Cities boycott Arizona’s immigration law

Jacob Johnston

As I followed the debate about Arizona’s immigration law on CNN, Fox News and in the Associated Press, I suddenly realized how badly illegal immigration has gotten out of control. The main problem being our politicians.

For instance, in response to Arizona’s immigration law, the L.A. City Council recently passed — by a vote of 13 to 1, with Republican Councilman Greig Smith being the dissenting vote — a city resolution stating: Until Arizona reverses its new immigration law, the city of Los Angeles is boycotting Arizona businesses and government. Other cities, such as Oakland and San Diego, are considering similar measures as well.

Think about this for a moment: The politicians that form the L.A. City Council, by passage of their boycott resolution, encourage aid, and support breaking the law while punishing those who enforce the law.

If that doesn’t raise an eyebrow or two, the AP article also reports that Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said in a statement it is “political suicide” to go after the undocumented because of all the immigrant families in L.A.

So, illegal immigration has gotten so far out of control in L.A. that now we come to the sad realization illegals, with no voting rights, have power and influence over L.A.’s politicians more so than actual citizens the politicians are elected to represent.

It gets worse.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was quoted in a different article written by the AP as saying Arizona’s Immigration law goes “against the democratic ideals of this country.” I would like to ask Richardson if there is any way to enforce immigration laws that are democratic in his mind. This statement has no substance; it’s purely grandstanding in an attempt to shame Arizona for doing something about illegal immigration.

The debate over Arizona’s immigration law has even made its way to Sarah Palin and President Obama, with Palin telling Obama, “Do your job, secure our borders.” President Obama said Arizona’s immigration law threatened “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”

I am not sure how to tell Obama this, but illegal immigrants are not American citizens, and don’t have any rights under the law, constitutionally or otherwise. Illegal immigrants have no right to be in this country, or to even be employed here. Obama’s statements are more empty platitudes to shame Arizona for enforcing immigration laws.

Most of the opponents of Arizona’s immigration law state it would lead to racial profiling, claimed L.A. City Councilman Ed Reyes and Obama. Furthermore, they seem to be making no distinctions between legal and illegal immigrants. By failing to recognize this difference, such actions can easily be seen as an attempt to make legal immigrants feel threatened by Arizona’s immigration law.

There is a question I would like to ask all these opponents of the immigration law: How do you enforce immigration laws if you’re not allowed to check or question, in any way, if someone is in the country legally?

Political protection of illegal immigrants has reached the top of our government. The Department of Homeland Security stated it will not necessarily process illegal immigrants referred to them by Arizona.

Why are these politicians so protective of those who came here illegally? Well, one answer might be that illegal immigrants are a safety net, if the politicians in Washington get to the point where they are unelectable, they just need to give amnesty to illegal immigrants to get the votes they need to stay in office.

This is dangerous because it drowns out the importance and power of the American people. The Democratic Party needs to be replaced. In the next election, in order to preserve power to the people, the Democrats need to be voted out of power and replaced with a different political party; otherwise we as a people will continue to lose control of our government.