Tuesday, October 10, 2006 10:20 PM CDT
Column: Columbia University student protesters acted like lynch mob
By HARRY REYNOLDS, Editorial Page Editor
hreynolds@jg-tc.com
An advocate of Mexican immigration -- and by the way, legalities be damned -- insisted stubbornly Monday on one of the 24-hour news channels that Mexicans who sneak into the U.S. are “undocumented immigrants.”
He went out of his way to correct the news anchor, who was operating under the foolish impression Mexican citizens who sneak into the U.S. to live and work are “illegal aliens.”
Some estimates of the number of Mexicans living illegally in America run as high as 30 million, though the government puts it at 11-12 million. In any case, our borders are harboring millions of people who just broke into our home -- and stayed.
Not only have they settled in, but some of them contend vociferously since they are here, here they will remain. And if homeowner America presses the issue, the poor fellow is tagged as “racist.”
As the discerning reader might suspect, “undocumented immigrant” is a euphemism crafted by those stalwart champions of Political Correctness in order to soften the obvious fact that America is being invaded.
And with a vengeance.
Do I harbor hostile feelings toward Mexicans who want to move to the United States?
Frankly, no.
We’re a big country -- one of the largest geographically in the world -- and much of our hinterland is migrating to the coasts.
Like most highly industrialized countries, the birth rate of Americans has declined to the point where we need new blood. Just look at places like France and Japan, countries in which the birth rate fails to keep pace with the rate of demise.
So, yeah, we can use immigrants. Many jobs go begging for want of workers. A note, however. It’s not that Americans are too lazy to do the jobs for which some employers are offering appallingly low wages.
I’ve never bought the argument that it is necessary to pay poverty wages to keep the American economy humming. But, the fact is the giant grind of capitalism’s wheels follows its narrow, flawed, philosophical path.
The fellow championing “undocumented immigrants” flared rather indignantly when it was suggested people who sneak into this country are not entitled to the benefits accorded legal aliens and American citizens.
He chummed for the idea that once an illegal alien makes it across the border, lands a job, has taxes extracted from his paychecks, etc., he is therefore, and at that point, entitled to all the rights and privileges of American citizens.
This kind of thinking, also advocated by some natural and naturalized Americans, spawns the notion illegal aliens should be eligible to receive driver’s licenses.
How an illegal alien obtains a driver’s license legally without being arrested at the point of application and shipped back to his own country remains a mystery.
We need to get a handle on the problem of illegal immigration. No nation can endure unfettered borders.
How much sense does it make to pat down airline passengers and impose tight security on our public buildings if our southern border leaks like a sieve?
I’m not at all certain erecting a fence along the southern border will stop illegal aliens, but it will slow them down. We must get control of our borders.
The government also needs to crack down on employers who hire illegal aliens. They should be paying big fines. And a jail cell might be necessary for those who don’t get the message.
The government should also be working to streamline the process by which we transform longtime illegal immigrants into American citizens. Trying to export the millions of illegal aliens who have lived in this country for years is not a viable option despite the fact that it is unfair to law-abiding immigrants to make what’s illegal legal.
Many long-term illegal aliens have children and grandchildren who were born here -- all Americans. Does anybody really want to tear families apart?
I’m disgusted by what happened on the campus of one of America’s premier universities on Wednesday, Oct. 4.
Violent protesters stormed the stage at Columbia University where Jim Gilchrist of the Minutemen Project was speaking. They forced security personnel to evacuate Gilchrist and another author scheduled to speak.
Gilchrist’s offense: writing a controversial book entitled “Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America’s Borders.” Gilchrist was addressing the topic of illegal immigration when the protesters tried to shut him up.
Whether one agrees with Gilchrist or not, he has every right to voice his opinions on illegal immigration without being subjected to what amounted to an act of intimidation.
Thus far, Columbia officials have hemmed and hawed over the disgusting behavior of students who should know better. If anything, it demonstrated the protesters’ ignorance of the First Amendment -- which a $30,000-a-year education has not dented.
Open and honest debate is imperative in regard to the problem of illegal immigration.
Slogans and violent protests won’t do. Columbia University students behaving like a lynch mob won’t do.
Harry Reynolds is editorial page editor of the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Contact Reynolds at hreynolds@jg-tc.com or 238-6861.
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