WorldNetDaily
August 31, 2006


Multiple superhighway plans, illegal immigration could destroy Republic

One superhighway concept

Multiple NAFTA-related superhighways could slice the United States into
economic and social regions, facilitate crime including drug trafficking
and illegal immigration and shift huge amounts of money to the rich,
critics of the paving plans have told WorldNetDaily.

One leader even likens the prospects to "slavery" for the American people,
because of the loss of control they would experience.
"I don't have time to mince words about this. This is subjugation,"
William Gheen, a spokesman for Americans for Legal Immigration, told WND
Wednesday.

"What I'm trying to communicate is this: if you're not enforcing our
immigration laws, you've nullified millions of votes. You have broken the
Republic. And if that's not restored, and people do not have a Republic to
address their grievances, then there are only two alternatives, slavery
and subjugation or a war of violence," Gheen said.

He noted that there are plans for a Spanish interest to own one of the
road projects and charge tolls, and a planned fund for U.S. taxpayers to
pay for infrastructure upgrades in Mexico.

"This is going a bit beyond foreign aid. All of these things are
extra-constitutional," he said. Critics have noted that their perception
is that one goal of the massive superhighway corridors would be to ship
manufacturing costs to China and handling costs to Mexico, bypassing large
segments of the U.S. economy now involved in that work.
"I think that what we're looking at is massive transfers of wealth," Gheen said.

He said historically, the United States has pushed backed against "this
type of power grab by commercial interests" and that has been fundamental
to the prosperity of the country.

However, if it is not headed off the American public will end up being
treated like "cattle."

"Any time in history when people are treated like cattle, the potential
for bad things is extraordinary," he told WND. "We don't even control our
roads any more, our ports. We won't be controlling our food supply. That's
what it is to be a slave."

"Based on the facts as I see them, the American people are about to get
arguably the rudest awakening in the last one hundred years," freelance
writer and trucker Alan Burkhart argues in a posting on the Truthout
online forum.

He said the highways would meld the economies of the United States, Canada
and Mexico into one based on the labor rate in China, which would be able
to ship goods to western Mexico ports and haul them by trucks throughout
North America.

The routes that have been proposed include a channel of transportation
lanes coming out of Mexico, through Texas and up to Canada, dividing into
two different routes that would bisect Minnesota and head into New
England. Another plan, called the Canamex, would cross New Mexico and
Arizona, heading up to Canada through Utah and Idaho.

"It'll allow imports from all over the world to bypass American ports by
making landfall in Mexico," Burkhart wrote. "There will be only the most
superficial security measures in place, and low-wage Mexican truckers will
stream unimpeded across our border."

As WorldNetDaily already has reported in a series of reports work is
ongoing on a number of highway projects related to the North American Free
Trade Agreement.

The losers will be West Coast shipyard workers, American truckers and
trucking companies and others who handle consumer goods in the U.S., as
well as even Mexican manufacturers who would not be able to compete with
Chinese labor rates, critics said.

"If this process continues to move forward, the American middle class will
be a dim memory. Like modern-day Mexico, we'll have two classes: The very
rich and the very poor," Burkhart wrote.

A California congressman also has raised concerns about the attractions
that bring illegal immigrants into the nation, something that thousands of
miles of new highways would only facilitate.

California Rep. Elton Gallegly wrote in a recently published column that
the two magnets that draw illegal immigrants are employment and the
acceptance of easily forged, foreign-issued identification by banks to
open accounts.

In a piece titled, "Take away welcome mat for illegal immigrants," he
notes those practices are a boon to drug smugglers and terrorists.
"Until the United States returns to its foundation as a nation of
immigrants and a nation of laws, discussion about any other aspects of
immigration reform is mute," he said.

A Western Colorado resident expressed concern about the proposed swatch of
concrete through that region of the United States.

"Actually, its proper came is CANAMEX, which is even more unsettling.
Notice the utter absence of 'US' in the name," Cindy L. Espinoza wrote
following an earlier WND report.

"Ominously, (U.S. Rep. Raul) Grijalva's proposed Western Route of the
CANAMEX passes directly through much of the same territory that is even
now used to flood our nation with foreign nationals, crime, narcotics, and
methamphetamine," she said.

"What the hell do we need from Mexico, anyway? Convoys of trucks carrying
their illiterate laborers, criminals, and narcotics?

"We already can't keep up with the endless northward march of foreign
nationals invading us on foot, many here to commit crime and traffic in
narcotics, and now we're going to build them a 12-lane superhighway??"
A group organized to monitor the proposed NAFTA corridors said they would
"irreversibly divide the U.S. geographically, economically, and socially
for the sake of profit."

An ALIPAC website column by Richard D. Vogel of Monthly Review said while
the corridors would consume 146 acres per mile, and affect communities,
air currents, watersheds and wildlife, there are bigger concerns.

"The primary purpose of the NAFTA corridor system is to accommodate the
flood of cheap manufactured goods from the Far Eastern Pacific Rim to the
heartland of America," it said. "The strategy of many corridor backers is
to bypass organized labor on the West Coast … and route the containerized
freight south through Mexican ports and then north by rail and truck via
the corridor system in order to save on shipping costs."

Many groups are opposing the plans, including dozens of counties where
leaders have passed their own resolutions against having the
superhighways.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul earlier criticized the "Security and Prosperity
Partnership Of North America" plan, including the highway, in his weekly
"Texas Straight Talk" column.

"A massive highway is being planned to stretch from Canada into Mexico,
through the state of Texas," Paul wrote. "This is likely to cost the U.S.
taxpayer untold billions of dollars, will require eminent domain takings
on an almost unimaginable scale, and will make the U.S. more vulnerable to
those who seek to enter our country to do us harm."

He said it appears the SPP is an effort to "coordinate" border security as
well as economic and trade policy among the governments of the three
nations, a move that probably would give government more control over
international trade.

A Texas group opposing the planned acres of concrete, CorridorWatch, said
many of the impacts of such projects haven't even been considered yet.
The superhighway routes generally are expected to have separate lanes for
passenger vehicles and large trucks, freight railways, high-speed commuter
railways, infrastructure for utilities including water lines, oil and gas
pipelines, and transmission lines for electricity, broadband and other
telecommunications services.