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Before making his farewell to Winona County government after the fall elections, Commissioner Dwayne Voegeli is taking care of some crucial business, for example, instituting a county boycott of Arizona in retaliation for that state’s new law granting itself power to stop the illegal immigration across its border. Currently, this is the responsibility of the federal government, which it flagrantly ignores, leaving states like Arizona to deal with the resultant mess of crime and overwhelmed social services.
Mr. Voegeli certainly has prodigious energy; it is unfortunate he didn’t use some of it to ferret out the scam, run on his watch, whereby elements of county staff squirreled away millions of taxpayer dollars so as to buy a building they wanted, but which the commissioners hadn’t gotten around to authorizing. Oh well, a guy can’t do everything.
The hysteria generated over the Arizona law, mostly coming from far-away states that don’t have to deal with the problem of illegal immigration, is a lot of nonsense. It mainly requires the same thing as federal law, that aliens must carry on their person proof of their status.
It authorizes officers to ask for the immigration credentials already required by law, only in the course of some prior “lawful contact” which will generally be the result of a traffic or some other minor infraction. The new Arizona law has specific language forbidding stops based on race or appearance; legal immigrants or citizens of Hispanic origin will have to show a drivers license or some other identification, no more or less than what they and everybody else are already obliged to do.
The political left is mounting a caterwaul of fascism, racism, etc., over legislation that the overwhelming majority of Arizonans feel is necessary to bring crime and social upheaval under control in their state, by putting a stop to activities which are clearly illegal. It should be perfectly obvious that the U.S. cannot any longer handle, if it ever could, a continuing flood of illegals over our borders. We simply can’t assimilate them with unemployment at the new, improved, 9.7%, and a vast new health care entitlement rammed through by the same Obama administration that won’t secure our borders.
Under these conditions, inviting illegal immigration by refusing to enforce the law is to create a vast, permanent underclass of mostly Hispanics, who will be increasingly forced to call upon the government for services. And once the amnesty which is favored by the Obama administration is granted, this underclass will be able to back up its demands with votes (which is the point), and the whole process will start over again. It is fair to brand those who approve of and are working to advance this scenario as the real racists.
J.E.
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