I have been a big consumer of news for many years now. One could easily say that I am a "junkie" when it comes to the news. I honestly can say that I didn't see too much of a left wing bias in the main stream media for a long time. I have since figured out that it does exist. I came upon an article on CNN.com in regards to illegal immigration.
Jessica Coloti came to this country when she was 11, obviously at that age she had no say in the matter. She is now 21 and a full time college student at Kennesaw State University outside of Atlanta, and living in the U.S. illegally. Several months back she was pulled over by the police for a minor traffic infraction. She doesn't have a drivers license. I don't know for sure about the laws in Georgia, but in Virginia you must prove legal status in order to receive one, that may be the case in Georgia as well. The only ID she had was an expired Mexican passport. Georgia has a law that is similar to that of what was just signed in Arizona, that they can turn over people who don't have legal status to immigration authorities. Jessica was placed in a detention center in Alabama for several months. She has since been released and is being allowed to finish her education. Getting her education is what she considers the American dream. Since her release, she was rearrested on charges from the original stop, saying that she gave a false address to the police when she was arrested the first time, which is a felony. Her lawyers deny that charge; saying that the registration is an old address.
This article is clearly written in a way to raise sympathy for Ms. Coloti. While I do feel sorry for her, there is one thing that you cannot get around, her family put her in this position. It basically just glosses over the fact that she is driving a car illegally. I have always had to give my licence information in order to obtain insurance for my car. Without that, she is not only driving the car illegally, she is also doing so without insurance. Which more than likely is another illegal activity. While it is not illegal in my state to drive without insurance, in most states it is.
My question is what is she planning on doing with that education? Without any ID how would she find a job in her field of study? Was the plan to fraudulently purchase documents that would allow her to work in this country? I have read over the years that there is a great deal of that going on in this country. There is a market for social security numbers that were originally given to children who died young and never worked. This just begs the question of why the government is not doing anything about it, could it be that they don't want to get rid of this slush fund? Because it would seem logical that the names don't match and it would be easy enough to figure that out in this age of computers.
While it is true that we should not put the sins of the parents onto the child the reality remains is that they knew the risk when they brought her here. The article also does not go into how they came into the country nor how they decided on settling in Georgia. Since she has a Mexican passport they could have easily gotten a visitor visa and just never returned.
The article also doesn't discuss how she is paying for college. Kennesaw is a state university, so they have two different rates. Is she paying in-state tuition? There is a difference of almost $6,000 between the two. If her family is in the country without documentation it isn't a stretch to assume that they have limited means to income. Which then begs the question of who is paying this tuition? Did she get a Pell Grant? Is she on some sort of scholarship? This is something that does happen in Universities in this country.
People want to characterize illegal immigration as a victimless crime. But is it really? What would happen had she been in accident while driving? Without insurance who would pay for the damage to the other person's car? Illegal immigrants could easily hit someone who has a limited income and an older car that doesn't have collision insurance on it. The person who is hit then has to pay the damage themselves. Even if they do have collision insurance, their rates increase through no fault of there own. At some point virtually everyone has some sort of accident while driving, the odds are against that not happening.
The media doesn't want to discuss the victims of illegal immigration. Legal citizens of this country are paying for illegal immigration in a myriad of ways. Our tax dollars are increased to educate these children in public schools, the emergency rooms are used for medical care; and in some cases those bills are never paid. Many states give in-state tuition to illegals, scholarships are also given. What about the legal citizen that then doesn't get the scholarships.
What is most dumbfounding to me is the statements that are coming from her attorney's and others:
"It is obvious from all the documents that I've seen that she has done nothing wrong and has given her proper address to Cobb County and immigration officials," said Chris Taylor, Colotl's criminal attorney. "There has been no crime committed."
No crime committed? She was driving without a license, that is a crime.
"If Jessica could obtain a license, she would have."
The people you need to talk to about that are the ones that brought her into this country. This is not the fault of the Sheriff's office. They have a job to do.
