For many, the Statue of Liberty symbolizes what America stands for: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Embracing the underdog characterizes America at her best. I’m reminded of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. A priest and then a Levite evaded acts of kindness thereafter rendered selflessly by a common Samaritan.[1] I’m also reminded of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy to “exercise intelligent forethought of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.”[2]

Lest the proverbial “golden door” open up to anarchy, lawlessness must never be tolerated.[3] Take, for example, Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program. In a nutshell, LEAD arguably enables nonviolent drug offenders by offering them a lenient option other than incarceration. While touting statistically significant impact on reducing likelihood of new arrests (University of WA, 2015), LEAD likewise contributes to the flood of “tired, poor, homeless and wretched refuse” now roaming Seattle’s drug-friendly streets and overtaking the city’s public parks.[4]

Add to indigents an escalating swarm of unabated criminal aliens,[5] and threat to public comfort, health, and safety swells to the level of a national security concern. Today, tens of thousands of criminal aliens account for in excess of one-fourth of prisoners in Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, thereby draining the federal budget an estimated $1.5 to $1.6 billion per year. Countless additional non-citizen criminals live free and undetected. Some milk the welfare system; others plot to inflict unspeakable harm on their host country.

Corrective measures include greater federal and local government cooperation to identify criminal elements. Through a centralized identity verification system, we must deny jobs to illegal intruders and ensure that criminal conviction leads to deportation with permanent exclusion from the country.[6] Useful in that regard, the expansion of the Secure Communities program is no substitute for the 287(g) program that trains and deputizes local law enforcement personnel in immigration law enforcement.[7]

Limitless Inclusion is “Christian” [8]

Some argue that Jesus moved toward, not away from, potential violence. The Jesus Way, we’re told, requires our moving toward “the other.” Only if we cross borders that divide can we know and love our enemy.[9] But consider this: When Jews sought to stone Him for blasphemy, Jesus withdrew, concealed Himself, and miraculously passed unhurt through the midst of the angry mob.[10] When His enemies sought to seize Him again, Jesus “withdrew from their power” and “escaped from their hand.”[11] The apostle Paul did likewise. In boarding a ship for Syria, Paul learned that Jews were plotting to kill him. Instead of running toward potential violence, Paul wisely charted an alternate route via Macedonia.[12]

Others argue that servitude rendered to “the least of these, my brethren,” is credited as servitude to Christ. Keep in mind the Greek word for “brethren,” adelphos, references a member of the same religious community. “Given to hospitality,” Christians are compelled to “distribute to the necessity of fellow saints” (i.e., believers).[13] Ensuring that a houseguest feels comfortably at home does not presuppose open access to the host’s bank accounts or his marriage bed.[14]

Biblically, extending to an adelphos all that hospitality entails (food, drink, shelter) is ministering to Christ. Aiding and abetting a criminal is not.[15] Such wayward thinking is anathema—that is to say, it’s ill-fated. Contrary to fashionable ecumenical trends, partnering righteousness with lawlessness is a snare that, in the end, diminishes liberty for all.

Freedom allows for prosperity and success achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers, thereby affording workers and their families upward social mobility in the land of the free and the home of the brave.[16] In pursuit of the American Dream boasting democracy, individual rights, liberty, opportunity, and equality, Americans must never forget the key foundation of liberty—namely, rule of law.[17]

Contentious Controversy

Immigration reform ranks among the most contentious political issues of our day. Demand to limit, or temporarily suspend, immigration is met with ire. We’re told it’s racist, un-American, and unconstitutional to deny liberal access through America’s “golden door”—especially when targeted groups represent specific ethnicities, nationalities, and even religions.

With an open mind and heart toward “tempest-tossed, huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” our charge is to champion America and Americans first.[18] Our forefathers gained legal entry onto this nation’s God-kissed shores. In turn, we welcome legal immigrants who assimilate and contribute their best to America.

• Asylum Trap [19]

To safeguard “liberty for all,” asylum applicants must be screened expeditiously and, when warranted, denied access. Purportedly for needed healthcare, revolutionary Imam Fethullah Gülen gained ready access to our country. Despite the fact that countless observers, including the FBI, label Gülen and his “peace movement” a “radical threat,” and despite alleged immigration fraud—not to mention FBI raids, possible scandal involving a national Internet program, bribes, and kickbacks—Gülen has since been awarded extended visa status.[20] Significantly, no deportations, nor arrests, have ensued among his cohorts. Moreover, some 155 Gülen charter schools in twenty-six states (and counting) cost American taxpayers about $150 million each year.

Critics rightly contend that H-1B visas were designed for companies to employ highly skilled, temporary foreign workers in biotechnology, chemistry, engineering, and other specialized fields.[21] In reality, no one applies for more H-1B visas than Fethullah Gülen, who’s bringing in large (and growing) numbers of Turkish teachers, K-12. The object, many fear, is to “force feed” American children educational programs that feature Islamic incentives, especially via summer studies abroad.

• Selective Immigration Ban

Unknown to many, selective immigration is law. A 1952 act allows for the President to suspend entry, or to impose restrictions, whenever entry of any class of aliens proves to be detrimental to the interests of the country. The act further requires applicants for immigration to be of “good moral character” and “attached to the principles of the Constitution.” This naturally excludes foreign criminals.[22]

Since the Qur’an forbids Muslims to swear allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, all suspected Muslim fundamentalists warrant, at the very least, a second look. Toward ensuring safety of law-abiding citizens, lawful American Muslims included, said qualifications speak to common sense practice, not hateful racism.[23]

No rightwing zealot, Baptist Jimmy Carter utilized the McCarran-Walter Act (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952) to keep out Iranians. Also in 1979, Carter required a check-in for all Iranian students in the country whereupon some 15,000 Iranians (seven thousand in violation of their visas) were forced to leave. While progressives applaud Carter’s foreign policy acumen, they disdain comparable conservative policy as “archaic protectionism.”

