President Joe Biden took office three years ago and has flooded our country with illegal immigrants. Including those in the country before the election, the estimated number is 11 million and counting, with current rates at 5,000 to 10,000 per day. While our border patrol is distracted processing the thousands of illegal immigrants, the Mexican cartel is raking in billions of dollars by smuggling drugs, humans, and terrorists through the open border.

The border has become a smorgasbord of drugs from heroin and cocaine to marijuana and fentanyl. Not surprisingly, this administration has set records for drug overdose deaths in our country. The Center for Disease Control reported 107,573 deaths in 2021 and 109,846 in 2022, with early reporting of 2023 numbers surpassing 2022. Compare this to the to mass shooting deaths of 2,127 over the same three-year period. This does not lessen the tragedy of those we lost in shootings by demented individuals. I have family and friends affected by this tragedy including my cousin Carlos Moreno, killed by the Walmart shooter in Thornton on Nov. 1, 2017. If 100,000 deaths a year due to drug overdose does not move the needle of change, then what is the magic number needed for this administration to take border security seriously?

Drug trafficking is only one of many problems caused by illegal immigration. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ claim of a secure border is insulting to the 300,000 drug overdose deaths during this administration.

‘A nation of immigrants’

We are seeing some pushback from politicians after the burden of illegal immigration shifted from border states to sanctuary cities and states. The question is, why did it take so long for the citizens of this country to say enough is enough? The phrase “No good deed goes unpunished” comes to mind. I believe we are the most kind, giving, and compassionate country in the world. Because of this, some take advantage of our kindness.

I would like to challenge two slogans with the original intent of a kind and welcoming country for those seeking a better life.

“We are a nation of immigrants.”

The origin of this phrase is credited to President John F. Kennedy. In 1958, concerned with the uptick of xenophobia, the Anti-Defamation League recruited then-U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy to write a manuscript on immigration reform.

The manuscript became a book published in 1964, “A Nation of Immigrants.” In the book, the future president states, “Every American who has ever lived, with the exception of one group, was either an immigrant himself or a descendant of immigrants.” The other group he referred to are the American Indians. Sixty-five years later, our elite universities have become nothing more than cesspools of antisemites.

By 1958, science had determined American Indians were native to the land, thus the term Native Americans. There’s no argument that the American Indians were first on this land. They predated the first European landings in the Americas; Viking explorer Leif Erickson in 1021, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who was commissioned by the Spanish Crown in 1492, and the English Pilgrim settlers in 1620. But were they truly native to the land?

In 1967, settled science was disputed by geologist and scholar, David Hopkins. His first book titled, “The Bering Land Bridge,” laid the intellectual foundation of a land bridge between Russia and Alaska created by the lowering of the oceans. Subsequently, it was established this bridge was the passage of immigrants to the Americas 13,000 years ago. In 2021, fossilized footprints were found in the White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

In 2023, after extensive testing, science confirmed the age of the footprints to be 23,000 years old, though not all scientists agree. Looking at the science, there is no disputing that we were a land of immigrants, immigrating to America between 13,000 and 23,000 years ago. If you follow the Out of Africa theory, the migration of mankind started in Africa between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. To be fair, except for a small corner in Africa, the entire world is a land of immigrants.

The Wild West

With immigrant origins, our Founding Fathers declared independence from the British, and in 1776 the Thirteen Colonies became a nation, The United States of America. The British monarchy no longer in control, we were now a free nation. Unfortunately, it would take a civil war and another 90 years before all our brothers and sisters would be free. Once inhabited by Native Americans, the lawless lands out west were controlled by the British, French, Spanish, Mexicans, and Russians. It was a land of the Wild West.

As people migrated to the United States for a better life, they came here to become Americans. To become an American, one had to abide by the laws of our country, not the laws of the country of one’s origin, including entering the country legally. All are welcome. You follow the laws, you assimilate, and you become an American citizen.

Once the land of opportunity and the American Dream, I fear this administration has opened the gates to handouts for control of an illegal immigrant population as future voters. The power and the vote belong to the citizen, not the illegal immigrant or politician dictating policies based on executive orders meant to circumvent the citizen.

‘Immigrants made this country great’

If immigrants made this country great, imagine how great it will be at the end of the current administrative term. Holding true, every country in the world should open their borders to immigrants, legal and illegal. When given a choice, the number one destination for immigrants is the United States. There’s no argument of the many contributions made and that continue to be made by immigrants to this country. But claiming immigrants made this country great diminishes the contributions made from the native-born men and women.

When a respondent affirms with a “Yes,” that immigrants made this country great, I ask a question. Name me one immigrant that made this country great. The respondents always stumble to provide a name, so I provide one. Albert Einstein. The respondent answers with a celebratory “Yes,” as if to validate their claim to the greatness of immigrants. The final question I ask is, “During the time when Einstein immigrated to America, name one country he could have immigrated to during his time and found success as he did in America.” The answer is there were none.

Albert Einstein was a German citizen visiting American when Hitler took power. The year 1933 was the start of the persecution of the Jewish people, which ultimately led to the murder of over 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. A return to his country would have meant certain death to this Jewish-German citizen. Immigrants from around the world immigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American Dream. Einstein is one of many immigrants who contributed to the greatness of this county including Andrew Carnegie, Levi Straus, Nikola Tesla, John Muir, Frida Kahlo, Elizabeth Stern, Wernher von Braun, Rita Levi, Gerty Cori, Sigmund Freud, Guillermo del Toro, and Elon Musk to name a few. Can you name another country where they could have found success as they did here?

U.S.-born individuals contributing to the greatness of this country include 13 of the 15 Founding Fathers. We also have Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, Davy Crokett, Jim Bridger, Crazy Horse, Sacagawea, and Tecumseh. President Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Neil Armstrong. Martin Luther King Jr., Presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Theodore Roosevelt and Ulysses S. Grant. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Dr. Ben Carson, and yes even President Donald Trump.

The American Dream

No, immigrants did not make this country great. I believe every individual has the burning desire and passion to succeed in pursuing their dreams, native or foreign born. We are the only country in the world which allows all of us the freedom to succeed in pursuing our own dreams, the American Dream. A dream not possible if not for the creation of a document, the Constitution of the United States. This was the groundwork for the greatness of our nation. But academia cannot give credit to our forefathers’ wisdom and foresight due to the color of their skin. Oh, how I miss Martin Luther King Jr.

All of us welcome legal immigration to our country, and I ask that you treat everyone with respect regardless of their immigration status. But allowing uncontrolled, illegal immigration is leading to the rise of racism, which I believe is the intent of this administration. I also believe the open-border proponents have used these two phrases for decades in support of illegal immigration. If any anger is justified, please direct it to the administration and politicians that support sanctuary city policies that ignores our laws, and not the immigrants, legal or illegal.

No, despite what you might have heard in the media and social threads, we are not a nation of immigrants and immigrants did not make this country great. My proclamation is simple: We are a nation of citizens, and our Constitution made this country great.

Floyd Trujillo ran for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate from Colorado in 2014 and was the first Coloradan of Hispanic heritage to seek a statewide seat as a Republican. He served as Colorado’s Hispanic co-chair for the Trump presidential campaign in 2016. Trujillo grew up in Commerce City, served in the Marine Corps and is a retired, 40-year veteran of the oil and gas industry. He traces his ancestry to 1613 in Taos, New Mexico, during Spanish colonial rule.