Sunday, May 28, 2006

I think people have lost sight of what the immigration debate is all about. It’s about controlling our border so that we are protected from terrorist attack. It’s become a debate on what to do about illegal aliens who are already here. That debate won’t make us safe. We must control the border first.

There are a few hateful and bigoted people who are making the debate unpleasant for everyone and making those who want to convince illegals to leave and become legal before returning look bad. I heard a story on the internet that may or may not be true. It goes like this. A woman sat down in her seat on an airplane and the man next to her seemed hostile. Finally he asked her how long she’d been in the country. She asked him, “Well how long have you been in the country?”

He proudly replied, “My great-grandparents came to this country.”

She responded with, “I’ve got you beat. I’m a Native American.” He shut-up and didn’t say another thing the whole flight. It’s a nice story if true. This next one is true.

The Review Journal, a Las Vegas newspaper, reported on a woman whose husband was being deported as an illegal alien. She was of course upset, as she should be since her husband, the father of her six children, was going to be out of her life unless she chose to go to Peru (which would require her own immigration nightmare) or figured out some way to bring him back. As she was being interviewed someone drove by and yelled out the window of his car: “Go home!” With tears in her eyes she said, “I’m a native American. Where can I go?”

Now I’m sure the idiot in the car didn’t know what the interview was about. He just saw brown skin and spouted his hatred. How many more idiots are out there ruining the landscape for a reasoned debate?


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