The Law: The Real Victim

It is rare, for a conservative like me, to find a voice of reason up here in "blue" New England. But Mark Patinkin, from the Projo, is usually one of those.

Recently, there was an illegal workers raid up here, were hundreds of them were arrested. They've been made to be "victims" and the agents have been made into "villains". But even someone who sympathizes with illegals can see who the real victim is.

They weren’t singled out randomly by agents who like to break up families for fun. The detainees were targeted for the simple reason that every one of them is accused of a crime. They are charged with being in the U.S. illegally.

That means they snuck across a border, avoided proper procedure, and have intentionally been living under radar.

They knew they didn’t have papers. They were aware that at any time, they faced deportation. They knew their children could be left behind with state agencies or other family members.

Do you really get to put your own kids in jeopardy like that, and then blame the authorities for enforcing the law you knew you were breaking in the first place?

And Mr. Patinkin also calls out the bias in the media, which hasn't reported all the facts and has insisted on this "victim" veil.

ICE reported that 55 of them were hiding from existing deportation orders. And 11 had already been deported once but apparently snuck back in. By the way, I had to dig around to find those numbers. Most news reports focused on the detainees’ hardships instead of their defiant behavior.

And that's not all; he also debunks the beaten down excuse of "America land of Immigrants".

But I don’t think most immigrant ancestors snuck around Ellis Island. They went through the turnstiles and got stamped.

Althouhg Mr. Patinking agrees he has no solution for the poblem of the 10 to 12 million illegals in this country, he does have this to say about the New Bedford raid and the news coverage:

For weeks, most news coverage has been implying that the illegals detained in New Bedford are mostly victims — and that the immigration agents are the villains.

It’s not true.

Hell must be freezing over. I'd never thought I'd see a New England paper call out press bias.