The Biden administration’s failure to secure the Southern border has become a decisive issue this year, with a majority of Americans seeing the rise of illegal immigration as a critical threat, and rightly so: more than the population of 36 US states. This not only violates the sovereignty of our border but also the most important principle our Constitutional republic was founded on: representative government. America is unique because it was founded on the notion that our rights are not mere allowances granted by the government. Our Founding Fathers believed that the People were sovereign above all else. Recall the Declaration of Independence states, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” Our natural rights, enshrined into law via the Constitution’s amendments, are geared towards this end, such as free speech to petition our government and the right to bear arms to defend ourselves from tyranny.
Our Declaration also states that “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” The system our Founders created is meant to give the people the ability to change and contest the government through the electoral process. Should elected representatives fail in their duties, or abuse their position, we can vote them out of office. In the American system, we are not beholden to our leaders: our leaders are beholden to us.
That is what makes the surge of illegal immigration more insidious. In the past, Democrat-aligned groups were quite open with their belief that immigration offered them a decisive new voting bloc guaranteed to grant them electoral supremacy. Today, the border crisis is not a passive event. It is an active one facilitated by decades of catch-and-release policies, a deliberate lack of border and immigration enforcement, and government-funded transportation of migrants into the country via nonprofits and charities. Our representatives are changing their constituents to match the needs of their policies, rather than changing their policies to match their constituents’. Recently, House Republicans passed the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship during elections. Only five Democrats voted in support. It remains to be seen if the Act will be passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate.
America is not a vague catalogue of ideas or an abstract concept floating in the ether. America is its citizens: citizens with families, neighborhoods, values, traditions, needs, wants, and hopes. Things past generations took for granted—well-paying jobs, housing, and safety—are no longer guaranteed for young people today because illegal migration overwhelms the safety net meant for struggling Americans, brings more crime and drugs to our already crime and drug-filled cities, and increases our ludicrous spending even more. Many of these migrants are trying to find a better life here. But if that opportunity comes at the cost of our citizens, it is our fellow Americans who must come first.
The border must be closed. Those here illegally must be returned home. Existing laws must be enforced. And it is the responsibility of the people to remind their representatives that they answer to, above all else, the people.
