Readers familiar with my writing know of my fondness for analogies to break down the, sometimes complex and always frustrating issues on U.S. immigration.  Today, I will use an analogy comparing the proposed border wall along the U.S./Mexican border to insulate America with the way that various forms of insulation are used in constructing buildings to save money and provide other benefits.

Properly constructed homes and buildings are weatherproofed and insulated to create barriers that keep out rain and to keep their interiors warm and cozy in the winter and cool in the summer.

Various strategies and materials are used to achieve these essential goals. Insulation is installed inside outer walls and in the spaces under the roofs of the houses while double-pane windows, storm doors, and weatherstripping are used to seal up other vulnerable areas.

These measures are costly to install, but over the life of the building, these measures more than pay for themselves.  Depending on location, home heating and cooling costs can be significantly reduced when effective insulation prevents costly warm air from escaping from the house during the frigid days of winter, and by preventing hot air from leaking into our homes during the sweltering days of summer when the air conditioners are humming and devouring expensive electricity.

Simply stated –  effective insulation improves the environment in our homes and simultaneously saves homeowners considerable amounts of money.

Those homes are not hermetically sealed. However, their doors and windows can still open, just as America’s ports of entry permit easy access to lawful foreign visitors and commerce.

America’s sovereign borders are essential to protect Americans from a different sort of intrusion – the intrusion of international terrorists and transnational criminals and fugitives.  Our borders are also crucial in preventing the entry of foreign workers who would take jobs Americans need to support themselves and their families.

Finally, our borders are supposed to prevent contraband from being brought into the country.  That contraband includes unfathomable quantities of illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine, meth, and others.  It includes counterfeit prescription drugs and counterfeit parts for cars, airplanes and other devices that may endanger lives.  The contraband may also include weapons and, indeed, among them weapons of mass destruction.

But our borders can only function as effective barriers if they are more than mere “lines in the sand.”

The preface of the official report, 9/11 and  Terrorist Travel begins with this clear and unequivocal statement:

It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.​

Today I focus on the U.S./Mexican border, but it is essential to understand that our nation has 50 “border states” (any state that lies along our northern, as well as our southern borders, are border states as are those states that lie along America’s 95,000 miles of coastline.  Finally, any state that has an international airport is also a “border state”).

While the porous and dangerous U.S./Mexican border must be made secure and is my focus today, many other measures must be taken in this particularly dangerous era.  I have come to compare a border wall along that problematic border with a wing on an airplane.  Without its wings and airplane most certainly will not fly, however, a wing by itself won’t fly either!

This was the premise behind an article I wrote some time ago, Border Security and the Immigration Colander.

The lack of security on that approximately 2,000 mile border represents a vast, gaping hole in the immigration colander, yet the leadership of neither party appears to be genuinely determined to finally build a secure wall even though more than ten years ago Congress voted for the construction of a “border fence” that was never constructed.

In point of fact, a significant contingent of anarchist extremists in the Democratic Party has created “Sanctuary Cities” and “Sanctuary States” and have called for dismantling our borders and ending immigration law enforcement altogether throughout the United States.

New York’s Governor Cuomo, in spite of the clear warnings of the 9/11 Commission, has now threatened to prosecute ICE agents for enforcing our nation’s immigration laws even though alien terrorists have repeatedly targeted new York in repeated deadly terror attacks.

President Trump has made it clear that he will take whatever measure(s) he must to finally have that wall constructed and has not ruled out shutting down the government because this issue is just that important.

In a July 31, 2018, Chicago Tribune report, Trump doubles-down on a government shutdown threat to build the wall:

“I don’t care what the political ramifications are, our immigration laws and border security have been a complete and total disaster for decades, and there is no way that the Democrats will allow it to be fixed without a Government Shutdown,” Trump said in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.​

“Border Security is National Security, and National Security is the long-term viability of our Country,” he added. “A Government Shutdown is a very small price to pay for a safe and Prosperous America!”​

Opponents of that wall have raised various objections to the wall including lamest of excuses, the cost of building it.

Candidate Donald Trump proclaimed that as President he would build the wall and that Mexico would pay for that wall.  It was no surprise when the current and previous Mexican presidents ridiculed President Trump and his assertions about forcing Mexico to pay for our wall.

The globalist media and globalist politicians refuse to acknowledge that Mexico would pay for the entire wall and its maintenance, without having to send a single dollar to the United States.

On July 3, 2018, Mexico News Daily reported on the flow of money from the United States to Mexico in the form of money wire transfers known as remittances as noted in the article’s title:

Remittance numbers took a big jump.

May’s record-high remittances clear US $3-billion mark

The figure is 17% higher than the previous record, set last October​

Remittances, massive as they are, do not account for all of the money that flows from the United States to Mexico and because they are legal and transparent are easy to quantify.

Money is often smuggled covertly out of the U.S. to other countries around the world. by illegal and hence opaque means. Sometimes the money is concealed in furniture, appliances or vehicles.  Sometimes the money is converted to gold or other precious metals to make it more portable. However, no matter how money leaves the United States, a wall would create a barrier against illegal alien workers who send their ill-gotten wages back to Mexico.

That wall could help stem the flow of dangerous narcotics into America – an act that destroys the lives of children and fuels the violence that plays out in towns and cities across the country.

Indeed, a secure southern border could help to insulate America from terrorists operating in Latin America, an issue of grave concern that I wrote about in my recent article, Congresional Hearing: Iranian Sleeper Cells Threaten U.S.that included the testimony of one of the witnesses, Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who said, in part:

In recent years, Hezbollah’s Latin American networks have also increasingly cooperated with violent drug cartels and criminal syndicates, often with the assistance of local corrupt political elites. Cooperation includes laundering of drug money; arranging multi-ton shipments of cocaine to the United States and Europe, and directly distributing and selling illicit substances to distant markets. Proceeds from these activities finance Hezbollah’s arms procurement; its terror activities overseas; its hold on Lebanon’s political system; and its efforts, both in Lebanon and overseas, to keep Shi’a communities loyal to its cause and complicit in its endeavors.

This toxic crime-terror nexus is fueling both global jihadism and the collapse of law and order across Latin America that is helping drive drugs and people northward into America. It is sustaining Hezbollah’s growing financial needs. It helps Iran and Hezbollah consolidate a local constituency in multiple countries across Latin America. It is facilitating their efforts to build safe havens for terrorists and a continent-wide terror infrastructure that they could use to strike U.S. targets.

Trump’s proposed wall would be a “win-win,” saving innocent American lives, reducing violent crime and protecting national security while bolstering the U.S. economy.

Opponents of the wall are true opponents of America and Americans.

We honestly cannot afford to not finally “build the wall.”

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in FrontPage Magazine.