Apr 19 2008
Michelle Malkin Balks At Her Own Handy Work
It is rare when I take on the far right. It is usually a waste of time since they refuse to listen and then I get a bunch of blow back for daring to point out their mistakes. But I am a glutton for punishment, and I have to point out things that are just blatantly misguided.
When the far right tanked the last chance for immigration reform last year I went on record that they now OWNED every result of that short sighted act. If there was something in the laws they blocked – like the immediate deportation of aliens who commit violent crimes -those acts are now on their shoulders. I have posted on this responsibility shift forever – it is no longer a Bush or Congress responsibility for these problems, they had a plan in place and heading for passage.
So when I see Michelle Malkin holding up an example of a problem with immigration which she and her Amnesty Hypochondriacs are responsible for, I have to point it out.
WRAL reports on a new statistical breakdown of illegal alien drunk drivers in North Carolina. It’s a blood-pressure-raising look at the deadly revolving door, catch-and-release, the deportation abyss, and the danger of sanctuary policies embraced by those sworn to defend and protect the public:
And the deportation abyss is because the laws did not get passed and there will be no new laws for years to come. This is as much Michelle’s fault as those she lambastes – she just won’t admit her efforts to stop the legislation kept the status quo in place. I want to remind people why I call Michelle and Tancredo and their ilk Amnesty Hypochondriacs:
The far right literally lied when they claimed all we had to do was exercise current law and we could fix our immigration problems. They crafted this lie because there was a chance the comprehensive immigration bill would pass the senate, and those here illegally for a long time would only be punished by a fine and back taxes, and held to the promise to stay crime free and register with the new immigration system. They called this less-than-deportation punishment “amnestyâ€. That is why I call them the Amnesty Hypochondriacs. There never was Reagan-style amnesty on the table – but they lied about that too.
As people know I will not debate on false pretenses and lies. As the comprehensive immigration reform got closer to reality some panicked and started to believe exaggerated and extreme theories. They became invested in myths just as the left has invested in myths that Iraq is a defeat.
I have no choice but to remind people that actions have results, and you better take responsibility for all the results of your actions, not just the ones you wanted but all those you did not think through. That is the essence of law and order: ignorance is not an excuse. You cannot say I had not realized that would happen and get a pass on vehicular manslaughter. You can only get the lowered punishment for negligence verses premeditation.
Michelle and the Amnesty Hypochondriacs traded endless drunk drivers for the opportunity to try one more time to deport the illegals, either directly or through coercion from lost wages, etc. There never was going to be the removal of 10-20 million people who have lived here for years, but they were not thinking straight, they had to stop the bill which would not have provided the punishments they wanted. They did not care the vast majority in this democracy did not agree with them, and therefore they should have accepted the fact they did not have the numbers and let as much reform get passed as was possible.
The fact is we had two choices and they gave us the worst of the two. Choice one was (a) comprehensive reform passes with its imperfections, (b) the long term illegals get a process to prove they should, and then pay, to stay, and (c) we get to deport the violent criminals without minimal resistance from the judicial branch (there would be some test challenges, always are.
The second choice is where we are: (a) no immigration reform, (b) long term illegals get to stay and (c) we still cannot deport violent criminals. The lie back then was we could fix our problems with current law. I have many posts on why that was a lie and is a lie. So when Michelle holds up these examples of what she and others wrought last year when they killed immigration reform I can only shake my head and ask “what were you thinking?” Remember Michelle, all those dead children might have been alive if the Immigration Reform package had passed and these criminals would have been deported instead of given a second chance. You all own this issue now, since you left us with this mess.
Update: Pam over at Right Voices is hosting a neutral debate corner – I suggest folks also comment there as well as here and at Michelle’s site. As Pam notes, it is a debate worth having.
If you’re a talking head it’s a lot more fun to have something to bitch about than to ever do anything to actually fix it – especially if fixing it requires that nasty word “compromise”. Who gets excited by reading articles about compromise? That’s something only weak people do.
The Illegal Immigration Debate We Need To Have…
AJStrata and Michelle Malkin are two bloggers that I have a great deal of respect for. I don’t always agree with everything either one says, but I do listen to them, and in this case, both are making valid points:
Michelle Malkin:
WRAL reports o…
I know people who have worked with “illegal aliens” for generations. There is a ranch nearby that has used farm labor from the same village in Mexico for literally three generations. That ranch family made sure the women had medical care when the women had babies, he made sure the kids got baptized, and would even help out with education and other issues. For three generations. People in that town in Mexico speak with nothing but respect for that ranch family in California and when the old man died many years ago, “illegal aliens” came from miles around to pay their respects. Many still drop by to this day to simply check in on the old man’s wife (who is now well into her 90’s), thank her for all she has done for them and to inquire if they can do anything at all for her.
My point is to show people who don’t live out here than in many cases the relationship between a rancher and his labor is more than just an anonymous job, in many cases we are talking about families working together for generations. We are talking about real human relationships between people.
