Unmasking

A little over a year ago a virus was introduced into the population of the United States, a single celled virus about 50 nanometers wide, less than one-one trillionth the size of an average human being, called Covid-19. That microscopic virus has wreaked havoc on this nation, on the entire world, not just the people who have contracted the virus, or those at the most risk; the elderly or with co-morbidities, but young healthy people with a next-to-zero risk of dying from the virus have had their world turned upside down. Many states instituted draconian locked down measures. Restaurants, bars, public places were closed down for most of 2020. Schools, in many states, are still locked down. Travel restrictions have been put in place. Mandatory quarantines, contact tracing, mask mandates, all became common place in our country. We threw out the bill of rights, and stopped believing in the importance of individual freedom and sovereignty.

What has been the results of all this? Hundreds of thousands of businesses have been shuttered. Millions of people have become unemployed. Countless livelihoods have been lost. Our country lost over four trillion dollars in net worth. A dramatic increase in teen suicide, addiction and overdose deaths. We have done all this is response to the threat of a microscopic virus that even the most vulnerable among us have a 95% chance of surviving. But if doing all this saves lives, then it’s worth doing, right? That’s what we have been told whenever anyone questions the efficacy of lockdowns or wearing a mask. Masks save lives. It doesn’t matter that most of the people wearing masks do not have the virus, or that most of the air particles we would be inhaling or exhaling are benign, or even beneficial. You must wear a mask because you never know who has the virus or who doesn’t. We cannot risk not wearing a mask even if just a small percentage of the people we come in contact with have Covid.

It makes sense to a certain degree. What doesn’t make sense is to open up our southern border as we have done the last two months, allowing Covid positive people to walk into our country. This directly contradicts the extreme measures we have taken the last 12 months in response to Covid. This policy is akin to allowing Antifa and BLM to riot for 5 straight months in our major cities during the heart of the pandemic. Certain politicians stopped worrying about the spread of Covid and our preventive measures when it came to “social justice” riots designed to help swing the election in their favor. Suddenly, protecting grandma from Covid became less important than torching a police station.

The bigger question regarding the illegal border crossers, though, is that we do not know who many of these people are. Very few have not been properly vetted. Even if the vast majority of the illegal border crossers are good hardworking Mexicans looking for a better life, who are the other people crossing illegally? The threat of Covid is not the only concern. Known terrorists have been apprehended trying to cross the border this month. Considering that border patrol only captures a small percentage of the illegal crossers, they couldn’t be that lucky to have caught the only terrorists who attempted to cross into America in the last few months. How many terrorists evaded border security amidst the massive influx of other illegal border crossers, and are living in our country right now, planning an attack, as a result of our laxed border policies.

MS-13 gang members, human traffickers, and drug smugglers are also walking into our country unabated exploiting the overwhelmed border patrol. We are willfully allowing deadly pathogens into our country not much different than if a Covid positive patient walked up to an elderly lady and coughed right in her face. We have essentially removed our masks, and withdrawn the protection from our southern border, allowing deadly agents in. People get arrested for not wearing a mask in America or trying to run their business during Covid, but we are allowing Covid positive illegal immigrants, as well as, terrorists, MS-13 gang members and drug smugglers in without much of a thought. Over 80,000 Americans die of drug overdoses every year, and, yet we are doing very little to stop drug smugglers from crossing into America. We are putting more of our youth at risk with this open border policy than if we had every school open for the last 12 months. It’s more important to protect our kids from drugs and gangs than it is to protect them from Covid, yet we are not doing it.

Are all illegal border crossers drug smugglers or gang members? No. Are most? No. But enough border crossers are drug smugglers and gang members that it is dangerous to have an open borders policy. Is every person we come into contact with Covid-positive? No. Are most people Covid-positive? No. But enough people are Covid-positive that we should wear masks and social distance. We must do what we must do to protect ourselves, and our country. So, when it comes to the border, our country should wear a mask (build a wall), and social distance (deport illegal immigrants).

If we have been so vigilant locking down the country to protect Americans against a virus, why are we not equally vigilant in shutting down the borders to protect Americans from terrorists, gang members and drug smugglers? We are committing suicide as a country. As with most policies, these are not what’s in the best interests of America, or the average American citizen, and they were not put in place for the reasons that were used to justify them. The people making these decisions are not concerned with protecting the American citizens, they’re interested in creating as much chaos as possible so they can exploit it, and further empower themselves.

The politicians supporting the open border policy do not care that many of these migrants are dying on their trek to America, or they are getting caught up with the drug cartels or human traffickers. They do not care about the negative consequences of these policies because the negative consequences will never touch them. They live and work behind walls protected by people with guns while at the same time, they’re stopping the construction of the national border wall, preventing the National Guard from defending the border, and pursuing policies to take our guns away; all of which puts American lives at risk.

This massive illegal immigrant push is occurring at the same time there is a push for a substantial increase in the minimum wage. Big business wants both because they benefit from both. The minimum wage hike will drive their small business competitors out of business, while they will be able to circumvent the minimum wage by employing illegal immigrants for a fraction of the labor costs. They exploit illegal immigrants, unethically drive their smaller competitors out of business, and expose our country to an increase in crime, drugs, and gang violence for the sole purpose of enhancing their bottom line. And the politicians who push through these destructive policies do so because the more money big business makes, the more money available to finance their campaigns.

If we want to have more immigrants come into the country because we believe it helps our economy and our society, we must do it legally. We must shut down the border, reduce illegal borders crossings to a trickle, and then allow more legal immigrants in. We must properly vet those coming into the country, so we can weed out anyone who means to do us harm, and only allow in the good, hard working immigrant looking to improve their lives, and who will improve our country. It doesn’t take a genius. It simply takes uncorrupt politicians who care more about the American citizens and the migrant workers than they care about their own power. But with the current roster of politicians in Washington, it is highly unlikely that legal, sensible, fair immigration policies like these will ever get passed.

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Judd Garrett is a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He is a frequent contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.