Is this the future?

It has long been said that the United States is a land of immigrants and many think, or believe, the sonnet written by poet Emma Lazarus to be an invitation to come take advantage of and exploit American’s generosity.

In reality, she wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus
November 2, 1883

In my opinion, it’s time to remove the plaque that has been at the base of the statue for the past 121 years.

While it may have been okay in the 19th and 20th Century, things have drastically changed over the years and if what has been happening so far in the 21st Century is an indication of where our future is headed, it doesn’t look good.

The surge of illegals migrants arriving at the Southern Border has pushed the country’s immigration system to the breaking point and the Biden Administration’s policies aimed at both undocumented immigrants and legal asylum seekers have contributed to a humanitarian crisis that they apparently don’t car about especially with their Catch and Release policy.

The federal government has wasted millions in taxpayer dollars on food, supplies and personnel during a brief reopening of a West Texas immigration detention facility.

The findings from the Government Accountability Office focus on expenditures from August to December to operate the tent encampment at Tornillo, a rural community in eastern El Paso County. The facility was reopened to hold single adults amid a spike in apprehensions of undocumented immigrants at the Texas-Mexico border. Back in 2018 it was used to detain undocumented immigrant children.

Over a period of five months, the federal government spent about $66 million to operate the facility, which was built to hold as many as 2,500 detainees. But it never held more than 70 people, and the average daily population for the first three months was 28 people, according to the report.

That comes out to a cost of about $431,000 per day.

How much is spent on homeless American citizens and especially our military veterans?

During the initial three-month contract — which was later extended for two more months — the GAO found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection spent $5.3 million on food, food delivery and other supplies, enough for 2,500 detainees per day — but averaged just 1% of capacity. The government adjusted food deliveries and reduced those costs during the two-month extension.

The government spent an additional $6.7 million on 75 unarmed guards to monitor the facility 24 hours a day, and agents from Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as National Guard soldiers, also were temporarily reassigned to Tornillo. The GAO concluded that with an average daily population of 28 detainees, each detainee was being guarded by four soldiers, three security guards and one CBP officer.

The GAO report also states that local Border Patrol officials tried to alert their superiors that Tornillo was an unnecessary use of resources but the Democrats in Washington, D.C., many of which have never been to the border, apparently know what is best.

What are your thoughts?

Compiled and edited by Sal Gambino