This is my country. I am a citizen of the United States. I served in the U.S. Army and am a veteran of Vietnam. When I see a group of people flaunting their lack of compliance with the rule of law, I have to speak up. To remain quiet is so un-American,
I am well aware of what racism is. I’ve lived with it as a Jewish person and been the object of anti-Semitism. I’ve lived in a predominately ethnic community and have been harassed because I am Jewish and white, and white kids in high school have called me names because I had black friends.
Racism does not take place when a person tells the truth about an ethnic minority. If I tell you young Hispanics are attracted to the gang culture that is not prejudice. I live in Los Angeles, California and I see the gang life influence every day.
Sadly, gang life is doing quite well with Hispanic immigrants. In her lectures and her articles, Heather McDonald notes that the incarceration rate of Mexican Americans is 3.45 higher than that of whites.
If you have not been reading my blog, you need to know Heather Mac Donald is a John M. Olin fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor to City Journal. She also is a recipient of 2005 Bradley Prize for Outstanding Intellectual Achievement. Her credentials are quite impressive and can be checked out at the Manhattan Institute's webpage. She is also a prolific writer of books and articles on the issue of illegal immigration. I went to hear her speak on the politics of illegal immigration and out of that lecture came this article.
McDonald lays it out: Anyone who speaks to Hispanic students in immigrant-saturated schools in Southern California will invariably hear the estimate that 50% of a student’s peers have ended up in gangs or other criminal activities.
Along with gang membership comes hostility toward education. Listen to rap song lyrics that appeal to young whites, blacks and Hispanics saying that it’s cool to be illiterate.
You can be sure gangs are not holding college career day on the street corners of East L.A. Rather, college education is knocked out by gang membership.
Again, illegal immigrants are not adding to family values (as I discuss in my previous post) but causing them to break down.
Hispanic population provides the greatest number of individuals who become part of gangs. Also, gang membership is getting younger and younger. 8-9 year old Hispanics are joining gangs. The school drop out rate among Hispanics is the highest.
It’s not enough to want to justify illegal immigration by noting what hard workers they are. Yes, it is true that a large number of Hispanics are hard working and they're to be commended for that quality. However, due to the influence of gang culture, we’re in danger of creating a generation of Hispanics that will create grave problems for our society.
The best thing the Hispanic community can ever do-illegal or legal-is to repudiate the gang culture and the rap music philosophy that disparages the dignity of so many young people. I often chuckle to myself when I observe a wealthy rap artist sing the praises of the hood while they live in the luxury of Beverly Hills mansions. What blatant hypocrisy!
Yes, Los Angeles has a grave gang problem. Many members of gangs are illegals-24%. However, these individuals are hard to track since they are not citizens and we have no record of them.
On top of that, the police have a hard time making arrests. Why? Cities like Los Angeles have immigration laws that tie the hands of police officers trying to arrest aliens who commit crimes.
The LAPD’s ban on immigration enforcement mirrors bans in immigrant-saturated cities around the country, from New York and Chicago to San Diego, Austin, and Houston. These “sanctuary policies” generally prohibit city employees, including the cops, from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities. So is the crime wave going to go up or down?
Should a cop arrest an illegal gangbanger (as if it’s legal to be a gangbanger) for a crime, he’s not allowed to even question his immigration status. In fact, if the police officer does question the illegal, it is he who becomes an object of investigation.
How serious is this? Check out this example: . . . the police force arrested a Honduran visa violator for seven vicious rapes. The previous year, Miami cops had had the suspect in custody for lewd and lascivious molestation, without checking his immigration status. Had they done so, they would have discovered his visa overstay, a deportable offense, and so could have forestalled the rapes.
If you don’t believe me, read Mac Donald’s article, “The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave.”
In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens. What if we could deport these homicidal monsters? Do you want them to stay and live in our society? I don’t even want them in our jails! Why should I pay taxes to support them? They’re only continue to live the gang lifestyle in jail while a white guy like me supports them. I might feel more compassionate if they were U.S. citizens. They disregard our citizenship laws, are sent to jail and legal citizens have to foot the bill . . . . ?
Listen to the seriousness of this situation as described by Heather McDonald:
In many immigrant communities, assimilation into gangs seems to be outstripping assimilation into civic culture. Toddlers are learning to flash gang signals and hate the police, reports the Los Angeles Times. In New York City, “every high school has its Mexican gang,” and most 12- to 14-year-olds have already joined, claims Ernesto Vega, an illegal 18-year-old Mexican. Such pathologies only worsen when the first lesson that immigrants learn about U.S. law is that Americans don’t bother to enforce it. “Institutionalizing illegal immigration creates a mindset in people that anything goes in the U.S.,” observes Patrick Ortega, the news and public-affairs director of Radio Nueva Vida in southern California. “It creates a new subculture, with a sequela of social ills.” It is broken windows writ large.
It is quite clear our nation has loss total control over immigration policy. Millions of illegals can shop, travel, work and commit crimes in broad daylight in total security from the immigration laws.
We need to choose wisely when we elect our next president. The solution is simple: enforce the immigration laws already on the books. Give the INS some clout. Allow the border patrol to do their jobs. Don’t allow the frightened liberal who’s concerned about offending their illegal maids to gridlock us into doing nothing but watch our country sink into the swamp of disrespect for the laws and principle upon which this incredible country was founded.
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