Don’t you dare ridicule Arizona.  Was their immigration law (or whatever the hell that was) short sighted and maybe illegal?  Yes.  Is it their fault?  No.  True to their recent form, our “leaders” in Washington are fiddling while the country burns.  On the bright side, we have a health “reform” plan that nobody understands and seems destined to increase costs to the point where we have no choice but to go single-payer.

I’m a local government guy so the parent/child metaphor that I’m about to use irritates me but it is accurate here:  when the parents fail in their job, the children will act out and possibly seek their own solution.  The epic failure of the Federal government on the immigration problem is forcing State and local governments to find their own solutions: trying their hand at immigration law.  Manassas tried this and was hauled into court.  Herndon is still trying to put itself together.  Prince William County had a fair circus when they tried to do something about it.  The reason that all of these localities are doing this is because Washington has abdicated their responsibility on the issue and done nothing.  Indeed, at this late date, groups as diverse as Help Save Manassas, Unity in the Community and ERC should be descending upon Washington to demand action.  I would like to believe that all of those groups have as a central theme that they want to preserve our Country for future generations and I’m here to tell you that this is rapidly moving onto shaky ground.  If the feds don’t act, something really ugly is going to happen and we can’t allow it!  For crying out loud, there are Mexican drug gangs killing American citizens !!  How can there be any debate but that this has gone on long enough – at least 6 years. 

If you need more evidence, look at the 287(g) program.  Ideally, I would like to have never heard those words.  I would like to have had a discussion about it and voted against it because we didn’t need it.  I would rather spend the money on schools.  That wasn’t the reality of the situation though.  It still isn’t.  Manassas and surrounding jurisdictions have had no choice but to spend precious local dollars getting rid of foreign nationals who are in our country illegally and who commit violent crimes.  I felt as though I couldn’t vote against 287(g) then and the history of the program since bears that out.  We have put immigration detainers on hundreds and hundreds of criminals from foreign lands.  That should never have happened.

My friends, this is not a failure of leadership at the local and state level.  Trust me, I’ve been in the closed meetings with $500/hour lawyers discussing how best to extricate ourselves from a federal lawsuit that had as it’s genisys the failure of Uncle Sam to do anything about the situation.  The locals can forstall action on these kinds of things but for so long before the citizens achieve action on the issue by electing candidates who promise action!  This is a failure of those in their marble palaces in Washington and it cuts accross both parties:  Bush did nothing to help the situation and Obama is following in his footsteps.

At this point, we need to control our souther border.  NOW.  After that, grant a blanket immunity, throw everyone out, I don’t care but sitting around in the Millionaire’s club on Capitol Hill bellyaching about the other party just isn’t an option anymore.  You guys are there for a reason, put on your big boy pants and take a swing at it.  You might now win reelection but you might preserve your Country as you remember her.