As I see the statistics, I am confounded by what I hear from black folks, who have repeated the mantra of the Democratic Party without question. The Pew Research Center estimates that there were over 10.7 million illegal aliens or unauthorized Immigrants, as they are now called, living in the United States as of 2016, with most of them coming from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – all Spanish-speaking countries – but now living in California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois.

The research further shows that almost 8 million illegals make up the civilian workforce, jobs that should be going to U.S.-born citizens, especially black workers, who show an unemployment rate in January, 2018 of 6.8 percent, well above that reported by money.cnn.com of white unemployment of 3.7 percent, Asian unemployment of 2.5 percent, Hispanic unemployment at 4.9 and overall national joblessness rate at 4.1, the lowest in 17 years.

So even though black unemployment dropped to 6.6 percent by May 2018, it still is highest of all the ethnic groups and probably could be much lower if not for the 8 million illegals working here, mainly because the illegals have displaced blacks in the workplace where those without high school education are needed.

So, I’m constantly amazed at those black folks who complain that building a wall is a racist response to keeping illegals out of this country, as if people from other countries have a right to just rush through or over our borders illegally instead of coming into our country through legal means. And when they get here they need housing, food, clothing, health care, transportation and education – all paid for by our tax dollars, and then take jobs that would otherwise be available for our citizens.

I remember when I came to Miami in 1974, blacks were 17 percent of the population in Miami Dade County and Hispanics were around 10 percent. Then several years later, Democrat Jimmy Carter became POTUS and made a deal with Cuban Communist President Fidel Castro that all the Cubans who wanted to flee Cuba could come to the U.S.

By the end of 1980 approximately 280,000 Cubans had come to MiamiDade County through what became the Mariel Boatlift. They were housed in tents in downtown Miami until the city politicians demanded funds from the federal government to create housing and other services for them, including welfare, food stamps, etc. Now Cubans are almost 70 percent of Miami-Dade County and control the county.

During the same time the Cubans came, over 67,000 Haitians came by boat to South Florida. But they were not greeted with welcome arms like Cubans, because they were considered economic refugees, not political refugees. They were thrown into Krome Detention Center and repatriated back to Haiti.

After Aristide urged Haitians to stay home and not risk their lives on the open seas coming to America, and after Bill Clinton had criticized President Herbert Walker Bush (Bush 41) for forcibly returning Haitians trying to emigrate to the U.S., Clinton broke his campaign promise and signed an executive order that not only continued the Bush administration policy of returning Haitians, but gave himself the only authority to change the policy.

Despite the Haitian repatriation and Cuban “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” acceptance policy, Democrats, especially black folks, now are screaming racism when Trump wants to close our Southern borders and send those Central American refugees back to their home countries.

What’s the difference? Trump is Republican and Democrats have accused Republicans, especially Trump of being racist. So even though his policy of protecting our borders and keeping illegal refugees out is the same as Clinton’s and Obama’s, Democrats have forgotten how they treated Haitians and Cubans (before the Democratic-controlled Congress changed the policy on Cuba).

So those of us who remember the 1980s and know how these illegals take jobs away from Americans, we have one thing to say to Democrats with short memories, especially Sen. Chuck Schumer: BUILD THE WALL, and stop playing politics with sanctuary cities.

Take care of your own citizens. That’s what they elected you to do. Happy New Year!