BOOK REVIEW OF STATE OF EMERGENCY: THE THIRD WORLD INVASION AND CONQUEST OF AMERICA

BOOK REVIEW OF STATE OF EMERGENCY: THE THIRD WORLD INVASION AND CONQUEST OF AMERICA

Author: Patrick J. Buchanan
Publisher: Regnery Publishing 2006

By
Keith Haley
Professor of Criminal Justice

Book review is copyrighted. All rights pertain.

INTRODUCTION

No matter one’s political persuasion, it is impossible to complete Patrick Buchanan’s book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America without being fully impressed with the depth and breadth of scholarship replete in the work. Backed by the most trusted sources on immigration and historical data, Buchanan makes the case that America is faced with a crisis like no other in its history.

The author readily makes the point by means of convincing statistics that we now face numbers of illegal immigrants, particularly from Mexico, that are creating burdens on the United States and its people like none we have ever seen. Sheer numbers of illegal immigrants total anywhere from 12 to 20 million, more than all of the Irish, Jewish, and British immigrants that ever came to the U.S. legally since the founding of the nation. Buchanan points out that most of the new immigrants are uneducated and seek low paying jobs that far too many American employers are willing to provide illegally. But along with the desire to work comes a major drain on social services, public school funding, medical costs, welfare and social security fraud, and a questionable at best desire of these illegal immigrants to assimilate into the American culture. The author points out with documented sources that we can no longer assume that the vast majority of these illegal immigrants seek to be Americans.


WHAT IS A NATION?

Much of the book works from the foundation that a nation is more than a creed that is accepted as worthy, i.e. believing in democratic ideas alone does not make a nation. A nation, according to the author, has one culture, a common language, and a definable and enforceable border. Are these critical elements in tact at the start of the 21st Century? Buchanan thinks they are not. Where once upon a time immigrant parents insisted that their children learn the English language, engulf themselves in the culture of the nation in order to become American, and make a better life for themselves by obeying the laws of the land and working hard, America now sees hundreds of thousands stream across its borders illegally every year and within hours many of these are in possession of several sets of false identification that will allow them to soak up welfare and other government assistance under more than one name. Finally, as disturbing as any point in the book, not only do many not want to become an American, some are, in fact, committed to the idea that they are here to reclaim the land in 4 southwest states that the United States took from Mexico.

With relentless reliance on valid data from government and private immigration research authorities Buchanan chronicles the major forces that are ripping at the heart of our nation: the multiplicity of languages used to conduct business and education; the increasing number of OTM’s (other than Mexicans) streaming across the border illegally; the sizeable portion of the illegal immigrant population that are criminal; and the negative consequences for those who dare suggest that the near unrestricted flow in illegal immigrants is destroying the most prosperous and opportunity laden nation on earth.

BORDER ENFORCEMENT

According to Patrick Buchanan, again backed with statistical support, it is hard to make the claim that our enforcement at the Mexican border with the United States is anything beyond token. Perhaps as many as a million or more are getting through each year and if caught and sent back, they sometimes return within days. Three southwest governors, Buchanan notes, have declared a state of emergency as a result of the illegal immigration crisis in their states.

Who is to blame for this laggard approach to protecting our borders? That blame rests with the federal government that simply does not see protection of the borders as a priority. Buchanan chronicles and discusses our immigration “reforms” in the 1960’s and 1980’s and the disastrous effects they have had on national security, unity, the state of the American middle class, an entity that may be on its way to extinction as a result of the erosion of jobs that once paid a decent wage but now go to illegal immigrants by the millions.

Illegal immigrant involvement in crime is substantial in the brutal drug smuggling business in the Border States with Mexico. But violent and property crime rates in our large cities are often perpetrated by substantial numbers of illegal immigrants. Buchanan points out, for example, that in 2006, 95% of all outstanding warrants for homicide in Los Angeles, which number 1,200-1,500, were for illegal aliens. Moreover, about 330,000 illegal immigrants are incarcerated in the United States.


THE ROAD AHEAD

A “state of emergency” is indeed the condition America finds itself in according to Patrick Buchannan. No one will have to look at an Internet website such as immigrationcounters.com to grasp the Buchanan thesis that perhaps it is too late and the course has been set to drastically alter the nature of America in such a way that our most distinguishing and desirable features will be all but erased by the year 2050.

After reading a few chapters of some of the most fact-based persuasive writing on the illegal immigration issue available an urge takes hold of the reader that draws them to take a peek and then to be absorbed by the final chapter of the book entitled “The Last Chance.” This chapter is a call to action to resolve what Buchanan believes is an unequivocal crisis. But ingesting the emergency plan of action early only adds to the enthusiasm the reader will have for digesting the background and foundation material found in the earlier chapters of the book. This is a book that most readers will mark up and take notes on indeed.

What is Patrick Buchanan’s rescue plan? In a section he entitles “What Is to Be Done” the author recommends eight action steps: have a time-out on all immigration until we can control of the border and assess our dire state (we did it from 1924-1965); provide no amnesty to illegal immigrants in the nation; build a border fence that works; stop allowing citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants in the U.S.(about 380,000 per year); stop chain migration that allows dozens of relatives to enter the U.S. as a result of one immigrant being here; end dual citizenship, which most all nations do not allow; remove the magnets that draw illegal immigrants (free health care, social services, welfare, rent supplements, food stamps, free education, in-state college tuition, etc.); and remigration – persuade many to go back home by removing our generous supplements to their existence while they reside in the U.S. illegally.

That is the plan according to Mr. Buchanan. To make it happen, he says we must conger up “the confidence and courage of our forefathers, who made no apologies for who and what they were as they believed---and rightly so--- that theirs was the greatest civilization and culture the world had ever produced, and they meant to preserve and protect it.”

Buchanan ends the book with a question, “Do our leaders have the vision and will to do it?” Without question we will know the answer soon.