Elvira Arellano, Martyr

I recently discussed the arrest of Elvira Arellano, the flamboyant illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church to avoid deportation and proceeded to attach U.S. immigration policy from her sanctuary.

One commenter to that post noted that he wasn’t all worked up about illegal immigration. But I can’t understand the attitude that condones 5% of the U.S. population being illegal aliens who are, for the most part, never even challenged about their immigration status.

Sister Toldjah, a favorite blogger of mine, is a little worked up too. Actually, she’s “a lot” worked up about Arellano’s legal status, behavior, and the support she’s now getting.

To quote:

I didn’t stand shoulder to shoulder with most conservatives on the immigration bill, which went down in flames earlier this year, but I will stand shoulder to shoulder with any conservative or liberal who comes out and condemns this nonsense about Elvira Arellano being “today’s Rosa Parks” for what it is: a slap in the face to the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, a movement that demanded civil rights for legal citizens of this country who happened to be black.

This “Elvira is today’s Rosa” is very similar to the baloney comparisons that the gay rights community routinely makes between their ‘plight’ and that of black people in the 60s. Uh, no. It doesn’t work that way. Get back with me, moral relativists, when both gay people and illegals have to drink from separate water fountains, eat at different lunch counters, have to sit in the back of the bus … you get the picture.

Undercover Black Man, in a post about another ridiculous comparison to Elvira Arellano (that of a ‘slave on the run’), cuts to the heart of the matter on the idiotic comparisons:

Hey, take your best shot, J.J. But don’t expect any black people to stand in solidarity with you on open immigration when you disrespect our struggle. Illegal immigration isn’t comparable to black slavery in any way.

One, nobody is dragging Mexicans here against their will. Two, no U.S. immigration official has lashed the bare back of any Mexican with a whip, as used to happen to “runaway slaves” who got caught. Three, Mexican workers get paid; they send billions of dollars per year back home to Mexico.

ST adds: Four, Mexican illegals have been coming here for years in order to obtain “free” healthcare that was not available to slaves. Five, Mexican illegals have never had to use a separate water fountain, have never been ordered to sit in the back of the bus, never had to worry about “whites only” restuarants, etc. Six, Mexican illegals, under our current no-enforcement laws, are pretty much free to come and go as they please…

Right on, sister.

This is a supposition, but I believe that illegals represent some of the best people from their home countries. They come here primarily because poor leadership in those countries – e.g., Mexico – has led a lack of economy prosperity, corruption, and high tax rates. What couldn’t the ~10 million illegals from Mexico do to improve their own country? That Mexico’s leaders encourage illegal immigrants to come to the U.S. to work, both tacitly and directly, only shows their own ineptness. Many Americans would do well to consider that the next time an occasion to snipe at George Bush arises.

It is true that illegal aliens do a lot of work in this country and these people are just as “good” as Americans in every sense of the word save for economic production. But that is not the issue save in the minds of the illegals’ defenders who, for lack of a better argument, persist in framing the debate in terms of civil rights.

The one civil right that illegals have in the United States is to be escorted safely back to their country of origin. That’s it. No more. The end.

The notion that America’s border is a suggestion and not a legal boundary and that anyone who comes here is entitled to the benefits of citizenship upon arrival is simply false. Yes, illegals provide labor that would cost more if Americans were to do it. But their presence here also depresses wages at the lower end of the job market and adds a considerable burden to our infrastructure in terms of health care, transportation, and insurance costs. Is it any wonder that an artificial minimum wage is needed when the bottom of the wage market is being undercut by 10-20 million undocumented workers?

For the politicians who enable the current state of affairs to continue, failing to acknowledge the economic burden illegals put on U.S. citizens is wrong; failing to defend our right to define our own nation’s policies is unforgivably.

To the extent that immigrant labor is needed it is incumbent on the federal government to draft the rules that will control the pool of laborers while discouraging illegal workers from coming here and from being hired after they are here. It is also the fed’s job to police the borders properly, something that they’ve failed miserably at. Immigration reform is needed. It may already be too late.

As for Ms. Arellano, she deserves only a courteous deportation, not a platform to espouse her anti-American views, nor unearned comparisons to real American heroes, and certainly not the tragic martyr’s pose she’s been striking in the press.

Cross-posted at The Van Der Galiën Gazette.