What’s Wrong With Enforcing The Law? Wall Street Journal's Miriam Jordan vs. Kris Kobach, And Mitt Romney
01/18/2012
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Under a column caption which says “‘Law’ January 17, 2012" the Wall Street Journal’s, Miriam Jordan’s story entitled “Romney Faces Heat on Immigration” begins her assault on our Rule of Law with

Mitt Romney's embrace of Kris Kobach, the man behind a spate of laws intended to rid states like Arizona of illegal immigrants, is drawing fire from Hispanic Republicans and immigrant advocates who say the GOP front-runner has damaged his chances of attracting Latino voters in the presidential election.

Oh? I suspect many Americans of Hispanic descent are pleased at a time of high US unemployment to join all of us in wishing more, not less, were being done to deal fairly with this thorny issue.

Jordan  [email her] is certainly no intellectual relation to Barbara. In fact, she’s the winner of the 2008 VDARE.com Worst Immigration Reporter Award. Her next paragraph indicates her column’s intent:

"Romney committed political suicide when he received Kobach's endorsement," said DeeDee Garcia Blase, [Email her] founder of Somos Republicans, a grassroots Latino Republican group. Somos Republicans announced Monday that it is endorsing Newt Gingrich in the Republican primary.” [VDARE.com links added throughout]

I suggest you go to Somos’ web site for a review of this site’s Open Border inclinations.

Has there ever been an alien these advocacy groups didn’t want to see here in full position to clip tax supported benefits from our citizens?

Jordan then tells us:

“Last week, Mr. Romney welcomed the endorsement of Mr. Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state best known for advising legislators in Arizona, Alabama and several towns that crafted laws to crack down on illegal immigration.”

When is trying to uphold the law a culpable activity? As a Democrat, certainly alienated by some of Romney’s stated social issue positions (e.g. he wants Roe vs. Wade overturned, which I believe puts him against the human rights of 50% of the population), I still think his view on enforcing our laws on illegal immigration are completely reasonable.

Jordan writes: “A spokeswoman for the Romney campaign declined to comment on whether Mr. Kobach's endorsement would undermine his ability to woo the Latino electorate”.

Of course, this assumes that Hispanic Americans are fully behind illegal immigration. Quite a leap of presumption.

Romney, as Jordan tells us, is “not alone among Republican contenders talking tough on illegal immigration”. But, she says:

“Mr. Romney has staked out a particularly strong position. He has referred to the Dream Act, legislation that has had bipartisan support in Congress, as a ‘handout.’ It would enable some undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to get citizenship after joining the military or completing college.”

(Some of those “children,” as we know, are well into their 20s!)

Kobach, by the way, has merely sought to win the same tuition rates for out of state American college students that are enjoyed by foreigners going to those same institutions. Are aliens being preferred over Americans? Sure looks like it.

Jordan writes:

Roughly 12.2 million Hispanics are expected to be eligible to vote in the 2012 election. The group, which generally leans Democratic, will be crucial in swing states like Florida, Virginia and Colorado. "Romney will not win the presidency without at least 40% of the Latino vote; it just isn't possible," said Matt Barreto, [Email him] a professor of political science at University of Washington and an independent pollster specializing in Hispanic voting patterns.

VDARE.com’s Patrick Cleburne has already pointed out the absurdity of this innumerate contention.

Jordan continues:

 Mr. Romney, in finding common cause with Mr. Kobach, solidifies his image as anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic, critics say. "Romney is making a huge political error that will hurt him in the general election," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a national group that favors a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

We know about Mr. Sharry, [Email him]. He has been pushing amnesty [“Comprehensive Immigration Reform”] for years. There is already a “path to citizenship for illegal immigrants”. Go home and stand in line like the law demands.

Even in reporting Mr. Kobach’s impressive education and legal credentials, Jordan can’t resist a smear:

“Since 2004, Mr. Kobach, now 45 years old, a former law professor with degrees from Harvard College, Yale Law School and Oxford University, has made illegal immigration his raison d'être. In Arizona, he helped Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio craft measures to curb illegal immigration. Mr. Pearce recently lost his seat in a recall election; the Department of Justice has accused Mr. Arpaio of engaging in racial profiling of Hispanics. Mr. Arpaio denies the allegations and says the Justice Department's investigation was politically motivated.”

In other words, in effect, let’s attack those seeking to enforce our laws against invasion.

That Kobach seeks to keep illegal aliens from being beneficiaries of tax payer support offends Jordan.

More recently, Mr. Kobach was crucial in crafting an Alabama law to curb illegal immigration that included a requirement that school administrators record the legal status of students. The school provision has been stayed by a federal court.

Trying to raise the canard about mass deportation of illegal aliens, Jordan notes,

In a telephone interview Monday from South Carolina, Mr. Kobach said he is guided by the "attrition through enforcement" principle, which seeks to drive out illegal immigrants by making it "more difficult" for them to live and work in an area. He said he also is motivated by concerns about the fiscal burden on taxpayers  posed by illegal immigration.

Clearly, Jordan is using Kobach to attack Romney—even though to most thinking Americans of any ethnicity he must appear a reasonable voice in trying to fix our broken immigration system.

She even attempts to make Mr. Kobach’s endorsement a reproach:

He carefully studied the Republican candidates before deciding to endorse Mr. Romney. As governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney vetoed a bill that would have allowed undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public universities. He also signed an agreement with federal authorities to train state law-enforcement officers to enforce immigration.

Gee, sounds pretty sensible to me.

About the Author: Collins, [email him], a free lance writer living in Washington, DC. , is CoChair of the National Advisory Board of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). However, his views are his own.

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