Criminals Can be Snuggly Activists, Too!

Criminals are warm, fuzzy victims, too.

LOS ANGELES, March 27 — On Feb. 1, Arturo Hernandez went to his church on the east side of Los Angeles and watched the first PowerPoint presentation of his life. The illegal immigrant from a Mexican village on the Sea of Cortez learned about a bill that had passed the House that would turn him — and the church that helps his family with child care, his employers in the tony Brentwood section of Los Angeles and the hospitals that treat his family — into felons.

In subsequent weeks, Hernandez listened to public service announcements on L.A.’s Spanish-language radio stations in which disc jockeys and other celebrities said they wanted him and others like him to let the Senate, which is meeting this week to hammer out its own legislation, know what they think about the proposal. At the same time, his church, the hotel worker’s union that represents his wife and the leadership of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles continued to tell him the legislation was, in the words of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony who spoke against the measure on March 1 — Ash Wednesday — a “blameful, vicious” bill.

On Saturday, Hernandez, his wife, Gloria, and their three children marched in their first protest — along with more than 500,000 other demonstrators — through downtown Los Angeles. “I have lived for 15 years in America,” said the 34-year-old gardener. “All that time I have lived with my head down, you know. On Saturday, all these people were telling me to put my head up.”

Because, Madre Dios, you should be allowed to break the law every single day with pride!

Let’s cut through all the fog about illegal immigrants and get right to the root of the matter. They are breaking the law. Full stop. End of sentence.

Anything we do or say about the coming “immigration reform” work that Congress is doing proceeds with that as the fundamental fact. People like Mr. Hernandez are breaking the law every day they remain here and until we decide what to do about their criminal behavior, we can not move forward in any sort of meaningful way.

It is beyond dispute that immigration is good for this country. I will not argue that immigrants have been and will be vital to our nation’s health and continued pre-eminence in the world. But until we reckon ourselves to the simple fact that, no matter how sympathetic they are and no matter what their reasons for being here, those like Hernandez has been stealing from us every day for the past 15 years and shows no inclination to stop, we will never solve the immigration problem.

So when you hear the President talking about “jobs that Americans won’t do” and Senator Kennedy speaking about people who “work hard and play by the rules” remember that they are talking about thieves and criminals.

Even if they are nice people otherwise.

No related posts.

Category: The Good Old US of A