Thursday, March 12, 2009

I feel like spouting off today

Maybe there is something that has slipped by me. I hear about "illegal alien rights" and it seems like an oxymoron. I thought that if you were from another country and came to the U. S., you worked to become a citizen, thus EARNING your rights. That's what my mother did when she emigrated from Canada in the 1930s. I’ll always remember her feeling of pride when she worked for and received her U. S. citizenship.

With the battle going on between certain politically ambitious forces like the mayor of Phoenix and the House Judiciary Committee versus the Maricopa County Sheriff who has been working against illegal immigration within the guidelines of federal ICE standards, one wonders what the controversy is about. It seems simple enough: if you are in this country illegally, you should get out at once and try to return at a later date through normal legal channels. Otherwise, it is an insult to those who came the right way.

Here is something else that confuses me. Our new president, who is black, picked a black attorney general, Eric Holder, who makes a speech saying that ..."in things racial, we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." He claims that Americans live in "race protected cocoons." It seems like an odd statement from a black who is appointed AG after the election of a black president. I hope he is referring to Black Entertainment Television or the United Negro College Fund but I have a feeling that he is not. Maybe Mr. Holder thinks the Justice Department should be picking our friends for us under the new regime. By the way, Mr. Holder is also investigating the sheriff much to the glee of Mayor Gordon.

The controversy over the Sheriff is about his methods of finding illegal immigrants. He has done neighborhood sweeps in areas where illegals are most likely to be and done investigations during traffic stops. By doing this he has been accused of "racial profiling." This reminds me of the old Sam Kinison joke where he said that if you are starving, you should go where the food is.

It seems like a harmless method to me. If a person is legal, all they have to do is prove it and they are sent on their way. If they are illegal, they are apprehended. It’s kind of like a roadblock being established after a bank robbery in an effort to catch the thief, only a bit less overt.

Those who are stopped and are legal should be thankful that efforts are being made to rid the area of illegals. Illegal aliens pay little or no taxes, send most of their money home to Mexico, they jam our public schools and health care systems and drive cars with no insurance. Who pays for all this while local employers reap the benefits of cheap labor? Answer: U. S. Citizens.

Since Sheriff Arpaio began his sweeps and began enforcing the Employer Sanctions Law, thousands of illegal aliens have fled the area. Formerly overcrowded apartment complexes are now vacant as illegal residents have gone to other states. It sounds like the sheriff is getting the job done and it is odd that only two racial profiling cases have been filed.

Today’s Republic editorial, as one would expect, criticizes the sheriff’s methods and claims legal Latino citizens live in fear and "feel vulnerable, targeted and afraid." Why? If they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear.

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