Immigration's fifth column problem

Saturday, Austin Petersen brought up the question, "Does The Constitution Apply To Non Citizens?" in his live stream video below:



Section 1 of the 14th Amendment answers most questions around immigration:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Austin's answer is basically yes, based specifically on the part I put in bold above. Unfortunately, this part does NOT prevent the government from targeting specific groups of people for specific treatment. For example, an affirmative action law is no better than a Jim Crow law in denying "equal protection of the laws", and yet we have allowed and enforced them over the years.

Putting aside that bad laws get made and enforced by the courts, leading to unequal protection of the laws, immigration isn't JUST about the natural rights of people to move from one country to another. There is a national defense aspect to immigration. A foreign person inside the United States can be here for multiple reasons:

1. They could be here to make a better life for themselves.
2. They could be here as part of a fifth column effort to undermine our government or terrorize our people.
3. They could be here as part of an invasion force (see War of 1812).

It is easy to say #1 comes under immigration and #3 comes under national defense. But #2 isn't quite so clear cut. Because of fifth column potential, even if it is only a small minority, we have to treat immigration as a national defense issue also, especially when dealing with immigrants from a country where we are carrying out military operations.

While I don't consider our military operations in most parts of the world as necessary or even defending our interests, Americans seem intent on carrying out a war on Islam. Since the majority rules here, I personally don't want to be caught up in some Islamic fifth column effort against Americans on American soil. Letting people from countries we are warring against into our country presents an unnecessary danger to the safety of Americans. It is NOT strictly a matter of nativism (although for some people it is). It is a matter of national security and public safety.

Before you can throw in the "giving up a little liberty for a little bit of safety" warning, this is something which should mainly impact non-American citizens. There should be no impact to American citizens in making demands on people trying to emigrate/immigrate to the United States. To most citizens, it may require the horrible inconvenience of presenting your ID occasionally. That amount of liberty is a small price to pay for the amount of safety involved, and it is well within the boundaries of government established within the Constitution. This is not an Edward Snowden-style 4th Amendment violation.

I have no issues with allowing Mexicans into our country, and I firmly believe we should allow more. I also believe the criteria for gaining admittance into the United States should be fairly simple and easy to process. But I also believe that in times of war, our borders must be protected against those who might try to carry out fifth column activities.

If you want to talk about allowing Syrian refugees into the country, how about starting with "let's end the war over in Syria"?