told POLITICO that steps taken since June have produced meaningful results.
“People know that if they come into Mexico, they have to respect the Mexican law,” Bárcena said. She added that migrants planning to seek asylum in the U.S. now understand that it’s “not as easy as they were told it was going to be.”
Trump praised Mexico’s actions to reduce the migrant flow in a tweet Saturday that quoted Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, saying Mexico was “stepping up to the plate and doing what they need to do.”
The foregoing paragraphs are excerpts from the September 8, 2019 article by Ted Hesson appearing on the website of Politico. Here is a link to this article on this site:Border Arrest Results 

 

Obama/Biden Administration

2008 to 2016:

President Trump Secures a Historic Deal with Mexico to Combat the Crisis at the Border

 

June 10, 2019

  • FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR OF ICE TOM HOMAN ON FOX NEWS: Trump Deserves Our Thanks for Migrant Agreement with Mexico


“The agreement President Trump announced Friday night between the U.S. and Mexico on tariffs and immigration is an achievement that has eluded past presidents. He deserves the thanks and gratitude of all Americans... After threatening to impose tariffs on everything Mexico exports to the U.S., Trump got Mexico to agree to finally take greater action to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. Trump then suspended imposition of U.S. tariffs on our southern neighbor.”

  • NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL PRESIDENT BRANDON JUDD ON FOX NEWS: Trump and America Are Winners by Getting Mexico to Intensify Fight Against Illegal Immigration


“Against nearly insurmountable odds, President Trump proved his critics wrong once again by getting Mexico to agree Friday to step up its efforts to reduce illegal immigration to the U.S. This is a victory not just for the president but for the U.S., because it will strengthen our national security and uphold the rule of law.”

  • NEW YORK POST EDITORIAL BOARD: Trump’s Big Win on Mexico and Immigration


“All the hysteria over President Trump’s latest tariff threat to Mexico proved wrong Friday, as the two sides reached a deal that gave Trump what he’d demanded: much more vigorous cooperation in stopping illegal Central American migrants from travelling 1,200-plus miles across Mexico to sneak into the United States.”

  • HUGH HEWITT IN THE WASHINGTON POST: Trump’s Big Win Leaves Critics Sputtering


“…President Trump emerges as a clear winner from his week-long confrontation with Mexico over our neighbor’s lax enforcement of its southern border …..a clear Trump triumph, which came with assists by Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who conducted the key negotiations.”

  • STEVE CORTES IN REALCLEAR POLITICS: Disruptor-in-Chief Shows How to Win With Mexico


“He took decisive executive action that forced the Mexican government to honor its obligations and respect the sovereignty of our land. After all, if Mexico or any other country wants access to the crown jewel of global commerce -- the American consumer market -- then it must act as a responsible partner. Our nation seeks prosperity and friendship with all nations, but will not be abused.”

  • STEVE HILTON ON FOX NEWS: Trump Proves that Tariffs Work. Here Are the Lessons We Should Learn


“Last week we saw proof that tariffs work. President Trump threatened tariffs on Mexico. Their leaders came to negotiate, and we got concrete results.”

  • TOM DEL BECCARO ON FOX NEWS: Trump Proven Right Again, as Tariff Threat Prompts Mexico to Act Against Illegal Immigration

“President Trump proved his doubters wrong once again. While the Democratic Congress refused to fund serious border protection, Trump went his own way and crafted a deal. … He found a promising way to decrease illegal immigration.”


The above paragraphs are excerpts from the June 10, 2019 report appearing on the website of the White House. Here is a link to this article on this site: Whitehouse Statements on Mexico Deal

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