June 18, 2006

Are We Supposed To Feel Sorry For Them?

These people have broken our nation's laws. Why the sympathetic portrayal by the media when law enforcement tries o do something about it?

SAN DIEGO - Fewer parents are walking their children to school in this border city's Linda Vista neighborhood. The crowd of day laborers huddled in a parking lot outside McDonald's has dropped by half.

A sense of unease has spread in this community of weather-worn homes since immigration agents began walking the streets as part of a stepped-up nationwide effort targeting an estimated 590,000 immigrant fugitives. Other illegal immigrants are being rounded up along the way.

Juana Osorio, an illegal immigrant from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, said her neighbors have largely stayed indoors since agents visited her apartment complex June 2.

"People rarely leave their houses now to go shopping," Osorio, 37, said as she clutched a bottle of laundry detergent in a barren courtyard. "They walk in fear."

Her husband, Juan Rivera, 29, has stopped taking their two children to the park on weekends. "We want to go out but we can't," said Rivera, a construction worker.

In a blitz that began May 26 and ended Tuesday, federal agents arrested nearly 2,200 illegal immigrants, including about 400 in the San Diego area — more than any other city.

Now wait just one minute. These people have an option -- go back to Mexico (or where ever they came from -- but in most cases that is Mexico). Apply to come to this country legally. Quit breaking American law.

And if you cannot bring yourself to do that, be afraid -- very afraid.

Posted by: Greg at 10:39 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 There's a funny double message we send them, though; if they get through the border crossing, they have pretty open access to our labor market - enforcement of immigration law at the employer level is very weak. So it's not surprising that they come. It's almost like we're saying "you're not allowed, wink wink nudge nudge, but if you get here you can work quite easily."

Which is, I think, why any sensible policy needs to include a strong sanction for companies that hire illegals, and good enforcement of that.

Posted by: John at Mon Jun 19 00:25:45 2006 (YId1A)

2 And you and I agree on the employer sanctions. Supply-side sanctions and demand-side sanctions are both necessary -- though the reality is that we really haven't had much in teh way of effective sanctions for years.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 19 05:05:13 2006 (s86sJ)

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