You’ve probably never heard of Skeeter Skelton, who died in 1988, ; he was a Border lawman and a writer for Shooting Times. I used to read his stuff when I was younger.

Some of his writings have been reproduced on the web, including this one: Jeff Davis Milton. Milton, as you can probably tell by the name, was born in the late Confederacy, in 1861, son of the Governor of Florida. Here’s part of what Skeeter Skelton had to say about his career.

In 1904, Jeff was appointed to the unique position of Mounted Chinese Inspector. This was a job under the Immigration Service, then part of the Department of Commerce and Labor. The Border Patrol had not yet been organized, and Milton’s commission came directly from President Theodore Roosevelt. Hordes of Chinese were being smuggled out of an antagonistic Mexico into the U.S., which prohibited their entry.

The point to remember here is that people came all the way from China to cross the Mexican border, because the “antagonistic” Mexican government didn’t give a damn. Can you think of any modern parallels?

Here’s another one which may interest Vdare.com readers:

[In 1919]was assigned to assist in guarding a boatload of Russian radicals comprised of Emma Goldman and her followers on their deportation to Russia. Jeff lusted for trouble and stocked up on extra ammunition, but to his disappointment, the crossing was tranquil.

There’s a brief history of the early days of the Border Patrol on the CBP website, and a couple of stories about Milton’s early days as a gunfighter in the Tombstone Tumbleweed, here, and here.

The Miltons of Florida claimed to be descended from the author of Paradise Lost, so I can’t resist the temptation to say, (after Wordsworth) “Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: the Border hath need of thee.”

It is fascinating to watch the ideology of multiculturalism deteriorate, as Europeans increasingly admit that all cultures are not morally equal. The ugly evidence about Islam (aka “the Religion of Peace”) continues to mount, most recently during the nasty Cartoon Jihad in which enraged Muslims rioted and murdered over drawings showing Islam as inherently violent. None in the howling mobs from London to Indonesia grasped the irony of their behavior.

Even the shallow scribblers over at Newsweek have noticed that the Dutch now insist upon a new social contract with Muslim immigrants in which assimilation is a big part of the deal: “The End of Tolerance.”

British writer Douglas Murray is less chipper about Europe’s prospects for cultural survival. He has been watching the Netherlands’ rapid devolution from being “Europe’s freest country” to a “dark and worried” place, because of Islamic immigration [ We should fear Holland's silence, February 26, 2006, Sunday Times].

Holland — with its disproportionately high Muslim population — is the canary in the mine. Its once open society is closing, and Europe is closing slowly behind it. It looks, from Holland, like the twilight of liberalism — not the “liberalism” that is actually libertarianism, but the liberalism that is freedom. Not least freedom of expression. [...]

Europe is shuffling into darkness. It is proving incapable of standing up to its enemies, and in an effort to accommodate the peripheral rights of a minority is failing to protect the most basic rights of its own people.

Murray was reflecting from Amsterdam, where he and several other scholars of Eurabia (including Robert Spencer and Daniel Pipes) had congregated for the Pim Fortuyn Memorial Conference. Murray wasn’t familiar with using a pseudonym for safety reasons, as were some of the other speakers. He observed the high level of security was “just one level below ‘national emergency’” — as well it should have been, with Members of Parliament Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali still living under constant police protection because of Muslim death threats.

With these warning signs all around, none of our pro-borders stalwarts in Congress has suggested that Muslim immigration be reduced or ended. Why is that?

While gathering information about my column, “Domenici Disgraces Italian-Americans with WISH Bill,” I spoke to Bob Wright, New Mexico State Director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

When Wright learned about Domenici’s WISH bill, he called the Senator’s local office and spoke to a staffer named Ben.

Wright demanded to know why the GOP is so determined to destroy what remains of its credibility while it systematically is going about obliterating the country.

Ben had no intelligent answer. In fact, Ben didn’t even have a foolish answer.

Wright told me that New Mexicans are increasingly aware of the social consequences of unchecked illegal immigration into their state. According to Wright, interest in volunteering for border watch operations for the New Mexico Minutemen is on the upswing. Information on volunteering can be found here or e-mail Wright here

A reader writes: “Did you see this? The headline is “Unfair burden?” above a story about California requiring high school students to be able to speak, read, and write English to graduate.”

The long sob story, by Nanette Asimov (email her), San Francisco Chronicle, February 27 2006, reveals that 73,270 California high school seniors - one in five of the state’s Class 0f 2006 - are “in the same pickle.”