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Talk of censuring is aimed at the wrong person – my candidate Rep. Sensenbrenner.

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

   March 14, 2006

 

  

Remove the St. Christopher medallion dangling from your car’s rear view mirror lest the “anti-help those in distress law enforcement patrol” spots it, pulls you over and arrests you as a suspect of “helping, harboring, smuggling, aiding and abetting illegal immigrants.” 

 

If you come across an accident before you rush to help victims, be sure they’re US citizens before giving aid or even calling an ambulance. If a victim is brown, or in any way looks like a foreigner, check their citizenship status before aiding in any manner, lest you wind up in jail.

 

If hiking in the desert and come across brown-skinned dying of thirst person or persons, be they young or old, men, women or children – assume they are illegal immigrants and do not give them water, do not transport them to a hospital, do not aid them in any way. To do so is to invite arrest on charges of human smuggling, or aiding and abetting them – so check citizenship and legal status first.

 

On the other hand, if in treacherous mountain terrain or deserts you spot caches of water bottles left there as a life line for desert trekkers, destroy them. Never mind how inhuman the act, it is not a crime. The crime belongs to the depositors of the bottled water for the intent of aiding and abetting illegal immigrants that may happen to find the water and use it even if it’s a life or death situation.

 

Extreme? Absurd? Melodramatic? Exaggerated? Sensational? Theatrical?

 

Well, maybe the part about the St. Christopher medallion, but as to the others – no. Rep. Sensenbrenner’s H.R. 4437 pending passage in the Senate does open the door to such enforcement.

 

For instance, a church or the Salvation Army that provides meals could be charged with aiding and abetting if one or more of those fed turns out to be an illegal immigrant, even if the meal givers are not aware of the immigration status. Or a housewife who takes hers and her neighbor’s kids to the movies can be arrested if the neighbor’s kids turn out to be illegal immigrants – even though she is not aware of it. A school counselor can be charged if some of the students counseled are children of illegal immigrants, or domestic violence counselors can be charged for the same reasons. Even hospitals giving emergency treatment can be charged.

 

But not to worry, Congressman Sensenbrenner, the bill’s author who got it through Congress by hiding it into a “must-pass bill” without hearings or debate, tells us that enforcement will be discretionary. That is the Attorney General, local District Attorneys, Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies will determine if charges should be filed or not.

 

How is that for reassurances? A hammer over citizen’s heads but don’t worry? We are to depend on the servants of the people to be in charge of our liberties, to determine for us whether we should help a fellow human being? And of course, we are suppose to believe that there are no racists, bigots and plain mean spirited persons in any law enforcement agency or prosecutors’ office. Our intent will be interpreted by good or bad servants’ of the people – did we mean to help an illegal immigrant or were we helping a fellow human being?

 

So let’s see, if Sensenbrenner’s draconian anti-American law were to make it through the Senate and signed into law by President Bush, Emma Lazarus whose words are engraved on a plaque on the base of the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

could be arrested under Sensenbrenner’s law were she alive today for “enticing” potential immigrants some who may enter illegally.

It sounds so far fetched that readers must be wondering when it was that I went bananas. Well, when I read the law authored by Sensenbrenner is when.

 

My greatest concern is not that as a majority Americans will put up with such malevolence – they will not. My concern is that we actually have presumed leaders of the country, defenders of citizens’ rights elected to Congress capable of producing such an inappropriate law so profoundly against the very essence of what America is and has stood for since its founding.

 

Talk about someone needing censuring!

_______________________________________________

Patrick Osio, Jr is Editor of HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com). Contact at: Posiojr@hispanicvista.com

 

 

     

(The opinions expressed by Patrick Osio, Jr. are solely his and do not necessarily reflect those of HispanicVista.com, editorial board of advisors or it’s contributing writers.)

Patrick Osio, Jr. has written a short but intensive manual on the Mexican perspective on numerous issues between our two countries. The manual is an in depth primer on the culture and protocol for better understanding Mexicans that in turn allows establishing personal and business relationships, and how to avoid the most common faux pas that can ruin relationships and business deals.

The manual is available through Electronic delivery for $9.95 making it possible to download the manual for save on your hard drive, printing its entirety or particular sections while reaping considerable savings over printed copies.