Bigotry, Nothing Less

Loudoun Looks to Discourage Illegal Immigration July 17, 2007 - 6:32am Hank Silverberg, WTOP Radio WASHINGTON - Will Loudoun County, Va., follow Prince William County's lead and crackdown on illegal immigrants the same way? (WTOP)

I am sorry to say I live in the shadow of Prince William County. Sadder still to say that these laws are coming and there is very little will to stop them because those that see them as the bigotry they are are too few and too far between. The United States was, in theory anyway, founded on a premise of freedom and democracy. Heck, I will even pander to the Right and throw in the Golden Rule. Since 2000, these same freedoms and democratic ideals have been chiseled away and consistently destroyed. I have spoken out several times about the hypocrisy of bringing freedom to Iraq while here in the United States the soldiers are coming back to a country with fewer rights and freedoms then when they left.

So how is it that these new laws seem to target those that are not white (or even black for the most part)? If I thought for a minute that every single person that requested services would be required to provide positive proof (and folks, a birth certificate, in most cases, is not sufficient), then I would have no problems with these laws. But I know that if a Caucasian, a Black and a Hispanic apply for the same services, only the Hispanic would be checked for legal residency.

And I will tell you right now, that is wrong.

There are illegals in the United States today that run the gamut from looking like you and me to being as alien looking as if they stepped off the moon. You tell me how to distinguish them, because I will tell you how I would do it. Papers please. Passport or I-551/H1B. Nothing else is acceptable, because nothing else is proof positive.

The Federal Government can do little to prevent people from entering and leaving the United States at will. Even erecting a fence is of little use in a country this size. Sorry, that is the reality we all must live with and there is little that can be done. Further, every nation has some percentage of their population that is illegal. In the United States, however, there is a serious dichotomy between the services demanded and the services paid for. The citizens of the United States seem to demand a great deal from their government in services but seem reluctant at the very least to pay for them. As a result, what services there are are stretched so that any additional pull on them stretches them beyond the breaking point instead of being absorbed like they would be in other countries where the citizens are less disinclined to pay their own way. Health care and education are two of those areas where there is a legal mandate to provide the services, but a strong reluctance to pay for them.

Regrettable, the increase in funding that will have to result from the waste of resources required to verify every single request for services not to mention the increasing chill the whole process puts the entire thought of democratic principles, to my mind at least, seems to be a step in the wrong direction, regardless of the monetary savings portrayed.