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Posted on 05/17/2010 5:48:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
Self-righteous overreaction will get you nowhere. True leadership, on the other hand, will take you nearly anywhere you need to go.
Jessica Colotl came to America when she was ten years old. She and her family immigrated here illegally from Mexico. Most of her years in America have been spent in Atlanta, where Jessica earned a 3.8 grade point average in high school and then enrolled at nearby Kennesaw State University. She worked at night to pay her bills. Until she was arrested in late March for a traffic violation that revealed her illegal status.
Local police turned Jessica, 21, over to federal immigration officials. Deportation proceedings were initiated but stopped when Kennesaw State's president intervened, asking for a one-year reprieve for Jessica so she could finish her degree. Jessica also stands accused of lying on her arrest forms at the sheriff's office. Legal authorities say she provided a false address. That issue remains in dispute.
What does not remain in dispute is the remarkable self-righteous overreactions that abound on all sides of the immigration debate now in full bloom.
Self-righteous overreaction describes the stand of those who vehemently insist that Jessica must be deported immediately. They see Jessica as a poster child in their campaign for mass deportation. As if a policy of mass deportation of tens of millions of illegals were even logistically and economically feasible. What was Jessica supposed to do when her parents came here with hope, looking for a better future for their kids? Remain behind in Mexico? Turn 18 and then leave the education and nation she had spent the bulk of her life in? Oh, please.
Jessica's self-righteous critics forget that they each won the birth lottery when they emerged on planet Earth from a womb in America rather than in the Sudan, North Korea, or Venezuela. Humans are humans, and most of us seek opportunity where we can find it. Americans, like me, are most blessed to have been born in the land of the free. I did not earn that. It just arrived on my birth certificate. Self-righteousness is very unbecoming. So a little grace and respect for human dignity never hurt anyone. Compassion is a virtue not a vice.
No one disputes that the federal government has abdicated its primary responsibility for securing our borders and administering a sane, rational immigration policy. America's immigration policies are poorly defined and enforced. In fact, they are usually applied randomly and arbitrarily, even within the same state, depending on which local law enforcement official actually makes the call.
When a leader of any organization fails to define goals and boundaries with clarity, confusion reigns. It is true in families and businesses, and it is certainly true in federal policy toward immigration. That is why Arizona took matters into its own hands. The federal government has failed to do its job, to define the boundaries and expectations, so border states have little choice but to try to institute sanity and order into a chaotic confused issue.
Similar to the response to Jessica's circumstances, the self-righteousness overreaction to Arizona's efforts at immigration sanity abound. Attorney General, Eric Holder, criticizes the Arizona immigration law even though he admits he has never even read it. The bill is ten pages long. Perhaps Mr. Holder could read that over lunch one day when he emerges from the two-year star chamber of debating himself on how to handle enemy combatants. Really, make a decision, and then come back into the nation whose law and order depends on your leadership. Please.
An Illinois school superintendent self-righteously and indignantly prohibits a varsity basketball team from playing in a tournament in Arizona saying he fears for the safety and security of the players given Arizona's new immigration law. So teenage girls will not get to play because a school bureaucrat objects to a law he likely has never read, and a law which essentially seeks to enforce the federal law that is already in place. Overreaction.
What is needed in the micro cases like Jessica Colotl, and the macro cases like Arizona, is more cool-headed reasoning and less knee-jerk overheatedness. Healthy immigration provides the lifeline of America, always has and always will. Most immigrants understand and “get” our freedoms and opportunities better than anyone else. We need immigrants not merely for the gifts and skills they bring but also for the infusion of a renewed embracing of America's core values of freedom and opportunity.
In the absence of meaningful federal immigration policy and its enforcement, local officials are forced to assess situations on a case-by-case basis. Jessica Colotl has done what any American would hope their child would do. Worked hard, excelled at school, and built the foundation for a solid life. She should be allowed to stay.
As Atlanta debates the future of Jessica, and Arizona debates how to enforce its new law, the federal government would do well to step up and lead on the one issue that we need it to do so. Not health care. Not financial reforms. Not global warming. But immigration.
Begin an earnest conversation now by first sealing and securing the borders. President Obama's strategy of reducing the numbers of border patrol members is a step in the wrong direction. Second, work to establish a path to citizenship for those here illegally who pass background checks and are willing to pay all back taxes and fines for any contributions evaded. Offer them a legitimate place at the back of the line for legal status here in America. Finally, set forth a cogent strategy for whom we will admit into this country and how we will do so in the future. Back that up with leadership and resources so that immigration becomes what it should be - our lifeline, rather than what it has become, our great volatile vulnerability.
That requires leadership, not right and left rhetoric. And, unlike with most other issues, this answer can only come from Washington. If there is a leader still there who will stand and point the way out of the thicket and toward the horizon.
This is a ping list promoting Immigration Enforcement and Congressional Reform.
If you wish to be added or removed from this ping list, please contact me.
