Vote Early Vote Often, Memories South Philly’s 2nd Ward
By Bob Small
This was probably around 1989, when I was visiting my old South Philly apartment-mate, having recently moved up and out to Swarthmore. On the way to the local dinery, we ran into a D Committee Person who asked if I was voting today, Election Day.
“Joe, I don’t live here anymore”
“Bob, I didn’t ask you that”
This was back in the wild and wooly days of South Philly D Politics, where the 2nd Ward Meetings would end with the admonition to “vote early and often”.
Said as a joke. I think. The big names were Vince Fumo, Joe Tayoun, and Joe Vignola. Maybe you heard of them. Quite sure the same jiggery-pokery never happens with R’s in Delco.
If elected, the Greens would never engage in this. Not sure about the Libertarians.
In Swarthmore, at the 2005 Primary, I went in to vote on a Ballot Question, as befits a Green Party member. However, the Judge of Elections tried to refuse to let me vote as I was neither D nor R. As this Ballot Question would involve higher taxes, I asked whether I would be exempt from these taxes as I was denied my vote.
When that didn’t work, I stated I would sit on his election table, as I had sat in at various protests, until I was physically removed or allowed to vote. Wanting to avoid a scene, he allowed me to cast a ballot. What he should have done, if he was unsure of the law — imagine a judge not knowing the law — was to let me have a Provisional ballot.
Later that year, in my only foray into electoral politics, I ran against him, as a Green, and lost, but felt vindicated.
My story ended up being shared state wide among the third parties of the time, so this particular slight, denial of the right to vote, could never happen again.
I had a running mate in that election, who ran as both a Green and a Republican, for the Wallingford Swarthmore School Board. She lost, of course, but won the next year as a Democrat. Her name is Mary Gay Scanlon. I often wonder what happened to her.
Major League Baseball’s odyssey toward the World Series began with two wild card games; the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees, and the Los Angeles Dodgers against the St. Louis Cardinals. Luckily for MLB, the two games featured four of baseball’s historic and most revered teams. Television rating were high, but the games were a slog, especially for East Coast fans. The American League contest was a tedious 3:13 hours, and the National League’s game was played at a quicksand-like 4:15 hour pace. The Dodgers-Cardinals face off was a tight 3-1, but most EDT views missed the exciting Chris Taylor L.A. bottom-of the ninth-home run that sealed the Dodgers’ victory.
For dinosaur fans that yearn for fewer and speedier playoff games, the forecast is grim. In 2022, the fondest wish of MLB owners will come true when a new collective bargaining agreement will expand the wild card from its current one-game, sudden death format to the best-of-three. More than half of baseball’s 30 teams will be post-season eligible, and inevitably MLB will expand to 32, thereby further diluting the talent pool that fans pay a king’s ransom to watch. MLB will surpass NCAA football and basketball and the NBA as the sports that endlessly grind on with impossibly long, overlapping seasons.
Post-season’s qualifying standards have plunged since 1968 when the Detroit Tigers were the last team to win a World Series by capturing the American League crown, and then advancing straight to the World Series. Ten times in history, teams have won 100 plus games and not even qualified for playoffs. Led by batting champion Norm Cash and his .361 average, the 1961 Tigers won 101 games, but finished eight games behind the Yankees. That’s the way it should be. Teams that feel deprived when they don’t get past the wild card have a simple solution: win more games during the season. Under the projected format, however, teams under .500 that qualify for the playoffs will be commonplace.
Unhappy fans might as well throw in the towel. Money overrides all other considerations. As money-hungry MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said: “Baseball is a growth industry. Eventually, we’d like to get to 32 teams.” Under the new set-up, MLB owners and players will cash in. MLB currently grosses more than $10 billion annually. With two new clubs, the owners would likely add $2 billion or more in expansion fees, and new media rights’ revenues.
