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Illegals Rob Legal Residents of Safety, Dignity
By Andre Hollings
Black or White

Imagine going south on San Fernando Road at 7:30 a.m. and seeing hordes of men crowd the narrow roadside to the point where you cannot safely drive in the far right lane though you must make a right turn. Then your agitation at having to bypass that right turn is compounded because traffic has come to a near stop due to a couple of trucks, in that far right lane, stopping so the drivers can talk to the men swarming the roadside.

Now, continuing this clearly unthinkable scenario for Santa Clarita residents, imagine driving, some time later, northbound on San Fernando Road, looking to your left and being flabbergasted because you see a guy, only feet away from clusters of other men stationed at the edge of the roadside, with his back turned but obviously urinating in broad, open daylight.

Finally, in this series of unfathomable Santa Clarita events, picture a mom turning right onto 14th Street from San Fernando as she takes her daughter to soccer practice. She notices that her son is not securely fastened into his car seat so she pulls over, on 14th Street, to secure her little one in his seat. Yet once pulled over, her car is swarmed on both sides by a mass of yelling men. Tell me, what would the reaction of her young children be? Let alone the reaction of the mom?

Those "unthinkable" Santa Clarita scenarios are not so unimaginable. In fact, they’re not even infrequent. What is unimaginable is getting any help from our city government in solving the rapidly growing illegal immigrant predicament confronting our city.

Case in point, contact City Hall about the above-mentioned distresses. The gist of what you will be told is that all of the said problems, and others spawned by illegal aliens infesting Santa Clarita, falls under federal jurisdiction, not local. That means, essentially, that Santa Clarita's mayor, our local Sheriff’s Station, the City Council, the chamber of commerce and so on are powerless to help in solving this brush fire. The impotence, or negligence, of our local government has fathered Santa Clarita’s own sanctuary city — Newhall — a fact that everyone knows but that no one wants to acknowledge. That cradle for Illegal aliens has nurtured social and economic dangers for Santa Clarita residents. Dangers that have been left to spread like wildfire.

As opposed to safety and comfort for residents living in Stevenson Ranch or Valencia, an increasing number of Newhall residents have been left without the peace of mind cherished by their neighbors. Car burglaries and home break-ins are becoming the expectation for many law-abiding Newhall residents. Yet even for those who have not been violated by having their laptops, car radios, iPODs or jewelry stolen, there is a certain sense of all-but-looming danger that demands that many wives forgo the early morning jog or the evening walk with the little one in the stroller.

Imagine the feeling that would grip any mom as she pushes the stroller on Newhall Avenue past a collection of staring, whispering men, who suddenly make a mad dash for a stopped landscaping company truck just 15 feet in front of her. These are not scare tactics, Santa Clarita residents. This is reality come home. Those dangers may not long be avoided by students attending Newhall Elementary School on Walnut Street nor those attending William S. Hart High School on Newhall Avenue. Remember the gang violence at Hart High earlier this year? I wonder if its roots can, at all, be traced to elements sheltered by the City Council in Newhall? Just a question.

The economic dangers of illegal immigrants flooding our community are flagrantly obvious also. Best seen in job losses. A popular local barbecue and grill eatery located quite close to Newhall told one applicant that, though he was not applying for management, he must speak fluent Spanish to work there because the bus boys and cooks all speak Spanish as their primary language. Now this is not an establishment that specializes in Spanish nor Mexican foods. Nor was that language request an expressed requirement on the job application. And the restaurant is located in a heavily white neighborhood. What gives? A well-qualified college student who simply wanted to work while in college didn’t meet an un-listed language “requirementâ€