(NaturalNews) Governments have a tendency to use a crisis or a series of escalations as an opportunity to expand control and pass sweeping new laws. When the masses become frightened, insecure or frustrated, they become more willing to give up their rights, privacy and liberties for "government security."
What is the role of government in immigration?
America is on the verge of accepting sweeping new immigration laws to supposedly bring calm to the immigration crisis happening at the southern US border. Are new National ID cards on the horizon, requiring all Americans to get a biometric scan?
"So we need to implement a national system that allows businesses to quickly and accurately verify someone's employment status," said President Obama, January 29, 2013. It seems that officials want to bring in a new immigration system altogether. Although well intentioned, a new system that cares for illegal immigrants will rob law-abiding American citizens of income and medical care.
As buses of undocumented immigrants are shipped into the United States, an escalating crisis is created, burdening the way of life for millions of law-abiding American citizens. Today, in 2014, the White House is asking Congress to approve $3.7 billion for dealing with the crisis. Is more government the solution or the problem?
Swine flu emerges at US naval base housing nearly 600 illegal immigrants
Thousands of immigrants caught entering the US illegally are currently being stalled by a slow bureaucratic legal system that is delaying deportation. This is forcing the US to house thousands of illegal immigrants at places like the US naval base north of Los Angeles. Nearly 600 undocumented children housed there were quarantined recently when two cases of H1N1 swine flu cropped up among them. Health authorities rushed in to contain the outbreaks at the US naval base, moving the sick children to local hospitals throughout the weekend.
As several of the children broke out in fever throughout the weekend, some officials thought that the outbreaks were caused by bacterial streptococcal meningitis, but according to the Department of Health and Human Services, the meningitis and pneumonia scares occurred after the pair of swine flu cases.
Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesman Kenneth J. Wolfe said, "Preliminary reports indicate that several unaccompanied minors in the shelter had become ill with what appears to be pneumonia and influenza."
HHS also said that the meningitis and pneumonia outbreaks now pose a greater public health threat than the swine flu. To protect the public from outbreaks, health officials halted transfers of the children in and out of the facility, quarantining the naval base.
One of the swine flu cases originated from a 16-year-old Salvadoran boy was recently transferred from Nogales, Arizona. Apparently, the children arriving at the US border are not being properly screened for health problems, even though HHS says that arriving children are checked thoroughly and given medical treatment for communicable diseases. HHS even says that the arriving children are vaccinated before entering Defense Department locations.
"If it is determined that children have certain communicable diseases or have been exposed to such communicable diseases, they are placed in a program or facility that has the capacity to quarantine," Wolfe said. "Children with serious health conditions are treated at local hospitals. The cost of this care is fully paid by the federal government," which gets its money from hard-working taxpayers.
Pondering the path forward
So, what is the best way to deal with migrating children, who are running from hostile conditions and looking for family and freedom in the US? Should federal government enforce immigration laws and expedite the process of deporting illegal immigrants back to their country of origin, or should the children be brought in and cared for at the American taxpayers' expense and risk?
What is the more sensible and humanitarian solution, and what is the proper role of government going forward as illegal immigration escalates?
It's important to question and be cautious about sweeping new government reforms that promise compassion or equality for Americans and illegal immigrants alike. The current administration in the White House studies the philosophies of Saul Alinsky, who was all for capitalizing on chaos in society to bring in communist policy. In the prologue of his book Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky wrote, "Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution."
This philosophy is likely guiding the decision-making of current government officials when it comes to immigration as it did in healthcare reform a few years ago. Sources for this article include: