COMMENTARY

Down Texarkana way

It’s possible, as U.S. Senator-elect Tom Cotton says.

Islamic terrorists could make a deal with the Mexican drug cartels. The deal would be money, which the cartels covet, in exchange for access into the United States, which the Islamic terrorists covet.

These terrorists conceivably could get some militant agents into Mexico via those cartels. Then those cartels could usher these militants across the border into America. Then those militants could venture up to Arkansas and start cutting off our heads.

Cotton issued this warning first to a radio station in Arkansas during the campaign. Confronted on the point in a worldwide forum on Meet the Press on NBC on Sunday, and accused by the host of fearmongering, Cotton said danged straight, we ought to be afraid because the Islamic State has cut off Americans’ heads and declared its goal of committing terrorist acts against Americans on American soil.

An incendiary matter such as this one needs full and fair and balanced context, so here goes:

First—I know of no one who argues that America should keep its southern border porous. I know of no one who says illegal entry into the country ought to proceed apace. I know of no one who thinks it’s healthy for our country, even a famously and essentially welcoming one—indeed even a nation of immigrants—to lack competent and credible border patrol.

The contested issues have to do with how to deal with undocumented persons already here and bearing children and holding jobs and otherwise behaving themselves.

What has Republicans in a powerful snit is not Islamic jihadists invading us from the south, but that President Barack Obama issued executive orders de-prioritizing deportation of otherwise law-abiding parents of American-born children and children brought to the country illegally by their parents.

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma warned of “anarchy” if Obama issued these orders. Coburn was right. Anarchy broke out in Ferguson, Mo.

By the way, Obama’s executive orders also increased resources to secure the border.

Second—There is no indication that Islamic terrorists are targeting Arkansas.

Third—One tends to think that our country’s intelligence, law-enforcement and homeland security apparatus would get wind of an Islamic terrorist group making a deal with a Mexican drug cartel and mobilizing operatives toward the American border. That’s certainly not foolproof. But we need to understand that we rely, for defense against terrorist acts on our soil, on agencies other than those patrolling our border and seeking to enforce immigration requirements. If the Islamic State passes money internationally and gets killers across our border from Mexico, then the failing will be much greater than an expansive and porous border.

Fourth—You need to understand the cynical political dynamic. Polls taken late in the recent election season showed fear to be rising as a voting factor, and to be rising to the advantage of Republicans. School shootings, beheadings and Ferguson rioting had voters experiencing new heights of desperation about the insanely dangerous state of the world.

Cotton, uncommonly disciplined in spouting the poll-driven cant—to the point of a willingness to humiliate himself by saying Obamacare over and over again as if a robot in a televised debate—was simply fashioning a tactical way to tie two vote-winning issues—immigration and terrorism. You don’t get 57 percent without some tactical savvy.

So to summarize: Cotton’s warnings are mostly impractical and cynically political. They are designed to erect a smokescreen around Obama’s perfectly reasonable executive orders. But, yes, it’s possible that Islamic terrorists could come up through Mexico, which is among the many reasons we need to get better and stay better at securing our southern border.

Meantime, Cotton also told Meet the Press that Obama’s executive orders are giving amnesty to illegal aliens at a precious cost of jobs for the American middle class.

That’s conceivable as well.

There may be some middle-class worker displaced by the economic meltdown of 2008 and seeking to fight his back by way of holding down two jobs, one of which has been denied him because someone of Hispanic descent and dubious citizenship holds it.

But, generally speaking, the United States’ economy is improving and employment is rising and fuel costs are dropping and the stock market is soaring and health insurance is expanding—this at a time when illegal immigrants’ kids have been going to our schools and the president has decided to de-emphasize deporting them and their parents and emphasize instead deporting criminals, all the while … wait for it … devoting more resources to securing the southern border.

We simply cannot long survive much more of this Obama success.

As for Cotton specifically, one must admit: He promised in the campaign to fight to stop Islamic terrorists at Texarkana, and he is keeping that promise.

John Brummett’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.

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