Posted on 10/08/2005 2:44:36 AM PDT by Crackingham
From the Little League fields to the Habitat for Humanity boardroom, everyone in this central Missouri town seemed to know Manuel "Paco" Lopez. A devoted father and civic volunteer, the Mexican immigrant served as a translator at the local hospital, schools, crime scenes and anywhere else people asked. So when police asked for help interrogating a Spanish-speaking murder suspect, he dutifully agreed — even though it meant revealing he was actually an illegal immigrant named Francisco Xavier Inzunza.
Once Marshall police reported him, immigration officers made the 43-year-old an offer: work as a confidential informant for the federal immigration agency in exchange for an annual work permit. But his informant career was a spectacular flop. Drug dealers and fake identification peddlers didn't want much to do with a church leader and school volunteer. Soon after the murder suspect's conviction in 2002, Inzunza was informed he faced deportation from the place he has called home for a dozen years.
The Marshall mayor, police chief, school superintendent — even the prosecutor who Inzunza helped — pledged to support a man who for years hid his true identity.
"Most of the illegal aliens stay in the background. They don't get out," said Chuck Hird, a retired Marshall meatpacking plant manager. "Paco was different. That's what got him in trouble."
Sixteen supporters appeared at a Kansas City immigration hearing in September, prepared to ask a federal judge to let Inzunza stay. The judge instead postponed the hearing until February 2007 because of a case backlog, but Inzunza's supporters suspect judicial sympathy played a role.
Even Gregory Gagne, spokesman for the Justice Department's executive office for immigration review in Washington, reacted with surprise. He said the delay was longer than normal.
In an interview in the cramped apartment he shares with his wife, Suzy, and sons Francisco Javier, 17, and Anthony, 10, Inzunza said he has no regrets about helping Saline County prosecutors convict Juan Antonio Rodriguez of stabbing a housemate to death.
"I did it because it was the right thing to do," he said. "They needed me."
Actually...it is. But (and there's a big but) you have to wait you turn. It also costs you money.
Then again you could just CHEAT, ABUSE and DEFILE the system. You choose.
And the dislike isn't just for illegal Hispanics, but those from Asia and the Caribbean too.
"Actually...." if you are that ignorant, we have nothing further to discuss. In the next sentence, you are likely to be telling me that we have ICE officials in the bodegas in Oaxaca selling green cards for a hundred bucks, so that any illegals here are simply too cheap to buy them. Doesn't it bother you just a little to be that ignorant and still have an opinion on a subject?
Thank you for being so kind in response to my honest query. If you will look further down you will see I said exactly the same except I wasn't quite so willing to call myself nasty names in the process.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Are you out of your mind?
Letting them in is Socialist or Internationalist or what ever. CLose the border and let those who come here legally stay and BECOME US CITIZENS. Why not? What do they fear in becoming legal and citizens. The US is no longer a 'melting pot' but a 'stew pot'.
Social services for citizens? Why not, we paid for them. The view that illiegal immagrants 'paid' for them but do not enjoy the opportunity to use them is insane. If they paid taxes they would have a SSN or ITN, which they do not have or they would be here legally.
He can't apply for citizenship because he is in this country illegally. To apply for citizenship he must produce a passport, and a legal visa. He has neither.
Your screen name is apt. There is nothing "xenophobic" about a strong feeling that illegal activity should be punished appropriately (by deportation). Illegal immigrataion is unfair to both citizens and legal immigrants. And no, those who came here illegally should NOT be allowed to "become legal". They should be forced to go back home and follow the legal process just like anyone else.
You ask why someone didn't sponsor him for his green card?
They can't. He is in this country illegally.
To apply for a green card you must have come in legally.
Thank you very much for that useful and enlightened response. It was much more informative and far more polite than the response I got from a self admitted chronic looser.
I read your posting and I am so glad there is an informed, sensible, thoughtful person out there in Freeperland.
The majority who post about the illegal situation don't know what they are talking about and are merely reactionary.
We do have a huge immigration problem. Actually we are in the midst of a mass migration, and it is worldwide. The peoples from the Southern Hemisphere are moving north in vast numbers to join the developed countries. This is creating strain everywhere.
