News Reports “Legally” Blind

The first shots of liberal and left inspired protests over the signing of the Arizona Illegal Immigration Law have backfired. The protesters assumed a violent and destructive posture, and America didn’t take well to their breaking things to demand we ignore the word “illegal”. For most of us, we prefer to be still a nation of laws. When we want change we have a legislative process to follow.

Having failed to bully their views into acceptance, leftists are reverting to their standby, the national press corps, to rewrite history and distort reality. We are now seeing stories everyday about illegal immigrants leaving Arizona for greener pastures. Most of them repeat the mantra about how unfair the law is, as though the new law does not mirror the federal law that‘s been in existence for over a decade.

As always, the reality that “illegal” is in fact illegal is absent from reporter logic. They never seem to ask some rather obvious questions, so I’ve included a few recent examples and suggested a few questions they could have asked.

In a June 9 USA Today story (“Hispanics Moving Out Of AZ” by Alan Gomez) the thrust of the article focused upon the impact the law is having on the illegal community as they pull up stakes. We learned that one elementary school lost 70 children in their enrollment. To quote Superintendent Jeffrey Smith, “They’re leaving to go to another state where they can feel more welcome.” Here’s an unasked question. Why aren’t the illegals returning to Mexico? Do they not feel welcome there?

Then a Mr. David Castillo, co-founder of Latin Association of Arizona, said businesses serving Hispanics is down. “It’s devastating.” Here’s a question for Mr. Castillo: What kind of business exactly depends upon illegal immigrants for it’s profitable existence? Surely all 466,000 illegals haven’t fled yet, have they?

Juan Carlos Cruz, an illegal worker in plant nurseries, was quoted, “I have to find a place where we can live with more freedom.” My question for Mr. Cruz: Don’t you really mean, “I have to find a place where they ignore immigration laws” (The freedoms are very evenly and constitutionally guaranteed over all fifty states, provided one is here “legally”)?

Finally a Jorge Vargas said he plans to move his air conditioning business to New York because his business relies mostly on Hispanics and is completely dead. I have the same question as for Mr. Castillo. Can you not sell to legal immigrants or even, heaven forbid, even native Arizonians? Is the fact that the law might actually be applied to you the real motivator here?

Missing in the stories are questions about the incarceration costs that Arizona has been burdened with. Or the crime impact. Or the drug related problems. Or questions about the costs of housing. The impact on legal wages and revenues sent back to Mexico.

Also missing for the stories are the perspectives of law and due process. Why should a sovereign nation not have the basic right to control its borders? Why should any group be permitted to bully their way around the laws while other applicants stand in line for years?

No one is imposing anything new or unreasonable. The federal laws have been established for years and ignored for political reasons that include cowardice and greed for power. Finally a state has taken the action to reverse the impact of the blatant corruption that’s been thrust upon them. And that’s made leftists see red.

There’s good news in all of this. The power of the corrupt political system is fading fast. Fading almost as fast is the power of the press who think like-mindedly to influence the citizenry with lopsided reporting. Newspapers are shrinking and incumbents are nail biting.

So here is my last question for consideration: how many violations of immigration law does it take to declare we simply won’t follow the law? 12 million? How about 12 million drunk drivers? Do we stop enforcing the laws then for them also? How about not processing larceny when it reaches 12 million thieves?

It’s not a good idea to ignore “illegal”.

About the author

William Burton wrote 26 articles on this blog.

A political junkie with a home spun view of politics, passionately conservative. Published writer (short stories, political essays, poems), and public speaker. Profiled in, "The Ridiculous Race" by Steve Heely.

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