Big Red Car here. Here is in Texas: Austin, Texas. We are at ground zero as it relates to the debacle that has become our border and the entire issue of immigration.

Today we learned that the Governor is contemplating deploying 1,000 National Guard soldiers to assist in securing the western half of the border, an area of big ranches and thin law enforcement.

It is a very difficult issue as the securing of national borders is the exclusive province of the Federal government which has made a complete shambles of the assignment. The border is a disaster.

The State of Texas has a legitimate law enforcement interest in what happens at the border and on this pretext Governor Perry is being prodded to act.

The Big Red Car does not intend to get drawn into a political debate as it relates to the issue of immigration but humor me to make the following comments:

1. Given the fragile nature of our economy right now, does anyone think admitting a tsunami of low skilled, low wage earning labor is going to improve the lot of American workers who have seen a dramatic degradation in average family income — $5,000 since President Obama was inaugurated — coupled with big increases in both health insurance costs and deductibles. Immigration is going to become a pocketbook issue. Doing nothing on immigration sentences the American worker to competing with an unimaginable dampening of any prospective wage improvements for perhaps the next decade.

If you support illegal immigration, you are supporting lower wages for every worker in the United States.

2. None of the current actions have had the benefit of rigorous “regular order” legislative process. It is all being done by Executive Order. The Big Red Car has no brief against Executive Orders unless they are the whim of a single person and do damage to the American economy. This is all the President’s doing.

3. The government has a legal means of immigrating to the United States. You may argue it is cumbersome or complicated. Argue on. There is a legal way to do things. This is not legal immigration. This is fundamental criminal behavior that is being condoned by the selective enforcement of our laws.

4. This current mess has almost made a certainty that amnesty will be granted to somewhere between 12 and 24 million illegal immigrants already in the country since the last general amnesty. These workers will further dampen any improvement in the wage levels of the existing work force. We so poorly understand the magnitude of the problem we cannot accurately predict the number of actual illegal immigrants already in the country. These are huge numbers and the are being provided by folks who have an interest in underestimating the magnitude.

5. The criminal element being admitted to the country and then being disseminated throughout the country is staggering and beyond belief. It is such an affront to good order as to be beyond our ability to comprehend. Our government has admitted murders, rapists and kidnappers and we are now seeing the impact of this on our society as they engage in the same behavior here.

6. The drug traffickers and the gangs have used this opening as an opportunity to pour across the border with an eye toward setting up permanent criminal colonies well inside the United States. These gangs are extremely dangerous and are an invasive species injected into our society for no good reason. Even the most ardent pro-illegal immigration zealot does not want these elements in the country.

7. The cost to the social safety net and the infrastructure of the country, the states, the counties and the cities is and will be staggering. These young folks have to be housed, fed, clothed, served medically and educated. There is no additional tax revenue to support this influx. It must be paid for by the existing taxpayers and tax base. It is literally an invasion.

The State of Texas and its Governor are now realizing we are all alone on this front. The Federal government does not intend to enforce the existing laws. The Federal government does not intend to act in real time. God bless our Governor for confronting the problem and God bless the Texas National Guard.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.