In a truly bizarre piece, neocon Jeff Jacoby again tries to bash the Right on immigration in Sunday’s Boston Globe (Law and Disorder, May 9, 2010). Jeff Jacoby always accuses our side of caricaturing immigrants, but as usual, the only one indulging in caricature is Jacoby.
My favorite part of the article is where Jacoby compares immigrants who refuse to obey our laws to Rosa Parks. But his biggest stretch is when he compares immigration enforcement to the Fugitive Slave Act. He even likens those who provide sanctuary to illegal aliens to the conductors of the Underground Railroad.
A century earlier, thousands of Southern slaves were guided to freedom by ”conductors’’ along the Underground Railroad, the clandestine network of escape routes into the Northern states and Canada. Those conductors – many of them supporters of the new Republican Party – loathed the Fugitive Slave Act, which mandated the return of runaway slaves and imposed criminal sanctions on anyone aiding a fugitive.
