April 03, 2007

Extreme edge case gives faith-based illegal immigration supporters hope

From Sue Dremann of the Palo Alto Online comes this (email her at the link):

A Palo Alto family's immigration nightmare has ignited a firestorm of protest from faith-based civil-rights groups.

A coalition of religious and civil-rights groups called a noontime press conference Tuesday at First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto to voice their solidarity with the struggles of the Ramirez-Aguirre family to remain in the United States.

...Still unresolved are the issues that put the family in the precarious position: Whether or not they received due process of law prior to the deportation order, because an attorney the family relied on to help them get green cards did not show up in court. Repeated lapses at court hearings and meetings with immigration officials none of which the couple were informed about, led to an order for their deportation. The attorney has been disbarred for his conduct.

Ah ha! The old "latching onto an extreme edge case - involving even a disarment - in order to make it appear like all the other millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. are in the same situation and thus we should just throw up our arms and give amnesty to all!" technique.

Other far-left illegal immigration supporters mentioned:
- Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice
- Samina Sundas/American Muslim Voice
- Asian Law Alliance
- Council of Churches of Santa Clara County
- Gloria Nieto/Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN)
- former Palo Alto Mayor Jim Burch
- Congresswoman Anna Eshoo
- "scores of journalists includ[ing] the Associated Press, and radio and television news organizations"

Burch - who I think everyone is about to agree is a loony - said this:

"Sixty-five years ago, when I was in high school in San Mateo, my classmates were taken away to internment centers. We were motivated by fear. That's what's going on today. When we are motivated by fear, we do things that lack compassion," Burch said -- referring to Japanese internment camps during World War II.

In the current case, there should obviously be an exception made or at least some form of appeal (assuming of course their complaints are factual and not distorted), but we really have to enforce the laws in order to avoid giving loons like Burch and the rest any more political power. Like this guy:

Father John Butcher, a priest of the Episcopal Diocese of California and longtime activist in the peace and human-rights movements, said he recalled that as a young boy, he saw his father helping to dismantle the Japanese internment camps in Arizona.

As a 10-year-old, one thing stuck in his mind, he said: Not only were people forced to give up their property and professions when they were placed in the camps, but upon leaving them they were only allowed to take one suitcase filled with their belongings. The things that children treasured, such as bicycles and animals, were left behind.

"And they were forced to shoot their pets," he said.

Undocumented families today are often deported without their belongings, echoing the treatment of the Japanese, he added.

No, really. I'm not making that up.

Posted to Immigration2007a at April 3, 2007 10:55 PM