http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/72006g.asp

Radio Talk-Show Host: More Balance Needed in Immigration Dialogue
Time for 'Silent Majority' to Break Its Silence, He Says
By James L. Lambert
April 7, 2006

(AgapePress) - His on-air motto is "America is worth protecting. It's up to us." -- and talk-radio host Rick Roberts has taken it upon himself to make sure that more than just the "politically correct" side of the immigration issue is being heard in Southern California.

Like many of his peers on talk radio, Rick Roberts has been frustrated with the coverage of the immigration debate in the West Coast print media. The Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle have provided extensive coverage of the student protests involving the illegal immigration issue and the print media's take on it. What has frustrated Roberts and other talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham is, in their opinion, the unbalanced reporting on the issue.

The recent pro-immigration protests around the U.S. have provided a forum for a number of radical groups that have their own full range of solutions to this issue. They range from allowing full amnesty for aliens who are in the U.S. illegally, to liberal activists who believe states like California and Arizona were taken illegally and should belong to Mexico.

Roberts, who occasionally fills in for nationally syndicated radio talk-show host Michael Savage, thinks that this claim to Mexican sovereignty is mistaken. He encourages those who support that claim to "go back to school and study history. The entire line of argument [for sovereignty] is simply more radical rantings of groups like La Raza, MEChA, and other Nazi self-styled race-based organizations," he says. "Telling the lie over and over again doesn't make it true. It just means the feeble minded will believe it."


Roberts has been using his morning radio show (heard on KFMB - 760 AM) to express a viewpoint that many Americans share; that is, that many politicians in Washington do not fairly represent them on this issue. The push by politicians -- and by religious leaders like Los Angeles Catholic Archbishop Cardinal Roger Mahoney -- to remove the "illegal" label from the argument is, in Roberts' opinion, "a continued attempt to manipulate public opinion by taking away the harsh reality and seriousness of the issue .... The problem is, most Americans know the definition of illegal."

The San Diego talk-show host is eager to respond to activists who support amnesty for illegal immigrants. For example, he says it is "absolutely a lie" when the media and most proponents of undocumented works report that illegal immigrants "take jobs that Americans don't want."

"[This assertion] is being perpetuated by immigrant activists and politicians on both sides of the aisle to appease their corporate constituency that wants cheap labor," Roberts claims. He continues by citing numerous economic studies that support his argument -- including a five-year study released last month that he says "shows the vast majority of the 'so-called' jobs that Americans won't do are being done by Americans except in areas that are densely populated by illegal immigrants."

Roberts believes that legal immigrants are more upset about illegal immigration than anyone. "And rightly so," he offers. "They went through the process, played by the rules, waited in line, only to be slapped in the face not only by illegal [immigrants], but by the politicians who allow and encourage the flow [of illegal aliens] to America."

The talk-show host laments that perhaps above all else, he is gravely concerned "there is no political will to secure our borders." Roberts says having "no control over our borders" is a major concern to most Americans, yet it is apparent the majority of U.S. senators do not share that concern. He points out that when given the opportunity last year to add 2,000 new agents to the U.S. Border Patrol, the Senate quickly voted the measure down.