“America First!” [24]

Truth be told, fully half of new IT hires are foreign guest workers; and only half of America’s technology graduates are able to find a job in his or her field. Our mandate is to expose the giant myth that America suffers a crisis-level shortage of qualified tech workers. If an American citizen (no matter race, gender, ethnicity, religion) is equipped to do a job, that American, by law, should top the hiring list.

Unfortunately, hundreds of productive American workers who, for years, have served companies (mostly in the tech field, but also in accounting) are being fired en masse—this, in deference to foreigners typically earning some twenty-five percent less than nationals. Requiring workers to train their replacements, then enforcing gag orders that forfeit basic constitutional rights, inflicts insult onto injury. Even more, the practice is illegal.

Every year one million Green Card holders enter the country. By 2025 that number will reach ten million. Yearly, fifty thousand lucky, if not worthy, lottery winners are awarded “Diversity Visas”; but this is no game, people![25] Outsourcing and offshoring American jobs will result in the eventual downfall of America. It has already compromised your privacy, and mine, with our banking and medical data being placed in offshore databases.

Formula for Disaster [26]

Political correctness aside, there’s always room to rethink policies based on their likely and actual consequences.[27] Before it’s too late, a foreign workforce spurred by merging globalism with super capitalism can and must be stopped. How? First, all Americans need to educate themselves on implications of issuing hundreds of thousands of H-1B, J-1[28], and F-1[29] visas. Patriots must lobby against leniency toward the 11-30 million illegal aliens (and visa over-stayers), as well as for a reliable national entry-exit database enforced by horse sense vetting processes. The DOJ, division of civil rights, must prosecute companies that discriminate against American nationals—this, in violation of Title VII (Civil Rights Act of 1964)—and DOL must prosecute H-1B abusers.

Our action, or inaction, will define the nation inherited by our kids and grandkids, so let’s say we do them proud!

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37).
2. Big Stick diplomacy, or Big Stick policy, refers to President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Roosevelt described it to mean “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.”
3. 1 John 3:4 pairs lawlessness (breaking the law) with sin, and Psalm 1:5 specifically excludes sinners from the assembly of law abiding citizens.
4. Sarah Jarvis. “Drug Program for Low-Level Offenders.” The Seattle Times, 2016.
5. Non-citizens who commit crimes
6. A Congressional Research Service report (August 2012) found that, over a 33-month period (October 2008-July 2011), more than 159,000 illegal aliens (arrested by local authorities and identified by the federal government as deportable) were released back onto the streets. Subsequently, nearly one-sixth of them were arrested for criminal behaviors.
7. In 2009, ICE revised the 287(g) delegated authority program, strengthening public safety and ensuring consistency in immigration enforcement across the country by prioritizing the arrest and detention of criminal aliens.
8. https://sojo.net/articles/worshiping-idol-safety (Accessed 8 August 2016)
9. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Matthew 5:43ff.
10. Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple,” John 8:59
11. Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him; and He eluded their grasp,” John 10:39 (Weymouth New Testament and Webster’s Bible Translation).
12. “And there he spent three months, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews, as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia,” Acts 20:3 (NASB).
13. In Romans 12:13 (NASB), Paul enjoins contributing to the needs of the saints (i.e., “holy” or “called-out” ones), while practicing (or pursuing) hospitality. “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me,’” Matthew 25:40.
14. The “marriage bed” is undefiled—that is, to be honored by all (Hebrews 13:4). Christians pray for those who would “despitefully use” them. Should one take their cloaks, Christians offer their outer coats as well (Luke 6:28-29). To offer “the other cheek,” or one’s coat, does not suggest falling prey to evil actions and/or demands of others. Passages, as these, are metaphors intended to illustrate magnanimity. They are not literal commands.
15. “Do not be bound together (unequally yoked) with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness,” 2 Corinthians 6:14 (NASB).
16. “If a man will not work, he shall not eat,” 2 Thessalonians 3:10.
17. “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God …,” 1 Peter 2:13-17 (ESV).
18. In providing for material needs, not to focus first on one’s own household is to “deny the faith” and to behave “worse than an infidel,” 1 Timothy 5:8.
19. debra284.htm (Accessed 17 August 2016).
20. “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman; and they will not escape,” 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
21. Temporary foreign workers in specialty occupations include management and computer systems analysts, programmers, software developers, networks and computer systems administrators, accountants, auditors, and electronics engineers. [Link] (Accessed 17 August 2016).
22. Authenticated at: [Link] (Accessed 17 August 2016).
23. “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment,” John 7:24 (ESV).
24. http://tobtr.com/9175683 (Accessible 6 September 2016 and thereafter in the archives).
25, [Link] (Accessed 17 August 2016).
26, [Link[ and [Link] (Accessed 17 August 2016). Note: Protect US Workers provides free review of severance agreements and free legal advice.
27, “Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests, and Costs,” Government Accountability Office, 24 March 2011. Martin, Jack and Erick A. Ruark, “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers,” FAIR, July 2010. “Arrested illegals who were released charged with 16,226 subsequent crimes,” Daily Caller, 9 August 2012.
28, The J-1 Visa offers cultural and educational exchange opportunities in the United States through a variety of programs overseen by the U.S. State Department.
29, The F-1 visa is a type of non-immigrant, student visa allowing foreigners (who maintain a full course of study) to pursue academic studies and/or language training programs in the United States