Submitted by: P McMillan

Illegal Immigration Is A Cancer And ICE Is The Chemotherapy

Paul Curry

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Posted: Jun 24, 2019 12:01 AM

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com.

Source: AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

Last Monday, Trump announced, via Twitter, of course, a bold, direct, and, most importantly, necessary move in the war on illegal immigration. ‘The Donald’ informed the country that ICE would be deployed to various American sanctuary cities in order to detain and deport “millions” of illegal aliens. Predictably, this set off a firestorm of hysterics from the left, illegal alien rights groups, and, alas, the media. Yet Trump’s proclamation was right, necessary, and long overdue.

Illegal immigration is a detriment to our national sovereignty, national economy, and, by extension, our national security. Current estimates put the total number of illegal aliens in our country at over 12 million. Exact numbers are difficult to come by for reasons such as citizenship questions on the national census (let’s see if the Supreme Court recognizes that this term). 

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) conducted a comprehensive study regarding the financial impact of illegal immigration. Services provided to these some 12 million illegals and their families are just over $135,000,000,000, don’t count the zeroes, that’s BILLIONS. Remember during the 2014 Ebola outbreak when NIH and CDC didn’t have enough money to properly address the problem? Where could the government have found that money? When funding for the Veterans’ Administration was in question, what other purse could have been raided? Of course, federal funding and appropriation laws don’t exactly work that way, but the underlying principle should resonate with anyone who owns a calculator. 

Remember the recent government shutdown? $5.7 billion was too much for a wall, but somehow $135 billion in services to illegal aliens is just the cost of government doing business. These are the same arguments, from the same people, who want to mandate what taxes, living wages, and Congressional pay raises should be. Not a comforting realization.

America, with or without illegal aliens, has crime, as does any nation. But is that any justification to import more? From Kate Steinle’s 2015 murder by an illegal to Mollie Tibbett’s 2018 brutal killing, along with the federal government’s report of 2,028 murders by illegals arrested in 2018, an important question arises: Why, through inaction, allow such crimes to persist? 

Simply because America already has crime is no justification. If your son or daughter was in the emergency room for a stab wound would you tell the doctor, “Don’t bother stitching him up. He already has pneumonia?" Of course not. If we can’t get rid of our own crime problem, we certainly should not invite more that we can get rid of.

We have serious problems that we must deal with, and deal with effectively.

Sanctuary cities that flout our laws only serve to aggravate an already overwhelming set of problems. Los Angeles and San Francisco, both sanctuary cities, are both crumbling under crises of homelessness and crime. A new app in San Francisco allows people to track human feces in the street. Back in L.A., even Cher, a liberal stalwart, recently felt compelled to tweet about the homeless problem in the City of Angels and the insanity of inviting more.

Sanctuary cities not only serve to exacerbate the tribulations we see every day, they invite them. They are beacons to every illegal border crosser, “Come here, we don’t care about the law or big picture!”

Of course, the Left has attempted to frame the issue of illegal immigration into the only argument they ever make: one of race. Not surprising for a party whose primary tenet is identity politics. If the Left can only see race or gender or sexual orientation, then they can only believe others’ opinions are based on the same. Therein lies their argument. “You don’t want unfettered illegal immigration because of race, not for the actual reasons. Therefore, your opinions are invalid because I believe your basis is in racism.” A complete lie that the media and 2020 candidates tout more often than Joe Biden makes a gaffe.

They conveniently ignore the logical fallacy of their primary economic beliefs, that a welfare state can support everyone that wants in. Free college, free health care, guaranteed free income, free to everyone who wants, yet, free of any rational way to support such a utopia. Free thinkers indeed.

Now the Left has turned its ire on ICE. These federal law enforcement officers are evil, equated to Nazis they shout in almost every sentence. Democratic members of Congress screaming “Concentration camps!” (PLEASE read a history book on the Holocaust!). They may as well work for the Department of Redundancy.

ICE is not evil. ICE is not the problem. Illegal immigration is the problem. Sanctuary cities are a symptom of that problem. ICE is simply doing what is necessary.

As of today, Trump has placed a two-week hold on his plan to detain and deport, hoping Democrats in Congress can do their job and fix the problem. Failing that, people should remember, Illegal immigration is the cancer, sanctuary cities are the tumors, and ICE is the chemotherapy.