With the president's new entitlement spending spree, the United States has completed its economic -transition based upon three important items of "change": (1) the import of illegal immigrants, (2) the export of factory jobs and (3) the guarantee of unlimited social welfare for those unemployed by the previous two.

Unfortunately, this is one of those policies that cannot be entirely blamed on Democrats. For too many years, Republican manufacturers have encouraged cheap, illegal labor while Democrats have salivated at recruiting a new underclass from which to harvest votes.

Both parties let a bipartisan, unprotected Southwestern border create economic and political bounty while our border towns became transshipment hubs for drugs, homicide and human traffic. It transformed portions of neighbors Lee County, Richmond County and even portions of northern Moore County into just memories of the vibrant manufacturing of which they were once proud.

Luckily, the Republican Party has been shaken from its benign neglect of our border insecurity by the conservative resurgence that is sweeping a new "tea-savvy" citizenry. For the most part, our party is now united in an effort to take back the nation we once enjoyed. This will require the erection of physical, fiscal and political immigration barriers with the same intensity as we now encourage the lawlessness of illegal immigration.

Any reform of immigration must begin with border vigilance. Our sophisticated ability to electronically detect and quickly intercept anything bigger than an ant invading our sovereignty must be funded as a national defense priority. Alien "mules" who carry cocaine across the Rio Grande are just as likely to become tomorrow's "nuclear oxen" carrying "dirty" bombs and toxins from our increasingly resourceful Islamic enemies.

But this is only the beginning of a -necessary reform of our illegal immigration deterrent. The most important component of such a policy must involve an active disincentive for illegals to sneak past our security in the first place. We must reverse policies that encourage migration toward the pot of gold that American taxpayers are forced to provide.

At every step of government entitlement and incarceration, persons should be screened for immigration irregularities. While no child should go unprotected or unfed, illegal immigrants must be quickly deported when they are encountered.

Not only should colleges be required to reject applications of such aliens, but legal residency must be as closely scrutinized as vaccine immunization when it comes to student admission to elementary and secondary schools.

Finally, it must become a federal responsibility to give employers immediate information regarding an employee's right to work in the United States; it must then be prosecuted as a federal felony enforced by stiff prison sentences when an employer hires a worker who has no right to take the job from an American citizen.

Some say that "cracking down" on illegals will create a labor shortage. This might be a welcome problem in an economy where unemployment in some states still rises into double digits.

A lack of labor supply in the midst of -rising labor demand might also mean higher wages, a pretty good thing for a working class that has seen stagnant or falling wages in recent years. A retention bonus should become a "perk" for a plumber, not just the excess of a Wall Street banker.

Still, some say that native-born Americans won't do the dirty work society needs and immigrants have traditionally provided. This is partially true. Indeed, Americans might not pick fruit in the hot sun for pennies a bushel. They may have to be paid more. They may demand a decent wage and -working conditions that do not resemble slavery.

Ranchers can either pay the worker what he is worth or develop machines to do the job better. Either way, the free enterprise system works for both worker and employer. It is not subsidized by the neo-slavery of wage -suppression that illegal immigration encourages.

World envy of the United States is, in part, because it has always been a country that both welcomes legal immigrants and -encourages them to assimilate into its Western culture. With the advent of increased international mobility, the United Stated must assure itself that its "business model" which has created the world's most successful -commonwealth continues in good working order.

This means that legal immigration must be continued, but it also must be controlled. Citizens must maintain their majority while immigrants learn how to become citizens themselves. If immigrants become the -majority before they have been assimilated, the tail begins to wag the dog and the dysfunction in the immigrant's homeland becomes our dysfunction as well.

Lawlessness cannot be rewarded. Amnesty cannot be tolerated. Deportation and -disincentive may seem harsh, but they are more humane than the national cultural -suicide which would result from Democratic "legalization" of a new voting majority.

Immigration will always be part of our American generosity, but it must not be allowed to overwhelm our good intentions and destroy the exceptionalism that has made that generosity possible.

Robert M. Levy is chairman of the Moore County Republican Party. Contact him at Law52@prodigy.net.