Viva Estados Unidos!

Immigrants obtaining free clothing at the Fallbrook Food Bank

I was reading the local paper today and something got my nose out of joint. A twenty five year old Escondido man, José Vigil Carbajal, was just arrested for the third time since November, according to police reports. Evidently, Carbajal was deported after each of the three arrests, in fact he has been deported fifteen times by latest count. His police record includes four convictions for drunk driving, two for suspended driving and one hit and run.

Carbajal is unfortunately not an exception around these parts. Operation Joint Effort, the program that teams local law enforcement with the Federal Customs and Immigration authorities, has arrested 539 illegal immigrants who had been previously removed for the United States and were either fugitives or criminals or convicted criminals. A cop was assaulted by a large group of men that included illegals in Vista this week. A Border Parol agent was attacked here in Fallbrook on Sunday.

This kind of behavior really fries me. When my wife's car was broadsided by the illegal alien who had no license and obviously didn't even know how to drive, the cops wouldn't even bother ticketing and going after him, the chances of penalty and restitution being so distantly remote. Now we know that drunk driving is a horrible offense committed by people of all nationalities but in these parts many of the incidents happen to involve illegal aliens.

My grandparents came to this country legally, learned the language and took an oath of citizenship. They obeyed the laws of the land. They did not burden the social welfare system. They didn't think that a hospital was a place to obtain free medical services. They didn't think that they had an e-ticket to the social welfare state. I dropped off food at the Fallbrook Food Bank last week and for some of the patrons it is like Christmas every day. I realize that immigrants (and illegal immigrants) work at jobs that your typical american feels are beneath them. That without immigrants our agricultural industry would be in a world of hurt as would the restaurant business and many other sectors. But that does not give them carte blanche to illegally cross our border seeking a better life and then to dictate the terms and conditions of their residency.

I was watching an immigrants' march in Georgia last month and got pretty steamed when I heard a marcher say that they had worked hard enough to deserve citizenship. If you break our laws entering this country, I don't see why you should ever get the chance to become an american. I am totally against amnesty for lawbreakers, no matter what administration offers it. Do we not have a right to police our borders and reserve certain rights for law abiding citizens?

I am not anti hispanic. If you have a green card or are a guest worker or bracero and you want to go through the same path to citizenship that our forbearers went through, beautiful. I have no sympathy for the Pulitzer Prize winning author who admitted to being an illegal last week and now can't get a driver's license and risks deportation. If you broke the law, adios. I share the disgust and have little sympathy for those that do not respect our borders, come over illegally, have an anchor baby and then wail about being separated from their children. You broke the law, accept responsibility for your actions. Respect our border, respect our laws. Call me old fashioned.