Dan Schinhofen on border issue: Migrants or an invasion?

One of the congresswomen from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said something the other day that embarrassed me and I found to be over the top. She compared the holding facilities, that are being overwhelmed at our southern border, to concentration camps.

This type of rhetoric does nothing to help with the problem, but it does gin up their base. Concentration camps, as used by the Nazis in World War II were there to exterminate the Jews and other “inferior” groups that the party decided were a drain on their society. Our holding faculties are there to house people seeking asylum from their own governments.

A picture went around the news agencies of a father and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande River recently, and the Democrats are using this tragedy to continue the rhetoric of hate instead of working on funding for these facilities that are just being crushed by the millions flooding across our porous border.

How is it the fault of our country that a man takes his little girl across a river and drowns? He could’ve applied for asylum in his own country or at a site in Mexico, but instead, he risked his life and his daughter’s. As far as the “news” organizations are concerned, I have to wonder if this picture was real or staged. (Sad, but that is a thought that occurred to me.)

What is happening along our southern border is a human tragedy, but once again I have to ask, are these simply “migrants” as the news would have us believe, or is this an invasion? (There congresswoman, I can use inflammatory language too.)

It can be seen as that and it is strange that the Democrats do not seem to recognize their own playbook, written by Richard Cloward, Frances Fox Piven and Saul Alinsky. (Overwhelm the system to bring it down.) Somehow, when Donald Trump took the presidency, there was a mobilization along Mexico’s southern border the likes you only see when countries are at war. Coincidence?

While Barack Obama ignored our immigration laws, Trump is trying to enforce them. (Imagine that, a president who is doing his job.) The children caught up in this are the victims, and yet where is the outcry from the left at their treatment while crossing thousands of miles of desert with coyotes leading them?

Instead of using this tragedy to get more votes, I would hope our elected officials in D.C. would be trying to work on our laws and funding to help stem this wave of human trafficking by criminal organizations.

And what about all of those other people that have paid their fees and waited in line to come to this great country? My son has a friend who waited years and spent a lot of money just to get a visa to marry his fiancé. He had a job lined up and is currently working. He did not just cross the border illegally. He followed the laws.

I love immigrants, as both my maternal and paternal grandparents came from Italy and Germany respectively. They had sponsors, a job when they got here, and they had to have their health checked too. (Sounds like a good plan). Neither of them ever raised a flag from the country they left as they came here to be Americans.

While the Democratic National Committee is salivating over the potential voters they can have if they just allow everyone to flood across our borders, I am on the side of “The Rule of Law.” I would hope our elected officials would be too, but while the press and liberal politicians in this country continue to throw around words like “concentration camps” instead of funding this crisis at our border, I am sure we will be treated to many more troubling images from the invasion along our southern border.

“Come senators and congressmen, please heed the call. Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall.” (Bob Dylan) Enough of politics, it’s time to govern. If you’re not going to enforce the laws, then be honest about it and repeal them … or maybe fund them so that the children aren’t the ones to suffer while you’re using them for votes.

Dan Schinhofen

Proud to be a second-generation American.

Dan Schinhofen is a former Nye County commissioner.