SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Why sending the National Guard to the border is a bad idea
Apr 4, 2018, 3:50 PM
In this June 19, 2008, file photo, members of the 200th Red Horse Air National Guard Civil Engineering Squadron from Camp Perry in Ohio, work on building a road at the border in Nogales, Ariz. In his threat Tuesday, April 3, 2018, to use the military on the U.S.-Mexico border until his promised wall is built, President Donald Trump again heaped blame on his predecessor, Barack Obama, and congressional Democrats for creating a dangerous and dysfunctional border. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, file)
So is it a good idea to send the National Guard down south to patrol the border with Mexico?
The short answer is “no,” but let’s dig a little deeper.
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In a recent executive order, President Trump signed a document that said “Many aliens who illegally enter the United States and those who overstay … the terms of their visas present a significant threat to national security and public safety.”
Really? A significant threat to national security? What is this all about? Seems like this idea is based on two fears.
- One, the fear that people coming to the United States from the south will commit more crimes than the people that are already here.
- Two, that these same people will steal jobs that should rightfully go to US citizens thus robbing our economy of resources.
The only problem is that when people consider these issues with actual research, they do not arrive at these answers. There is a mountain of research available to President Trump and to his Attorney General if they choose to read it.
Here’s just one takeaway from a 2015 study by the American Immigration Council: “…the incarceration rates of the native-born were anywhere from two to five times higher than that of immigrants.”
There’s also a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research and that one by the CATO Institute.
But why let facts get in the way of a scary story? It’s much easier to find a photo of a pretty woman who was killed by an immigrant like Kate Steinle and say, “See, they are a bunch of murderers!” Yes, there will be crimes committed by any group in aggregate, but it’s demonstrably provable that immigrants from our southern border are not committing more crimes than our fellow citizens.
So what about the jobs part? Look no further than the apple orchards of Eastern Washington. Farmers in our own state literally cannot find US citizens willing to pick apples. I could bore you with study after study from economists with no political axe to grind that say immigrants contribute more to the economy than they consume. Maybe with the exception of some counties’ education budgets, but the overall assertion that Americans are clamoring to fill jobs taken by immigrants is not true.
I have lived in every state that borders Mexico. My brother was in the National Guard and was ordered to the border. They ended up painting a fence because there was no threat.
There are boogie men in this world, but they are not walking through the southwest American deserts, leaving their families to go on a crime spree in the United States.
You can hear “What are we talking about here?” everyday at 4:45 p.m. on 97.3 FM.