New legislation imposing tough penalties on drug smugglers who use low-flying aircraft
Poll: Does Arizona's immigration law discriminate?
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Meg Whitman bites back on immigration
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Hundreds attend immigration rally in Garden City, Kansas
What Exactly is 'Social Justice?'
Activists go after Cobb sheriff, say actions politically motivated (KSU Illegal Alien)
Border Patrol agents report Mexican military helicopter in U.S. airspace[3rd in South Texas]
Rasmussen: 58% in Pennsylvania Favor Immigration Law Like Arizona's
Arizona, Hugo Chavez, and the U.N.: Where Does Obama Fit In?
Has the time finally come to stop funding our own insurrection?
Bert Corona and the Communist Roots of the "Immigrants Right" Movement"
In Schools, A Peak at Texas' Future
Dallas Man's Immigration Film Premieres Monday
AFL-CIO: Federal Government Must Cut Ties with Arizona Law Enforcement
Mr. President, do your job. Secure our border
L.A. Teacher RON GOCHEZ Helping Illegals To Hide? (video)
Report from Cochise County, Arizona
Gunmen kidnap ex-Mexico presidential hopeful
Company PUTTING ON protest against Arizona law-please email
AZ Governor, Palin Criticize AG Eric Holder For Not Reading Law
AFL-CIO Leadership Clashes With Union Members Over Arizona Immigration Law
VIDEO: Miss Oklahoma USA Supports Arizona Law: "I'm A Huge Believer In States' Rights"
Uh oh: Arizona starting to feel the pinch from boycotts
Miss USA Runner-Up [Miss Oklahoma - Morgan Elizabeth Woolard] Supports Arizona's Immigration Law
58% in Pennsylvania Favor Immigration Law Like Arizona's in New Poll
Obama Administration Apologizes to China . . . For Arizona Law
Audio: LA city councilman attacks Ariz. law, unaware of law's similarity to Calif. penal code
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Palin: Mr. President, do you job and secure our border
F-16s respond to flight near Mexican border in AZ
Az. Gov. Bans Ethnic Studies Over ‘Smash the Gringo’ Fears (Barf Alert)
Calif. bill would block Texas textbook changes
Straight No Chaser: No More Mr. Nice Guy
Apologizing For Arizona (Obama apologoizes to the CHICOMS for Arizona?!?!)
Kevin Eubanks (Tonight Show bandleader) Insults Kid Over AZ Illegal Law
Despite ambulance chaser Palin's attacks and the oil disaster, Obama is doing OK (Spew-worthy)
Palin blames Obama for Az. law
4 DECAPITATED BODIES FOUND IN NORTHERN MEXICO
LaPierre speech reminiscent of earlier effort to ‘control borders, not guns’
Jets intercept small plane forcing it to return to Mexico
Immigration and the Long-Term Decline in Employment Among U.S.-Born Teenagers
Yes we won the “birth lottery.” So what?
Present Jessica with a bill for the taxpayer expenditures on her behalf, then deport her.
Doing this sends a message: You won’t be able to exploit the taxpayers of this country or use the assets you STOLE from them in this country.
As for the not being able to deport millions of illegals, guess what? Its been done. In any case, when it becomes impossible for them to work or claim taxpayer funded “freebies” most of them will self-deport. Deporting Jessical will encourage this.
At the very least Jessica, and others like her, need to know that they don’t have a “right” to remain in the country.
So... how the heck was her family able to enroll her in school? Rent a place to live? Stay here without any papers whatsoever for 11 years? I know the author of this piece is trying to make it look like a gross injustice is being done by sending this girl and her family back to Mexico—but the injustice was going on continuously over the last 11 years while she and her parents knowingly took full advantage of the US—and were allowed to do so.
This article is trying to make it seem unfair to send Jessica back since she had no choice over being brought here illegally. Well, sending her back might set a good example. If would-be illegals know that their kids won’t get any benefits even if they are here illegally for years, maybe they’ll be a little more hesitant to sneak across the border.
Also, there are universities in Mexico. I’m sure Jessica can get into one, if she’s really so smart.
I remind them that there was a time: "Yes, Virginia even Democrats believed - back then - that a job - any job - was better than welfare.....
Of course they mumble, "But Bush wants Amnesty too - puts them on the spot.
***Offer them a legitimate place at the back of the line for legal status here in America.***
They always say this but just what does it mean? First of all, if you are here and have a job, you are no longer even in the line.
So while they are in this imaginary “back of the line,” can they work, get welfare, and are free of deportation? If so, that sounds like the front of the line to me and all the people in China.
The world is set up so that everyone is a "citizen" of one country or another. If you want to move to another country, permanently, you have to abide by their laws in doing so. If you don't, you have to suffer the consequences. I don't care if you are one year old when your parents smuggle you over the border.