I also know people who volunteer with “migrant outreach” and try to take care of migrants who have been abused (happens often, particularly with hotel maid labor. The women are often beaten or worse and told to keep quiet or they will be reported to immigration). Anyway, yes, a good number of the people are no longer going home to see their families over the winter and during holidays. Just as I expected would happen, most are deciding to simply stay here now rather than risk going home and not being able to get back. They are also more fearful of reporting crimes which facilitates those who would prey on them. Illegals are more often the targets of crime than the perpetrators of it because those who would prey on them know they can not report the crimes now without possibly being sent back home … so now they simply don’t report them or report them to the neighborhood gang who attempts to keep order.
The far right is creating an absolutely barbaric situation. And another prediction of mine is coming to pass too:
Torches, bungee cords used to breach border fence. Costing millions to build and costing less than 100 dollars to breech, the new fence is turning out to be useless as it is cut in hundreds of locations. What can take weeks of time and millions of dollars can be brought down in seconds by anyone with some mining skills and a few bucks worth of dynamite. Sometimes the right is just so foolish. The extremes on both the left and the right are emotional. They don’t think. Their position is based on feelings not intellect.
The “Far Right” wants the border sealed and no incentive for further border incursions.
The Globalist Open Border folks are the real slave masters.
The “Far Right” wants the border sealed and no incentive for further border incursions.
The Globalist Open Border folks are the real slave masters.
The Globalists want their slave labor wages in the US, and the vile Democrats want their future voting blocks.
If being against that makes me Far Right, then so be it. I think you’re so emotionally hyperbolic about this you border on irrational.
Cross, this quote in the article stood out to me:
“What we’re talking about is our fences are designed to deter people, discourage them from coming in,” Romero said. “Combined with the rest of the infrastructure, it’s supposed to buy us more time to make an arrest. Even an extra five seconds helps. The goal is, at the very least, it buys us extra time.”
The problem, of course, is that as you get away from population centers like El Paso the response time to any breach is going to be measured in hours, not minutes. If not days. (people who haven’t seen areas like Big Bend have no idea how remote they truly are)
And here the agents on hand acknowledge that no fence can actually stop someone who’s determined to get it. It’s just supposed to be a deterrent.
In other words, for people on BOTH sides of the border, it’s all just for show.
WWS: Actually, I favor the “virtual fence” approach where there isn’t a physical barrier just for the reason you state. Any can breech the fence in a remote area and be gone long before anyone gets there.
If I were not born in this country, I would probably risk life and limb to get here too. And I really wouldn’t care what the bigots thought of me for it, either.
And people who think that migrants work for “slave wages” have their head squarely in a very dark place. Around my house most of the roofers, drywall hangers, and painters are foreigners.
The fastest growing illegal alien population currently in the US are people from India. Where exactly should we place THAT fence?
Go to agricultural towns such as Watsonville or Salinas and you will find that most of the residential houses are owned by “illegals”. They aren’t slaves living in poverty in many cases. They are people who have been here for decades that are roofers, carpenters, etc.
A “Virtual Fence” (a concept that I think shows contempt for the basic intellegence of the average person) requires , amoung, other things, that the Federal Govt operate in a competent and efficient manner.
Anyone who thinks that is sustainable must be joking
Crosspatch,
“If I were not born in this country, I would probably risk life and limb to get here too. And I really wouldn’t care what the bigots thought of me for it, either.”
Since this really is the greatest country on earth I understand your sentiment and theirs. But to equate those of us who want some alternative to open borders as bigots in unfair. As a matter of fact it’s the same hyperbole used by the radical left open borders crowd to try to silence others.
If I want welfare folks to get off their butts and start working it doesn’t mean I don’t have compassion for the poor. I have great respect for many immigrants and what they have achieved in this country including some who have come here and are here illegally.
Wanting the laws followed that are currently on the books does not make me or anyone else a bigot.
I believe we need control of the border. I also believe that we came very close to that with the Senate compromise bill. It seems pretty clear to me that there are certain people who do not want anything short of keeping all foreigners out. Anything that would allow easy to obtain work permits that does not extract a pound of flesh from people already here is called “amnesty”. The last bill wasn’t amnesty. The moment I hear someone use the word “shamnesty” I know they are not thinking with the brain that God gave them … they are following the herd and following their emotions.
We need a bill that provides a mechanism for people to get in here easily for work. It is important that it be easy so these people can go HOME when the work is done. If it is too hard, they won’t go home because it will be too hard to get back. The harder you make it to get in here the more LIKELY you make it that the “permanent” illegal population will increase. You actually end up causing what you are trying to avoid. Make it easy to get in here to work, and they will go home when there is no work.
We need to make it easy for those already here to come “above board” and get completely legal and fully taxed. Beware of people who would pretend to be far right anti-immigration bigots but who are really drug dealers or people smugglers who don’t want the system to change. It has to change. Keeping things as they are now is the worst possible outcome but that is exactly what people like Malkin are causing. By shooting down things such as the Senate compromise legislation, they prevent anything at all from happening. It is like a 4yo having a tantrum, really.
America ignores its own borders while building walled off slums in Baghdad against the Iraqi’s will.
