“They don’t call it illegal for nothing”

In 2010, when asked about her support for Governor Jan Brewer’s Immigration Bill in Arizona, Former Governor Sarah Palin said it plain, simple and best on the topic of illegal immigration:

“They don’t call it illegal for nothing.”

Two Fridays ago, President Barack Obama granted eight hundred thousand illegal aliens amnesty. Essentially, he’s broken the law by trampling over the U.S. Constitution and bypassing the Congress.  For Obama, it’s just another day at the office. I spoke about Obama’s latest egregious act extensively in a segment I posted the day after the president showed himself as a petty dictator.  It’s clear that illegal immigration is still a very important issue to the open borders left as well as the secure the borders right.

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling regarding Governor Jan Brewer’s Arizona Immigration Bill 1070.  I’ve read many headlines reading that because the provision 2B that allows police to check the legal status of people they encounter in lawful stops was upheld, this is some sort of victory.  

Let’s all not break out the Moet just yet.   

As Justice Scalia has stated after the ruling:

“Arizona bears the brunt of the country’s illegal immigration problem. Its citizens feel themselves under siege by large numbers of illegal immigrants who invade their property, strain their social services, and even place their lives in jeopardy. Federal officials have been unable to remedy the problem, and indeed have recently shown that they are unwilling to do so. Thousands of Arizona’s estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants—including not just children but men and women under 30—are now assured immunity from enforcement, and will be able to compete openly with Arizona citizens for employment.  Arizona has moved to protect its sovereignty—not in contradiction of federal law, but in complete compliance with it. The laws under challenge here do not extend or revise federal immigration restrictions, but merely enforce those restrictions more effectively. If securing its territory in this fashion is not within the power of Arizona, we should cease referring to it as a sovereign State.”

Justice Scalia’s comments suggest that the citizens of Arizona just may be back where they started.  What this means is the cops in Arizona will have less of a chance getting into hot water for simply doing their jobs. During a lawful stop—robbery, drunk driving, rape, speeding violation, etc.—the officer will have the legal right to ask the suspect for proper immigration documentation.   But after the suspect is deemed illegally in the country, will the Federal Government under Barack Obama, Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder, do their job?   

There lies the rub and it’s how Gov. Brewer and Arizona got here in the first place.  They did not have the support from the Feds to deport illegal alien criminals who were terrorizing American citizens—many who were of Latin, Black, White, Asian or other descent—on the U.S./Mexico border.  Therefore, Arizona was forced to take matters into their own hands. 

As I’ve stated in the segment regarding Obama’s initial amnesty push for 800k illegals, the reason why the American people—whether they are White, Black, Latin, Asian, Middle Eastern, other—cannot have an adult conversation about illegal immigration or any other hot button issue is because liberal Democrats are constantly looking to demagogue any issue they think will gain them votes from a certain voting bloc.  Don’t think so?  Let us retrace our steps on how we got here from two years ago.   

When Arizona’s Bill SB1070 was being proposed by Gov. Jan Brewer’s administration, we heard an immediate response from the left that the Arizona law, and especially what’s currently being called the “show me your papers” provision upheld by SCOTUS—is like Nazi laws of the 1930s. 

Absurd.  As a border control advocate, I take personal offense that the media is still calling provision 2B the “show me your papers” provision.  Jews should be too. Germany’s 1935 Nuremberg Laws bear no resemblance to Arizona’s immigration law. Nazi laws targeted German citizens of Jewish heritage. Anti-Semitic laws were not enacted to protect Germany’s borders.  Instead Hitler said Jews were the blight of German people and had to be eradicated.

The Nuremburg laws stripped Jews of German citizenship and gun ownership, forbade Jews from filing civil suits in German courts, kept Jews from enrolling in German universities, forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and gentiles, and supported mass segregation of Jews in public places. After a Gestapo officer demanded “show me your papers,” next came torture and a one-way ticket to a concentration camp where Jews were worked to death or gassed.

Stop it with the “show me the papers” bullshit. Arizona is not Nazi, Germany.

Those on the asinine left are responsible for the negative spin and want more immigrants for selfish reasons. Big business wants them for cheap labor. The Democrat Party wants them to get more votes. Some 50% of immigrants vote Democratic. So-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform is really amnesty in disguise. If enacted, it will create the largest Democratic voting drive in history. If these illegal immigrants voted overwhelmingly for Republicans or Independents, Democrats would have started mass deportations decades ago.

