Commentary: The real Good Samaritans
By Jay Ambrose
March 24, 2006
I live in Colorado, and I read the news here, and what I recently read is that - in just two hours on one day - four vehicles carrying 42 people thought to be illegal aliens turned over in the state on highways slick with snow.
Those accidents came on top of two similar rollovers of vehicles jam-packed with suspected illegal workers the previous day, and those accidents came on top of highway accidents killing something close to 30 illegal workers in this state in recent years.
I have a question. Why do you liberals - in your attitudes about how mean, ugly, intolerant and xenophobic it is to oppose illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States with tough measures - think it is OK to have this mayhem, to have the poverty that ensues from loose borders, and to have the exploitation that results?
If the question sounds angry, fine, because I am angry at all the morally superior nonsense that issues from the left, and yes, also from many libertarians.
I am angry at those people who wring their hands and say, dear, oh dear, we cannot interfere significantly with a system that has landed some 12 million here who have broken the law. I am angry at those who seem to think we need no immigration law, or we need to ignore it or adopt meaningless half-measures, or that those who have broken it should be hugged and kissed and left to their happiness.
Keep it up, and what you thereby create is not happiness, but human degradation. You say it would be horrific to tell law-breakers there are going to be ever tougher penalties for their culpability, and that it is racist to worry about illegal immigration. But no. It is not racism to want to protect the assaulted. It is not a far-right delusion that dishonoring the law is wrong. It is not time for a smiley face when accidents occur like those in Colorado, or when Mexicans die of thirst while crossing the Arizona desert. It is not heartless to seek, over time, to dislodge a rights-deprived, mostly abused underclass constantly fearful of being found out.
Maybe the answer is not to make felons out of the immigrants, along with those who smuggled them across the border and those who employ them, as a bill that passed the House would do. But neither is it a fair or helpful response to that legislation to say what Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York said: "It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scripture because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."
The senator is being much too cute here, aiming to make religious conservatives squirm while ignoring explanations by sponsors that the bill is not aimed at church or other groups trying to provide humane services to illegal immigrants. If the language is too broad, find ways to amend it in the Senate, or maybe argue as I would that the criminalizing tactic for the aliens is less likely to achieve the desired ends than letting illegal immigrants know that they could face immediate deportation if they do not agree to identify themselves.
Do that, and you can say - as some proposals do - that those who do identify themselves, have been here for years and have jobs and no criminal records can stay somewhat longer without being yanked from their lives with no chance of adjustment. Once back in their home countries, they could get in line to come back legally as prospective citizens.
You do need felony provisions for those who smuggle the aliens into and across the country and you need to have meaningful penalties for those who hire the aliens. It's a fallacious argument that this country cannot sustain its quality of life without aliens to do the menial jobs - the economy will adjust to get the jobs done. And you don't need what President Bush has called for except on a short-lived basis: an extensive guest workers program.
None of this is enough or easy or sure of success. That's true partly because U.S. policy makers have dithered on immigration policy for decades, letting a bad situation get much worse. There has not been sufficient understanding that the real Good Samaritans will be those who find ways to stop the annual flood of people for whom misery and catastrophe are predictable.
