Illegal immigrants are criminals

San Diego Union ^ | OCT. 23, 2005 | RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.

[radar101]

The same principle applies to the subject that the audience really wanted to talk about above all others: illegal immigration. And it was during that discussion that reality went out the window.

It started when a woman who identified herself as a teacher asked what she was supposed to tell parents (who were illegal immigrants) about why their children (who were also here illegally) couldn't go to college or apply for financial aid, even after they had worked hard and earned good grades.

You see, typically, the pursuit of higher education requires a valid Social Security number, which illegal immigrants don't have. Some states also require that undocumented immigrant students pay exorbitantly high out-of-state tuition rates, even if they and their families have lived in that particular state and paid taxes for years.

My answer to the question shocked some in the mostly Latino audience: Tell the parents they made a terrible mistake when they came into the country illegally, and that they compounded that mistake every day that they stayed here without legal documentation.

[AndyJackson]

Many commit felonies by forging documents.

Well, if they commit felonies, then they are criminals.

Methinks you are missing the bigger picture here - perhaps by design?

Nope. They are illegal, but they are not criminal. Sorry. And the reason that the difference matters is because all sorts of things that we do, that you do, that I do, are illegal. There are all sorts of rules (codified in the Code of Federal Regulations, for instance) that you break just by breathing and walking across the street. The reason that it matters is that when the police engage in petty harassment for petty offenders - you know parking tickets, jaywalking - while letting off crimanls - those who violate the criminal code- then respect for law enforcement plummets and you get liberals.

Sorry, but you've got Giuliani dead for nuts wrong. He got the police off of worrying about parking offenses and on to the criminal stuff.

Finally, since you don't know the difference between those who are criminals and those who violate civil cannons then I find you very very frightening, because as the kind lady above me said, you are much more interested than law enforcement as a form of social control than as a pillar of a democratic society where its citizens can engage in daily commerce unhindered by a polcie state.

[dirtboy]

Sorry, but you've got Giuliani dead for nuts wrong. He got the police off of worrying about parking offenses and on to the criminal stuff.

He got them to enforce the minor violations. I remember his philosophy well.

Almost all illegals are guilty of either felonies or misdemeanors. You can pretend otherwise, but that's the truth. Either they commit such coming here, or they commit such staying here by forging work documents or not paying taxes.

[AndyJackson]

whatever