MLB negotiated a new seven-year television contracts with Fox and Turner Broadcasting – TBS and TNT – which will fetch $8.3 billion, a 40 percent increase over prior contracts, mostly for the right to broadcast postseason games. Expansion, possibly to Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville, Montreal, Vancouver or Mexico, is assuredly in baseball’s future, assuming 75 percent of the owners vote favorably. More teams mean more playoff games, and will generate much more revenue.
Players are all-in on expansion too. As part of the new collective bargaining agreement, players also win. More team revenues will mean higher minimum salaries, and player-friendly free-agency agreements. Today, baseball’s minimum salary is $572,000; the average is $4.2 million; and the most eye-popping incomes are the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout, a $427 million contract paid out over 12 years, and the New York Yankees’ Garrett Cole, $324 million spread out over nine years. Trout and Cole’s annual incomes are $37.7 million and $32.4 million, respectively.
In his giddy anticipation of never-ending revenues, Manfred is overlooking one important variable. Baseball’s television audience is dwindling. The under-18 market doesn’t care about baseball, a sport they consider too boring. Once baseball’s most passionate fans, youths have shifted their allegiance to soccer, basketball and football. Older fans, another of baseball’s traditional backbones, are dissatisfied with the constant changes, and have lost interest. Younger and older fans agree that baseball’s most important games, the playoffs and the All-Star Game, start too late; they yearn for old-fashioned day games. Kids go to school, adults work. All-Star Game television ratings have been in free-fall for years, and bottomed out in 2021 when only 8.2 million tuned in. Proof of fans’ indifference: compared to 2019, the last full 162-game season, the 29 regional sports networks that Nielsen Media Research measured reflected a 12 percent audience drop.
Baseball is on a collision course with overkill, and many consider its death overdue. No fan, young or old, is naïve enough to think that Manfred cares about baseball. His self-confessed mission is simple: let’s follow the money.
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.
To learn first-hand how negligent the federal government is about national security, book an airline reservation to any destination. By comparison to the open Southwest border, airports are locked down tight.
The pre-boarding drill is too familiar. Travelers, once at the football-field long Transportation Safety Administration pre-boarding line, must remove shoes. After taking out iPads, liquids, gels and aerosol items (maximum 3.4 ounce-capacity) which have been packed into one quart-sized, clear plastic bag with a zip-top closure, airplane passengers then must toss their baggage into bins for screening.
After that frustrating drill, passengers must show government-issued identification with a current photograph to a TSA official, and go through a metal detector. Unlucky passengers are pulled aside for further screening with either a full-body pat-down or a handheld wand that’s passed across the upper torso, hands, legs and backsides. These considerable inconveniences that often involve affronts to privacy cost taxpayers $7.7 billion annually.
At the border, however, illegal aliens from more than 100 countries have been able to walk right in, surrender to Customs and Border Protection agents, and wait for transportation to their final destination within the U.S. The aliens’ backgrounds and health status at the time of their crossing are unknown. But, after the fact, officials learned that more than 18 percent of illegal immigrant families and 20 percent of unaccompanied minorswho recently crossed the U.S. border tested COVID-positive before border agents released them into the interior.
Moreover, trusted border sources revealed that, exclusive of their immigration offenses, 15 percent of border crossers have criminal records. Edgar Campos-Campos, for example, a previously deported and now detained Mexican national, was convicted of aggravated statutory rape in Bedford County, Tenn. Immigration law, until Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas redefined to his advantage what criminal behavior is, banned convicted felons from reentry. In his memo to Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Tae D. Johnson, Mayorkas also doubled down on keeping the border crisis overheated when he pronounced that “undocumented non-citizens,” as he calls illegal immigrants, won’t be deported unless they represent a threat to border security, national security or public safety.
