The feds’ reprehensible failure to act on immigration

[Jeanfromfillmore]

The feds’ reprehensible failure to act on immigration
Finally, someone is doing something about illegal immigration. How refreshing!
’Course, the Washington Post doesn’t think so. The Post’s silly editorial on the Arizona immigration law (“Arizona’s Debacle,” published April 30 in the Register) reminds me why decades ago I gave up on thinking the “mainstream” left-wing media had any credibility. Beltway mentality, you know. The Washington Warp.
Pass a law which says, “We’re going to enforce the law (that’s controversial?),” and government and media elites come unglued. That should be instructive, if Americans are paying any attention.
Of course, paying attention means discounting what you hear from the mainstream media. Hopefully by now, folks are beginning to realize that. Don’t trust ’em; get a second opinion.
The job of every elected official in Washington, and especially of the president, is to see that the laws of the United States of America are upheld and enforced. In a nation based on the rule of law, ignoring the law is destructive of society. There has been a reprehensible, and I would say treasonous, failure to uphold and enforce immigration law for decades now, Democrat and Republican alike. There is no excuse for this. It can be nothing but intentional. Both parties have their particular reasons for ignoring the immigration debacle we are suffering. But it is clear dereliction of duty, and it is harming the country. It is time to retire some elected officials.
Why do we have immigration laws? Simply because for the good of the country it is necessary to control immigration. We can assimilate immigrants only so fast, and only in limited numbers, if we are going to preserve the character of our country. (We do want to do that, right?) We have every right as a nation to say “If you want to come here, you’ll follow this process.” Every nation does.
We understand that people want to come to America, and don’t blame them. We’re free, and mankind has an innate desire for freedom. The masses are not clamoring to get into Cuba. But we can’t absorb the whole world. They need to establish free societies in their own countries, which we ought to encourage and support. And don’t take our freedom for granted here, either. It is under assault. Wake up!
The Post wrings its hands: “It will preempt federal law.” Nonsense. It applies federal law. If Washington was paying any attention to its responsibility to enforce federal law by doing something about illegal immigration, there would be no need for Arizona to pass its own law. But Arizona cannot sit idly by while its citizens are murdered by illegal aliens, while armed convoys run drugs, and while illegals cost us billions in public services and incarceration. And neither can California, New Mexico or Texas.
“It invites racial profiling,” cries the Post. “The law compels police to search for undocumented immigrants.” That’s a lie being promoted by the mainstream media. It does nothing of the sort. It simply gives police authority and means to deal with illegal aliens in the course of an already-initiated legal contact, such as a traffic stop. If the issue comes up, say through lack of a driver’s license, police will have authority to consider immigration status. They should have been doing that all along, and they should be doing it here, too, since Washington is AWOL.
“It poisons police relations with immigrants.” Illegal immigrants, perhaps. But they should be afraid, and they should go home. Perhaps many will be encouraged to “self-deport.” We can’t afford them. But no one here legally, citizen or visitor, will even be inconvenienced. If you are driving, you must already have ID with you. If you are a legal visitor, you are already required to have ID. And that’s good.
No doubt there are things in our immigration law that could be improved, but that is not the primary problem (and I wouldn’t trust the current Congress). The problem is Washington’s willful neglect of the law. Instead of fulfilling those responsibilities, which clearly reside at the national level, such as managing immigration, Washington wastes its time on issues like health care which clearly are not part of federal responsibility. If Washington won’t protect our borders, the individual states have no choice but to do so, and are negligent if they don’t, and the time to start is long past.
Illegal immigration is not a difficult problem to solve, but our governing elites have decided not to solve it. That’s reason enough to fire them.
November is coming.
(Protz lives in Napa.)
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/ne...cc4c03286.html