John F. McManus, president of the John Birch Society, has long been at the forefront of those bravely opposing the many threats to the United States. Over the past several years, the accelerating problem of illegal immigration has become one of the biggest threats currently facing the nation. It is a welcome sight, then, to see that the John Birch Society has released a new DVD, entitled Immigration Invasion, featuring a presentation by the incomparable Mr. McManus warning of the imminent dangers presented by the immigration crisis. Even more welcome is the fact that McManus doesn't just explore the problem, but also provides badly needed solutions.
The problem facing the nation along the southern border with Mexico is not so much immigration as invasion. It is important to clarify the distinction between the two. Immigration occurs when individuals from other nations immigrate to a new nation and become citizens of that new nation, all while obeying the immigration laws of the recipient state. This certainly does not describe what is happening on the Mexican border. There, migrants stream across the border encouraged by the policies of the Mexican government.
This is undeniably an invasion, as McManus makes clear, in part by citing the work of journalist Carlos Loret de Mola. Writing in Excelsior magazine, Loret de Mola made it clear as early as 1982 that the goal was to return a part of the Southwest U.S. to Mexico. "A peaceful mass of people ... carries out slowly and patiently an unstoppable invasion, the most important in human history." He continues: "It seems to be slowly returning the southwestern United States to the jurisdiction of Mexico without the firing of a single shot by means of a steady, spontaneous, and uninterrupted occupation."
The U.S. Constitution states that the United States "shall protect each [of the states] against invasion." Far from opposing this invasion, U.S. policy has actually encouraged it. In 2004 the Bush administration proposed a "guest worker" program that would have allowed millions of illegal migrants to remain in the United States for years. The plan is, essentially, an amnesty program that exempts illegal migrants from obeying immigration laws. It has been a lure for additional millions to cross the border and, instead of being a cure for the problem as the president and his supporters have claimed, has made the problem worse.
In light of history, this is no surprise. "History shows that amnesty for illegal entrants only encourages more to illegally cross the border," McManus warns, noting that the Pew Hispanic Center published a survey showing that 40 percent of Mexico's citizens, almost 50 million people, would like to move to the United States. That's a stunning number, and, in fact, the scale of this invasion is almost unprecedented.
In addition, the Bush plan - and illegal immigration generally - makes a mockery of those who immigrated here legally, as McManus points out. "Almost all politicians, reporters, radio and television commentators, professors, and others customarily refer to the millions of invaders as 'undocumented workers,' or 'guest workers,' or job-seeking immigrants," McManus says. "But the reality is that the millions who have come here uninvited have thumbed their noses at our laws and entered the United States illegally. Their invasion has produced many serious consequences. The illegal immigrants have created enormous financial drains on states and communities where they have migrated; forced many hospitals out of business because of having to care for immigrants who have no funds ... inundated the schools ... and demanded that they receive instruction in their native language.... They have also filled the prisons with their criminal element."
Reporting on the migration debacle at the southern border is important, but reporting alone will do nothing to solve the problem. To save the country, something has to be done to shut off the flow of illegal migration. In keeping with its history of providing tools and action plans to grass-roots activists, McManus and the John Birch Society propose in this DVD a sensible plan to save America.
The plan, as outlined by McManus, is comprised of 12 steps. They include such reasonable measures as building a fence on the border, rejecting calls for amnesty, and increasing the size of the Border Patrol.
But even in the course of describing this sensible action plan, McManus provides details that will outrage. These include, most notably, a comparison of the size of the New York City Police Department with the number of Border Patrol agents available at the Mexican border. McManus observes that the New York City Police Department has two and one-half times more officers than the Border Patrol has agents, and yet NYPD officers patrol a much smaller area. Moreover, the poor security at the border that results from this dearth of manpower has emboldened the Mexican paramilitary, and possibly regular Mexican military units, to make armed incursions across the border, leading to dangerous encounters with American citizens and law enforcement in the region. This is nothing short of invasion. The U.S. Constitution specifically assigns to the federal government the duty to protect the states from invasion. It is time for federal authorities to fulfill this vital Constitutional duty. "If needed," McManus argues, "American military personnel should be stationed at the border. Our military's presence alone would deter invasion."
The most important point McManus makes during the presentation, though, is in emphasizing that the invasion across the Mexican border is not an accident. It is a premeditated action meant to be part of a larger plan to submerge the United States in a regional bloc of nations including Canada and Mexico. "If these internationalist plans are implemented," McManus warns, "we can kiss the U.S. Constitution goodbye, tear up the Declaration of Independence, and see America converted into a carbon copy of the many previous despotic regimes across the world."
Of course, this dangerous plan must be stopped. But that can only happen if concerned Americans both understand the threat and take concerted, coordinated action to end it. The best way to get a start at this vital task is to get a copy of Immigration Invasion and to show it to as many people as possible.
