Luis Gutierrez, Joe Baca don't want federal enforcement in "their" communities

Putative U.S. Reps. Luis Gutierrez and Joe Baca offer an editorial called "Mr. President, stop your raids on our communities" (link). Discussing everything wrong with it would take too long, but:

1. What exactly does "our communities" mean? I'm pretty sure they aren't referring to the localities they represent, but have something more ethnic nationalistic in mind. And, what right do they have to order the federal government to stop enforcing our laws? Taken the next step, are they claiming there's a Latino Nation inside our nation, and they're it's representatives?

2. As with others, they pretend they'll support enforcement after an amnesty is granted ("We can all agree that we need Immigration reform that is tough on enforcement.") Yet, everything they complain about would apply after "reform" as it does now. Does anyone believe these two racial demagogues would do a 180 and support post-"reform" enforcement?

3. They compare the conditions in the Third World ("abject poverty, meager wages, poor working conditions, paltry access to legal counsel and a jarring lack of fairness in the courts") to that which illegal aliens undergo. Not only is that extreme hyperbole, illegal aliens put themselves in their positions and almost all can escape their current conditions simply by abiding by our laws.

4. If their only concern was alleged abuses, they'd probably get more support if it wasn't clear that their goal is to prevent enforcement in order to increase their political power.

5. Is it in the best interests of the U.S. to give Gutierrez and Baca more power than they have now? (The answer is a very loud 'no').

Immigration2008a · Wed, 08/06/2008 - 19:29 · · Importance: 1