From the Des Moines Register ("
Raid mars future for 3 graduating today from Postville" by Ken Fuson):
His name is Santiago Cordero.
He shouldn't be here.
For some people, perhaps most, judging by the comments posted on blogs and newspaper Web sites, no other information is necessary: He is an illegal alien. He shouldn't be here.
But he is, and at 2:30 p.m. today, Santiago Cordero, 18, is expected to join the 33 other members of his senior class at Postville High School's commencement. He and two young women who also shouldn't be here will receive their diplomas.
The three Hispanic graduates were going to celebrate together afterward, invite friends and family members to a big party. Those plans evaporated on May 12, when federal agents stormed the Agriprocessors Inc. meat-processing plant here, conducting the largest single-site workplace raid in U.S. history. Santiago's mother and many other friends were among the 389 detained and arrested. Most face deportation.
Santiago wonders if the agents will come next for him. He wonders what he did wrong.
I knew the monopoly corporate media in Iowa was going to side with the illegals ("
The Media Naturally Takes The Side Of The Illegals", State 29, May 13, 2008).
They're never going to let up, are they?
Comments on the Register's story are overwhelmingly negative to the piece.
Why can Santiago Cordero get a free education in the United States even though he is an illegal alien?
The
Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision (5-4) from 1982:
Revisions to education laws in Texas in 1975 withheld state funds for educating children who had not been legally admitted to the United States and authorized local school districts to deny enrollment to such students. A 5-to-4 majority of the Supreme Court found that this policy was in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, as illegal immigrant children are people "in any ordinary sense of the term", and therefore had protection from discrimination unless a substantial state interest could be shown to justify it.
The court majority found that the Texas law was "directed against children, and impose[d] its discriminatory burden on the basis of a legal characteristic over which children can have little control" — namely, the fact of their having been brought illegally into the United States by their parents. The majority also observed that denying the children in question a proper education would likely contribute to "the creation and perpetuation of a subclass of illiterates within our boundaries, surely adding to the problems and costs of unemployment, welfare, and crime." The majority refused to accept that any substantial state interest would be served by discrimination on this basis, and it struck down the Texas law.
Texas officials had argued that illegal immigrants were not "within the jurisdiction" of the state and could thus not claim protections under the Fourteenth Amendment. The court majority rejected this claim, finding instead that "no plausible distinction with respect to Fourteenth Amendment 'jurisdiction' can be drawn between resident aliens whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident aliens whose entry was unlawful."
The dissenting minority agreed in principle that it was unwise for undocumented alien children to be denied a public education, but the four dissenting justices argued that the Texas law was not so objectionable as to be unconstitutional; that this issue ought to be dealt with through the legislative process; that "[t]he Constitution does not provide a cure for every social ill, nor does it vest judges with a mandate to try to remedy every social problem"; and that the majority was overstepping its bounds by seeking "to do Congress' job for it, compensating for congressional inaction".
What can you say? I'm glad that Santiago Cordero did well in school and is succeeding.
Should that give him a free pass to citizenship?
Should we say to these parents in other countries, OK, come to the United States and break our laws and get in front of all the immigrants who are trying to do it legally. It's no big deal.
And if your kid does well in school, the liberals at Iowa's monopoly corporate newspaper can exploit him for their own political agenda of open borders and ESL money from the Feds and free driver's licenses and voter registration not based on citizenship.
But don't forget that for every Santiago Cordero
there were at least 18 other children who weren't so lucky. 18 children between the ages of 13 and 17 were arrested during the raid on the Agriprocessors plant in Postville.
Those 18 children weren't going to school and graduating. They were working for $5 an hour, under the table, for a company that was breaking practically every labor law on the books.
Of course, Ken Fuson isn't going to write that story.
Ken Fuson isn't going to write about how a company who dished out campaign money to
Senator Chuck Grassley and
Lt Gov Patty Judge was employing and exploiting 13 year old children.
No, no, no, Ken Fuson, the Des Moines Register, and Gannett have
an agenda to push! And people to
exploit in order to attempt to sway public opinion!
Forget the corrupt politicians and the corporate owners. Why call daily for their heads on a platter?
That's too messy, and besides that would send the wrong message to the rest of the planet.
Why can't we just give citizenship and driver's licenses and voter registration cards with the Democrat box pre-checked to any Mexican or Guatemalan who shows up looking for $5 an hour under-the-table work? I mean, you know,
the kid's a victim here! Big bad evil Republican government! Boo hooooo!
And if you complain about Fuson's bleeding heart story? Why........ well, let's just refer to
Ken Fuson's column from August 8, 2005:
I'd also like to point out that many bloggers are humorless, thin-skinned and have a grandiose sense of their own importance. Yep, they're journalists, all right.
At least bloggers aren't all a bunch of fat-assed, know-it-all, jaded, corporate ass-kissers
working for a dying industry and publishing crap that 99% of the general public disagrees with.