Supporters of blanket amnesty who perpetuate the “fascist” narrative are in the minority. Polls issued in the heat of the Arizona Law debate in 2010 showed 70% of Arizonans support their state’s immigration law. Today nationally, over 55% of Americans want a similar law enacted in their states.

Why these poll numbers? Is it because we are a nation of xenophobes? No, we are simply a majority fed up with political elites in Washington who refuse to enforce federal immigration laws. It is illegal to cross our borders without permission. Yet, the flood of illegal immigrants is growing. Our incompetent and conniving leaders do nothing about this wholesale breach of our sovereignty.

The whole debate over SB 1070 was foolish from the start.  Recall when Homeland Stupidity Secretary Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder and State Department Spokesperson, P.J. Crowley. They declared the Arizona bill is “unconstitutional and misguided.” Yet, when asked if they actually read the statute, each sheepishly said “no.”  It's only a few pages. One can read it in twenty minutes. SB 1070, which the left calls “fascist” and “Nazi,” simply mirrors federal law. It requires legal aliens to register and carry their documents with them. This requirement is found in the Aliens and Nationally Act, 8 U.S.C. 1304 E and 8 U.S.C. 1306 A. Arizona’s law simply makes violating federal law a state crime, and empowers local law enforcement to arrest law breakers.

Did stupid liberals realize that California, one of the most liberal states in the nation, has a similar law found in California Penal Code  843b?  California’s version of the Arizona law has been on the books since 1994. Sanctimonious Californians who threatened to boycott Arizona should’ve just boycotted themselves.  After critics yelled “racial profiling,” the Arizona legislature revised SB 1070 with HB 2162. Here is the exact language of the revised statute:

“For any lawful stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of this state or a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town or this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation.”

What about the tired claim by the left that illegal aliens “do the jobs the citizens don’t want to do.” Nonsense.  In 2009, Phoenix’s Pro’s Ranch Market was raided by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Out of the 1,500 workers there, 300 were non-citizens arrested for working illegally. The following week, legal citizens showed up in droves to fill those jobs proving that, during an Obama economy, Americans will take whatever work they can get. There are many such scenarios in the US where legal citizens OF ALL COLORS AND NATIONALITIES could be doing these jobs.  Frankly, with a teen unemployment rates at historic levels in this country, our nation’s youth could be occupying jobs as well.  

What about a rational discussion about who gets to come into America and who doesn’t?  Or one about where they’re coming from and what their intentions are without the hysterics?  

A former neighbor of mine had an illegal immigrant tenant from Brazil.  The tenant worked hard and had the money to pay his rent.  But he once deliberately withheld payment in protest after the landlord asked for a small increase. My neighbor gave the tenant several chances until he had to evict. In broken English, the tenant called my neighbor a racist, and insisted, “American don’t like brown people.” In disgust, he announced, “I will go back to my country.”

In other words, America sucks and the immigrant’s home country is superior.  

Let’s not forget the Hispanic paramilitary group, Brown Berets, surfaced at a pro-Arizona 1070 Bill rally in 2010. These asinine protesters scream loudly at rallies, “Go back to Europe. You are white. This is Mexican land. We will take it back.”  I guess these ignoramuses are unaware that Hispanics are descendants of Europeans. Some 75% of Mexicans have European heritage.

I do realize that many immigrants are not ungrateful to be here like my grandfather.  He was an immigrant from a small town just outside of Naples, Italy.  He died well before I was born.  I learned about him from my mother. He came here with nothing except the search for freedom from a fascist government. He kissed the ground when he arrived.  He left his old world behind and embraced the new one that lay at his feet. He lived free, worked as a roofer, drank his wine, and proudly raised his family.

Unlike most of todays immigrant ingrates, he did not think America should become a Tower of Babel. My mother learned Italian from him, but was forbidden to speak it even at home. He wanted his daughter to speak English and have a better life. That better life was achieved by assimilation.

In some circles, “assimilate” is a dirty word and deemed racist. How dare we -- a nation more welcoming to illegal immigrants than any other, giving away free health care and other social benefits--expect immigrants to respect our laws, language and culture?  The fact of the matter is—many of them do not.

The radical left looking to appease “gimmie immies” never want you to believe what my grandfather and many other immigrants from his generation believed.  That is, being an American is not an entitlement; it is an opportunity and a responsibility. 

