Illegal Immigration: Rhetoric and Reality

Tuesday, March 27, 2007News

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: RHETORIC AND REALITY
Barbara Anderson

Barbara lives in a large city on the West Coast.

Barbara Anderson
March 26, 2007

This is based on a true story. The name and location have been changed to protect a lady who is in great fear for her life. However, it could be any number of millions of people who have seen their neighborhoods, cities, states and country becoming balkanized by illegal immigration.

The rhetoric is that illegal aliens are coming into our country just to get jobs and to feed their families. Also, we hear repeatedly that “family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande”. However, gangs, disease, crime, drug running, smuggling and violence of all sorts do not stop at the Rio Grande, either.

Janice has good reason to put those comforting words in chilling perspective. She says: “I am the victim of illegals……Nicaraguan, Columbian, Peruvian and Mexican”. She tells of being victimized repeatedly by an international gang that robbed her, on and off, for one and a half years. She was a registered nurse, working at night in the Emergency Room, helping people. Meanwhile, this gang was taking whatever they wanted from her house. They threatened her life by spray painting all over her walls “We’re going to kill you, you f……….Anglo bitch”. They broke in one time with a gun while she was in the house. When she left, fearing for her safety, they burned her house down, putting her into debt for $25,000.

The police gang unit tried to catch them, but the professionalism of the gang, as well as the physical layout of the neighborhood, always gave the gang time to escape. They only apprehended one member, who had removed his glove as he sprayed the accelerant all over her furniture and her thousands of books before the fire was lit. His thumbprint was left on the accelerant can.

Janice respects legal immigrants and recalls that her people were Lithuanian, who were being executed by the Russians, when they invaded. Her great-grandfather had a premonition and took his family on “vacation” to another country, only one week before the invasion. Although he claimed political asylum, he was not allowed to come to America for three years, after he was checked out thoroughly. He was told to learn our language, obey our laws, expect no social welfare help of any kind, and the future was up to him. He shared a room with seventeen other men. They took turns sleeping on the floor with a blanket. He saved every penny he could to bring over his wife and Janice’s grandmother, who was a child at the time. This took five years to accomplish. No government forms were printed in Lithuanian for this family. They learned English and learned how to get along in this country by becoming self sufficient and contributing to society, appreciating the opportunity to do so.

With that kind of background, it is alarming for her to see the amount of taxpayer provided aid directed to illegal aliens. She recalls: “In the Emergency Room I took care of a child with Brazilian parents, who proudly presented her with her Medicaid card. They were driving a Mercedes. The parents each had a Rolex watch and other expensive jewelry, handmade clothing and shoes. Even the child was wearing more expensive jewelry than I could afford. They commented that this is the ‘greatest country‘”. They explained that it is well known in Brazil that if you come to Disneyland for the last month of pregnancy and stay here until the baby is born, then the baby is a United States citizen and enables the whole family to apply for help.”

What Janice described as the “last straw” happened when she was Christmas shopping and went into a business with a Spanish speaking owner. He folded his arms and stated, in Spanish, that he didn’t speak English. She said that was not a problem, as she spoke Spanish. He told her he didn’t like her Spanish. At that point, a young man had come into the shop and heard the exchange. He said that “your kind does not belong here. We’re going to drive your kind out of this state.” It was astounding to encounter such hatred when Janice had only gone in to spend money. In this vein, Janice recalls one who was smuggled into the country who said that Americans work too hard, and he would go home except that Americans are so easy to steal from, because they want to believe good about everyone.

The prevalent attitude of some who are coming here now is that everything is free and they have a right to services. They are told by their communities that they can get anything they want by calling 911. In the Emergency Room, Janice had to hang up the phone after a discharged patient called 911 to get a ride home. She got very angry at Janice when she was told that 911 was for life-threatening emergencies only.

Because of the viciousness of the gang that was targeting her, Janice had to move and even sell her car, to try to escape detection. Janice maintains that we have enough home-grown criminals already; we don’t have to import more. Also, she is tired of her tax money going to house and maintain jailed illegals. Paying for prison is just the last stop on the road to incarceration. Before that happens, a policeman has to arrest, a judge has to sit, and an attorney, (appointed by the state and paid for by taxpayers), has to defend a suspected lawbreaker.

Resettled now in another state, Janice still feels the trauma of not knowing just what she would encounter in her own home. “What this gang did to me was a form of murder….torture…..What our government doesn’t get is that victims (survivors) of these criminals are left with deep emotional scars.”

Although Janice deeply loves her country, she feels betrayed by a government that will not protect its borders, allowing criminal gangs to settle in cities and terrorize taxpaying citizens. Having been so severely victimized, she now is in constant fear for her safety, which no government entity can any longer ensure.

This article originally appeared on March 16, 2006 and has been updated on March 25, 2007.

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