From the invaluable European weblog The Gates of Vienna comes a deeply disturbing video that highlights the extent of illegal migration currently afflicting the continent, especially now that the ‘Arab Spring’ has loosened border controls throughout North Africa and the Middle East.

The confluence of  liberalized intra-European visa requirements, large scale exoduses from failed Arab-Muslim states across the Mediterranean, and a European Union still unable to effectively address the “peaceful” invasion that is starting to resemble a real-life version of The Camp of the Saints, has turned what was once a minor inconvenience into a problem with potentially disastrous consequences for the future of Europe. 

Christopher Caldwell examined the inexorable changes European nations are undergoing in his book Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, which should serve as a warning to American policy-makers and liberal actvists who routinely extol multiculturalism and mass immigration as the ultimate solution to America’s irredeemably racist past. In fact, the new Islamic immigrants have not ameliorated the racial and religious hatreds that wracked Europe during the 20th century. If anything, they’ve reinvigorated long-dormant feelings of anti-Semitism and bigotry, and given a new lease on life to native European racists. From Londonistan’s boycott of Holocaust Remembrance Day, to the sustained jihad waged within formerly peaceful Swedish hamlets like Malmo, to the French banlieues that have become so anarchic that they are the subject of futuristic, apocalyptic, yet not entirely implausible, action films modeled after movies like The Running Man, Europe’s grand experiment has proven to be a colossal failure. 

The shocking video above should stand as a pointed reminder of what can happen to a place that has lost sight of its roots, which in this case stem from Enlightenment values, the Renaissance, and Western civilization at its very core, i.e. classical Greece and Rome. That genuine European heritage is the very antithesis of the ersatz culture Eurocrats are trying to fashion from the seeds of politically correct, leftist dogma, post-war bureaucratization and hierarchy, and massive waves of unassimilable Islamic immigrants. That segment should serve as a sobering message to all of us of what happens when we cede the right to determine our future on our terms. Today those images come from Europe, but can America be far behind?

One of the most forthright, resonant voices in the current immigration debate is that of former INS agent and Customs official Michael Cutler. A man with firsthand experience in thwarting attempted terrorist attacks and securing our nation’s borders, Mr. Cutler brings his wealth of experience in confronting threats to our nation to bear  against the open borders zealotry and bureaucratic malfeasance that have made our country so vulnerable to foreign penetration.

His commentary is indispensable to anyone who wants a better understanding of the long term threats posed to our national security by a systemic policy of lax immigration enforcement, loose border controls, misplaced priorities articulated by the Washington D.C. bureaucratic hierarchy, and a general disregard for the immigration controls and laws that made this country the beacon of Western civilization for most of the 20th century. 

That is why I highly recommend you read his most recent critical analysis of the wayward ICE mission, as conceived by the current string pullers within the Obama administration, which you can find here. The baffling decisions made by ICE head John Morton, as well as his underlings at the agency, have been well documented on this site in the past, but no one crystallizes the impact of these horribly misguided initiatives better than Mike Cutler, a man who has dedicated his life to ensuring that his fellow Americans can be secure from the threats posed by invaders with ill will and access to our country’s homeland.

A very disturbing article was published in the Houston Chronicle yesterday revealing the sharp increase in apprehensions of illegal border-crossers from terrorist-designated nations over the past 17 months. Although the tone of the article would lead you to believe that Islamic terrorists aren’t attempting to exploit our porous southern border, nothing could be further from the truth.

Despite the protestations of a predictably dreary open borders professor, and the ostensible lack of followup charges in most of these cases, there is in fact a determined effort by Muslim jihadists of various stripes to infiltrate this nation from Mexico. A case in point is the Tunisian Muslim cleric whose brief detention the article alludes to in passing.

Said Jaziri was picked up by Border Patrol agents close to San Diego at the same time as the uprising in his native country was occurring. And despite the fact that he wasn’t charged with any criminal acts, it has been irrefutably proven that he shares many of the same beliefs as Al Qaeda agents that have gone on to maim and murder American citizens. Furthermore, the assertion that there aren’t Islamic terrorist groups who are seeking to exploit our sieve-like border with Mexico is demonstrably false. Although Al Qaeda might not have penetrated our southern neighbor, the presence of Hezbollah-an equal, if not greater, threat to our nation’s security-has been revealed in case after case.

Kudos to Professor Carol Swain, a tireless champion of American citizens and foe of illegal immigration, for highlighting the danger presented by the gaps in our country’s border security and immigration enforcement regime. We can longer afford to look at this situation as merely a problem of “undocumented workers” from Mexico  striving to improve their forlorn lives. The longer we continue to dwell upon this delusion, the less time we’ll have to prevent the next Millennium Bombing plot from being carried out.

One of the National Geographic Channel’s best new programs recently began its second season. The documentary-style program is called Border Wars and it chronicles the inherent struggle in policing the nearly 2,000 mile-long Mexican-American border from the perspective of the Border Patrol and Customs agents whose job it is to protect us. Many of the episodes explore the naked self-interest that drives narco-trafficking and human smuggling rings which exploit Mexicans and Central Americans who seek to enter the United States illegally. The season premiere highlighted the linkage between the producers of contraband and illegal narcotics, their paramilitary arms, and the millions of Mexican nationals who are used to fund their criminal enterprises south of the border. A particularly compelling scene-which illustrates the anarchic situation at the border, and deflates the common assumption that most of these people are simple Mexican migrant laborers-occurs when a Border Patrol agent questions a Sri Lankan man who claims that he has paid over six figures to a human smuggling operation in order to enter the United States illegally.  

