Nationally syndicated columnist Phyllis Schlafly recently issued a blanket indictment of guest worker and amnesty programs being proposed in Washington, bluntly characterizing them as 'immoral.' In closing, she quotes Theodore Roosevelt, who, when president, likened such policy to slavery.

Hardly excessive, Schlafly's contention is inarguably supported by history and fact. If anything, she did not fully elaborate on the dire consequences of any guest worker program that the Washington crowd may consider.

Recently, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff announced an ostensible policy that elated those Americans who have been increasingly concerned about the invasion of illegals across the nation's southern border. According to Chertoff, all such people needed to be escorted out of the country, and within the amazing timetable of one year.

Yet, as with all great deals that sound too good to be true, this one certainly was. Within days, Chertoff was backtracking and waffling, ultimately revealing the real goal of his outlandish pronouncement to be a grand scheme of smoke and mirrors, with a guest worker program residing far back within its dark recesses. Here, Chertoff tipped the hand of Washington insiders whose phony professions of alarm over the illegal problem belie an ominous agenda.

As awareness and outrage among the grassroots grows, several 'fixes' to the illegal situation have been floated. However, all of them have as a final caveat the implementation of some form of legitimate status for illegals. Though more comprehensive programs seem to suggest greater concern by the government, they in fact only signify more convoluted facades, the ultimate purpose of which is to distract the public while some manner of guest worker program is put into place.

Washington bureaucrats are confident that once this Pandora's Box is opened, it will be impossible to close. So if they propose and adopt a twenty—point program to 'secure' the nation's borders, Americans can be assured that the first nineteen points will ultimately be ignored, and the last point, a guest worker program (surprise, surprise), will be the only agenda item to see the light of day.

Hardly alleviating any present detriment caused by the illegal invasion, such a program will, no matter how it is implemented, guarantee a continued worsening of the situation. The very nature of the present predicament makes this inevitable.

Consider the plight of illegals. Motivated by a nearly universal hope for a better life, they breach this country's borders and take up any menial job they can find. Their desperate circumstances play well into the hands of this nation's growing cadre of morally rudderless entrepreneurs.

But though the intruders are initially satisfied with mere sustenance, they have no intention of remaining indefinitely on the bottom rung of America's economic ladder. In time they will move into ever—higher levels of the nation's job market, leaving those entry—level positions once again open to newcomers.

In the interim, they burden innumerable government programs, from the medical system to the schools and colleges. Thus, any ostensible savings enjoyed by those who illegally hire them are borne by the American taxpayer. In the end, those jobs that we are told 'Americans will not work' (at least for third—world wages) are once again open and in need of further foreign incursion in order to be filled.

Consequently, whether the illegal population is fifteen million or fifty million, the universal 'need' of exploitative business owners across the economic spectrum from agriculture to manufacturing, would only be to bring in continually more. In the process they sell out the future of America for the rest of us.

The only means by which any guest worker program could provide a stable solution to the current quandary would be if participants were ever after sentenced to remain in their initial status. But does anyone believe this would be the true nature of such a program?

Meanwhile, the pandemic of multiculturalism ensures that the ongoing influx of illegals has little or no chance of assimilating into the fabric of society that once unified and fortified America as a nation.

America's recent media—inspired floundering in the War on Terror unequivocally proves that the greatest threat to the future of the country results not on account of foreign aggression, but from an ascending culture within our homeland that is indifferent or ignorant of the principles on which America was founded. Until the border crisis is honestly and realistically addressed, it will only continue to aggravate this dangerously burgeoning problem.

Christopher G. Adamo is a frequent contributor.