If our elected officials need any reminders of the urgency of addressing the immigration crisis, I direct their attention to John Walker's photograph on the front page of today's Bee. It's a photo of Feliciana of Mendota, holding her 10-month-old daughter and with a 2-year-old, Iris, at her side. Her husband, an undocumented field worker, was one of scores picked up by immigration agents during a raid a few weeks ago. Every politician in this Valley should post this picture on their office walls.
The expression on this young mother's face will haunt their dreams. I have to think that the government's inability to create a realistic and compassionate immigration policy is going to be judged by history to be one of our darkest hours. I can easily imagine a museum of the future that displays pictures such as this one. People will shake their heads as they tour the exhibits and say, "How could people have let this happen?"
It is hard to reconcile the priorities of a government that sweeps into a small San Joaquin Valley farming community devastated by a freeze that has already crippled the local economy and then dissects scores of hard-working families by separating parents from their children, deporting the breadwinner of the family and leaving the mother and children to fend for themselves. These are not Bulldog gang members; these are not car thieves and internet child molesters -- these are people whose big offense is that they desperately want to work hard in our fields. We just as desperately will need them in a matter of weeks when the harvest begins in earnest.
It's difficult for me to believe that the United States of America cannot do better than this.
It is truly heart-wrenching. But I wonder how many people will just piously say "they shouldn't have broken the law" - even though many of those same people can't be bothered to observe a speed limit.
I am tired of all the liberal "bull" being lathered out over the "Illegal Immigation Issue". What part of illegal do you not understand. If a family has one or more illegals in it they should make every effort to become legal and not hide in Mendota like a "taliban bombthrower" afraid to to the store. My mother was an immigrant and came to this country the right way, did her duty, took the test, paid the fees and swore allegance to the USA. She did not hide out for years getting benefits she was not eligible for and did not send money back to her Mother country. If that bothers you so much, try working within the system or accept the consequences.
Since neither I nor my parents or grandparents were immigrants, I don't have any consequences to face. I was lucky enough to be born here. I can't join you in your condemnation of those who are desperate enough to risk their lives and freedom to toil in our fields in order to feed their families. And frankly, we have bigger problems to worry about.