Illegal immigration: U.S. citizens called the victims
Third in a series of articles on the Southwest Conference on Illegal Immigration, Border Security and Crime hosted by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Nov. 4 and 5.
By LINDA BENTLEY, Reporter for Sonoran News
SCOTTSDALE – Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas took time during lunch to address the attendees of the Southwest Conference on Illegal Immigration.
Calling the resistance to the new coyote law by law enforcement agencies a “cop out,” Thomas said he was asked why his office was prosecuting illegal aliens since they’re the victims.
Thomas said, “They are not victims. We have laws in this country and by coming here illegally, they have broken multiple laws. It is we, the citizens of the United States that are the victims.” He said, “Currently illegal immigrants commit crimes, make bail and are never held responsible,” adding that there were definite advantages to people successfully leaving and going to Mexico after committing murder. He cited the Zavala case, the man who murdered the mother of his two children and then fled with them to Mexico.
Explaining that the MCAO had to agree not to exercise the death penalty or life without parole for Mexico to agree to extradition, Thomas took umbrage with having to plea bargain with another country to prosecute their citizens for crimes they’ve committed in the United States. While Maricopa County has the highest crime rate in the nation, the highest property crime rate and leads the nation in identity theft, Thomas said “An illegal alien needs to obtain a purloined social security number to get a job,” adding, some of those whose identities they stole were refused services because the additional income reported under their social security number disqualified them.
He said of 100 identity theft cases handled by MCAO, 34 were illegal aliens.
Additionally, he explained how identity theft ties to other crimes including methamphetamine abuse. Meth addicts will steal IDs and then go on to sell them to illegal aliens.
Providing what he called the “politically incorrect facts,” Thomas said it costs $11,000 to prosecute one ID theft case.
He then quoted from a La Voz article, the headline of which translated to, “They live breaking the rules.” The article portrayed illegal aliens as victims, claiming undocumented immigrants were forced to break the rules and identity theft was required to “obtain the American dream.” Thomas said, “Tolerating what is occurring, we risk changing our society.” He touched on voter fraud and said, “We’re dealing with something that affects our democracy.” Thomas commented it was unfortunate that the discussion on illegal immigration has resorted to namecalling, citing people were called “racist” on one side, “un-American” on the other, with some saying the border should remain porous so the Southwest can be taken back.
With a desire to move beyond name-calling as the discussion on illegal immigration continues, Thomas said, “Let’s deal with this as Americans, and do it by exercising our First Amendment rights,” drawing a standing ovation to go with dessert.
Technorati tags: Illegal immigration, Arizona, coyote law,Maricopa County, identity theft, Linda Bentley, Social Security Number, methamphetamine, politically incorrect, voter fraud, prejudice, first amendment, Southwest
2 comments:
Great article, Linda. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Are you aware that in CA we have had to close 8 hospitals in LA County alone due to illegal aliens using the emergency room as a doctor's office?
I do not want to hear one more word about how high health costs are unless they tie it to illegal aliens. It seems as though they are ignoring the 800 lb elephant in the middle of the floor!
Dear Bos'un,
You forgot to put 'illegal aliens' as one of you technorati tags. They are not immigrants. :)
LOL.
Post a Comment