THE AFTER PARTY: Illegal Immigration - The New Frontierspeople

UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST

I spent some time last evening with a 59 year old Honduran woman who lives here in the United States. Her story was quite incredible to me.

She moved here in 1977, travelling by bus through Mexico. She left behind a daughter and an alcoholic husband. She found work in a taco joint. She earned $2.95 per hour. With her meagre earnings, she proceeded to save money to start the process of bringing her relatives to America.

In all, she brought five relatives, including, of course, her daughter. (She left the alcoholic husband to his bathtub tequilar in Honduras). Each trip cost her $6000 in airfare, bus fare, and bribes for the various "authorities".

In the early 80's she got a job in a factory helping to assemble the parts that go to make up our weaponry. This job allowed her to accelerate the process of bringing her relatives to America.

She told me that each trip, she would purchase a plane ticket to Honduras, pick up one relative, and then take the bus through Mexico, and across the border into the United States. During the trip through Mexico, every time the bus stopped, the "authorities" would get on the bus and shake her down for money. Typically, she had to pay them the equivalent of $100.

At any point, anyone of these "authorities" could have simply hauled her off the bus, stolen all her money, raped her and left her for dead, or put her in a Mexican prison, to be deported at a later date.

At 58, she is still a beautiful woman, and she is in very good shape. One can only wonder at how beautiful she must have been, when she made her initial journeys in her 20's and 30's.

I can tell you this unreservedly; I would never have had the bravery to do what this woman did. She is a true frontiersperson.

The land of America cries out to people like her, "You are a person to match my mountains."

I hate illegal immigration, but let's face it, it is our fault that it continues happening. The reason I put the word authorities in quotation marks throughout this piece is because our "authorities" are not doing their jobs, and thus they have no authority. They are the criminals in this process.

This brave woman got through the border six consecutive times. She was never once arrested. That means, six times some "authority" took money from her to look the other way.

This has got to stop. If we need to have a revolution in this country, so that we the people can take back our sovereignty from these "authorities", then so be it. And, let's face it, the corruption goes all up and down the line, from our governmental "representatives", to the President, to the courts, to the businesses who employ people like her.

That being said, America is truly strengthened when people as brave as this woman come to our country and create a life here.

She now owns a home on a piece of property that is big enough to have three additional houses, which she rents out to tenants. Her daughter went to college, got married, and has a beautiful family. Her daughter is in administrative work at an aerospace company. I met her son-in-law and her 12 year old grandson, and they both exceptionally kind people. The love between the whole family was evident.

And nothing better can be said of a culture than that it provides a structural framework of laws and institutions which allow love and selflessnes to flourish between people.

But, if we continue down the "illegal immigrant" road, our laws and institutions will continue to suffer. And eventually they will crumble under the weight of their lack of authority.

And then, our culture will no longer allow love and selflessness to flourish between people. Instead, we will be the wild, wild west all over again.

We need to make some hard choices.

By the way, this is my best guestimate at what this brave woman must have looked like when she was in her prime: