Republican friends and family members regularly accuse me of being one-sided in my blog posts. And I agree. The purpose of the blog is to be provocative. No, I got to be honest. The true purpose of the blog is to get people interested in my blabber so they will invest twenty bucks to buy the damn book. I promise a lot of laughs. Today, for a change, I will try to present both sides of an issue that is the most debated in recent weeks. I am referring, of course, to immigration. My friend, Dale Brown, often forwards me Internet commentary and asks my opinion, which deludes me into feeling important. What follows is my version of presenting both sides. First, an unedited viral e-mail from the the political spectrum’s right.
I’m Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen. I want to explain SB 1070 which I voted for and which was just signed by Governor Jan Brewer. Rancher Rob Krantz was murdered by the drug cartel on his ranch a month ago. I participated in a senate hearing two weeks ago on the border violence. Here is just some of the highlights from those who testified.
The people who live within 60 to 80 miles of the Arizona/Mexico Border have for years been terrorized and have pleaded for help to stop the daily invasion of humans who cross their property . One Rancher testified that 300 to 1200 people a DAY come across his ranch, vandalizing his property, stealing his vehicles and property, cutting down his fences, and leaving trash. In the last two years he has found 17 dead bodies and two Qu’ran bibles.
Another rancher testified that on a daily basis drugs are brought across his ranch in a military operation. A point man with a machine gun goes in front, 1/2 mile behind are the guards fully armed, 1/2 mile behind them are the drugs, behind the drugs 1/2 mile are more guards. These people are violent and they will kill anyone who gets in the way. This was not the only rancher we heard that day that talked about the drug trains.
One man told of two illegal’s who came upon his property, one shot in the back and the other in the arm by the drug runners who had forced them to carry the drugs and then shot them. They listen to gun fire during the night; it is not safe to leave his family alone on the ranch and they can’t leave the ranch for fear of nothing being left when they come back.
The border patrol is not on the border. They have set up 60 miles away with check points that do nothing to stop the invasion. They are not allowed to use force in stopping anyone who is entering. They run around chasing them, if they get their hands on them, then they can take them back across the border.
Federal prisons have over 35% illegal’s incarcerated, and 20% of Arizona prisons are filled with illegals who have committed felonies. In the last few years, 80% of our law enforcement personnel who have been killed or wounded was done by an illegal alien.
The majority of people coming now are people we need to be worried about. The ranchers told us that they have seen a change in the people coming they are not just those who are looking for work and a better life.
The Federal Government has refused for years to do anything to help the border states. We have been overrun and once they are here, Arizonans have the burden of funding state services that they use. Education cost have been over a billion dollars. The healthcare costs for illegal aliens runs into the billions of dollars. Our State is broke, $3.5 billion deficit and we have many serious decisions to make. One is that we do not have the money to care for any who are not here legally. It has to stop.
The border can be secured. We have the technology, we have the ability to stop this invasion. We must know who is coming and they must come in legally so that we can assimilate them into our population and protect the sovereignty of our country. We are a nation of laws. We have a responsibility to protect our citizens and to protect the integrity of our country and the government which we live under.
I would give amnesty today to many, but here is the problem; we dare not do this until the Border is secure. It will do no good to forgive them because millions more will come behind them, and we will be over run to the point that there will no longer be a United States of America but, a North American Union of open borders. I ask you what form of government will we live under?
How long will it be before we will be just like Mexico? We have already lost our language, everything must be printed in Spanish. We have already lost our history since it is no longer taught in our schools. And we have lost our borders.
The leftist media has distorted what SB 1070 will do. It is not going to set up a Nazi Germany. Are you kidding? The ACLU and the leftist courts will do everything to protect those who are here illegally, but it was an effort to try and stop illegal’s from setting up businesses, and employment, and receiving state services and give the ability to local law enforcement when there is probable cause, such as a traffic stop to determine if they are here legally. Federal law is very clear if you are here on a visa you must have your papers on you at all times. That is the law. In Arizona all you need to show you as a legal citizen is a driver license, MVD identification card, Native American Card, or a Military ID. This is what you need to vote, get a hunting license, etc.. So nothing new has been added to this law. No one is going to be stopped walking down the street. The leftists here and in DC are angry because we dare try and do something. They want the “Transformation” to continue.
