Then there’s the problem: who’s going to do the stopping. A police officer? Any police officer, or those specifically charged with the duty? A civilian citizen? Someone with just the right credentials, or anyone who lays claim to the right? You know what we call them don’t you? “Vigilantes;” that’s what we call them. Next, think of everyone you know; your relatives, your associates. How many of them would you trust with that kind of authority? Conversely, how many would you not trust to care for your son’s or grandson’s ant farm? Now imagine that kind of authority is going to be in the hands of civilians you do not know, or even know about.

Me? When it comes to anything approaching the malodorous ether of anything like this I’m drawn to that famous line from the 1948 Humphrey Bogart flick, The Treasure of Sierra Madre: “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!” Except replace “badges” with “papers.” You see, I’m an American, not a citizen of China or Russia, and I never, ever want to see my country, for any reason whatsoever, morph into anything less than it is: a place where I have the coast-to-coast right to walk or drive down any public street, and tell you to “Go **** yourself, I ain’t got to show you nuthin’!”

And to secure that right to myself, I’ve got to diligently support the extension of that right to EVERYONE. Legitimate probable cause . . . for a fully trained and duly sworn officer: sure. Anyone else: not on either your or my life. Period.

     Finally, the nail in this odiferous coffin: who’s going to pay the tab, to do the investigating, then round up 12 to 20 million suspects? Then who’s going to pay the shipping charges to ship 12 to 20 million people back to all those unidentified somewheres, somewheres that may not take them? Then what? And then, just like you, just like me, just like Lou Dobbs, just like the authors of that HE alert, many of those millions of suspects are in fact native born US citizens.  

OH . . . “They” can stay? A goodly proportion of those whom you’ll — And just who the hell are YOU anyway, to grant anyone anything like that? — graciously permit to stay here are young children; very young children. Who will care for them? And who is going to pay that tab? 

You puffily snear, you’ll pay “your share.” David Walker, previously the Republican head of the GAO (Government Accountability Office), testified last year the cost, absent the costs to care for the young American citizens whose non-citizen parents have been deported, could easily well exceed $1 trillion. If 25% of the population is non-taxpaying underage kids and another 20% are non-taxpaying retirees, that leaves 55% of a 300 million US population, or 165 million charged with the bill. Your share is about $6,100.00! Cough it up NOW! You’re going to have to volunteer it, because there is not a single politician willing to introduce legislation to increase your taxes that sum, specifically for that purpose. No politician would because you would not stand for it.

Look, this is a serious problem: what to do, how to handle illegal immigration and illegal immigrants. Referring back to the first question, the one Jesus asked, and another Biblical query, the one asked of God by Cain (Look it up. It’s in Genesis 4:9) that I failed to introduce, there just do not exist easy answers. The bigots who clamor most loudly, I contend, are considerably more of a serious threat to all that is “America” than any number of those who came here sans the appropriate path and paperwork. As simpleminded-easy as it is to shout it, it ain’t amnesty!

— Ed Tubbs 

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