“Andy, if we allow those criminals to get away with breaking the law, we’ll just get more of ’em.” —Barney Fife, Mayberry Police, second in command
It looks as though the actions of Arizona lawmakers to protect its citizens from illegal immigrants has tempers running high on the left—or so it seems. When Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill that gives police more power to simply ask for identification from those whom they suspect have come to our country as criminals, liberal protesters reacted fiercely to Arizona’s common sense approach to this costly and long-standing issue.
Immigration is an issue we best get a handle on. If you think a quick and large influx of foreigners cannot change a country, ask our Native Americans.
Liberals are crying foul. They are counting on their latest victim class of voters to perpetuate their power in this fall’s elections. The always-helpful Revs. Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson are figuring out their angles on this, which confirms two things: it will be racial and cameras will be there.
San Francisco Mayor and heartthrob, Gavin Newsom, called for a citywide boycott (and I presume lesbian-cott too) of Arizona. Do not kid yourself; San Francisco could single-handedly cripple the gay baseball spring training attendance in the Cactus League of Arizona. It could also virtually eliminate the Grand Canyon hiker’s “rim-to-rim exploration;” however, that activity still polls well in the Castro District of San Francisco.
So Arizona’s actions to protect themselves from gang crime, drug trafficking, costly entitlements, overcrowded and under-funded schooling, an overwhelmed police force, and indigent hospital and incarceration costs among other things, has sent the broke state of California and San Francisco into a hissy fit. Gosh I hate to see that, since I’m all for gay equal rights. I think they have every right to lose half their stuff in a divorce and be as unhappy as the rest of America. They can be vicious though. The last time they got mad, San Francisco’s gay men stormed the state capital in a rage resulting in over $1 million in decorating improvements.
Even some of the knee-jerks decided to stop buying Arizona Iced Tea, which, as it turns out, is produced in New York. But that did not deter boycott organizers—The Lipton Iced Tea-Bagger Company.
It is a testament to our country’s “exceptionalism”—which Obama denies—that these immigrants want to come here. We all want the hard-working, family-oriented immigrants who value the freedoms and the economic opportunities not afforded them in their socialist countries to come to America and prosper—but we resent the ones who are here illegally to take advantage of our welfare state and perpetuate crime.
One of the biggest issues we libertarians have with this new law is the “asking for your papers” part of it. Every Nazi movie we have ever seen has the German soldier asking someone for their papers, and that is troubling. It will take some getting used to. Historically, the only time we ask an illegal for papers is when we just bought pot from him.
Enforcement and media attention combined should be sufficient to reduce the illegal alien population. What part of “illegal” aliens have people not understood to date? It is probably because of all the lawsuits and the presumption, stirred by the Obama administration who felt the Cambridge cops did not have probable cause to respond to the scene of a man breaking into a house. Police also fear being persecuted themselves for enforcing the law of the land and profiling. It seems under Obama, the people who fear prosecution the most in our country now are the police.
The truth is border-crossing tracks the economy and instead of jobs, it is crime that is increasingly being committed. It is also true that this shows what happens when a state, frustrated with the federal government’s inactions, has to take matters in its own hands. It is how our Founders intended it.
Rest assured, Obama will do nothing other than play his politics of resentment by painting the GOP as anti-Hispanic for election advantage in November. The Obama administration only reacts to a situation to determine how they can make political hay out of it. These protestors are just being used as the pitchfork.
Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist whose new book, No Such Thing as a Pretty Good Alligator Wrestler, is available on Amazon.com or at www.RonaldHart.com.