WHAT YOU NEED NOW - CONTENT UPDATED THROUGH THE DAY
Dec. 2, 2005
COMMENTARY: Nation’s Illegal Alien Crisis is West Virginia’s Problem, Too
By David M. Kinchen
Editor, Huntington News Network
Hinton, WV (HNN) – If you think out-of-control illegal immigration is just
a problem for California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, think again: It’s a
problem for West Virginia, too.
The Register-Herald of Beckley reported Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005, that two of
the three suspected drug dealers arrested Tuesday evening, Nov. 29 on Harper
Road with thousands of dollars of cocaine were illegals from Mexico. The
Beckley P.D. arresting team had to bring in a Spanish-speaking officer, Sgt.
Jose Centeno of the West Virginia State Police, to question Flavio P.
Pascual and Rigoberto Otavo Morales. Beckley officers making the arrests
indicated that both Pascual and Morales are illegal aliens from Mexico.
The common argument is that people come to the U.S. from Mexico and Central
America to do jobs Americans won’t do. I think not, at least in this case:
We have plenty of home-grown drug dealers, as the police in Huntington and
other West Virginia communities readily acknowledge.
The Bush Administration has done precious little to secure our borders. The
Great Non-Communicator was in Arizona the other day announcing his latest
Band-Aid on a cancer immigration program, while members of Congress from
Southwestern state have called for strict control of the southern border.
One Congressman has even called for a wall or barrier from the Pacific to
the Gulf of Mexico to keep out illegals. I wonder if the mainstream
Protestant churches – the same ones slamming Israel for putting up a highly
effective anti-terrorist barrier – will protest this U.S.-Mexico Great Wall?
Bush’s proposal for a guest-worker program sounds too much like amnesty to
those concerned about the stream of illegal aliens entering the country, a
number estimated to have reached 11 million, according to a Scripps Howard
News Service reporter covering the Tucson, AZ speech.
"This administration has a sustained track record of ignoring reality when
it conflicts with what the corporate interests want it to do," said Dan
Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "The
president's plan is nothing more than a massive illegal-alien amnesty on a
six-year time delay, while his temporary-worker program -- which will be
anything but temporary -- is the death knell for America's middle class."
I agree. There are plenty of Americans who will do the jobs that illegals
are doing in the Southwest and elsewhere, but employers prefer illegals
because a person in this country without papers is far less likely to
complain about being stiffed on pay – often by fellow Hispanic on-site
bosses – or miserable working conditions than an American citizen. In
addition to cracking down on illegals, we should make life very difficult
for employers who don’t even make an effort to recruit Americans – including
Hispanic Americans – for jobs that undocumented workers – the P.C. term –
end up getting.