The contrast between airport security and open border insecurity proves that the U.S. isn’t a serious country. If the federal government should suddenly become motivated to protect its citizens, the border could be secured in little time. Israel can share its approach. Last month, Israel Aerospace Industries, a defense contractor, introduced REX MKII, a remote-controlled robot that can patrol border zones and track infiltrators. The unmanned vehicle can be tablet or manually controlled to achieve the most effective movement or surveillance functions. REX MKII is the latest addition to the drone technology world. Proponents claim that semi-autonomous machines, like the four-wheel-drive robot REX MKII, provide a large range of protection as they gather intelligence. The Israeli military currently uses a smaller but similar vehicle called the Jaguar to patrol Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.
Israel is keenly aware of threats from foreign enemies, but the U.S. is indifferent to the identical risks. Former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, ousted by Biden after his 30-year career defending the homeland, said that terrorists and other criminals, now aware that the border is open, are diligently trying to cross into the U.S. Scott said that criminals want to gain access to the U.S. interior. Statistically, Scott added, the widely available public CBP statistics prove that every year the illegal entries always include rapists, murderers and potential terrorists. “Those all exist in who we actually catch,” Scott said, concluding that “to think there is not just as bad or worse people in those getting away would be naive.”
Scott’s credible warnings should be heeded. Moreover, last year’s DHS Assessment Threat predicted the 15,000-strong Haitian surge, also ignored. Neither Biden nor his immigration czar Vice President Kamala Harris has been to the border, proof of their superficiality. DHS Secretary Mayorkas continues to undermine national security and subvert immigration law with his dangerous statements and inaction. In the Biden White House, naïveté, to Scott’s assessment, reigns.
Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
September BLS Report Boon To Open Immigration Boosters
By Joe Guzzardi
For the second consecutive month, Wall Street analysts and media business forecasters badly missed the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s job creation total. Dow Jones projected 500,000 new jobs for September, a greater than 300,000 misfire after the true BLS number came in at 194,000. Television commentators were aghast at their second straight BLS whiff. August’s expected jobs creation total was predicted to be 720,000, which turned out to be a more inaccurate forecast than September’s when the so-called experts were off the mark by 485,000 jobs. In August, the economy created a mere 235,000 jobs.
No surprise that COVID-19 took the brunt of the blame for the steep declines, particularly among workers in education and local/state employment, but also among bus drivers, food service workers and substitute teachers. Another variable that added to the dismal September results was the disappearance from the labor force of many older, low-wage workers still fearful about COVID-19 and its Delta variant. A historic 11 million jobs are open and available. As far as the economy and job creation are concerned, the U.S. is still in COVID-19’s grasp.
“We’re hiring” signs are everywhere, yet few workers have stepped up to fill the jobs. Although openings are at or near an all-time record, one hurdle to attracting employees is that many of the positions require in-person work for construction, hospitality, delivery services or warehousing, the exact types of jobs too many Americans shun in the current environment. Thanks to the pandemic fear the government and scare-mongering media have instilled in the general public, potential workers stay away from close-contact employment. Consequently, most job seekers are hopeful of finding mostly unavailable remote work. A recent review of the ZipRecruiter websitefound that only one in 10 postings offered remote employment.
When workers are in short supply, the clarion call for more immigration inevitably follows. Bill Kristol, for example, once a conservative, now a Democrat, and always an immigration advocate, put out a tweet which proclaimed that immigration could solve the economy’s employment doldrums. Kristol wrote: “We can debate infrastructure, tax policy, government spending, etc. But it’s not a close call as to the one thing that would do the most for our economy across the board: More immigration. Both ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled.’ Which the Administration and Congress have done nothing on.”
Well – not exactly nothing. Kristol must not be paying attention to the immigration news. Encouraging illegal immigration, bringing Afghan evacuees to the U.S. and raising the refugee cap are definitely something. Soon the U.S. will have a worker surplus. The 15,000 Haitians who surged the border, the 50,000 or more Afghanistan evacuees and the 125,000 refugees that Biden has committed to for fiscal 2021-22, and the 2 million released-at-the-border illegal aliens will inevitably receive employment authorization. Also on their way to compete for jobs in the U.S. labor pool are the annual 1 million-plus legal immigrants who, as part of their permanent residency, receive lifetime valid work permits. Finally, add about 700,000 guest workers that traditionally enter the U.S. to perform jobs which range from medical doctors to agriculture-based employees.
