LatinaLista — It must have been a slow news day in Arkansas.
That’s the only explanation as to why precious white space in the local newspaper would have been devoted to an article with the headline: Analysis: State lags in checks of illegals.
From the tone of the article, it’s hard to deduce whether the reporter was saying that local police weren’t doing their job in rounding up undocumented immigrants compared to neighboring states or that undocumented immigrants weren’t the troublemakers everyone believed.
Following either one of those angles, we have to wonder what is particularly newsworthy about the topic.
Does this newspaper make the same analysis of child predators and rapists?
I would hope so since both of those types of criminals actually prey on the public and pose a bona fide safety risk compared to the guy or gal who just minds their own business and goes to work.
In reading the full article, it was heartening to read how all the local law enforcement officers feel it’s a waste of time to actively pursue undocumented immigrants.
As Jeffrey Walker, a criminal justice professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock said:
“Another explanation is that police officers here are just not necessarily all that bent out of shape about illegal aliens,†Walker said. “They’re dealing with people and they either commit crimes or they don’t commit crimes.
Nobody condones hard criminals that put other people at risk but to single out a demographic because it’s suddenly “chic journalism” to do so, well, there better be a good news angle to it other than telling readers:
In Little Rock, the state’s largest city police department, investigators say illegal aliens are more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators.
Of the city’s 59 homicides in 2006, and 38 recorded so far in 2007, only one is believed to have been committed by an illegal alien.
On second thought, that last line is newsworthy!
Comment(5)
Frank
With or without crime stats, the bottom line is that illegal aliens should not be in this country but deported as our laws demand it.
EYES OF TEXAS
Check out the next big bill going up for vote in the Senate. It’s called the Save Act being introduced by Rep. Heath Shuler Dem.-N.C.. With the recent demise of the two amnesty bills our reps. are starting to listen to American citizens and I think the Save Act will float through the Senate and House like a breeze.
Horace
This is a clarion call for Arkansans to wake up and vote for candidates who oppose Huckabee-like politicians who’ve actually invited Mexcio to open a consular service for illegal aliens. Watch for further action by the legislature to deny all benefits and services to illegal aliens. Arkansas will emulate Oklahoma in its position of illegal immigration.
Horace
A WIN!
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Judge Denies Preliminary Injunction Motion
AP/KOTV – 10/31/2007 10:33 AM – Updated 10/31/2007 7:12 PM
TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ A federal judge denied late Wednesday a request by Latino groups to block the implementation of a new state law targeting illegal immigrants, paving the way for the bill to take effect in a matter of hours. In a two-page ruling, U.S. District Judge James H. Payne wrote that the plaintiffs failed to introduce evidence in support of their motion.
The Latino groups sought the preliminary injunction to stop the new law, which would bar illegal immigrants from obtaining jobs or state assistance and make it a felony to harbor or transport illegal aliens.
Payne threw out an earlier attempt by the group to stop the measure, saying the plaintiffs could not show they were harmed by a law that hadn’t taken effect yet.
In its second filing, the group added several unidentified illegal immigrants who have been told they must move from their rent homes because of the new law.
Both sides assembled outside the federal courthouse for an often tense news conference following Wednesday’s hearing. The Hispanic leaders were interrupted at least twice by residents who supported the new law, and a driver in one car yelled an ethnic slur at the group.
The Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, said that a decision to prevent the law from taking effect would help bring calm to the Latino community. Rivera also pledged to fight the law to the U.S. Supreme Court if he had to.
“I know 25,000 or more of my Latino people have been afraid and they have left this state,” Rivera said.
He said the eyes of the nation are watching to see what action the state takes regarding the new law, which is billed by its backers as one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country.
Hispanic activist Victor Orta said, “Our families have been receiving eviction notices that, beginning tonight, if they cannot prove their status here, they will be evicted.”
Orta also said he was astonished at the silence of other Anglo churches on the matter.
Supporters of the new law said state legislation was needed because federal authorities had failed to act.
“They want to move Mexico here. They do not want to assimilate. I have a problem with that,” said Tulsa resident Dan Howard, a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper.
Howard began his news conference by saying he would address the crowd in English, because “I’m standing in the USA.” Hispanic leaders earlier spoke to the audience in English, then Spanish.
Carol Helm, director of Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now, said the bill restates the importance of following labor and tax laws.
“It just seems that every month, the rate of illegals just continues to grow, and that’s a stated fact by the Hispanic organizations,” Helm said. “Common sense says how many, how much, what is the break-even point which the state can absorb?”
Immigrant rights groups have long decried the legislation, saying it unnecessarily repeats federal law, dehumanizes people and panders to people with racial biases. They say tens of thousands of Hispanics have already fled Oklahoma ahead of the law taking effect.
Some churches have also come out against the law. On Tuesday, a representative of Catholic Charities delivered more than 1,000 signed pledges of resistance to H.B. 1804 to Gov. Brad Henry’s office.
Nina Perales, Southwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said there was more puffery to the law than substance.
Even so, she said many at the community level are concerned it will unleash immigration raids, increase racial profiling and split up families.
“It is a ridiculously redundant piece of legislation,” Perales said. “These are all federal laws that are already on the books.”
The Rev. Luis-Carlos Sanchez, vice president of the Coalition of Hispanic Organizations, said the bill has already “opened the doors for every kind of prejudice and every kind of racial profiling.”
“If we call them criminals, we can abuse them and take advantage,” he said. “We have done this with the Native Americans, calling them savages, and African-Americans, calling them less than whites, and we are doing this again.”
The bill’s author, Republican state lawmaker Randy Terrill, has said the people of Oklahoma support meaningful immigration reform and repeatedly stated he was confident it would hold up if challenged in the courts.
Liquidmicro
Illegal Aliens Defined
By Mike Cutler
illegal (adj.): not according to or authorized by law: unlawful, illicit; also: not sanctioned by official rules (as of a game)
An interesting editorial ran in the New York Times about a week ago. Written by Lawrence Downs, it glosses over many facts where illegal immigration is concerned. Had Al Gore not written a book about global warming entitled “An Inconvenient Truth,” that title would serve this debate quite well.
It is important to understand that the folks who advocate for open borders and essentially uncontrolled immigration use two primary tactics to further their agendas. They either resort to an Orwellian “Newspeak,” or, they accurately define a problem that presents a significant dilemma, but then propose a solution that makes no sense and may well exacerbate the original problem. This enables such deceptive individuals with the opportunity to push a “solution” that furthers their goals.
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