Thread: A reality check on immigrants

Another clueless lib-idiot newspaper illegal alien hugger:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Opinion: A reality check on immigrants

By Bob Gibson / Charlottesville Daily Progress
September 2, 2007
http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Sa ... ws!opinion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Virginians are entering a prolonged period of introspection and discussion about immigration issues.

Colored by liberal use of the word "illegal," debates are under way that could redefine how welcoming the state is perceived to be, which political parties are thought of as welcoming and which levels of government enforce immigration laws.

Do most people label Sen. Larry E. Craig, R-Idaho, an "illegal senator" just because he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge involving lewd behavior in an airport men's room?

Would most people label themselves an "illegal driver" for speeding on an interstate highway at 75 mph?

Would they seek to publicly label their son or daughter an "illegal imbiber" for drinking a beer at age 20 or 18?

Before we start tossing the word "illegal" around as emotional candy, Virginians might try the word on for themselves when thinking of the last time they broke any law.

Virginians should be wary of political figures who loosely throw around the term "illegal immigrants," because they may not know which immigrants are in this country illegally.

People who would ramp up state and local law enforcement to deal with federal failings are proposing expensive patchwork solutions that could easily end up growing the size of governments.

The rhetoric employed by people who depict "illegal immigrants" as a major threat to Virginia and many of its localities is intentionally divisive.

Ask them if they favor a big wall thousands of miles long between the United States and Mexico. Then ask if they also favor a big wall thousands of miles long between the U.S. and Canada.

Canadians, our traditional and friendly neighbors to the north, might be approximately as dangerous as Mexicans.

We are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

Law enforcement is serious and expensive business that should be undertaken to protect society with some expectation of proportionality and fairness while ensuring that individual rights are respected.

Virginians who seek to better understand immigration issues can learn more from their own communities than they can from Washington, which had long ignored or downplayed immigration problems while catering to the needs of businesses with lobbying clout.

Most immigrants are legal and law-abiding.

In Virginia, 6-10 percent of inmates in local jails are determined to be illegal immigrants.

About 2 percent of the state's prison inmates are in the same classification.

Who are we as Virginians? A heck of a lot of us are immigrants.

One Virginian in every 10 was born in another country.

Of that tenth of the state's population, 41 percent are from Asia and 35 percent come from Latin America.

Six percent of Virginia's population is of Hispanic origin, and half of that group is U.S.-born.

Four Virginians in every 10 were born in another state.

Building a wall between Virginia and North Carolina is an expensive and impractical solution to a phony problem. Walls are symbolic and can say more about fear and perception than practicality.

Building a wall around Prince William County would be silly and unworkable whether or not it slowed traffic on Interstate 95 or the creep of Northern Virginia southward.

Prince William officials are investigating whether residents in the country illegally are an excessive drain on local services and how to deal with them.

Practical federal guest worker programs and realistic border enforcement would do far more to fix labor shortage problems than anything a Virginia locality can do to cope with the fallout of federal failings.

Almost any state or local option to cope with immigration issues is an expensive reaction to a failure of federal policy or law enforcement. It can be characterized as paying for Washington's mistakes.

Political parties that get into this business at the state and local levels are likely to carry a bigger stick than a carrot for dealing with immigration issues.

They may win short-term advantage while branding themselves as less friendly and welcoming to the interests of law-abiding and legal immigrants. Those are the immigrants who vote.

Does the Republican Party wish to build a wall between itself and minorities who feel threatened by anti-immigrant fervor?

Probably not.

Does any party want to beef up state and local governments to deal with federal failings?

Maybe so.

Some problems are best fixed in Washington, even if the federal political morass appears hopeless at times.

When America starts bringing numbers of troops home from Iraq, will the nation have the will to stand by the many thousands of Iraqis whose lives are endangered for standing with Americans in the middle of that nation's civil war?

If Virginia welcomes those brave Iraqis, the state could benefit as much in the long run as it has with a tremendous influx of former residents of Southeast Asia who now call Virginia home.

Many immigrants have good reasons for moving to Virginia. Most Virginians still welcome them.

So, since most speeders don't cause a problem, no more traffic cops or tickets. Then, when somebody does, their odds of getting away with it will soar. And, others will be encouraged to do as they please, since those signs on the highway are meaningless. Isn't that similar to what happened with the last amnesty? Do we have no say or interest in regulating the process of immigration?

One thing I love about America is the relative safety of our highway system compared to the third world. I can plan and carry out a road trip of a thousand miles or more, with no worries about crime, war, gangs, or access to food, fuel, emergency help, etc. How long would those conditions last if we just decided to call the state troopers home and told them not to write any more tickets? And people like these writers knew about it? And the cat got out of the bag?