The approximately 1 million legal and 2 million illegal immigrants, the evacuees, the refugees and the guest workers will go a long way to making Kristol and the immigration lobby’s dreams come true. And if Congress passes the reconciliation bill that it’s kicking around, about 8 million more aliens will be granted amnesty, receive legal status and work permits. COVID-19 restrictions could impact the foreign-born arrivals, but illegal immigrant amnesty candidates already represent several million work permits.
High immigration and the lower wages immigrants earn harm those that can least withstand economic setbacks – American blacks and Hispanics, other minorities, the disabled, recently arrived low-skilled legal immigrants and others without a college degree. More immigration, regardless of how much it may hurt Americans who fund it, is the blueprint that the Biden administration has, to the disappointment of most, chosen to follow, and is committed to.
Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
September BLS Report Boon To Open Immigration Boosters
For many years, Swarthmore, and Delaware County was safely Republican. Recently the tide has turned, as it usually does, and now both Delaware County Council, and the Borough of Swarthmore, are solidly Democratic. Though many have ascribed it to Swarthmore College’s influence, or “the Kremlin on the Krum”, as one Spiro T. Agnew called it, it was probably time for a change.
In the 2020 Election, Swarthmore had 3,345 votes for Biden and 427 for Trump. The Borough is 59.3 D and 37.0 Exact number of Registrants, it seems, were only available from the Delco Bureau of Elections, via a release of information form, which my inner Libertarian rebelled against.
The Swarthmore Republican Party does exist, but it has no electronic presence!
The Swarthmore Democratic Party has a Facebook page updated on Sep. 28 (as of Oct 9), The website for the Swarthmore Democratic Committee was last updated in 2018, and also uses Latin (the influence of the College, no doubt). By the way, there was a Swarthmore College Republican Group, but….
As for the Nov 2, Municipal Election, Republicans Albert Federico and David Rowley are standing for Inspector of Elections in their Precincts; 2 out of the 13 major Party Candidates. Albert mentions that he is “running to retain his current position as Minority Inspector”. He could only become the Majority Inspector if he garnered more votes than the Democrat running in his precinct. David Rowley is fairly reticent.
As a Green, I don’t really have a dog in this hunt, though I’ll vote for the Libertarian on the Swarthmore ballot, Patrick John Hochstuhl, who is standing u for Constable. A Constable (courtesy of Berks County) “A Constable is a sworn Law Enforcement/Peace Officer that can arrest for felony crimes and breaches of the peace committed in his presence, or by warrant anywhere in the commonwealth.”
There are 117 pages in the Municipal Races, just for Delaware County, and there are only 3 Libertarians and one Green running, which is a lost opportunity because many of these offices are unopposed. Among Independents, a David Cleary is running for Garnet Valley School Board.
Statewide, there are almost 150 Libertarians running for various offices, and nine Greens. One of whom, Kearni Warren, will be part of a three-way League of Women Voters of Central Delaware County Candidate Forum 7 p.m., tomorrow, Oct 12 . It will be live-streamed on YouTube. Visit here for details.
I spoke to one of the Republicans in Swarthmore with a long and devoted history with the Party about his experiences. He is still active, though a young senior. we discussed the history of the history and future of the Swarthmore GOP, and how things had changed and not changed.
For purposes of this article, he agreed to the interview as long as his name wasn’t used, I’ll call him RS (Republican in Swarthmore)’
Swarthmore, Pa., for those who don’t know is overwhelmingly Democrat.
RS remembers the time when the Borough was almost all Republicans and now is almost, well it is all Democrat, except for a few minor offices.
He didn’t feel it had changed “a whole hell of a lot”, and that Borough Council continued to be dedicated to “the needs of the local citizens”.
We also touched on Alice “Putty” Willets , whom he worked with in her capacity on Borough Council and who I knew for her work on the “Dew Drop Inn” Senior Center. We both agreed it was a shame she was never elected Mayor.
