I was watching a scurrying group of ants, busy about whatever it is that ants are busy about. Just trying to make a life I suppose. What concerns the ants? Not global warming, not who’s President, not what the Russians are doing to mess with elections. They were concerned about invasions across the southern border. Yes, it would seem that we had something in common. They told me about how sometime back in the late 30’s or early 40’s the first few fire ants showed up from across the southern border. Probably Argentina or some other South American location. While a small nuisance with their stinging venom, it was surely just a localized problem. After all, wasn’t it a big country with plenty of room for a diversity of ants. Just because they behaved differently from most other ants, surely we could achieve a peaceful coexistence. After all, ants are beneficial to the soil, maintaining a healthy level of aeration. They also helped to control other destructive insects like the tick, chigger and cockroach. But instead of a peaceful coexistence, they were found to be a powerfully destructive addition to society, proving to be lethal not only to other ants, but many other insects, birds, and any other small animals that stood in their way. And they multiplied and multiplied, and spread and spread. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in attempting to deal with this invasion of ants. It is a continuing ongoing expense for government and private entities, with no solution in sight.
Then there was the invasion of the Tawny Raspberry Crazy ants. They first showed up in Texas around 2002. Well, these newcomers to the U.S. have proven to be a bigger nuisance and just as, if not more destructive than the fire ants. In addition to being destructive to cattle, birds, and other insects and wildlife, as well as plant life. They also cause disruption to electrical circuitry and wiring, by taking liberties with devouring insulation on wires. Again, these obnoxious illegal immigrant ants have invaded the U.S. from south of the border.
So, if it were possible to build a wall along the southern border to control the immigration of ants to this country from areas to the south, these ants would have been in favor of stricter controls on ant immigration from areas south of the border. I thought to myself that this might be another lesson to be learned from the ants: Strict controls of immigration at the southern border might be a good idea, for people and ants. The question is, how big of a problem is illegal immigration to this country? Turns out that the government does a pretty lousy job of tracking statistics on the crimes committed by those illegal immigrants (yes I am using this politically incorrect term intentionally because this is my site and I can still do that, at least hopefully for a while in this country). Most of the offenses are drug related. The Fentanyl pouring across our southern border is enough to kill us all. Some data seems to indicate that around 13% of federal inmates are of immigrant status, although statistics can be skewed or notoriously inaccurate.
Most illegal immigrants (except maybe the drug dealers and human traffickers) have next to nothing in finances or possessions. Many have an assortment of medical problems, and who knows if they have COVID-19. Those who do are likely to spread it to others as they are packed into close quarters to live for days and weeks on end. Few have highly technological or employment skills to take higher paying jobs, even if they are employable at all. Some are smuggling children and youth for exploitation in sex trafficking. So there is an unquestionable economic burden that needs to come from some bank account. (maybe we could just print more money, as was suggested by one congresswoman. We are doing enough of that to pay for COVID-19). While the problems presented by illegal immigrant people may be different than the illegal immigrant ants, they are no less problematic. Certainly people are generally deemed to be more valuable than ants (unless you are another ant, of course). If you have a solution, other than ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away, I’d wonder what it is? Like the ants, the expense is huge and there is no solution in sight. Wait until they get the right to vote. (to be continued)
Lost in the Fog 