And just who is the biggest loser of the immigration debate?  Answer: the legal immigrant. Just because a person escapes capture crossing our border illegally does not give him a right to legal status.   Don’t let them tell you different—Obama’s amnesty ploys reinforces the entitlement mentality of millions who enter the U.S. illegally. It is a slap in the face to the many legal immigrants who expend time, money and energy to become Americans and do not break the law.

Then there’s of course there’s the dark side of immigration.  Many immigrants bring crime into the country.  The Emma Lazarus poem, “The New Colossus” engraved on the Statue of Liberty says, “Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to be free” not “give me your gang bangers, rapists, murderers and pedophiles yearning to harm thee.”

Federal Government Accountability Office’s study revealed 30% of the federal prison population is comprised of non-citizens. The majority are from Mexico and Latin America. We spend close to $1 billion every year housing them. Roughly 300,000 non-citizen criminals populate our state prisons. In 2007, a whopping 95% of outstanding homicide warrants in Los Angeles were for illegal immigrants.

Gang crime from illegal aliens has become something of an epidemic. California’s Department of Justice conducted a study in 1995 and found illegal aliens represent the core group of that state’s most notorious street gangs. In Washington, illegal aliens constitute one third of that state’s prison population.

Try to enter Mexico from another Latin American country without a visa, let alone a criminal record, and see what happens to you. Article 32 of Mexico’s immigration law welcomes “only foreigners who will be useful to Mexican society” and can provide “necessary sustenance for themselves and their own dependents.” Article 37 states that immigrants cause imbalance to the “equilibrium of national demographics” in Mexico; those who break the law are barred from entering Mexico, and if they succeed in crossing Mexico’s borders illegally, they are deported immediately.

Nice.  When can we adopt these same laws in America? Mexicans deal with foreign criminals trying to get into their country better than we do.

Why should a non-citizen with a criminal background be allowed to stay here to repeat his crimes? Immigrant crime certainly hits home in my state of New York.  The small city of Newberg is just one hour north of Manhattan and was once known as the jewel on the Hudson. Today, it is literally a war zone of rival illegal alien gangs. As a result, in 2008, Newberg led New York municipalities in crimes per capita, and is predicted to maintain that status currently.

In 2009, Lori and Kayla Donohue of Brewster, NY were mowed down outside their daughter’s dance class. Zacaria Conses Garcia, the truck driver who killed them, was a drunk, unlicensed, uninsured illegal immigrant from Guatemala. Outrageously, many illegal alien criminals are arrested and deported repeatedly. That fact speaks volumes about our pathetic border control.

And then there is the issue of national security. In 2010, a report out of WSB-TV in Atlanta said that the rate of people from terrorist nations caught illegally crossing our borders is at an all-time high. A quarter of a million aliens were arrested crossing the porous border in Tucson. Most came from Mexico and Latin America. Nearly 20% had criminal records.

In addition, hundreds caught every year dubbed OTM (Other Than Mexicans) come from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. In January of that year, border patrol agents hunted twenty-three Somalis linked to al-Qaeda. They were released from a Mexican jail and headed toward the U.S. Tucson border residents found Muslim prayer rugs in border fields.

Anti-illegal immigration conservatives sometimes make the mistake of concentrating on securing the US/Mexico border when—in fact—the danger is not limited to those getting through our back door as it may be the front door.  Many aliens come here with permission and then deliberately overstay their visas. Of the eleven million illegal immigrants here in 2005, half arrived by airplane with U.S. visas. When their visas expired, they simply refused to go home, knowing that nothing would happen to them. Never forget that all the 9-11 hijackers entered the U.S. legally and stayed after their visas ran out.

So instead of pushing the same hysterical platitudes of the pro-amnesty left and the moderate right who—like their leftist counterparts see the immigrant not as individuals but as voting blocs—I’m not going to wax illogical and tell you that America needs more immigration.  No. America needs less immigration, not more. With nearly 10% national unemployment and 18% underemployment, it is time to discard hysterical accusations of racism, bigotry and insure our citizens of all races, colors and creeds are employed before we welcome more foreigners into the country.

We should deport criminal illegal immigrants immediately, enforce the laws for those who overstay their visas, and build a permanent wall on our southern border. It’s time to take care of our own and of those who really want to be here. It’s time those who wish to enter the country show respect to America's laws.  And it’s HIGH TIME politicians like Obama, Pelosi, Reid, McCain, Bush and others stopped telling “We the People” what our country should look like in forty years.

-Mr.L