RS says he has maybe received maybe 10 “crazy comments” in his various duties for the Borough about being a “Republican”, probably the same I have received for being a Green and not a Democrat.
RS is a proud Swarthmore College graduate and we discussed where he agreed and disagreed with the College’s decisions I. e. He thought the Inn was “a great enrichment”, for instance, but worked against the College dropping football. How the College affected the Blue Route (2 lanes rather than four), and how the College seeks to maintain “good community relations” by having Athletics, Concerts, Lectures , etc open to the public.
Lastly, we both being Seniors, feeling “it beats the alternative”, we discussed how the Borough helps with walkability by keeping the sidewalks in shape by reminding homeowners about repair, trimming bushes, etc. Right now, there’s a whole vibrant downtown area, but people of all Parties are becoming opposed to this huge Condo project that might eviscerate up to 50 percent of our shopping area. (More about that in the future). Like many of us, he worries that the increasing RE taxes and higher rents will affect the future of Swarthmoreans to continue to “age in place”.
October is Polish American Heritage Month, originally celebrated by congressional proclamation in August until it moved to October. Polish heritage month commemorates the first Polish settlers who arrived in America in 1608, and also honors Generals Kazimierz Pułaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko, two military leaders who bravely fought in the American Revolution. The change from August to October enabled schools to participate in traditional Polish festivities – singing, dancing and plenty of pierogi eating.
The list of accomplished Polish-Americans is long and impressive. In the baseball world, one of the most prominent is Aloysius Harry Szymanski, aka Al Simmons, the home run bashing outfielder for Connie Mack’s daunting 1920s Philadelphia Athletics, and later the Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators and Detroit Tigers. The slugging Hall of Famer Simmons had a 20-year .334 career batting average.
Simmons, well-known for his foot-in-the-bucket batting style, was involved in one of the World Series’ most unlikely incidents. A .329 hitter in his four World Series appearances, Simmons ignited a memorable and improbable development in the Fall Classic’s history, the seventh inning of the fourth game between the A’s and the Chicago Cubs in 1929. With the Cubs comfortably ahead 8-0, Simmons blasted a leadoff home run. The Athletics batted around and soon trailed by only one run, 8-7. Then, Simmons singled in his second at-bat of the seventh as the A’s completed a historic and unforgettable ten-run inning and went on to win, 10-8. The A’s, with six future Hall of Famers, took the 1929 series crown, 4-1.
Simmons is well known among baseball historians. But few are aware of Chicago’s late 1920s 10-man Stanczak brothers’ team, one of the most unusual semi-pro ball clubs to ever appear on a diamond. Polish immigrant Martin Stanczak was father to 10 sons, and one daughter, who covered nearly a 20-year age span. Martin’s ball playing sons included Joe, a county clerk; Mike, an ordained priest; Bill, a tobacco-chewing spitball pitcher, and high schoolers Martin and Julius. In his book, “The League of Outsider Baseball,” award-winning graphic artist Gary Cieradkowski wrote about how, after dominating the Chicago and Milwaukee sandlot teams, promoter Nick Keller became the guiding light for the Stanczak Brothers team, and led them to greater heights.
Keller’s first move was to, for phonetic purposes, eliminate the “c” from Stanczak. Keller renamed the siblings “The World Brother Champions,” issued challenges to other sibling-only ball clubs, and defied them to prove him wrong when he proclaimed his team as global sibling title-holders. From way out West, the Marlatt Brothers, having crushed the Skiano Brothers in 1925, accepted. Quick to strike while the iron was hot, Keller set up “The Brother Championship Series.” The first two games were played on the Marlatt Brothers’ home turf, Hot Springs, Wyoming. Bill’s wet one befuddled the Marlatts, and the Stanzaks swept the first two games. Back in Chicago for games three and four, the Stanzak brothers polished off the Marlatts to retain their title as undisputed sibling champions.
