During his time as our 26th president, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was firmly committed to law and order, encouraged an individual's civic duty and espoused self-responsibility.

Since he championed policies to protect the environment, he was also known as the Father of Conservation. "Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us, and training them into a better race to inhabit the land and pass it on," he said in a speech at Osawatomie, Kansas in 1910. "Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuance of the nation."Many Liberals today have made Roosevelt their progressive hero. Before joining the Republicans in 1916, Roosevelt was with the Progressive Party. In an address to the Knights of Columbus in 1915 he shared his strong views on American exceptionalism."There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism," he stated. "The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities."Two of his defining issues - the environment and immigration - are still dividing us today as a nation.During an address to congress in 1907, Roosevelt shared some strong views on immigration. He said that every immigrant who comes to this nation in good faith to become an American and assimilates himself should not be discriminated against because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this, he said, depended on "the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American.""There can be no divided allegiance here," he said. "Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag ... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."Today, that kind of strong language from our nation's top executive would send many liberals into shock.Judging from his comments, Roosevelt would be a strong proponent of challenging sanctuary cities and supporting modern-day legislation to crack down on any jurisdictions who refuse to work with federal immigration officials. He would have certainly been allied with congressmen like Rep. Lou Barletta, who wants to see penalties against those cities and counties who refuse to follow the law and work with immigration officials.He would have also been a likely supporter of Barletta's other reasonable actions, such as showing proof of citizenship before getting a driver's license and penalizing employers for hiring illegal aliens.Roosevelt would have certainly backed Kate's Law to ensure that deported illegal aliens, especially those with violent criminal records, are deterred from illegally re-entering the country to prey on innocent Americans like Kate Steinle who was shot to death in 2015.Barletta, who is endorsed by Americans for Legal Immigration, stated seven years ago that America is a land of generous and caring people, but that our hospitality and values are being strained and abused by those who are willing to break the law and take our jobs and our tax dollars.In 2006, a House Republican Policy Committee issued a report on Illegal Immigration and its affects on society and the economy to back Barletta's assertions. It showed the rate of incarceration of known deportable aliens indicates that they are 50 percent more likely to be jailed than the adult public at large.It also cautioned that "Illegal immigration generates insecurity about America's borders, carries economic and fiscal costs, and risks the creation of an isolated underclass." The trend of illegal alien population is a rapidly escalating problem around the U.S. and in this state. As of 2010, the overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population was about 11,900,000 persons, including an estimated 180,000 persons in Pennsylvania.In six states - Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington - the unauthorized immigrant population rose from 2009 to 2014.Immigration has significant impact on education, jobs, poverty, health care, taxes, wages and the environment. Walter Coffey, award winning author, warned that if left unchecked, "the economic consequences of illegal immigration could prove disastrous to America's future."Ronald Reagan, our 40th American president, also weighed in on the hot button issue, stating that "a nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation."By JIM ZBICK|editor@tnonline.com