Maybe it is too late to save America. Maybe we are not worthy of freedom anymore. But as an elected official I must try to do what I can to protect our Constitutional Republic. Living in America is not a right just because you can walk across the border. Being an American is a responsibility, and it comes through respecting and upholding the Constitution, the law of our land which says what you must do to be a citizen of this country. Freedom is not free.
I don’t know if the Senator’s facts and figures or correct or not. But she probably reflects the views of many Arizonans. And I agree that illegal immigrants are a major problem—not only in Arizona, but in many other states. However, there is hyperbole that borders on hysteria from both the left and right. I can understand the fear and frustration of Arizonans, as well as people in other places that experience a disproportionate impact from illegal immigration.
But sometimes we fail to point the finger of blame at the people who facilitate illegal immigration. I’m referring to individuals and companies that provide the jobs. Admittedly, my experience in covering the issue as a reporter is limited. And also dated. Like many stories I investigated, my perspective was altered after research. I don’t recall the precise date but in the late nineties, immigration authorities in Atlanta encouraged me to do a story on the influx of illegals to north Georgia—Dalton, specificially.
Dalton is the home of the nation’s largest carpet mills and the center of what is referred to as the tri-state industrial area. The carpet mills employ hundreds, if not thousands, of Mexican workers—all of whom carry “green cards,” though many are obviously counterfeit. Nonetheless, employers were then willing to accept them as real–mainly because the workers accepted lower wages and demanded fewer benefits.
In addition to extensive interviews with immigration officials, I spent time in Dalton with agents, who accompanied me to the city’s Hispanic barrios where most illegals resided. Nearby were printing shops suspected of providing phony green cards. Agents were frustrated over the magnitude of Dalton’s illegal immigrant problem. They said rounding up bus loads of illegals was easy. But new bus loads soon arrived as replacements. Employers were reluctant to cooperate because raids on the mills slowed production and ate profits. There was also spill-over opposition by merchants who lost customers. So the city simply tried to adjust.
While I was working on the story, the school system was recruiting bi-lingual teachers in Mexico City. And beyond the borders of Dalton, there was yet another major obstacle to a crackdown on illegal immigrants. Highly sophisticated transportation systems—most based in Texas—smuggled workers into the United States and in some instances expedited their trips to East Coast destinations. For reasons I don’t remember, my research did not result in a CNN story. I believe 60 Minutes or some other news organization beat us to the punch.
In addition to researching immigration at CNN, I was a radio newsman in California’s Sacramento Valley many years ago when Cesar Chavez formed the National Farm Workers Association. The employer abuse of illegals that I witnessed—economic and physical—involved the worst kind of exploitation. It was all about profits. But thanks to mechanization and the efforts of labor leaders, working conditions improved on the big farms, many of which are now owned by agriculture conglomerates. And that places even more emphasis on the bottom line. As a result, profits influence many employers in making decisions about hiring workers—a condition that often causes temporary blindness in checking the authenticity of green cards.
As an aside, one of my radio employers experienced temporary blindness in overseeing what went out on our airwaves. The station carried a pre-daylight Spanish speaking program as a public service to the market’s large Mexican population. Owners didn’t know that the host of the show was a farm worker contractor, who provided field laborers for growers. We found out that little piece of information on the day that Cesar Chavez was conducting a rally in the area. The station was flooded with complaints by bi-lingual farmer workers informing us that the morning host announced he planned to attend the rally to take names and any worker he identified would never again work in the Sacramento Valley.
Washington Post op-ed columnist Eugene Robinson offered interesting left-leaning observations on illegal immigration today.
So much for both sides of an issue. This post is twice the length of my normal rants. Tomorrow, I can tell you how a really feel about Time naming Glenn Beck as one of the country’s most influential people. Have we become a nation of clowns?
My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. It is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.
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