May 7, 2008, - 9:13 am
Great Minds . . . AND Dysfunctional Western Democracies Think Alike
By Debbie Schlussel
Yes, our illegal alien problem–with 20 milion of them roaming the Great American Abyss–is huge. But, to make it even bigger, the immigration policies of our neighbors to the north in Canuckistan, are just as bad and actually worse.
We’ll let almost anybody in. They’ll just let anybody in. And this problem–with our porous northern border–is, de facto, our problem, since many of these individuals easily find their way into our country:
At ports of entry across Canada, new signs should be erected: “Give us your terrorists, your hardened criminals and your human rights violators.”
As the Auditor-General’s report on the Canada Border Services Agency suggested yesterday, this country is becoming a haven for the world’s hoodlums, in the same way that Ellis Island represented salvation for Europe’s tired, poor and huddled masses.
The fault is not necessarily that of the Border Services Agency, which was set up in 2003 to co-ordinate front-line border management and enforcement activity. In fact, the agency is removing far more people from Canada than were being kicked out before it was created — 12,636 in 2006-07, including 1,900 criminals, up from 8,683 in 2002-03.
Sheila Fraser, the Auditor-General, agreed its performance has improved since her last audit five years ago, when it had no idea how many illegal immigrants were out there. Now it knows 63,000 individuals have enforceable removal orders against their names.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t know where 41,000 of them are. That’s like the population of Grand Prairie, Alta., just disappearing off government radar screens.
Ms. Fraser sought to reassure Canadians. “Many of them are failed refugee claimants, and I don’t think we should jump to the conclusion that they represent a high risk to the public,” she said.
She must be privy to more information than she is sharing with us — all we know is that 41,000 people have skipped town because they don’t want to help the authorities with their inquiries. Chances are, they won’t be filing tax returns or raising money for their local Rotary Club any time soon.
The real villain in this story is an insanely generous immigration and refugee system. The legislation that governs the system is the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which pretty much says it all. When someone arrives in Canada, the onus is on the Canadian government to prove why they should be denied entry, rather than on the individual to prove why they should be allowed in. . . .
Even more worrying is that once the temporary resident permit is issued, the agency has no idea whether the individual ever leaves. Canada does not monitor the exit of travellers from the country, so no one knows how many of these 639 ex-cons (and that’s just one year) are still here.
Um, America doesn’t monitor alien exits either, thanks to people like Spencer Abraham (who, for years, blocked funding of a computer tracking system to do so, at the behest of the pro-HAMAS/Hezbollah Arab American Institute’s Jim Zogby), and, now, Julie L. Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess,” who heads Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and hasn’t made it a priority (unlike her tax-funded South American vacation).
While the onus, in America is on the alien to prove his/her case, we’re not too tough on the “proof” issue, and most are rubberstamped in.
Welcome to Canada. Welcome to America. Stupid is as stupid does.
Read the rest of this Canadian report. It will remind you of a certain other country with the initials U-S-A and a certain incompetentette with the last name of Myers, who will soon hang in Latin America on taxpayers’ dime.
Excellent points Debbie. Illegal immigration opponents (like me) have ignored what’s happening in Canada and whose crossing the northern border for too long now.
Frank Laughter on May 7, 2008 at 9:37 am