Wearing their crown proudly, the Stanzak brothers toured the Midwest, and dominated all comers. After winning the 1933 Lake County championship, the brothers received an invitation to travel to Wichita to take on the Deikes of Fredericksburg, Texas. The Texans, however, were not totally above board; the team was only eight-ninths all-siblings. The Deikes installed a ringer at first base – U.S. president-to-be Lyndon Baines Johnson. No matter. The Stanczak boys defended their championship title effortlessly, and breezed past the Deikes; future president Johnson made no difference in the outcome.
None of the brothers played major league baseball. Joe had a brief stint in the minors; Louis and Martin had unsuccessful tryouts with the Cincinnati Reds. Nevertheless, the brothers’ photograph is prominently on display at Cooperstown where the Hall of Fame declared them as the 10 best brothers ever to play baseball.
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com
A George W. Bush federal judge appointee voided a Trump-era H-1Bregulation that switched the visa allocation system from a random selection lottery to a process that prioritizes higher-wage jobs. By putting emphasis on higher wages, tech employers would, President Trump hoped, be less likely to hire cheaper, foreign-born workers, and instead select more qualified overseas and American employees.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White, for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division granted the Chamber of Commerce’s (COC) motion for summary judgment, and permanently struck down the Trump-era changes to the H-1B visa. White’s ruling, based on his assessment that then-Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf was not lawfully serving in his role at the time, was a triumph for the Chamber and other cheap labor-addicted employers, and another setback for U.S. tech workers.
Chamber Vice President of Immigration Policy, Jon Baselice, called White’s ruling “…a major victory for American businesses and our economy. If implemented, the H-1B lottery rule would have denied many companies access to the talent they need to expand their operations and create American jobs.” COC is not the working man’s voice; the largest D.C. lobbyspent $30 million in 2021 often with the goal of keeping a steady cheap labor flow going to bolster American industries’ bottom line.
The COC’s lawsuit specifically brought up the issue that if the H-1B selection process prioritizes highest wages, then international students would be harmed because they are recent graduates and getting entry-level wages. The judge ignored that argument and decided to judge the case solely on the fact Chad Wolf was, in his view, illegally appointed as DHS Secretary.
President Trump’s goal aspired to raise the wages that employers would have to pay to H-1B visa holders, or optionally to hire from the unemployed, displaced U.S. tech worker pool. Early in his four-year term, President Trump signed his “Buy American, Hire American” executive order which, on January 21, Biden revoked. The Biden administration’s labor objective is the direct opposite of Trump’s. Biden proposed to increase employment-based visas, and eliminate the country cap which would open up jobs for foreign nationals, almost exclusively to Indians.
For decades, H-1B visas have been controversial. Supporters claim the visa holders are highly skilled, outperform U.S. tech workers, and without them, America would quickly become noncompetitive in the global market. Opponents allege that tech employers have abused the original intent of the visa to complement the existing American workforce and that as currently applied is unfair to both international and U.S. tech workers. The Economic Policy Institute’s Daniel Costa wrote that employers have “hijacked the system” by using between one-third to one-half of the H-1B visas to replace thousands of U.S. workers with “much-lower-paid H-1B workers while also sending tech jobs abroad.”
Lobbyists like the Chamber of Commerce argue, falsely, that U.S. tech workers aren’t available, and importing “the best and brightest” is essential. But employers aren’t legally required to recruit Americans or prove that they have a labor shortage before they hire H-1Bs who they can, also legally, underpay. Moreover, the employer chooses whether his employee receives Level 1 or Level 2 wages, the lowest, and the government doesn’t check unless the unlikely happens – workers file a lawsuit or a complaint. If and when a foreign national files a lawsuit, he risks that his employer, who controls his visa, could take steps to have him deported.
For more than 30 years, ample evidence has been presented to Congress that the H-1B harms U.S. tech workers. Nevertheless, tech employers, the Chamber of Commerce and immigration lawyers have consistently persuaded Congress – to U.S. tech workers’ detriment – that H-1B foreign-born employees are an indispensable cog necessary to keep the economy purring.
