http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns ... 96168.html

Getting serious about the illegals
By Mike Gallagher

May 5, 2006

It’s unlikely that America has ever experienced the kind of arrogance that supporters of illegal immigrants from Mexico have been demonstrating over the past few contentious weeks.

This week on my radio show, an activist attorney named Domingo Garcia proudly proclaimed that he knew of only one case in the country that involved an employer firing a worker as a result of Monday’s boycott debacle, “A Day of Action.” And in that case, he warned, a lawsuit would be forthcoming. This illegal immigrant-loving activist-lawyer was actually excited at the prospect of an American company being sued as a result of daring to expect one of their workers to show up for work on Monday. Evidently, Mr. Garcia believes that when workers decide to shut down companies and inconvenience customers in order to march through the streets carrying picket signs, that is their unfettered right.

The utter gall of these activists and advocates for illegals is beyond infuriating: it’s maddening. It creates the kind of burning contempt and red hot rage that is usually reserved for child molesters and animal torturers. And yet the arrogance continues.

While Americans were trying to deal with some clogged streets and landscaping jobs that wouldn’t be completed, Mexico was featuring an event of its own. “A Day Without a Gringo” was the message heralded on Mexican soil. What in the world is “A Day Without a Gringo?” Simple. Mexicans were urged to boycott any and all so-called “American” companies. No Burger King whoppers and no Big Mac super-sized meals that day in Mexico.

That’ll really show us, eh?

“A Day Without a Gringo.” Imagine how awful and ugly it would be if there were rallies and protests in America called, “A Day Without a Wetback.” I wonder how Mexicans would feel about that kind of ugly slur against an entire nationality. And yet “A Day Without a Gringo” barely creates a raised eyebrow, in either the Hispanic or non-Hispanic community worldwide. Watching Mexicans slur Americans (the Gringos) while illegal aliens wave Mexican flags in our faces and threaten to sue any company that fires them for playing hooky on Monday is a pretty typical example of the one-way street that has become the relationship between our two nations.

Have you heard how the Mexican government regards illegal aliens in its country? Last week, there was a report that two men were gunned down by Mexican police officers who suspected the pair to be illegals. There is reportedly little or no tolerance for the cause of the illegal alien in Mexico. However, that doesn’t stop President Vicente Fox from denouncing any attempt to secure our border with a fence in order to try and stop the tidal wave of immigrants from continuing to flaunt the law and sneak into our country.

However, this unprecented arrogance is not going unnoticed. In fact, the American people – the legal ones – are watching this insanity with intensity. People who don’t ordinarily bother to vote, much less know the difference between a red state and a blue state, are being profoundly impacted by the antics and showboating of people like the attorney I spoke to this week. While the first few waves of protests showcased a public relations savvy by eventually featuring American flags, the May 1st boycott marches marked a return to the more familiar sight of Mexican flags being unfurled and displayed. This was a mistake of epic proportions. It’s hard to believe that these activists failed to appreciate the resentment that millions of us feel at the image of people who claim to want to live here to achieve a better life using a Mexican flag to make their point. Then again, truth doesn’t really seem to be a high priority to those Mexicans who want to lash out at the USA. Organizers of Mexico’s “Day Without a Gringo” encouraged a boycott of Sears. Evidently, they failed to do a google search of the owner of the Sears stores in Mexico. He’s a billionaire Mexican.

Our government has completely blown it by being reluctant to secure our borders and send these people home. Incidentally, that doesn’t mean the type of mass deportation that President Bush seems to think a number of Americans expect. No one suggests deporting 12 million people by a week from Tuesday. The reasonable expectation is that we will enforce the laws on the books and when an illegal alien gets caught in “the system” (getting a speeding ticket or wins the lottery), he or she will be sent packing.

I’m afraid that the real loser in this drama will be the Republican Party. Recent polls suggesting that President Bush has his lowest approval rating ever and voters will turn out in droves for Democrats this November are as a direct result of this illegal immigration fiasco. If those polls are correct, a lot of solid Republican lawmakers will be drummed out of office by a disgruntled public desperate to be heard. Caller after caller to my radio show claim to be lifelong Republicans who will vote for Democrats for the first time ever. Some protest vote, I tell them. You’ll abandon the party of Ronald Reagan for the party of Howard Dean, all to cast a protest vote over the way our nation has handled illegal immigration. You can’t be serious, I say. They insist they’ve never been more serious. And they sure sound it.

Without a solution in the next six months, I think we’re going to find out just how serious they are.