People Who Live in Glass Countries…

People Who Live in Glass Countries…

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

May 20, 2010

First Amendment to the United States Constitution notwithstanding, who the hell does Mexican President Felipe Calderon think he is coming into our House and badmouthing this country and its right to police itself as we see fit?

Freedom of speech, yes, but with decorum and diplomacy. One does not denigrate one’s host country when invited to speak within the House Chamber on Capitol Hill. And shame on those members of the House and Senate who stood and applauded Calderon instead of standing to walk out while he took to task a foreign government for passing laws to protects its borders while his own country continues to turn a blind eye to that very issue. All those standing, fawning, sycophantic disgraces to their Congressional offices should be targeted for defeat this November.

Calderon disingenuously said there is a “need for a more orderly border.” In fact, it’s to Calderon’s and Mexico’s benefit that little be done to discourage Mexicans from sneaking across its northern border and invade the United States. Once these deadbeat  Mexicans leave their home country, they cease to be Calderon’s financial, legal, educational or medical problems, and they become problems of the United States.

Calderon called Arizona’s SB 1070 “discriminatory toward Mexicans,” for allowing police to question people’s immigration status. The law allows police to question all people’s immigration status should it be warranted, and not just willy-nilly. The law does not discriminate against any ethnic group, but instead those people who have broken Federal or Arizona state laws by committing the crime of entering and remaining in the United States illegally – regardless of their country of origin.

Can United States citizens illegally enter Mexico without repercussions? Can United States citizens demand, upon entering Mexico illegally, that they be provided with free education, health care coverage, food stamps, documents/signs be printed in English and a pathway to citizenship? Absolutely not. In fact, Mexico has immigration laws infinitely more Draconian that those which are on the books in the United States giving his people and those from myriad other countries free passes to the tune of billions of dollars out of the pockets of taxpaying American citizens and legal residents.

Here’s a message to el presidente Calderon: go home to Mexico and fix your own house. If your country were not in the shambles in which it currently finds itself – deleterious economy, a murder rate out of control, rampant drug import/export, pollution on par with China, your citizens would not spend their time sneaking out of Mexico and into the United States – my country.

Calderon is but the tip of the iceberg, as he is on the outside looking in. Barack Obama must shoulder the brunt of the blame, first for continuing the presidential trend of not enforcing the federal laws that forced Arizona to pass SB 1070 in the first place.

Additionally, Obama, a.k.a. the fear-mongerer in chief caused quite a stir by suggesting families with small children on an ice cream outing would be plucked from the streets and summarily deported because he expected the police to violate SB 1070. Obama has problems giving police respect as he condemned the Cambridge, MA police deriding them for “acting stupidly,” when he knew nothing of the facts of the case in question. He just assumed – and we all know what happens when one assumes.

The question of illegal immigration will only continue to worsen before it ever improves and having the likes of a foreign ruler chide this country when he has no control over the affairs of his own state do nothing but exacerbate the already tenuous situation.

Whether it is the continuing invasion on the southern border of the United States, or the gang problem in places like Los Angeles, or day laborer problem in places like Northern Virginia, until incentives to invade our borders are removed, the problem will only remain an unsolvable invitation to foreign miscreants.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA.