One of the more annoying elements of this illegal immigration debate- for some of us- over the last two decades-
Is this notion that ‘existing immigration laws don’t really mean anything’...and so, we’re going to ignore most of them and just kind of make it up as we go along.
And presidents-and the leaders of both parties-have been guilty of this. Back in the George w. Bush era-workplace raids were labeled ‘too mean’ or ‘counterproductive to the economy’...so...Bush’s ice agents quickly stopped doing them.
That led to this claim that is now simply taken as ‘gospel’ by both sides: that there are ‘good illegals’ and ‘bad illegals’...and as long as they are otherwise law-abiding...most should be able to stay.
We never voted on that. The American people never got to voice their opinion: all the sudden- leaders on both sides of the political aisle just agreed- ‘long time illegals’ and ‘most other illegals’ could stay.
What that unwritten agreement meant in practice though- was: we aren’t going to enforce 80 percent of our immigration laws.
I’m simplifying it, obviously, but that’s basically what this unspoken social agreement became: we just aren’t going to enforce 80 percent of our immigration laws.
And to at least ‘some of us’- that was infuriating.
By the time the Obama administration came around, it was a standard: hey, the law-abiding illegals can stay. They have no fear of deportation. We aren’t even going to try to find the people crossing the border or overstaying their visas...so long as they don’t commit crimes here.
Even president trump-in his first term- and even as he was concentrating on trying to end Obama’s caravans and close the border-
Even trump...in term one...decided that he was going to simply invent new rules for so called ‘DACA kids. The dreamers who had been brought to America by their parents, etc.
Even Donald trump’s team decided that they were going to invent their own rules in some instances-to give illegals a break- and decided that -they-weren’t going to enforce 80 percent of our immigration laws, either.
We didn’t get workplace raids in term one. We didn’t get a crackdown on visa overstays. We didn’t have a trump team saying, ‘self deport because no illegal alien is safe or sacred’...as they are now.
And this decades of ‘ignoring virtually all immigration laws’...while making up your own...has left us in a bizarre and untenable place: it has left us in a country in which one half of the political aisle wants to insist that -entire categories of illegal aliens are ‘out of bounds’ and cannot be deported....and just as bad....‘some places are out of bounds’. When it comes to ice arrests. Like schools, courthouses, Home Depots, meat packing plants- or anywhere that illegals have become known to hang out.
And -how stupid is this?
Half of this week’s argument over the ice raids in Los Angeles seems to be based on ‘what’s out of bounds. Ice broke the rules by going into a garment factory.... Or...broke the rules because they went into a Home Depot.
Really?
What are you talking about?
This is the sort of nonsense that la mayor Karen Bass and other pro-illegal/ anti-ice activists have been making this week. And it’s idiotic.
People....
The city of LA and the state of California- do not have their own immigration policy. Flat out.If they aren’t going to secede from the union...they don’t have the right...or the ability under our constitution...to have their own immigration policy.
Period.
They also cannot tell ice agents where they can and cannot go to collect illegals- with a few exceptions- like state owned and run buildings.
But this idea that ‘they can’t raid home depots because that’s where illegal alien workers are known to hang out to be hired as day laborers’ is crap.
Who made up that rule? And why should ice follow that malarkey?
It’s not fair that they targeted a Home Depot in Los Angeles....is literally one of the beefs from leftists, this week.
What?
This reminds me of the claims we will often get after a criminal has been shot by cops while attacking the cop. Some thug punches a cop. Wrestles with a cop. Try to get his gun. The cop uses force-as he has the right to do to protect himself-
And then- some idiotic claim arises from the anti-cop crowd: it wasn’t even a fair fight. Tyrone was winning against one cop until the other one tased him...
As if...there are rules of fairness when it comes to physically attacking a cop: you know, the law says if you can win the fight you get to walk away free. They can’t arrest you for the crime you committed.
No. That’s not how it works. Idiots who decide to fight with cops don’t get an ‘even playing field’...and if they win...they get to go home. No.
Same here: the people stupidly supporting illegal aliens don’t just get to say: some places are off limits...and have that be the case.
Consider what they are suggesting here: that we need to agree that there are some places where the law doesn’t apply.
Sorry, no. Most of us aren’t going to agree to that.
Come of. You got to give an illegal alien at least a fighting chance, here. Let’s say. Targets and Walmart’s are out of bounds. Illegals are safe there if they can rush onto the property.
No.
If they chose to come here illegally- they set the rules of this game. Even if our last five presidents have chosen not to enforce most of them.
Greg- give me Karen bass, here.
This is the LA Mayor...two days ago...insisting that the mob violence we are seeing in LA would end if the feds and ice simply ended the raids.
See if this sounds reasonable to you:
That’s an elected leader of one of America’s largest cities...saying.... if we just stop enforcing the law...all these lawbreakers and thugs won’t have a reason to riot.
Really?
Is that how we’ve decided to run this country, now? Just give into the angriest mobs.
Whoever can ‘out-thug’ each other gets to be in charge?
Well then, we really are headed to a post-apocalyptic, mad max’ sort of world, aren’t we?
This is what Karen Bass, and anyone dumb enough to have that ‘take’ this week- is suggesting.
And I’ve heard a lot of leftists expressing it: this is trump’s fault because he wants to enforce the law in LA. Everyone knows that you don’t try to enforce the law in LA. What’s wrong with him?
Another rule that was just...invented...and became some foolish code instead of enforcing our immigration laws: we can’t break up families.
Why?
Why can’t we?It certainly isn’t preferable, but if one of the parents is illegal and breaks the law coming into the country-he or she needs to face the consequences- regardless of what it means for the child.
I loved Ben Ferguson’s take on this- on CNN the other night. If you didn’t hear it- I’ve got it here. And it’s brilliant in its simplicity.
Whoever said we can’t enforce the law if it’s going to affect a family?
What a great point by conservative Ben Ferguson.
Our federal immigration laws have become so muddied over time...and so intermingled with these foolish rules that were just sort of made up on the fly... That we literally have people arguing this week: Home Depot is off limits.
Home Depot is ‘not’ a haven for illegals. Law abiding or otherwise.
Raiding home depots is perfectly justifiable under the ‘Willie Sutton’ rule.
Willie Sutton was the bank robber who was asked why he robbed banks-and he said ‘because that’s where the money is.
I suggest home depots can be raided based on the Willie Sutton rule, then: because that’s where the illegal aliens are.
I’d argue that a huge part of our illegal immigration problem is that half of the country thinks that there are places where we shouldn’t be enforcing the law.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment here > Sorry, there's no "safe space" for illegal immigrants