Border Wars takes no position either affirming or opposing the open borders status quo that has defined immigration policy for over two decades, but you can’t watch the program without recognizing the inherent peril that continuing the status quo poses to our nation.

The following story was told to the American-Rattlesnake by a graduate of the Maritime College of the State University of New York, who has an unlimited master’s license and has been a sailor for over a decade.  American-Rattlesnake has maintained their anonymity at their request.

Working as a merchant mariner, stowaway stories were not new to me. I got my own story to tell on a vessel carrying two Ethiopian refugees back to the USA. This is not going to be a tale of woe and sympathy for refugees. It is a tale of woe for America – the great nation that once offered freedom and opportunity has turned into one beset by our vulnerability – to all the tired and poor that looks to take advantage of our liberal generosity.

I was working on a vessel that arrived in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. This is a port where they load camels with a single lifting strap and crane onto livestock vessels. This gives you a good idea to how primitive the port is.

Djibouti does not treat its fellow Africans graciously. They are detained in a manner far worse than in any American detention center. The refugee camp is located just outside the port. After the stowaways were on board it was clear that no country wanted to take them. The French, who administer some of the port’s operations, were happy to be rid of this problem. Prior to departure, six people actually got onboard and were caught and taken off the ship. The number that were caught trying to climb the anchor chain and board the ship were countless. Think of rats fleeing a sinking ship, but in the reverse, and you’ll get the idea.

So we set sail and two more refugees were discovered within 24 hours of departure. Normal protocol would be to notify customs immediately and return to Djibouti. But as the luck of the refugees would have it, the captain was a Ted Kennedy fan and a big liberal from Massachusetts. So he stonewalled and delayed notification and continued sailing towards the Suez Canal. By the time the notification was made, we were at an anchorage awaiting canal transit. There are enormous fees involved with this and the option of returning to Djibouti had passed. To the Captain’s surprise, Egypt refused the landing of stowaways. We sailed through the canal with the stowaways detained on board. Upon arrival in Malta to receive fuel, landing of the stowaways was again refused . We were ordered to anchor our vessel as far out as possible, to ensure that the stowaways would not flee the vessel and swim ashore.

Our remote anchoring was not a problem for the stowaways, who both spoke broken English – they specifically look for British or American ships only. They told us that they were planning to get to California, where they had family to support them. Whether this family was there legally or not was not answered. One of the stowaways told us how he had stowed away before and was repatriated after six months of comfortable living in a detention center. He told us how, due to American humanitarian codes, he was treated very well as a stowaway and detainee. This latest attempt was worth it even if he was to get repatriated again. Even more indicative of how America is viewed, was his optimism in saying, “if I don’t get in this time, then next time!”

This humanitarian code is another item that speaks to how misguided America has become. The code states that the stowaways need to be fed and exercised. So they had to be taken for escorted walks on the vessel. I work a minimum of twelve hours a day and have broken sleep in between. If I told the Captain I would like to have a scheduled exercise period, I would be a laughing stock.

The Captain told me that after dinner I needed to bring dinner to the stowaways. I asked if I should give them the scraps from my plate. He replied that I should be ashamed of myself . They were just poor people who needed food. I replied that if leftovers are good enough for homeless US Veterans that pick out of garbage cans, it should be for the stowaways as well. But I am not one to defy a command, so I retrieved two steak dinners from the galley. As I served the stowaways their meals, they asked if I could also go fetch them some coffee with milk. I said that this was not Denny’s and slammed the door as I left.

Upon arrival to the USA, the ship was detained and boarded by the US Coast Guard and Customs. There was also a K-9 police unit with bomb-sniffing dogs. The entire crew was rounded up and held in the mess hall. We were prohibited from leaving the mess hall until a thorough search of the vessel was completed. The only crew not detained were those still on essential duty, such as those in the engine room, who were watched by military guard. No one was permitted to go to their berthing quarters, not even crew who had just finished their shift and needed sleep. When I needed to go to the bathroom, I had to be escorted by an armed guard. They waited outside the bathroom until I was finished and then escorted me back to the mess hall. The entire process of security sweeps, crew verification and interviews took several hours. During all this time the crew was huddled in the mess hall. Some crew members slept on the floor since they couldn’t access their beds. I wondered whose humanitarian code took into account our conditions of detainment. After the long security procedures were completed, cargo operations began with no allowance for the crew as to what they had just gone through. I had been up for 24 hours and was told to “turn to” as my shift was starting. Where was the humanitarian code for me and my fellow American workers?

As to the stowaways, perhaps they are gloating at their success and made their way to sunny California. As for the Captain, he was not fired. nor even reprimanded for his lax actions. He put the whole crew at risk and showed no regard for the consequences we would suffer to aid and abet two stowaways. This story could have ended very differently. It is not uncommon for stowaways to attack or even kill crew members that they feel are a threat to their easy passage to America. My guess is that the Captain is still living in his liberal fog as to the danger that stowaways pose. He is probably congratulating himself for helping some of the poor and huddled masses to liberation. I wonder if he saw the irony in all this as we were all stuck together, tired and huddled in the mess hall.