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Transformational anarchy
By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, June 18, 2006

A Colorado Supreme Court case regarding a November ballot initiative highlights the most costly hidden cost of illegal immigration. The court ruled last week that the so-called Defend Colorado initiative -- which essentially would have denied illegals non-emergency state services -- violated the state Constitution because it addressed more than one subject.

Advocates for illegal aliens, like former Denver Mayor Federico Pena, also were concerned the initiative was so far-reaching that illegals would be prevented from getting title to property they purchased and denied standing in civil court. Mr. Pena also said that everything from school vaccinations to entering recreation centers could be subject to citizenship verification.

Would that were so.

Americans should focus on the "why" of this case instead of the "what" the initiative was trying to do. Why should American taxpayers pay for government programs that illegal aliens use? What the services are is secondary.

The hidden costs of illegal immigration are many and they are great. But the most costly by far is what the 11 million-plus illegals here have done to the rule of law.

With the blessing of the abject failure that is the Bush administration, illegals have been allowed to violate as many immigration laws in this republic as they wish so they can live as virtual Americans. Employers of illegals also have been profiting from the federal government's benign indifference to mundane legalities.

The rule of law in America has been overrun by transformational anarchy.

As the bipartisan elites and their supporters inside the Beltway conspire to eliminate borders to transform this republic into really new Mexico -- oops, sorry, into Aztlan -- they inevitably run into immigration laws that prohibit doing what they do.

Since there is no valid argument that illegal immigrants are not lawbreakers -- as are their American employers and the financial institutions lending money to them -- the law must be obeyed or ignored.

And since law and order is being ignored from President George W. Bush to anyone looking for cheap day labor on a street corner, a unique alternative has filled the vacuum.

Transformational anarchy essentially allows the ruling class to ignore immigration laws that could slow -- or even prevent -- the seemingly inevitable metamorphosis from America to the Spanish name for greater Mexico.

However, the elites must not act like the rule of law is inoperative or else the public finally will know that America no longer is a nation of laws.

That's why Mr. Bush, in a recent television appearance, tried to convince his fellow greater Mexic ..., um, Americans, that he actually cared about the illegal immigration invasion he secretly welcomes.

And that's why federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security that also are responsible for enforcing immigration law want to appear as if they are doing something about illegals, such as recent high-profile mass arrests. Otherwise, the government would be forced to say to the public what Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men" shouted -- "You can't handle the truth."

And that is why transformational anarchy allows America to be in denial about lawbreakers from Mexico and inside the Beltway.

Dimitri Vassilaros can be reached at dvassilaros@tribweb.com or 412-380-5637.