There is some Backbone
Finally someone is starting to understand the problem.
DELAWARE POL WANTS--GASP!--TO ENFORCE IMMIGRATION LAW
By Heather Mac Donald · April 21, 2005 06:24 PM
Local self-help continues apace.
A councilman and former mayor of Elsmere, De. (population: 5800), has introduced a bill that would fine landlords and employers $1000 per illegal alien that they rent to or employ. John Jaremchuk’s bill would also allow police officers, if they have stopped an individual for a traffic or other offense and have reasonable cause to believe that the individual is an illegal alien, to inquire into his residency status. If the person stopped cannot provide evidence of legality within 24 hours, he could be fined $100.
Jaremchuk cites the drain on the city’s coffers from illegal aliens, gangs and property damage, and the risks of terrorism as justification for his bill. ICE, he says, has shown itself “unable or unwilling” to enforce immigration laws, so “local government has to step in.”
The bill will be voted on May 12. Expect vociferous challenges to its legality: opponents will argue that only the federal government may respond to immigration violations. Yet, as Jaremchuk observes, laws against employing illegal aliens have been on the books since 1986, without the slightest effort on Washington’s part to give them any teeth. Only by penalizing scofflaw employers will the alien smuggling trade be stopped. As long as intending illegals know that they can find work hassle-free, no amount of border fortification will stop the invasion.
Hispanic advocacy groups and the ACLU are already accusing the town of practicing “racial profiling.”
And the media is running the usual story: How dare anyone scare our illegal aliens? “Fear on the streets” ran a subhead in an April 15 News Journal story (published in Wilmington, Del.)
It is the peculiar trait of immigration law-breaking that you’re supposed to be able to do it without any fear of the consequences. It’s mean-spirited, the elite thinking goes, to do anything that would lead illegals to worry that they may actually be at risk of enforcement. After the Border Patrol arrested some 450 border trespassers in several California cities last spring, the Los Angeles Times, La Raza, and every other advocacy group for immigration law-breakers protested that the arrests were "scaring" illegal aliens. The White House promptly called the team off.
One might respond that if you’re going to break into a country in violation of its laws, it goes with the territory that you might occasionally worry about getting arrested. It’s one of the risks that you are assuming. But no, the push to normalize illegal entry requires not only that illegals be granted drivers licenses, banking privileges, free education, free hospital care, and welfare for their children, but that they also be granted unclouded peace of mind.
Hooray for them. Hopefully some other places will do the same.
DELAWARE POL WANTS--GASP!--TO ENFORCE IMMIGRATION LAW
By Heather Mac Donald · April 21, 2005 06:24 PM
Local self-help continues apace.
A councilman and former mayor of Elsmere, De. (population: 5800), has introduced a bill that would fine landlords and employers $1000 per illegal alien that they rent to or employ. John Jaremchuk’s bill would also allow police officers, if they have stopped an individual for a traffic or other offense and have reasonable cause to believe that the individual is an illegal alien, to inquire into his residency status. If the person stopped cannot provide evidence of legality within 24 hours, he could be fined $100.
Jaremchuk cites the drain on the city’s coffers from illegal aliens, gangs and property damage, and the risks of terrorism as justification for his bill. ICE, he says, has shown itself “unable or unwilling” to enforce immigration laws, so “local government has to step in.”
The bill will be voted on May 12. Expect vociferous challenges to its legality: opponents will argue that only the federal government may respond to immigration violations. Yet, as Jaremchuk observes, laws against employing illegal aliens have been on the books since 1986, without the slightest effort on Washington’s part to give them any teeth. Only by penalizing scofflaw employers will the alien smuggling trade be stopped. As long as intending illegals know that they can find work hassle-free, no amount of border fortification will stop the invasion.
Hispanic advocacy groups and the ACLU are already accusing the town of practicing “racial profiling.”
And the media is running the usual story: How dare anyone scare our illegal aliens? “Fear on the streets” ran a subhead in an April 15 News Journal story (published in Wilmington, Del.)
It is the peculiar trait of immigration law-breaking that you’re supposed to be able to do it without any fear of the consequences. It’s mean-spirited, the elite thinking goes, to do anything that would lead illegals to worry that they may actually be at risk of enforcement. After the Border Patrol arrested some 450 border trespassers in several California cities last spring, the Los Angeles Times, La Raza, and every other advocacy group for immigration law-breakers protested that the arrests were "scaring" illegal aliens. The White House promptly called the team off.
One might respond that if you’re going to break into a country in violation of its laws, it goes with the territory that you might occasionally worry about getting arrested. It’s one of the risks that you are assuming. But no, the push to normalize illegal entry requires not only that illegals be granted drivers licenses, banking privileges, free education, free hospital care, and welfare for their children, but that they also be granted unclouded peace of mind.
Hooray for them. Hopefully some other places will do the same.
