PrintJuly 28, 2007
Obama Calls Hazleton Ruling a Victory
Sen. Barack Obama called the voiding of a Pennsylvania town's illegal immigrant crackdown law a "victory for all Americans."
Hazleton, PA passed the Illegal Immigration Relief Act in July of 2006 in an effort to confront escalating violent crime primarily at the hands of illegal aliens. Mayor Lou Barletta described the bill as the response of a terrorized town to drug-related homicides, domestic quarrels often ending in stabbings, and relentless gang violence.
The ordinance -- which has served as a model by other desperate cities across the country -- imposes fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and denies business permits to companies that employ them
But on Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Munley ruled that the act was pre-empted by federal law and could potentially violate due process rights.
In his patently Hispandering statement praising the decision, Obama declared:
"The anti-immigrant law passed by Mayor Barletta was unconstitutional and unworkable - and it underscores the need for comprehensive immigration reform so local communities do not continue to take matters into their own hands."
Perhaps, Senator, were Washington to properly take these matters into its own hands through the enforcement of existing immigration law, such local actions might quickly be rendered unnecessary.
But, of course, one does not formulate a new base of Democratic voters by broadening law enforcement, does one Senator?
Particularly, not when you still smell political blood flowing from the corpse of the flim-flam Amnesty Bill you so adore.
Consider Obama's words when he attended the National Council of La Raza's annual convention in Miami Beach earlier this week. There, he promised the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group that as President, an amnesty bill would be a first term priority, referring to the recent Senate immigration debate as
"both ugly and racist in a way we haven't see since the struggle for civil rights."
Illegal immigration and black civil rights -- I'm sure Dr. King would have appreciated the parallel.
Of course, his inexperience may lead some to believe that this rubbish stems from incredible myopia rather than incredible gall.
Speaking to that -- is it possible that the man who would be America's 1st Black White House resident actually can't see the American taxpayer's place in the immigration "debate?"
Or that the only real "victory for all Americans" would be politicians that consider their safety and well-being first?