We’re also building a border wall between Gaza and Egypt. Funny how they didn’t choose to go with a virtual fence there.
Reading your post AJ, I couldn’t help but think you must have been talking about another bill than the one we discussed at the time. That bill was not REMOTELY about deportation of illegals, or enforcement measures etc. It was about the economics and economy of scale of getting those people into our system legally. That was the main thrust of that bill. In fact, we had to fight tooth and nail to even get any enforcement measures (which people pushing the bill were opposed to by the way), put in the bill to try and garner more support for it.
That bill was about how to keep illegals here in the workforce and given them legal status, get them in the system and on a path to citizenship. The problem was, it didn’t deal with any of the issues about how so many people “get here” illegally. All that bill said to illegals or people outside this country who were thinking of coming here, was get here illegally, any way you can; that this is the best way to deal with the system. Once you get here and in the system, you have a direct path to citzenship by paying some fines (less then they paid to get here), etc.,
In fact, if I were here legally and had been waiting for a decade to get my citzenship, spent 10s of thousands of dollars, and they passed this bill, I would have simply left the country, come back illegally and signed up through the new system to go right to the front of the line. It was an express-lane to legal status, benefits, rights, and ultimately citizenship for anybody who can get here. That’s why I didn’t support it.
We must be talking about a different bill. With open borders, visa programs and other systems broken, and no way to control who comes here, we have lost complete control over our own immigration policy here in the US. That bill did NOTHING to address those issues….but instead….would have made those problems even worse by any account. Beyond that, none of “us” are against any enforcement measure (like deporting law breakers automatically). That obviously was not the argument in the first place.
I have no problem or issue with you blaming me for these things that have happend as the result of my opposition to that abomination of a bill. I will gladly call my local authorities and pressure them to do their job and /or work for new, more effective laws and law enforcment. I will call my senators and congressmen to work for a new bill that can address these issues without giving away our control over immigration policy—which is what I did during the debate over this bill….which for whatever reason proponents of this bill did not see fit to address. That’s not a problem for me as it is what I have always done. And I gladly accept that in trade for what we WOULD have had in passing that bill that was nothing more than an incentive for millions more people to come here illegally anyway they can, and a give-a-way of our soverignty and rights and control over our own immigration policy and system—replacing it instead with a free-for-all…first come first serve, gift package at the door for anyone who can get here illegally.
Since you are suggesting that this could have been prevented had we passed that bill…I ask you…”at what cost”? What would we have traded..for it? Our soverignty? Our borders? Conrol of our immigration policy? Or perhaps the issue is that you have never seen that? Yes, I’ll take responsibility for this drunk driver….if you’ll take responsibility for how he got here in the first place?
For more immigration blowback, you might find this link at Strategypage.com interesting:
http://strategypage.com/qnd/mexico/articles/20080402.aspx
Seems that the increased security has made it profitable for the violent drug cartels to get into the business of smuggling people.
Of course, this must all be President Bush’s fault. /sarcasm
AJ, just couldn’t let it sleep, could you? I was under the impresson that you wanted to drop the “conservative/moderate” debate altogether. It’s nice to see you are not only human but persistant as well.
😉
I read the other day that people are cutting right through parts of that border wall. I told some guy that a wall in the middle of nowhere would not stop people crossing the border unless there was more people and more technology to back it up. He told me I was an open border fanatic and a traitor.
That is what Michelle Malkin brought to this debate. Mean spirited vitriol and no solution.
I agree with you on this issue AJ and if some of these guys want to know why they lost in 2006 and McCain is the nominee, this issue is one of the reasons. They ranted and raved and refused to come up with reasonable solutions.
Now we might get a president like Obama who supports drivers licenses for illegals. Thanks a lot Michelle.
BTW, I hear that Tancredo is giving the Pope hell because the Holy Father called for a humane solution to the problem. Tancredo just had to jump in there and tell the Pope to mind his own business. Oh well, so the Republicans run off the Catholics along with the Independents. who needs em, right?
Actually Dc, AJ is right about this. BTW, exactly what has Michelle and her fan club done about this? Run people from Oklahoma and Arizona to Texas and Arkansas. Wow. The truth is the economic slowdown will probably do more to slow down border crossings than anything else.
Good God Vince, our borders are thousands of miles long and the Gaza border is 7 miles long. How can you reasonably compare the two? Besides, I thought we were supposed to be allies of Israel.
And besides, what do globalists have to do with that border? A century ago Pancho Villa crossed that border into New Mexico and Pershing was sent down there to run him out. Of course he was gone by the time that the Army got there, but our government did not build a wall then or place a lot of people on the border even then. It has NEVER been guarded like some people on the right demand today, not ever in our history. If it was just about globalization why weren’t people demanding it be sealed a hundred years ago?
Malkin didn’t give us McCain. She’ a conservative who supports conservatives. You can whine all you want about “vitriol” but a harsh message doesn’t necessarily mean the message is wrong.
“Republicans reject conservatism at their own peril”…a lesson moderate republicans fail to learn over and over again. Too bad, too…this was a golden opportunity wasted.