Open border advocates decry local enforcement

The anti-law enforcement crowd was well prepared. Obviously, it “ain’t their first rodeo.” They came in force. They waved anti-ICE signs, handed out fliers and stick-on admonitions against migration control. They filled the roster of speaker-requests before anybody knew there was such a list. Demonstration facilitators emoted “family-separation” as their primary message. They denied knowing that families were separated while Obama was president. When told that they were, they defaulted to, “They weren’t put in cages.” Then they were informed, “Yes, they were, and apparently you didn’t care about family separation until Trump got elected.” By their lack of knowing the truth, they probably would deny the fact that illegal immigrants at the southern border were tear-gassed and pepper sprayed 80 times while Obama was president.

The calm ICE presenter, a lady, probably of Spanish-American descent, showed a video power-point detailing the essentials of the cooperative agreement with local law enforcement agencies. The key point was this: ICE has no local officers on the streets looking for illegal aliens. Every person who is arrested by cooperating local agencies, regardless of color, ethnicity, sex, address, etc., is interrogated. There is no discrimination in the booking interview. If a migrant never gets arrested, ICE wouldn’t know they existed as far as cooperation with local law officers is concerned.

Speakers spoke resentfully that illegal migrants arrested for driving while drunk were turned over to ICE after arrests. Others resented that highway speeding violations have led to ICE detention. Both these violations commonly result in deaths and horrible injuries to citizens and non-citizens alike, but the pro-open-borders spokes-people didn’t want the illegal residents promptly returned to their homelands even for a potential death-dealing felony. One decried that a DUI offender had forgotten to get his green card renewed. He said he didn’t get notice in the mail. (A very convenient excuse. It hardly works for a citizen.)

The rhetoric, especially toward local law enforcement, got more harsh and demeaning. An Lutheran preacher mockingly alluded to police brutality. He demanded that visitors outside the packed room also be brought in. For what purpose, one can easily guess.

Another young man delivered a ranting spiel against the sheriffs. He closed with a chant, taken up by his 150-person crowd, demanding concessions for non-legal residents. A woman, with fire in her eyes and impassioned as a fire-and-brimstone evangelist, virtually called judgment down on law officials who do not do the bidding of open-borderers.

One man stood, out of turn, and said, “I support ICE, and I thank the sheriffs for cooperating with ICE in the 287g program.” Before the last phrase was uttered the room burst with derisive yells toward the speaker, who answered, “I figured you’d try to shout me down.” A man in the background applauded.

One immigration method that was not supported by the speakers and demonstrators was legal immigration. Every speaker, obviously backed by 98 percent of the crowd, implied that anybody getting into the United States be “welcomed” to stay and get all the benefits of legal citizenship. It was a full no-borders gang.

GERALD HOLLAND

Bentonville