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Point of View ::
The 32-page booklet is written using elementary words, its passages illustrated with life-like cartoon renderings of people drawn in chunky black lines. It reads like a mix between a Boy Scout handbook and a military survival guide in enemy territory. It includes passages that range from detainee rights to how to stay hydrated in a hot desert sun and how to find your way if you are lost by using street lights, train tracks, and highways. “Wet clothes,” it reads, “will weigh you down and make it more difficult to swim or float.”
What sounds like a new edition of the popular book Worst-Case Scenario Survival
Handbook, turns out to be much more serious in nature. In late December of last year, the Mexican government released a booklet called
The Guide to the Mexican Migrant. Printed in Spanish and distributed in Mexico, it offers tips to Mexicans on how to successfully enter the United States illegally. While the booklet includes the disclaimer that the best way to enter the United States is for would-be migrants to obtain a visa, it offers suggestions on what illegal immigrants should know when using false documents, advice on using smugglers, and tips on what to do when detained by American border control agents.
Additionally, it offers the illegal immigrant suggestions on what to do once inside the United States: “Avoid calling attention to yourself… Do not alter your travel routines … Avoid loud parties – the neighbors may be bothered and call the police. If you are in a bar or nightclub and a fight breaks out, try to leave in the confusion because you could be arrested even though you may not have done anything,” it says.
The Guide to the Mexican Migrant is one of the most public examples of a nation’s endorsement of lawbreaking in America. More significant than even that, however, the booklet highlights the very serious need for border security in the United States and it logically leads one to the question: who is coming in through gaps in our borders and what are their intentions? Certainly, while the vast majority of illegal immigrants enter our nation with only the intent to better their lives here in America, common sense and recent history warn us that it only takes a handful of individuals with ill objectives to cause serious loss of American lives and property. There may have been a day when the temptation for some to turn their eyes and ignore what was happening could be understood, but with the real and present danger terrorists present to our security, that day is no more.
Last fall the 9/11 Commission stated that knowing who was in the United States was essential to national security, and that at that time, nine million individuals had entered the country outside of the legal immigration system. They also asserted that, “For terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons.” They realized that identifications such as a driver’s license are the keys to the kingdom, allowing terrorists to move at will through our airlines and other transportation systems. Despite the political discomfort this caused some lawmakers, the 9/11 Commission openly recognized that immigration and national security go hand-in-hand.
This week, the House took the very important step of passing the border security and immigration reform provisions that were dropped from last year’s 9/11 Commission legislation. H.R. 418, the Real ID Act, which I cosponsored, if passed by the Senate, will set security standards for the issuance of drivers’ licenses, tighten provisions in the asylum system abused by terrorists, and close gaps in border security.
The security chain protecting America is only as good as its weakest link. If border security and travel documents are the weakest link, then Congress’ primary responsibility should be to address them. The need for these reforms has been reiterated over and over in expert testimony before Congress, in anecdotal evidence from security professionals, in scholarly research, and in evidence presented from our nation’s justice and military personnel. The most compelling reason, however, is just plain old common sense. Anyone who cannot see this needs only to read
The Guide to the Mexican Migrant.
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