Let’s get a few things straight: Our elected officials do not represent people who are in the United States illegally. They do not represent people who hope to become citizens or are contemplating coming here illegally.

Our elected officials represent the people of THIS nation in accord with the Constitution they took an oath to uphold whether they are Democrats or Republicans. Passing unconstitutional laws that they don’t read and go against the Constitution to favor people who are here illegally are treasonous acts.

Building a fence will not solve our illegal immigration problem. Our problem is much bigger than a border fence can solve.

The only way we are going to win the anti-illegal immigration battle is to go to the root of the problem: America’s unconstitutional wealth-transfer system. We need to remove the incentives for people who come to the United States for a free ride.

The reason many illegal immigrants are willing to break American law to enter the United States is because it’s attractive to them in terms of monetary benefits. Many do come for jobs and work hard at them. We want these types of immigrants, but they need to follow the rules. Europe is suffering under its lenient immigration policies. Assimilation is resisted.

Life is better in the United States than it is in many Central and South American nations. The great immigrant movements of the 19^th and 20^th centuries came about because of economic opportunities and the pursuit of social and political liberty. The welfare state was almost non-existent.

Most people my age (I was born in 1950) are great grandchildren and grandchildren of immigrants. I lived in a neighborhood of second-generation immigrant families: Poles, Italians, Jews, Czechs, Ukrainians, Irish, and others.

After my father came back wounded in the Korean War (he had his right leg blown off), we lived in a housing development outside of Pittsburgh that overlooked the Monongahela River that was simply called “The Projects.” It has since been torn down.

The area was a booming steel, iron, and coal center that was populated and worked by immigrant workers. A dozen smoke stacks are all that remain as a reminder of what used to be. The Waterfront — a super-regional open air shopping mall spanning the three boroughs of Homestead, West Homestead, and Munhall near Pittsburgh — has replaced the once burgeoning steel industry that gave Pittsburgh its nickname — the Steel City.

But it could all turn to dust like the mills turned to rust if Americans don’t say no to the welfare state. If we don’t we will be overwhelmed by people who will eat our capital until there is nothing left.

We moved out of the projects when I was five. My parents purchased a house in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh with other families that were just starting out.

Illegal immigration was not an issue. Immigration was manageable because there were rules, and our nation was selective. Not everybody got in, but we knew that everyone in our neighborhood had roots sunk deep in distant lands and no one seemed to mind.

Everybody worked. There wasn’t much of a safety net. Most people lived within their means because they knew that there was no Great Society ready, willing, and able to bail them out of a financial fix.