Immigrants are welcome, but we must know who and where they are – and what they’re up to

 Public assistance programs in the U.S. have not gotten to the point that they have in a good many other areas of the world such as England, Australia, Greece, France, most of the Scandinavian countries, etc. At least we haven’t gotten to that point yet, I should say. If President Obama and his pack of slobbering hyenas have their way, we will soon be goose-stepping double-time in that direction. Many nations have long-standing social programs – often referred to as “cradle-to-grave” benefits – that their citizens have become so dependent on it is engrained in their very beings. And those systems are failing.

Look at Greece, for example. When faced with either economic collapse or cutting back on a few social benefits, the Greek government wisely chose the latter. The Greek people, on the other hand, have become so dependent on the dole that they rioted in the streets, wreaking havoc and mayhem violently in the streets. I guess they’d rather the country utterly fail with them in their easy chairs rather than tighten their belts, suck it up for awhile, and SAVE THEIR COUNTRY FROM FAILURE. And England recently announced a major, unprecedented change in their socialized healthcare system – the same type advocates here like to hold up as a paragon of virtue and workability (despite failing and going broke [while cutting services] for years): they will privatize nearly two-thirds of the services now covered by the government by “selling” it to the doctors and hospitals. The details are still being worked out, since their social medicine program has been in place since 1948; it’ll take some doing. But at least they’ve recognized – finally – that their current system just isn’t sustainable, and hasn’t been for quite some time. I just wish someone could take the blinders off the bleeding-hearts in this country and make them see what’s going on across the pond.

Back to our regularly scheduled program. In Australia, there are a plethora of public assistance programs. One I like is the “Baby Bonus”, wherein if your family income is no greater than $75,000 you get $5,294 for each baby born. In the case of multiple births, the payment is likewise multiplied. This applies to adoptions as well; if your child is stillborn, Heaven forbid, you still get the bonus. Then there’s the regular (every two weeks) $$ you get for your kids, your partner (not necessarily your spouse), your housing, education payments, health care payments, pharmacy payments; the list goes on and on. Man, Australia’s looking awfully good; how long would it take for me to swim there?

That established, their immigration enforcement is about as effective as ours is. In other words, relatively non-existent. Many of you may have heard of the case of Abdul Nacer Benbrika, aka Abu Bakr, the Algerian national who was convicted last September of terrorism-related offenses in Melbourne. He’s been in Australia since 1989, arriving on a one-month work permit which he, of course, over-stayed. He was ordered out of the country in 1990, 1994, and 1995, but the authorities did nothing about him. He married an Australian citizen of Lebanese descent and had six kids. Oh, yeah, and he hasn’t worked a day since arriving in Australia, but has collected more than $1 million in public assistance from the government. Nice of the Aussies to do that for the him and his family, wasn’t it?

Adul Nacer Benbrika

With the way things are going here, it’ll be just a matter of time before conditions are ripe for something similar – or worse – to happen here. We don’t know who is entering our country, we don’t where they are, we don’t know why they’re all here, etc. Sure, some of them are indeed are just looking for a better life and some prosperity. But how do we tell the difference? Must we wait until tragedy – or multiple tragedies – strike on our soil before we’re awakened from our stupor and actually take action? Will it matter by then, or will it be too late?

I hate to sound like a broken record, but this is why we need to “Remember November” and make sure we send people to Washington – and our own state capitols – that will be about the PEOPLE’S work and interests and work to serve the COUNTRY’S best interest, and not their own self-aggrandizement. Vigilance WILL pay off.