Letter to the Editor=They would not print this one

  Clear Lake Shores, Texas, United States
Friday, July 13, 2007

   I sent this to the L.A. Times, I guess they didn't like it because I have not heard from them.  After reading, it does seem to be a little harsh.  The opinions expressed below are mine only and should not be attributed to the immigration reform movement as a whole.


     Band Wagons.  It is o.k. to hate because everyone does.  We are on a bandwagon in the U.S. thank you Lou Dobbs.  We demonize undocumented immigrants.  It is o.k. Everyone does it.  Right?  Once on a band wagon, most wagoneers, that is what I call them, are not

Path to Mexico

    strong minded enough to re-think and get off.         

What happened to "Liberty and Justice for All"?  Maybe somewhere, like Mexico.  Even if you don't like Mexican justice, as far as I know, the laws are the same, no matter who you are.  Did you know, in the U.S., undocumented immigrants are treated to a tougher set of rules and laws than U.S. citizens? A friend told me, his his wife who had breast cancer could not get medical treatment until cancer had riddled her body and she was on her death bed.  Services in some states are limited to immediate life and death struggles, not extended life struggles.  I have not verified the information but took my friend's word for the tip.  If true, how generous of the wealthiest nation in the world!



       We pay social security, will we get it back?  Undocumented immigrants pay but never get it back.   Their money offsets current payments. The undocumented worker calculates deductions as a cost of doing business at his minimum wage, go no-where job.  Meanwhile, the average wagoneer is plotting how to boot a hefty percentage of the people supporting our social security system out of the country.

      You pay the deductible for traffic accidents with uninsured motorists.  We refuse to give driver's licenses to 12,000,000 undocumented workers.  It is hard to get insurance when you don't have a license.  I shake my head when I see a  wagoneer in a fender bender or minor accident with a suspected undocumented worker.  But you may not.  Band wagoneers force our insurance premiums through the roof!  Band wagons don't come cheap.      

      Even if you don't agree with illegal immigrants being here, there are good reasons to give everyone on the road a license.  In addition to insurance, the driver's license bureau requires I.D. and fingerprints at application.  I thought we wanted to identify these unknown people!  Maybe they can fake I.D.s, but finger prints are pretty accurate these days.  How come our state police know all about you during a traffic stop but don't have a clue who this guy is from Somalia?    Not all illegal immigrants are from Mexico.    
        
     Then there is demonizing.  Like the untruth about the consular general identification being easy to get.  Band wagoneers might learn something if they sponsored an illegal alien instead of harboring resentments against people they never met.  We could call it exchange illegal immigrants instead of exchange students.  Our wagoneer can himself become an exchange illegal immigrant when Mexico shuts the tap on its vast oil reserves and closes its borders in retaliation for the way we treat their citizens.  

      I heard one better on talk radio.  The program was about child molesters, not illegal immigrants.  A woman called to say she had spent 10 years in Mexico and Latinos have a penchant for child molesting.  The host shot her down so he could appear pro-Latino.  He didn't't want to lose advertisers.  But don't you think they screened the call and the host knew what the lady was going to say?  I heard a story about the citizens of a Mexican pueblo who didn't wait for the courts to investigate the broken childhood of a sexual predators.  They shot the predator.  Based upon some conservative talk shows, a lot of band wagoneers would agree. 

  Our criminal laws are tougher for undocumented workers.  After conviction for driving under restraint three times, which is a more serious charge than driving without a license,  you qualify for the "little bitch".  When convicted, you are an habitual traffic offender, a felon, and you get a year in the state pen.  A U.S. citizen goes down this road for alcohol and drug related offenses.  The undocumented worker ends up as bubba's play toy because narrow minded people won't let him follow the law in the first place.     

     Two misdemeanor charges for certain types of offenses fades into your past as a minor event.  Your federal immigration official considers two minor charges a felony, a permanent prohibition against migration to the U.S.  There is no law that supports this, they just made a rule that applies to immigrants in the documentation process.  That turns misdemeanor charges into an immigration defense case and puts more money into the pockets of legal beagles.  Band wagoneers are not able to think that far ahead because they sure don't like attorneys!     

     You get an attorney if you can't afford one in criminal cases.  Attorneys are not appointed in deportation court.  Many "detainees" don't qualify for release and must make the choice,  accept deportation or remain in custody.  This is not prison, of course.  They even have names for these places.  How about Wackenhut  in Colorado?  I think we should give every band wagoneer a week's free stay there.  Some of them would probably take us up on it!  Sheesh.

      What would you do with an alien ordered deported if his country will not accept him back?  If not eligible for release, he remains the guest of the United States Hilton.   Remember, they are spending your social security money to keep this guy locked up, sometimes, for life!   He probably has not killed anyone, not robbed, raped, stolen or even had an open container in a park.  Maybe he is a lifer because he was stopped for not wearing a seat belt.  At least in France, you have to steal a loaf of bread to get life!     

     I am a strong advocate of border security.  This article is not about border security.  It is about how we treat everyone who is in the U.S., it is about discriminating based upon NATIONAL ORIGIN, which counters the argument we are not discriminating because many Chicanos take an anti immigrant stance. 

     When we treat some people differently from others, when we apply two different sets of laws for the same actions, then it is only a matter of time before the trend spreads.  Which section of the population is next?  There are a lot of minority groups and lifestyles still unprotected in the U.S.  We are talking about basic human rights for everyone, about liberty and justice for all, about the basic principles upon which most of us thought this country was founded.  Rational immigration reform will solve some, but not all, of these problems.

           Getting off of the band wagon is hard.  First, you have to think.  Conservative talk radio depends on non thinkers, I mean wagoneers.  They want the band to play on.  That makes free speech, open mindedness and a good heart dangerous.  Patriotism?  Frankly, I think suggesting we treat all people equally in the Land of the Free and the Home of the brave is more patriotic than bitching about an undocumented worker making $10.00 an hour!           

  Tim Paynter is an attorney in hiding from band wagoneers with guns.  enlavidanueva@yahoo.com  

   
The comments in this article are opinions only, do not constitute legal advice, and may be incorrect.  No offense intended to free thinkers.