There’s a popular meme that pervades liberal blogging. Republicans hate “scary brown people.”
Have you heard that one?
That’s why we want to increase border security and put a stop to illegal immigration.
It’s not because it is a security risk to allow untold millions of people to enter this country unbeknownst to authorities.
It’s not because the cost of our social programs is out of control, partly due to the number of illegals requiring benefits.
And it certainly couldn’t be that we wanted to avoid this.
[A] terrifyingly common crime in Latin America has moved across the border into the United States: Criminals and their family members are being kidnapped by fellow criminals and held for six-figure ransoms.
The abductions are occurring in the Phoenix area at the rate of practically one per day, and police suspect they have led to killings in which bound and bullet-riddled bodies have been found dumped in the desert. [Emphasis mine]
To be fair, the kidnapping victims are not just your average Phoenix residents. The kidnappers target relatives of drug traffickers and immigrant smugglers and hold them for ransom.
The kidnappers themselves are fellow traffickers who are doing it for the money or to punish their rivals.
While the average person on the street probably need not fear a kidnapping – yet – the fact that criminals of this degree are in the US is cause for serious concern.
Hostages are often tortured as the kidnappers try to force families to meet their demands. A victim’s finger might be cut off. A man might get a phone call in which he is forced to listen to his wife getting raped. Two smugglers were blindfolded and forced to stand in buckets of water while captors zapped them with an electrical cord.
But don’t take my word for it.
“These people are ruthless, serious criminals,” said police spokesman Sgt. Joel Tranter.
While the liberal blogosphere is buzzing with accusations of racism in an attempt to downplay the importance of illegal immigration as a campaign issue, people in border states, such as Arizona, are living among dangerous, extremely violent criminals.
Something needs to be done about this.
I mean, other than accusing me of hating scary brown people.
January 14th, 2008 at 3:54 am
I actually wouldn’t have a problem erecting a border security fence down along our southern border. I don’t think that the history of fences along borders (from the Great Wall of China, to the Berlin Wall, etc.) shows that they are particularily good at actually sealing borders, but if it puts a segment of the GOP in the mood to deal on other issues related to immigration, then so be it. I personally think that if we try and “seal” our land border with Mexico that people will just come in via our vast, undefended coastline or thru Canada. Don’t get me started about the border patrol along our border with Canada…those people have no idea what they are doing IMO. There are way too few of them, and they aren’t concerned about moving people across the border efficiently.
A fair amount of the concern about immigration does, in fact, come from the xenophobic-wing of the GOP though. If we’re going to get rid of all the immigrants (illegal or otherwise) in this country, I say let’s start in the order that them came here…the Vikings, then the Italians, then the Spanish, then the English, then the French, then the Dutch, etc. etc….you get the picture…
Most of my ancestors were labelled as drunks (Irish) or crooks (Italian) when they first came here…neither was true. Some of my relatives today are actually illegal immigrants…they are educated and they are here to work and raise families…just like the rest of us.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Illegal immigration and legal immigration are two different things. Sorry, that whole “we are all immigrants” thing won’t work.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:22 am
To cross the border illegally is just the “gateway crime”, once this is done more is sure to follow.