MEXICO CITY, May 13 (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon will protest to Pres Barack Obama when he comes to Washington next week about Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants, Calderon told Reuters. Calderon said a law that will come into force in Arizona in July, requiring police to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect is in the United States illegally, was already affecting relations between the two neighbors. "It contains elements that are frankly discriminatory, terribly backward," Calderon told Reuters in an interview.
Calderon He said he would bring Mexico's protest over the law to a meeting with Obama and when he addresses the US Congress during an official visit to Washington next week. (Excerpt) Read more at optionetics.com ...
Mexican President Felipe Calderon can hardly contain his revulsion and rage against Arizona’s SB 1070. He’s "deeply troubled" reports the Associated Press over a law he denounces as "discriminatory and racist," not to mention “a dire threat to the whole Hispanic-American population." This new Arizona law "opens the door to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement," sputters the Mexican President.
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Indeed, this “threat to Hispanics” and these “abuses in law enforcement," have been ongoing for years.
The Associated Press carried a story where a Maria Elena Gonzalez, reported how female migrants were “forced to strip by abusive police officers, supposedly to search them, but the purpose is to sexually abuse them." Jose Ramos, 18, reported “that extortion by border police occurs at every stop on their migratory route. Until migrants are left penniless and begging for food.”
According to AP: “Others said they had seen migrants beaten to death by police, their bodies left near the railway tracks to make it look as if they had fallen from a train.
"If you're carrying any money, they take it from you," said Carlos Lopez. "Federal, state, local police--all of them shake you down. If you're on a bus, they pull you off and search your pockets, and if you have any money, they keep it all and say, get out of here.” Police shake down motorists on bogus traffic stops so regularly it is like going through a toll - money paid right there on the spot or your car gets impounded.
All of the above “hate” and “abuses in law enforcement” as reported by the Associated Press, befell Central American migrants who enter Mexico. (Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com
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Go home Calderon----we spit on you, your countrymen, and your ambitions to undermine US security via Azatlan.
This girl drove without a license, or, I’m betting, liability insurance, in a country where she was living illegally. Did I get anything wrong?
Don’t punish the girl (except for the non immigration charges); punish the school and who ever else failed to ask for the proper “papers”.
Good article. Unfortunately, the comments about the girl prove the author’s point on irrational reactions...
His other point, that federal law itself is an unfocused hodge-podge, is very true. And this is precisely one of the reasons that it is not consistently enforced.
We need an immigration law that puts the needs of the US first (that is, our labor needs, industrial needs, etc.) and doesn’t try to promote strange political or social policies, mostly the hatched from leftwing brains.
Bush actually tried, and I think it would have been possible to make changes to his proposals and make them something that focused on US needs and not on pie in the sky social engineering. But people were not willing to work on it, and I’m afraid that what we’re going to get with Obama is going to be much, much worse and will have nothing to do with what is best for the US.
So maybe the only option is to keep going with the sparodic, spotty enforcement of sparodic, spotty laws until a different Administration gets in, hopefully in 2012.
We shouldn't allow anyone here even LEGALLY until unemployment goes way down (with the exception of engineers, doctors, etc that we actually need.) I do NOT support the idea of letting illegal aliens staying for awhile until they become legal. Send them back home and when the economy gets better they can be first in line when we decide to let people in legally.
I do agree that there is no reason why we can't send millions back to their home country. Somehow they made it here. It doesn't have to happen all at once. It's worth the effort to lower the unemployment.
When the illegal aliens are deported, perhaps we can sell their assets to help pay for the social programs that have been robbed by them, to repay hospitals (especially emergency rooms), to pay for border patrol and their own deportation.
My sister-in-law, with two advanced degrees, plenty of money in the bank, fluent in English-Dutch and her home language, excellent health, doesn’t smoke/drink or use drugs and NO CRIMINAL RECORD has waited for
16 YEARS !!!!
for her VISA # to come up so she could come her legally. Now that the number has come up, the legal fees are plenty big. But LEGALLY earned money, on which taxes have been paid, is available to pay all the expenses.
Throw out those here illegally with NO chance to return.
Those here legally, “Welcome!”.
Perhaps it isn't, but we won't know until we try. And in the trying, of course, we WILL get a bunch of illegals out of here!
Good point
We don't have to deport them, just cut off the jobs, the education, the welfare, the acquiring of credit and everything else a legal citizen should enjoy in this great country. They will go home on their own or go to jail. It is the only two places they belong.
I’d like her to be able to remain and complete her education.
In fact, its possible, once the border is secured and measures take to prevent “chain migration” I’d like to see her have amnesty. Provided, of course, she forswears her allegiance to Mexico, and otherwise demonstrates enthusiasm for becoming an American.
But once someone starts an argument that she has a “right” remain here, that’s it. She HAS to go. We can’t let anyone think, even for an instant, that illegal aliens have a right to anything in this country. Its that some sort of mindset that has take welfare out the realm of charity and made it an “entitlement.”
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