Playing politics with your health

By Donald Hank

Barack Obama refuses to close the border with Mexico and has not changed his policy of encouraging Mexicans to enter the US illegally.

The swine flu pandemic has not changed his mind. His administration's rationale for this?

The DHHS absurdly points to a study supposedly showing that keeping Mexicans south of the border wouldn't stop the spread because the flu has already spread to the US. (Yet the EU says they may "eventually" have to consider closing national borders. For one region it is too late. For the other too early. Who are these elitists trying to kid?)

In fact, US border agents are not allowed to protect themselves by wearing masks! If they do so, they can lose their jobs. After all, we don't want to offend the Mexicans by suggesting they may have an epidemic on their hands. They may do something foolish like try to protect themselves.

The administration's argument is obviously full of holes, and the policy is hypocritical. Certainly, even though the flu has spread to the US, since there are many more flu carriers in Mexico, closing the border, or at least trying to stop illegal entry at the border, would save lives. All cases so far are directly traceable to Mexico. In fact the President's delegation to Mexico brought at least one case to the US. Indeed, one of the Mexican dignitaries who shook Obama's hand last week died of the swine flu the next day. Here's where it gets really weird: the Administration says Americans should limit their travel to Mexico. But wait. If it is too late to slow down the spread of the disease by stopping Mexicans from entering the US, isn't it too late to keep us out of Mexico?

Closing the US-Mexico border or at least quarantining incoming travelers to the US from Mexico would save the lives not only of Americans but also of Europeans and Asians because there would be fewer carriers traveling to Europe and Asia or fewer Europeans and Asians coming into the flu virus in the US and carrying it back to them. Yet the administration does not shrink from endangering the entire world.

The government's policies are purely political and are related to the New World Order concept: we are supposed to believe in free travel across borders, in preparation for a no-borders supranational government, similar to the EU, and closing the Mexican border would interfere with the brain-washing of millions of Americans to think of the border as essentially non-existent. Thus it is politically inexpedient to restrict travel into the US or even stop illegal entry from Mexico.

Look at this hypocrisy:

Last year a US citizen who was thought to be infected with a resistant strain of tuberculosis was ordered by the US Department of Health and Human Services to stay in Greece, where he had been honeymooning and not to travel to the US because they feared he would infect others.

Certainly, there were others in the US who also carried the disease, so from the epidemiologic standpoint, this gentleman did not pose more of a risk than Mexicans with swine flu slipping across our border illegally.

Yet they ordered him to stay in Greece. He later claims to have received death threats when he defied the order and his marriage fell apart due to the pressure and negative publicity he received.

What would they have done if he had been a foreign illegal resident of the US?

Illegal immigrants are a prized "victim" group that both political parties see as a major future voting bloc.

When politics gets put ahead of the safety and health of the governed, it is time to protest.

The US government is almost immune to protests. It despises the governed. But we must nonetheless protest, protest and protest.

Above all I would appeal to your common sense and ask you to consider the foolishness — and downright recklessness — of a world without borders. Sovereignty is the most important long-term issue we face. We are losing it fast, and the swine fly epidemic illustrates perfectly why we can't afford this loss.

© Donald Hank