Eternal Vigilance
By Robert H. Goldsborough

In 1852, orator and columnist Wendell Phillips declared "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

Today, that need for eternal vigilance falls upon us, who successfully fought to stop the open border advocates who demanded citizenship for illegal aliens. We must be eternally vigilant because the senators who failed to pass the Bush-Kennedy-Kyl-McCain bill have already regrouped to make an end run around the American voters by attaching parts of the amnesty bill to other legislation. Conservatives won the battle in June but the political war still rages. Phone calls from the hundreds of thousands of AIC members and other concerned Americans to their senators demanding rejection of the so-called "comprehensive immigration reform" bill overloaded and shut down the Senate switchboard. Eventually, a majority of senators got the message and defeated Kennedy's comprehensive sellout to illegals.

The illegal aliens had thumbed their noses at America's sovereignty and America's laws when they unlawfully snuck across our border. Because, for years, many of them had avoided detection and deportation by using fraudulently obtained Social Security cards, they felt they had an absolute right to live permanently in the United States. They demanded amnesty.

Again and again, America's concerned citizens told their lawmakers not to reward lawbreakers. And when the Senate's switchboard was so flooded with calls that it temporarily shut down during the last days of June, the senators, led by such stalwarts as Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND), buried the bill which could have ultimately buried America under a debt of $2.5 trillion. The victory for America was a hard fought, well-won battle achieved by the once silent majority. Most of the citizen activists were outraged that the Bush-Kennedy-Kyl-McCain cabal met secretly for three months plotting how to provide amnesty for 12 to 20 million illegal aliens and yet not call it amnesty! Oh yes, they said, "We'll sell the citizenship for a small fee and call it a fine." Thankfully, American citizens refused to fall for that duplicity!

We can celebrate our victory but we must not deceive ourselves into believing that the war has been won-because it has not.

The open border advocates are now plotting ways to pass bits and pieces of the so-called "comprehensive immigration reform" bill. On June 29, The Wall Street Journal published, "With collapse of the immigration overhaul, agriculture and high-tech interests [read: high paid business lobbyists] will seek new solutions to their labor problems. . . .

"Within minutes of yesterday's defeat in the Senate, Democrats were discussing how to salvage pieces of the immigration bill, including farm-labor provisions [i.e., visas] that could be attached to this summer's farm bill. High-tech firms have allies in Congress who could press for legislation to increase the number of high-skilled workers allowed visas each year."

When is enough, enough? Employers like Bill Gates' Microsoft never have enough lower wage foreigners to take the jobs of American workers. For instance, last year the State Department granted more than 300,000 H visas which included the H-1B visas allowing U.S. corporations to replace American workers with lower paid aliens. Our government also issued more than 130,000 L visas which allow foreign companies to bring in their workers to work in the U.S.A. The L visa guest worker program is used in the high-tech industry and, as such, is more of a threat to U.S. workers because there is no cap on how many can be issued and there are no wage requirements.

Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) stated on the Lou Dobbs show of June 27 that in 2005 the number of persons who came into the United States legally, (not including visitors) was 3.8 million. Dorgan explained: "There are people that came in under programs, green card programs, H-1B visas. Unbelievable." Americans have lost too many jobs to aliens, and yet the Democrats who control congress are now plotting again to defy the will of the American people. The super wealthy like Bill Gates want more cheap foreign labor.

And so the immigration war continues. Americans must still flood the Congressional switchboards and demand enforcement of the current laws. The border must be secured and employers who hire illegals must be charged, fined and sent to prison as provided in the current laws on the books.

Eternal vigilance is still the price of liberty.