Ray Marshall from President Jimmy Carter’s administration put forward the most concise, critical, but accurate H-1B summation. Said Marshall, who as Labor Secretary understood the negative effect imported workers had on Americans: “One of the best con jobs ever done on the American public and political systems…. H-1B pays below market rate. If you’ve got H-1B workers, you don’t have to do training or pay good wages.” Marshall described the great deal employers and foreign-born workers get, but the raw deal for U.S. tech workers.
Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
The Biden administration announced the other week that it was beginning daily flights to return Haitian illegal immigrants from their makeshift shelters under Texas’ International Bridge. The first flights left Sept. 19. As many as 14,000 Haitians have arrived in Del Rio with the anticipation that, like thousands of other aliens who preceded them, they’ll be processed and admitted to the U.S. But, the rub – Haiti, recovering from a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people and damaged more than 100,000 homes, is unwilling to accept more than three flights a day.
Ironically, given that since Biden’s first day in office, he’s abdicated the chief executive’s responsibility to enforce immigration laws that Congress has passed, and previous presidents have signed, the administration’s official statement that returning the Haitians is “about border enforcement” rings hollow.
More probable is that the disconcerting images and videos of thousands of Haitians wading across the Rio Grande, then clustered in squalid, unsanitary conditions – with rumors of more on the way – caught the attention of The Washington Post and The New York Times. Their awareness led to what is, for those publications, a harsh appraisal of the administration’s border crisis mismanagement. After observing the sea of humanity at the bridge, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican whose district runs along the majority of the Texas border with Mexico, just north of the Rio Grande, said he thought he was in a third world country with literally no border – “it’s just been muddied over.” The administration may have concluded that it couldn’t afford to lose the establishment media’s immigration policy support.
An Associated Press story on the migrant airlift to Haiti predicted that no more than two planes would depart daily, a conclusion that’s probably the most optimistic possible outcome. Whether two or eight flights back to Haiti, Texas would still be left with thousands of Haitian migrants, as well as foreign nationals from 90 countries arriving daily to seek asylum or humanitarian protection. Thousands of Haitians arrived stateside before the earthquake hit.
Nowhere has Biden’s law-shirking been more evident than his feckless open border tolerance that’s gravely harmed several border states, none more so than Texas. To his credit, Gov. Greg Abbott with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s assistance launched “Operation Lone Star” to push back against unchecked illegal immigration, fentanyl trafficking that with Chinese money launderers’ helping hand has earned criminals billions of dollars, and human smuggling that too often leads to children sold into the sex trade. Abbott’s strategy to protect Texans came after his agreement to work with Biden on the closure of six Texas ports of entry to restore immigration enforcement collapsed.
Operation Lone Starwill deploy air, ground, marine and tactical border security assets to high threat areas to deny Mexican Cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas. In a statement, Abbott said that because of Biden’s neglect, the southern border crisis continues to escalate. Abbott added: “Texas supports legal immigration but will not be an accomplice to the open border policies that cause, rather than prevent, a humanitarian crisis in our state and endanger the lives of Texans. We will surge the resources and law enforcement personnel needed to confront this crisis.”Abbott signed a $1.8 billion border security bill to increase immigration detention facilities, $750 million of which will be applied to a so-called border barrier that could include temporary chain fences and concrete barriers. This summer, Texas committed $250 million as a down payment for its version of the Trump border wall.
The Constitution,Article IV, Section 4, “guarantees to every state in this union” that “it shall protect each of them against Invasion.” With an anticipated 2 million illegal aliens who will surge the border this year, invasion is the proper word to describe conditions in the Rio Grande Valley, and other Texas entry points. The total illegal crossers include an estimated 40,000 COVID-19 positive aliens. Vaccinations arenot mandated for these crossers, who are released into destinations across the nation. And in Texas, a record 10,800 unaccompanied minors entered. August was the second consecutive month that the Department of Homeland Security reported more than 200,000 illegal immigrant encounters.
