Reek Is Too Mild A Word

Regarding "Immigration order leaves some behind" (Sunday City & State), I was struck by the avalanche of articles and opinion pieces regarding illegal immigrants in my Sunday edition of the Chronicle, virtually all of them either unambiguously sympathetic to President Obama's executive order, unambiguously critical of its opponents, or both.  I could have hoped for at least one dissenting voice expressing the downside of flooding our social welfare and education systems with millions of additional dependents who will never pay into the system what they take out, but perhaps that will be the subject of articles in the Chronicle on another day.

 

What I would like to talk about is the mindset of the people in these pages who attempted to make the moral case in favor of what can fairly be described as Obama's partial amnesty, since they themselves were long time users (and technically abusers) of illegal immigrants.  This includes columnist Lisa Falkenberg, who admitted "years back" to abetting illegal immigration by the usual means: failing to screen her nanny as to her immigration status, and paying her in cash.   Keep in mind that this is the same columnist who excoriated Dan Patrick in the midst of his campaign for Lt. Governor this past February when she accused him of doing the same thing with employees of his restaurants, the difference being that she and other critics never came close to showing that he had knowingly done what she now so freely admits to having done.

 

I marvel at the double standard that liberal beneficiaries of illegal immigration reserve for themselves on this issue: The same people who find fault with Republicans for opposing unions and raises in the minimum wage are the ones who have promoted the importation of illegals so that they could underpay them.  How do they reconcile that contradiction?

 

The good news for them is that going forward, they might not have to.  If things play out as President Obama planned, his executive order will allow not just illegal immigrants to step out of the shadows, guilt free, but the people who hire them as well.

 

At least until the next flood of "undocumented workers", sure to follow on the heels of those now here, and sure to have as compelling a human interest story to tell.

 

Pete Smith

Houston, TX