Joel S. Hirschhorn

What will become the backbone of a new United States world leadership role? Whether the Trump administration strongly addresses illegal immigration and immigrants.

More Americans must internalize the lesson that our country, our land is our collective home. Think homeland. Those who come here or stay here illegally are no different than villains busting down our house door, violating our private space, stealing our possessions or threatening our lives.

If I face a home invasion I do not care whether the intruders have suffered in poverty, come from terrible circumstance or are homeless. All I know is that they do not have any right whatsoever to invade my home. Nor my country.

I fervently hope that President Trump as disrupter-in-chief pursues, as promised, an aggressive set of policies and actions to battle illegal immigration. Not merely stopping new illegal immigrants crossing our borders, but also putting a stop to misuse of student, worker, travel and other visas. In addition to ejecting criminals who are illegal immigrants he should establish programs to find and eject those who have overstayed their visas, regardless of how well they have succeeded as fake Americans.

I have searched for a good way to talk and think about illegal immigration as well as overcoming the rhetoric of those supporting illegal aliens. Here it is: Illegal immigrants should be seen as our home invaders.

The vast majority of Americans take considerable steps to protect their homes against criminal activity, with home invasion being the ultimate, frightening unwanted act. Indeed, anyone who faced a home invasion would have every right to use maximum force to disable or even kill a home invader. No doubt gun owners think about this scenario.

I am pretty sure that bleeding heart liberals who openly welcome illegal immigrants and local government officials in sanctuary cities do not leave their home doors wide open at night, and are ready to welcome intruders who enter their homes. Nor do most people leave their cars unlocked, thinking that it is he least they can do to help out suffering people desperate for a better life and a decent car.

Those who want to use every option to protecting illegal immigrants ignore the fundamental fact that the invaders have broken our laws. They make a mockery of rule of law. Which helps to explain why in addition to accepting illegal immigrants they also accept the actions in sanctuary cities to not even report criminals who are illegal immigrants to federal agencies so that they can be deported.

One of the worst, dangerous tactics of pro-illegal immigration advocates is to conflate and confuse illegal immigrants with the many achievements and contributions of legal immigrants. This is exactly like fake news. Like being an illegal immigrant is a trivial difference compared to being a legal immigrant. A successful illegal immigrant is a fake American.

Fake Americans should not be allowed to vote just as legal noncitizen resident aliens cannot. But a 2015 Rasmussen survey found that 53 percent of Democrats think that tax paying illegal immigrants should have the right to vote; only 21 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of independents agreed with this disturbing viewpoint. Similarly, Democrat political forces want illegal immigrants and legal noncitizens counted in official federal population statistics so that states with more of them get more Electoral College votes. A 2015 Politico magazine article noted that accomplishing this “reduces the chances of the GOP winning the presidency.”

Note that many hundreds of thousands of illegals can get driving licenses in California and municipal ID cards in New York City. The concern is that these will be able to vote. Indeed, a 2016 poll by the Washington Post found that 60 percent of Republicans thought that illegals are voting, compared to about 25 percent of Democrats and nearly 40 percent of independents.

Now think about the ultimate intersection of illegal immigrants and home invasion. Think of you and your family awakening at night because of some noise only to discover that one or more persons have broken in through a door or window. Assuming you are not murdered you later learn that the home invader is an illegal immigrant, possibly with a criminal history who has not been deported. Talk about adding insult to injury!

In 2015 a 64 year old Air Force veteran was sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death by illegal immigrant Martinez Ramirez. Upon arrest the police learned he had an extensive criminal record. He had been arrested six times in the prior year and a half, but was not deported. Note that California has about half the illegal immigrants in the country and widely protects them, and where they can get a driver’s license. Ramirez had received sanctuary instead of being deported. When this event was reported on Fox News it was noted that there had been a 50 percent decline in the number of federal detainers issued on criminal aliens, leaving them in the US.

Also in 2015, Juan Emanuel Razo, an illegal immigrant who had lived in the US for five years, went on a violent spree in Ohio, including attempting to rape a young girl, shooting and wounding a woman, and then shooting to death a woman in her home. Weeks earlier he had been stopped for a traffic issue but was told he should be released by federal border authorities because though an illegal immigrant he did not have a criminal record.

Back in 2006, 22 year old Francisco Javier Serrano invaded a home in Boston. This was after he overstayed a tourist visa obtained in 2002 and was ordered to leave the country by a federal judge, but he did not. Armed with a knife, he invaded a Boston apartment about 3 a.m. and was struck over the head with a pot by the resident. The woman followed Serrano outside and struggled with him until police officers arrived.

Can you imagine the victims of home invasion expressing empathy and sympathy for the criminals?

These three cases do not describe the full scope of the illegal immigrant crime problem. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency reported that in 2014 the agency released 30,558 criminal aliens back into the community. They had amassed 80,000 convictions, including 250 homicides, 186 kidnappings and 373 sexual assaults. About 90 percent of what the government calls criminal aliens are illegal immigrants.

The Trump administration has a great opportunity to reestablish the rule of law, protect our homeland from illegal immigrants and protect Americans from the widespread criminality committed by the invaders. Yes, the US is a country of immigrants, but legal ones who assimilate into our society. Massive homeland invasion is in many ways far more menacing than isolated cases of home invasion. Individuals can protect themselves from the latter, but only the federal government can stop the former. Many supported Trump because he gave hope for a long awaited solution to illegal immigration. Now, bluster must be replaced by action.

When it comes to illegal immigrants, forgiveness is for liberals and Democrats. If Trump does not deliver on illegal immigration, then his populist support should and will crumble. His credibility will trump his honesty.

[Joel S. Hirschhorn was a full professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a senior official at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the National Governors Association; he has authored five nonfiction books, including Delusional Democracy – Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government.]

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[Joel S. Hirschhorn was an official at the National Governors Association and the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and is the author of Delusional Democracy.]