Once released, aliens become the states’ responsibility – jobs training, housing, transportation, medical care, education – all the necessities that humans need to lead meaningful lives, but which taxpayers must underwrite. If the White House violates the Constitution, and refuses to protect Texas and the other 49 states against foreign incursion, then to safeguard its citizens, individual states must assume the responsibility to defend themselves.
Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.com.
The rush to resettle thousands of Afghan evacuees and the Southwest border bungling prove one thing if nothing else – the U.S. has little interest in preserving its sovereign nation status. Illegal immigration tolerance and an eagerness to admit worldwide refugees aren’t unique to the Biden administration, however.
Since the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Republican and Democratic administrations have shown a willingness to look the other way at illegal immigration, create dozens of unnecessary employment-based visas that have diluted the labor market, and enabled foreign nationals to take coveted U.S. jobs. During the same 56-year period, Congress has refused to make legislative changes that could, assuming the legislative bodies were determined to defend the nation, reverse history’s course.
The U.S. is traditionally the largest refugee resettlement nation, and the most illegal immigrant-tolerant. These conditions can only continue if Americans don’t feel that newcomers are displacing them.
Among its other many immigration-related failures, Congress has steadfastly refused to end or even urge a Supreme Court review on birthright citizenship, an issue which has once again surged to the forefront as a major sovereignty concern.
On the Del Rio, Texas-Mexico, border, several Haitian nationals have given birth to U.S. citizen babies, and under the bridge, 300 mothers-to-be await delivery. At Wisconsin’s Fort McCoy, Afghan mothers have delivered three babies. The newborns are, thanks to a misguided federal policy that grants automatic citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, American citizens. Mothers could be Disneyland tourists, Neiman Marcus shoppers, birth hotel patrons, or migrants and evacuees, all of whom have little-if-any U.S. ties. Their children are automatically citizens.
Every year, American mothers give birth to about 4 million children. In 2021, immigration officials expect 2 million aliens to enter the U.S. illegally; up to 100,000 Afghan evacuees will be resettled, and President Biden promised to lift the annual refugee cap to 125,000. Aliens, evacuees and refugees will total a record 2.25 million. Most will eventually be entitled to petition their family members from abroad, a population-busting process.
No intellectual argument can be made that birthright citizenship and chain migration are sound policies that have America’s best interests at heart. While both sides of the aisle argue, let the Supreme Court decide whether birthright citizenship is legal, an action that the court must take immediately given nonexistent border enforcement. At the heart of the debate is the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment which includes in the opening sentence: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” The court must rule on the “subject to the jurisdiction of…” definition. Some scholars say that the phrase essentially means anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen, but critics claim that the 14th Amendment’s authors hadn’t intended to grant citizenship to every foreign national born in U.S. territory.
While Congress and advocates on both sides are stalemated, criminals have been able to take advantage of the birthright citizenship loophole. In 2019, federal officials arrested 20 people who operated businesses helping pregnant women travel to the U.S. expressly to give birth to citizen children. Chinese mothers-to-be paid between $40,000 and $80,000 each to come to California, stay in upscale dwellings and give birth. Perpetrators included the Chinese national and the website You Win USA founder Dongyuan Li, charged with visa fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Similar schemes have been ongoing, mostly without federal intervention, in the U.S. for more than a decade.
The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2021, introduced by U.S. Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), would grant citizenship to any child born in the U.S. if at least one parent were either an American, a lawfully present alien or serving in the U.S. military, a reasonable approach to a critical and escalating problem. To date, only about 10 percent of House Republicans have signed on as cosponsors.
Only Canada and the U.S. among developed nations grant jus soli, the right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. Taxpayer costs to underwrite illegal immigrant births are estimated at $2.4 billion annually. With the borders wider open than ever, and Afghan evacuees arriving at unprecedented levels, the Supreme Court must intercede to help preserve sovereign America.
Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
