Arellano: All That's Wrong About Illegal Immigration

Debra Saunders writes on RealClearPolitics.com in a withering assault on Elvira Arellano, the convicted felon illegal alien who was recently deported after she came out of hiding in a Chicago church. She shows how Arellano is what the media typically portrays as the poor Mexican just trying to make a better life. Arellano said:

"We immigrants need representation," Arellano complained last year, according to The Associated Press. "The millions of Mexican immigrants who are living in the U.S. are being treated like criminals. I'm not a criminal. I'm a mother who worked to support my son in this country."

The problem is that she is a criminal. She snuck across the border (more than once, which makes her a felon), and was convicted of using a false Social Security number (another felony). Supporters say the U.S. government shouldn't separate Arellano and her 8-year-old son (who is a U.S. citizen), but Saunders points out that in the spirit of family unification, "she should have stayed in Mexico with her family. Now, she is free to bring her son to Mexico to live with her." Saunders also points out that "it's odd how citizenship -- her son's, that is -- suddenly is all important for Arellano, when it was a niggling detail when she chose to violate U.S. law."

Part of the reason Arellano has been allowed to stay in the country so long was that she got direct help from Illinois Democrats Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Luis Guttierez, who sponsored private bills on her behalf. Now that public scrutiny is on Arellano, they are suddenly unhelpful.

Saunders concludes with a very important aspect of this debate:

"It's bad enough that so many non-citizens freely break this country's duly enacted laws. But when they feel that they can break our laws openly and without consequence, they have to go. Or all respect for the law will go."

That leads us to Ann Coulter's scathing piece on Townhall.com that perfectly illuminates all that's wrong about illegal immigration. Coulter begins her article this way:

Mickey Kaus has raised the intriguing possibility that, since Bush's amnesty plan went down to humiliating defeat once Americans got wind of what the elites had planned for us, the Bush administration might respond by intentionally targeting highly sympathetic illegal aliens for deportation "in as clumsy, heartless and lawsuit-inspiring a fashion as possible, in order to create the maximum number of negative headlines."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described anti-amnesty Americans as being satisfied with nothing less than "the death penalty" for illegal aliens and recently warned of "some unhappy consequences" unless illegal aliens were granted amnesty. Yes, that Michael Chertoff -- the guy in charge of keeping us safe from foreign invasions.

So it was curious when we were treated this week to a weeping Mexican woman on TV, claiming the U.S. government was tearing her from her infant son and saying she knew the American people would be outraged if she were deported. (I note that her message might have been more effective in English.)

Coulter then admits she would rather see ICE concentrate on illegal aliens who have committed heinous crimes:

- Carranza and Godinez: illegal immigrants who shot four promising college kids execution style in Newark, killing three of them, possibly after sexually molesting two of them (both men had prior convictions, Carranza's being the rape a 5-year-old girl)

- Ruben Hernandez-Juarez: an illegal alien charged with sexually molesting a 6-year-old boy in Martin County, Fla.

- Alejandro Bautista: an illegal alien in Cook County, Ill., who was convicted for sexually molesting two teenaged boys

- Alejandro Xuya-Sian: the illegal alien who hit a pedestrian with his car in New York and dragged him for nearly a mile before dislodging the victim from his car, throwing him aside and driving off again

- Alberto Barajas-Enriquez: illegal alien who is charged with beating his Michigan neighbor to death with a golf club because the neighbor complained about the constant barking of Enriquez's dog. Asked by police how many times he struck his victim with the golf club, Enriquez said, "Let's see ... five, six ... uh, put me down for a seven."

- Lucio Sanchez-Martinez: the illegal alien in Ohio charged with sexually molesting a sleeping 8-year-old girl

Coulter explains that she limited the list "to those who were charged or convicted of heinous crimes last week. For illegal aliens charged with child molestation, I had to limit it to two days last week."

Now, Coulter returns to Arellano herself:

Arellano has already snuck into the country illegally twice (that we know of). After being deported in 1999 -- under an administration that, astonishingly, was more serious about enforcing immigration law than the current one -- she illegally ran across the border again a few days later.

Only after 9/11 was she arrested again and convicted for using a stolen Social Security number to get a job as a cleaning woman at an airport. In lieu of jail time, Arellano was to be deported. Instead she took refuge in a left-wing "church" and began to bellyache about being thrown out again.

Despite living in this country illegally for a decade, Arellano hasn't mastered the most rudimentary English. She doesn't want to assimilate and become a "Mexican-American." She wants to be a Mexican-Mexican living in and off America.

So far, the only thing Arellano has contributed to America is one illegitimate child.

Coulter goes on a devastating tirade against the Democrat party, which is clearly the party that most strongly advocates on behalf of these people, speculating that "they're losing the demographic war. Christians have lots of children and adopt lots of children; liberals abort children and encourage the gay lifestyle in anyone with a flair for color" and that's why Democrats are desperate to give voting rights to illegal aliens and felons.

The column contains Coulter's signature sharp wit, and is well worth the read. While I agree with Coulter's assessment, I would also take it in a slightly different direction, pointing out that these are all the reasons illegal immigration is bad: blatant, repeated disregard for American law, no sense of cultural or community responsibility, and a desire simply to leech off the prosperity and generosity (via government handouts) of Americans rather than a genuine desire to assimilate into America. The American people inherently understand these things; the Democrat leadership and the 'intellectual elite' do not.

Something must be done about this problem, and our government's leaders must be forced to do it by US, the American people, regardless of how much they may kick and scream in protest. It's for America's future that we fight, even against our own leaders, who are more concerned about politics and personal power than the good of the country.

There's my two cents.