Dinner and Immigration Just Don’t Mix
Por Wendy Hess
10:54 | 02/13/09

The occasion this past Saturday night was a happy one. Nine individuals were assembled around the dining room table of a friend, an excellent cook and superb baker, all eager to enjoy her wonderful cooking and celebrate her husband’s 68th birthday. Those present were highly educated, allegedly extremely intelligent, and members of minority groups who, at one time or another, had personally felt the sting of prejudice and discrimination.

The conversation was pleasant until the topic of immigration came up. When one of my dinner companions asked what I did for a living I explained that I was an immigration attorney. His face darkened and his previously congenial tone turned chilly. He asked me what I thought about the pardon President Bush had extended to the Border patrol agent who had been convicted of shooting a Mexican national with stated ties to the Mexican drug cartels. Before I could fully formulate a response, others at the table jumped in. Statements were made like: “Well, these Mexicans are breaking the law. They are breaking into our homes and we have the right to shoot and kill them once they’re here in order to protect our country. All these immigrants do is get welfare and fill our hospitals. They deliberately sneak into the country to have babies in order to stay here. They should be thrown out, along with their babiesâ€