Let them work



A few things drove me crazy this week. The older and grumpier I get, the more that happens to me.

This whole immigration thing in Arizona is one of them. Arizona passed a law that says authorities can stop and question a person who they suspect of being an illegal alien. It doesn’t say they are going to stop a thousand people a day, or that they are going to racially profile anyone. It just says that they have the right to stop and question someone.

And now, of course, everyone in America is mad at the officials in Arizona , claiming they are insensitive and racist. People are marching and gathering together, actors and famous people are chiming in, even Major League Baseball is putting their two cents in.

You know who isn’t complaining, though? Most of the people of Arizona . And Arizona Border Patrol agents. And Arizona law enforcement officials who, by the way, I’m guessing are made up of Mexican Americans for the most part. I say that because I spend a pretty good bit of time in deep, deep South Texas by the border. And at least eighty percent of the law officers and Border Patrol agents that I see are Hispanic.

So I doubt they will abuse their privileges much at all. This law is probably more about curbing the drug flow, and keeping some of the violence that is happening on the other side of the border from coming over.

I really don’t see what’s so hard about it. If you get pulled over, pull out your card and show them that you are here legally. What’s so hard about that?

Sunday, the show “60 Minutes” had another story about immigration. Some company had a big canal built a few years back that carries water to all of the farming communities in southern California . The farming communities employ a lot of illegal immigrants to do the work in the fields, but on the way there a whole lot of immigrants are drowning in the canal. Something like six hundred in the last few years.

Listen, there is no way to say this without sounding insensitive- but so what? The reporter for “60 Minutes” made the company that built the canal sound like the criminal because they wouldn’t put safety features in the canal. It’s like they are telling someone to tie up their vicious dog so it wouldn’t bite anyone who breaks into their house.

Stories like this one, and the Arizona law that I talked about earlier, always forget to mention one thing. The people who are coming here illegally are breaking the law. Plain and simple, they are doing something illegal and that makes them criminals.

I’m all for people coming to this country to better themselves. This country was built from the work of immigrants, and we owe them a great deal. I can think of nothing harder than leaving my family for long periods at a time in order to make a better life for them. But nobody is telling them to come here illegally. We have laws and ways to help people come here the right way.

Listen, in the 50’s and 60’s, it wasn’t that big of a deal. But drugs and 9/11 changed all of that. Because law enforcement got so tough around Miami , most of the cocaine from Columbia now goes through Mexico . And the cartels there make their money from shipping it north to the U.S.

And I’m pretty positive that I read somewhere that almost every one of the terrorists of 9/11 came through Mexico to get here also, which is another reason that the Border Patrol needs all the help they can get.

The truth is, yes, I guess at some point some American citizen might feel like they are harassed just a little. But I’ve said a thousand times, you don’t hire Clint Eastwood to come clean up your town, then get mad when he shoots someone. We are asking the Border Patrol and law officials in border towns to do an impossible job, so let’s shut up and get out of their way so they can do it.

It’s just funny to me that the people who are holding rallies and doing all the fussing are from Washington , Austin , San Francisco , etc. Those people don’t have to live in Arizona , or protect their border.

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