We need to recognize, as you are well aware, we have many millions of illegal immigrants here already who are a functioning and necessary part of the workforce and the economy. The humane and wise thing to do is to give them legal status.
That legal status might be worker permits. It is dangerous to us, and inhumane to them, to keep them below the radar screen.
Thank you for the information.
I had a friend who moved to Canada and he had a devil of a time getting approved for Citizenship. They told him, "We don't take just anybody."
You are correct, and I am wrong, and I beg your pardon. I get so used to so many reactionary and (I sincerely believe) racist types that haunt the freeper threads on immigration that I failed to consider that honest questions are still a possibility.
You deserved better from me, and I was (again), very wrong. I hope you will forgive me.
Are you saying the only recourse is to cross the border illegally?
1) Simplify entry requirements with Mexico, especially. If a person can demonstrate they have a) no communicable diseases, b) no criminal background c) a job waiting, d) an understanding, illustrated by a signed contract, that US social services are UNAVAILABLE to non citizens (other than access to public schools and life saving medical emergencies), and 4) an understanding, illustrated by a signed contract that failure to file taxes is grounds for immediate visa revocation and expulsion......, we should let them in on yearly, renewable visas. Processing fees for these people should run from 3-4 thousand dollars (makes sense that they would fund it, right?)
2)For illegals already here, the same med requirements, coupled with no felony convictions, have all tax filings up to date, and gainfully employed. The difference is that these people should pay a processing fee of 2-3 times the people at the border, because they DID violate the process and "jump line." There should be a penalty to do so.
This would take the pressure off the border It should be EASY to get in LEGALLY, and DIFFICULT to get in ILLEGALLY, but of course, we have it upside down. (I feel like I should do an Al Gore imitation with that LEGAL/ILLEGAL, but you get the picture).
That seems humane, respectful of the law, cognizant of the reality of the situation, and a way to gain control of the borders. I don't see why people on Free Republic won't support it.
Of course, that would help us grow our economy like crazy, making illegal immigration that much more of a problem, but at least they would be paying taxes like everybody else, therefore helping to pay for the services they are illegally recieving.
(and the wheel keeps turning.... around... and around....)
Seems like a great guy.
Nevermind the fact that he committed a Federal felony.
Therefore, he's a felon. Sorry.
Not much different than "except for him stealing a car". You could probably find some people in jail that are "real nice" but there are "real" consequences for ILLEGAL ACTIVITY! Deport him!!!
As opposed to cheap labor types like you who want to turn America into the worst of Latin America because you envision yourself the jefe in the white suit in the big house.
No where did I even mention the race, gender, ethniticity or shoe size of the illegal immigrant, and neither would it matter.
The problem is that HALF of the American labor force consisting of regular Joes doing repetitive jobs bears the direct brunt of economic competition with third world cheap labor and you cheap labor types are willing to be "humane" and "generous" at their direct expense. Fine, if you want to make the Democrats the majority party again.
This is a continuing chorus by a group of freepers. Poisonous roots= poisonous tree is the argument. I disagree for a number of reasons:
1) This country was founded by people who had a healthy DISrespect for laws that were arbitrary, senseless, and immoral.
2) Prosecutable torts like theft of a car are different, and you know it. Crap, people CHEERED when that kid "stole" a bus and drove people out of New Orleans to Houston. Sneaking across the border to build a better life for your family is a different kind of crime and you know it, whether you will admit it or not.
3) Our laws are hypocritical and absurd. We have a situation of declining population and need entry level workers. Business and government realize and acknowledge this, but they are too chicken to confront the socialist unions and labor lawyers and acknowledge it. So, they have adopted the coward's solution of letting people in illegally, and denying their culpability. This let them "off the hook" for a while, but now the chickens are coming home to roost from their own constituency.
4) Finally, many freepers and local conservatives (I do not know about you) are extremely hypocritical on this issue, as they continually violate laws re: speeding, their own taxable income reporting requirements copyright infringement, pirated software, etc, yet selectively tout immigration laws as if they were the Bill of Rights or something. I have the most extreme disgust for these people.
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