Ruben Navarrette Jr. Needs A Clue On Illegal Immigration

Ruben Navarrette is spewing forth his basically pro-illegal alien rants again, this time as a guest writer on the CNN website. Seems he has his panties in a knot over the Swift Raids...on one hand, he says if an illegal gets caught, they have no gripe, they took the chance...I can agree with that. However, with Navarrette, you always have to watch for the DAGGERS in the back as he stabs you in a close up embrace. He loves trying to paint those of us in favor of deporting illegals as RACIST, loves saying our fears are driven by xenophobia, and the unpinning of this article is no different.

You see, he wants us to see illegals using a BOGUS Social Security Card as just and immigration violation, something deserving of nothing more than a SLAP ON THE WRIST...curious their Ruben, if it is a felony fora LEGAL CITIZEN to go out and buy a forged ID, and use it, then why should it be a lessor offense for someone who is ALREADY A CRIMINAL in being in America as and illegal alien? Yes, I said criminal...every illegal working in America is guilty of no less than FOUR CRIMES, and securing a fake ID and using it is a VERY SERIOUS OFFENSE, not some new xenophobic enhanced charge to stir some falsely envisioned RACE HATRED among certain elements of American Society.

Curious here Rubin...are you familiar with the woman who had her ID (Social Security Number) stolen, and being used by over 200 illegals? Are you aware of how much that use of her number RUINED HER LIFE, made it impossible for her to get a job as her Social Security number when checked had felony charges attached to it? Based on that reality, could you explain to this writer why you see using someone else's Social Security number as such a trivial event? If someone with a STOLEN ID has a job that otherwise would have been filled by an American, how do you justify that?

On your saying it sounds so SINISTER...it is! If someone is using someone else's Social Security number to get a credit card, then ends up creating BAD CREDIT, guess who it is that has their credit rating RUINED? Not the slime sucking, vile, fetid illegal alien criminal. I'll give you credit for saying illegals should take the consequences when they are caught, however I disagree with your contention that the real criminals are the companies that hire illegals...they are both EQUALLY CULPABLE, BOTH AS CRIMINAL AS THE OTHER. I'd love to see the loophole you mention closed, but think you show your true ILLEGAL ALIEN friendly colors with the tenor of your article....we need our fence, we need 50,000 armed military soldiers on our southern border with Mexico, and we need both illegals and the employers who hire them imprisoned and then deported. As for Americans being serious about cracking down on ILLEGALS...we are very serious about it....problem is, the government is more interested in appeasing BIG BUSINESS than listening to us the people.

Commentary: Putting a sinister spin on immigration crackdown
POSTED: 1:55 p.m. EST, December 18, 2006

By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- The worry used to be that illegal immigrants were stealing welfare. Then it was jobs. Now, we're told, they're stealing people's identities.
For as long as anyone can remember, illegal immigrants have been working with the aid of bogus Social Security numbers. And this was seen for what it was -- a violation of U.S. immigration law.

But last week, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement rounded up 1,282 illegal immigrants by raiding meat processing plants in six states -- Colorado, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Utah -- the operation was marketed as a crackdown on identity theft.

ICE chief Julie L. Myers told reporters that agents uncovered a scheme in which illegal immigrants and others had stolen or bought the Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens and lawful residents for the purpose of getting jobs with Colorado-based meat processor Swift & Co.

No! And ICE agents just figured this out? Dick Tracy, they're not.

Why spin this as a crackdown on identity theft? That has a sinister ring to it, as if illegal immigrants were using stolen credit cards and withdrawing money from ATMs. More than likely, the extent of it was that people were using Social Security numbers that didn't belong to them so they could work at dirty jobs that Americans wouldn't do -- just as they have for generations, before the phrase "identity theft" entered the national lexicon.

ICE shouldn't have to go to the trouble of bending the truth. If these workers were here illegally, and they got caught, then they should be deported. Period. The government has every right to do so, and those activists and union leaders who are complaining about families being separated and portraying ICE as the Grinch who stole Christmas don't have a leg to stand on.

People need to take responsibility for their actions, and that includes illegal immigrants. If they enter the country illegally, and secure employment illegally, they're taking their chances. If, one day, their luck runs out, and their children wind up stranded because mommy or daddy got nabbed in an immigration raid, the blame lies with mommy or daddy.

Of course, if this were presented as an immigration crackdown, people might ask: Why were no charges filed against the employer -- Swift & Co? The world's second-largest meat processing company has "never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers, nor ... knowingly hired such individuals," Swift & Co. President and CEO Sam Rovit said in a statement.

Note the word: knowingly. Rovit didn't just fall off the meat wagon. He's read the statute. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act made it a crime to "knowingly" hire illegal immigrants.

That's a monster loophole. Suddenly, whenever there is a raid, no one knows anything. Illegal workers? Who? What? Where?

It's cynical, and it's the sort of thing that makes it hard to believe that Americans are serious about combating illegal immigration. How can we be if we don't address the problem at its source?

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist. Click here to read his column.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.