"Sheriff Warren has embarked on a witch hunt, wasting money and county resources for political gain,"
If we are to be a nation of laws, then as horrible and sad as it is for this young woman, she needs to be deported. We cannot base our laws on emotion. We either follow our laws or we don't. That should be the question that the lame stream media is asking. Are we going to follow the law, or are we going to be a nation that allows people to disregard our laws, then play on our emotions to get what they feel they deserve? I say lets follow the law.
It is nice to see an example of the law working-
ReplyDeleteHere is the thing that should trump emotion:
Everyone has the ability to go through the motions to attain citizenship. It is a lot of work and a giant PITA. I know because a former co-worker of mine talked about his ongoing attempts to get naturalized. He was an immigrant from Jordan (originally a Palestinian from Kuwait that had to move as the 1st gulf war began). He obtained permission to work here and had spent years struggling with bureaucracies and paperwork to finally be granted citizenship, but he did. He told me that when he called his dad in Jordan that for the first time in his life he heard did dad cry because he was so happy that his son had finally accomplished his dream.
People that are willing to work hard to be here legally should not have that accomplishment diminished because we would allow lawbreakers to gain citizenship even though they were too lazy or unwilling to follow protocol.
All of this behavior by our politicians is shameful that they would choose to sell out the law for a loyal voting block. Our naturalization process should be difficult and we should choose who comes into this country as we need, not just because we want to stay in an elected office.
I do feel bad for the person in the story above, but the fact is that there were ways to handle the situation she was in, but she either chose to do nothing about her situation or was okay with running the risk. Life has consequences, and we can not blame others for our mistakes.
I think her attorneys may have made a mistake with their approach of blaming the Sheriff for enforcing the law. I fear that Coloti is being used as a pawn by the pro-illegal immigration groups to get attention rather than as an honest attempt to help Jessica.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see her press conference but I think she should have displayed some humility and expressed some appreciation to the citizens of Georgia.
She should have explicitly stated her appreciation for the great free education she has received since being brought to the U.S.
She should have explicitly stated that she intends to try to repay the citizens of Georgia the difference between instate and out-of-state tuition at KSU. Even if she never does it, a statement that understands why her taking instate tution was wrong would likely win her some sympathy from people who may be on the fence about her situation.
She should have said that she is grateful for the chance to stay another year to finish her education. She should have said that she looks forward to moving back to Mexico and beginning the next part of her life.
Further, someone from the Mexican consulate should have been there to make a statement that Jessica is welcome in Mexico and that they will do everything in their power to ease her transition.
But, no one asked me.
I know this is an old post but I just stumbled across it.
ReplyDeleteI think that somehow we are arguing the wrong argument.
This is an example of what is wrong with allowing unrestricted ILLEGAL immigration the way that it makes Jessica a victim.
She is here and doesn't want to go back so she does the easy thing and drives illegally. She is probably more American than she is Mexican at this point in life. She becomes a focal point because of her choices and the choices of her parents.
But also, by not enforcing our laws, and by allowing this illegal immigration the government has in effect caused the problem and now is putting the blame on the individual who acted upon the temptation set up by those who are prosecuting her. Which is exploitation.
I am not the one exploiting illegal immigrants and I resent being called a racist for not wanting them here illegally.
Why does the government have to totally fail at the few things it actually needs to do. Make treaties, protect the country from outside attacks, secure the borders...
Well, they did just indite her on felony charges about a week ago.
ReplyDeleteBut to answer your question, they don't secure the borders for a reason. There are many (some of which are elected officials) that want no borders. So people like Jessica is a pawn. She is being used by pro illegal immigration forces.
The left never talks about the human right abuses that happen because of the fact that they don't secure the borders. It doesn't matter to them obviously. They would rather have their pawns instead of caring about the human trafficing that takes place. It is truly sick when you think about.
I feel sorry for this young woman. She isn't at fault, but if we are to be a nation of laws, she has to be deported.