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November 12, 2006
Sanctuary
Today's NY Times has an article about sanctuary laws. Basically, sanctuary laws forbid local officials and police from asking people about their immigration status. The theory is that if you do not ask them about their immigration status, illegal immigrants might be more likely to cooperate with law enforcement.
I'm of two minds about this (tell me you didn't see that coming). It is certainly true that, unless we are really willing to do something about illegal immigration, the illegal immigrant communities in our midst could easily become havens of lawlessness because victims within them are unwilling to come forward for fear of deportation. This is not a very pleasant prospect. This could make the illegal immigrant community an effective incubator for a criminal tradition that, once entrenched, could haunt us for a long time. And I'm not speaking here about just criminals among the illegal immigrants. I'm well aware of the dangers created by having a situation where citizens can prey on some group with legal impunity.
On the other hand illegal immigration is illegal. Why should law enforcement be barred from approaching something that is illegal? This is patently absurd on its own and creates a very dangerous precedent: that certain groups engaged in illegal behavior can effectively pressure officialdom into turning a blind eye to their activities. Such a development, if it ever came to be accepted practice (as opposed to the exception we strive to eliminate) would truly spell the beginning of the end for our society.
Right now in our neighborhood we are having a problem with the developer in an adjoining community currently under construction running huge trucks through our neighborhood. They are not supposed to be doing this. These vehicles are crawling with workers who are, without doubt, illegal immigrants from places like Mexico, El Salvador, etc.
When we have talked the builder about keeping their big trucks off our streets (they block residential traffic, create immediate safety issues and will slowly destroy the roads in our development due to their weight), we've basically been told to go to hell. The Durham Police have not been much help (the one time they have intervened, it has been to illegally tell one of our neighbors to move his car to make way for the trucks; unfortunately, he did not get the officers' names or else we would have filed a complaint against them and the police department).
Anyway, I have nothing against these illegal immigrants. I realize that they are just poor people struggling to support families and taking jobs few Americans would to do. But there is something galling about a big corporation running giant trucks through our neighborhood, in the process turning a quiet and nice place into an industrial site, all the while using illegal immigrants to do so and all that our police have to say about it is that we better not park in their way. Any government that thinks such a state of affairs is OK will rightly be swept away.
Posted by dag at November 12, 2006 12:08 PM