About Those Borders

     Y'know, I used to play along -- "Good fences make good neighbors" and all that.  But the more I think about it, the more I'm not very concerned about border security.

     We've got effective police agencies in the United States; we've got a criminal justice system that works pretty well.  They catch criminals, especially violent ones, especially the "worst of the worst," and they generally convict them, too.  That includes criminals who aren't U.S. citizens and who didn't follow the rules when they visited.

     On the other hand, most of the offenses that involve sneaking one's own self in -- not smuggling other people or items, just ducking under the fence or overstaying a visa -- are misdemeanors.  They're crimes like parking violations or speeding tickets are crimes.  In the past, they've been handled by sending people letters or sending a single officer to go knock on a door, and by and large, it has worked.  The supposed "flood" of nefarious people without authorization to be here is propaganda-driven puffery.

     None of it justifies having masked, heavily-armed men going house to house, pounding on doors (or worse) without judicial warrants, rousting citizens and non-citizens alike and demanding to be shown proof of citizenship or legal residence.

     Could you prove you're a citizen, if you were suddenly stopped on the street?  I might -- if they'll accept a "real ID" compliant driver's license, which ICE and Border Patrol have an inconsistent record doing.  I'd have to get someone to fetch my passport and birth certificate from home if they didn't.

     That's not us.  That's a bad movie cliche, with gimlet-eyed baddies in flashy uniforms clumping down the aisle of a traincar or stopping people on the street, demanding, "Papers!"

     If that's the price of rounding up a lot of gardeners, construction workers, pea-pickers and sweepers along with a few gang members and cheaters who were already liable for regular arrest, it's too damn high a price.  It's turning the the home of the free and the brave into an ugly, ugly place, where innocent people are shot or yanked screaming from their cars for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or for having a smart mouth.

     While today, it's mostly funny-talking foreigners and people with purple hair, tomorrow, it could be you or me.  Turn down the wrong street in the wrong town, and it could be you this afternoon.

     Spare me the harrumphing warnings.  I'm 67 years old.  I've been poor more than once.  I've had guns pointed at me by criminals and I have had guns pointed at me by cops.  I get that life can be hard, and dangerous, and that our fellow humans are the cause of most of that difficulty and risk.  Don't tell me about those "hard men" who "stand between me and horror;" they mostly haven't been there when I needed them and have occasionally been the source of my troubles.  Arrogant, sexist, racist assholes have been more trouble to me than illegal immigrants ever have, and almost exactly as much bother as actual criminals.