Opinion:

Immigration Priorities

Seem Out Of Whack

It's Drug Dealers, Terrorists

That Should Be Targeted

by Johnny Gunn

Regarding the current crackdown on immigrants, legal and illegal --- there is no question many of these people are in this country illegally, and many have been here long enough to have created a family, economic ties, political ties, long enough for many of them to believe they were actually wanted.  That is the real crux of this question, isn’t it?  For more than 50 years we have been actually inviting many of these people to come here.  It’s only been since 9/11, 2001 that serious questions have arisen, and that very possibly brings up the question of why?

How many headlines dealing with illegal immigrants do you remember reading in 1989?  Any at all?  How about 1990?  How about 1995?  Or 2000?  It wasn’t a question to be dealt with because from many people’s minds, there was no problem.  After 9/11, 2001, an entirely new philosophy developed among those least able to spell philosophy, the type that drive pick up trucks with ten tattered flags flying and empty beer cans rattling around in the bed.

The question that should be developed into some kind of policy is porous borders, not Hispanics that have been here for a generation or more.  Open borders are the sign of a well developed, freedom loving nation that invites visitors.  Our borders have become so open that terrorists, drug moguls, and many other criminal elements have all but an invitation.

Major industries, large retail operations coast to coast, transportation leaders have solicited those from Hispanic countries and the powers that be in Washington and along our border with Mexico turned an unseeing eye on the situation.  Now, these same people are calling it a crisis.  The only crisis I see is allowing ignorant fools access to a means of venting their racism and hatred of those not white and European.

I have a philosophy regarding these fools so we can put them in perspective.  An ignorant person can learn.  A stupid person won’t learn.  Many of those outlined above fit the stupid mold more than the ignorant.  Our border policy has never been written in such a manner that even border agencies understand them.  When someone is all but invited into your home, it is not mannerly to wait until they are very comfortable and contributing to the household to demand they leave immediately.

There are two situations along our southern border that need to be discussed, not one.  Getting across the border is probably about as easy as taking the highway through the Strip daily, or insisting on using Virginia Street to get from north to south, and those that come across are either looking to find work or are planning to distribute drugs.  We don’t seem to separate the two and we need to.  The coyotes, those are the criminals in Mexico that arrange passage across the border for a very hefty fee often attach a few with a group, and those few are carrying drugs.

The amount of methamphetamine that crosses into this country daily is possibly measured in tons, by way of car, boat, airplane, truck, and individuals that might not know they are being used as a goat, that is, one that carries the drugs across the border.  It is these incursions that should be targeted, and we have laws to deal with the others.  There were 50 arrests in Reno McDonald’s operations recently, making many believe that we are dealing with seriously dangerous people.  Gun-toting federal officers handcuffed mothers and fathers, working people, because they were trying to better themselves.

It was against the law for those here illegally; I’m not taking away from that.  It was against the law for McDonald’s to hire them.  They were treated the same as if they had just been discovered to be serial killers.  That is what I’m arguing against.  We have become extremely paranoid as a nation since 9/11, but too often, and probably just for show, our border agencies have not targeted those that are attempting to come into the country to do harm.  Our priorities are wrong and this needs to addressed.  We need to arrest, deport, condemn those coming here to do harm, not mamas and papas working to make themselves better people.

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Cartoon by Thomas Nast, April 12, 1874