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Originally published in the July 6, 2003 issue of the Alamance Independent

OUR DUPLICITOUS GOVERNMENT

July 8, 2003

Our federal authorities don't seem to be very concerned with the risks that lax enforcement of the southern border poses to American society. Although the news of illegal aliens killing Americans make headlines with a regularity of moon phase changes, they keep telling us that most of illegals are good, hard-working people who just want to improve their lives. This is why, ostensibly, the American border is not fully trespass-proof and the immigration laws are not being fully enforced. State and local authorities don't fall much behind that trend when they use about every excuse to not cooperate with the Federal agencies when it comes to turning the illegal aliens for deportation proceedings or, like the municipalities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland do, to offer safe heavens to illegals by prohibiting their police departments from questioning the arrested lawbreakers about their immigration status. After all, they claim, it's impossible to stop all those who are determined to come (illegally, that is) to this country, and blame all the problems resulting from that unlawful activity either on a reluctance of the Congress to pass an amnesty for illegal aliens or on a lack of a "guest workers" program.

Despite authorities' efforts to paint the illegal "immigration" as something valuable that we all should cheer and look forward to, lives were lost because some heinous murderers were able to skip the border undetected, or were not deported when actually caught while breaking the law. Lee Malvo, a.k.a. "Washington Sniper", was released from the INS custody, over Border Patrol recommendation that he be deported, shortly before he went on the killing spree that terrorized the nation. Angel Resendez, a.k.a. "The Rail Road Killer" was crossing the American-Mexican border as he pleased, and was caught (for "unrelated" violations) and released several times, even when the manhunt after him was already in progress. Adrian Camacho, a deported-but-came-back illegal alien arrested and charged for killing police officer Tony Zeppetella during a routine traffic stop in Oceanside, California, was in authorities' custody many times; he was subsequently released to the society on at least one occasion few days before he killed. Shortly after the killing, Zeppetella's boss publicly defended Oceanside P.D. policy of not questioning lawbreakers for their immigration status, although this dangerous policy had cost his officer's life. And the list goes on and on. (Read "AMERICA'S LEAST WANTED" at http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/criminals.html for more examples.)

If the lives that were lost due to the lax enforcement of America's borders and her immigration laws, and because of criminal actions of illegal aliens that were made possible by this lax enforcement, could have been attributed to the exercising by American people their right to keep and bear arms, the Second Amendment would have been nullified by now, and law abiding citizens, similarly as Brits and Aussies were, would have been stripped of their God-given self-defense right and totally disarmed. Not so with the crimes that were caused by illegal border crossing and establishment of sanctuaries for illegal aliens. You won't hear our elected officials crying "How many more lives of innocent Americans have to be lost before we stop illegal traffic going through our porous borders and deport all criminal aliens?" You won't see these elected officials visiting families of the victims of illegal aliens and promising them immigration control bills that will close the loopholes and eliminate the root cause of these preventable deaths. Somehow, their deep concern with the safety of ours and those we love is trumped by their mercifulness towards those who in millions break into our country in search of a better life.

Interestingly enough, the same authorities that routinely ignore the security risks that are associated with illegal border crossing seem to have quite a different idea about trusting "good, hard-working people" when it comes to public access to local, state, federal government and court buildings. Now it doesn't matter anymore that a vast majority, if not all, of visitors are good, hard-working and law-abiding citizens. They are all automatically suspected of an attempt of act of terror and subjected to unconstitutional, in the sense of 4th Amendment, searches and post-9/11 airport-type scrutiny, although court bombings and government official killings are as rare as the total eclipses of the Moon. None of these authorities even suggest that an amnesty or a "guest worker" program is all they need for the security of their institutions. They don't claim that the searches they impose on us are a waste of resources because it's impossible to stop all those who are determined to smuggle prohibited metal objects to federal, state, and local government facilities. And it doesn't bother our officials that the entry doors to these building look like more like militarized zones than pubic establishments, and that they promote xenophobia and anti-customer hysteria.

You see, although all citizens are supposed to be equal when it comes to security and protection, as guaranteed by 14th Amendment, our government has two standards in this respect. One is for us, equal citizens, and one is for them, more equal citizens. Our safety is a secondary concern that must yield to the "rights" of the illegal aliens (as if they had the right to invade America), diplomatic relations with foreign governments (so that they are not offended by the strict enforcement of our borders and immigration laws), and the employers' need of cheap labor (compliments of taxpayers), while theirs is the topmost national priority that must not be compromised under any circumstances. They seem to believe that we have to learn to leave with a threat that they cannot tolerate, because our safety is not nearly as important as theirs (certainly, not for them). They are quicker to stripping us from our constitutional rights than to protecting us from the invasion of illegal aliens, although protecting the America's border and her citizens is, supposedly, their foremost duty they were sworn to perform.

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