Week 13- Opinion Post- "Climate of Fear"?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0410/p01s01-ussc.html

The news is full of the protests recently in favor of illegal immigration. Oh they don't don't call it that, they use code words like "immigrant's rights" or they compare it to the 1960's civil rights marches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. " Organizers originally designed a broad platform they hoped would attract a wide array of immigrants - Pacific Islanders, Southeast Asians, Europeans, Africans, and Pakistanis. The specific objection is legislation, approved by the US House in December, that makes it a felony (rather than a civil offense) to be in the US illegally. But organizers are also asking for something: worker protections, civil rights measures, family reunification, and immigration reform that defines "a path to citizenship for current undocumented and future immigrants to the US."
"This is America's civil rights battle for the 21st century," says Chung-Wha Hong of the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella organization for about 150 groups in New York State that work with immigrants and refugees. " They are demanding family 'reunification' for people that have come here illegally? So what does that mean in practice? It means that if anyone from another country can manage to get their feet on American soil, either by coming legally or illegally, they can then demand that the rest of their family be admitted. How absurd!! This whole issue is sadly absurd. Some of these people ( illegal immigrants) have even had the chutzpah to say they aren't 'just criminals"! What else would you call someone who breaks the law? They ARE criminals, and unless we want to get an even greater tide of illegals flooding our borders, we had better send as many as possible packing. Furthermore, the proposed law should state that anyone found in this country illegally is automatically ineligible for American citizenship. And while we are on the subject of citizenship, they should also change the law so that only the children of citizens are citizens, if illegals have children here they should not be able to gain citizenship just by being born here. Some European countries have similar provisions, and it seems to be working for them.

The final straw in the article was a quote from an Islamic cleric; "If you watch TV and read the papers, you would think this [immigration reform] is primarily an issue only for Latinos or only illegals or only poor immigrants. [Monday] will show differently," predicts Abdul Malik Mujahid, a Chicago-based Islamic cleric who says 7,000 Muslims will march there Monday to protest the "climate of fear" since 9/11. "Latino organizers have done a big favor not just to themselves but to all other immigrants, as well as America itself, by standing up and saying this country's immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed. Now the rest of us must join in." A 'climate of fear'? What is this man talking about ? The only climate of fear I am aware of is that radical Islamists have plainly stated that they wish to kill as many Americans as possible, and that is why so many people seem to be afraid of Muslims. We didn't wake up one morning and say "let's pick on some immigrant group" and select Muslims, there are very good reasons why there is a climate of fear when non Muslims view Muslims, and until Muslims realize that since they a part of their problem, and that they must be part of the solution, nothing will change. Trying to play the aggrieved victim here is not only counter-productive, but just plain stupid.

This country's immigration laws are indeed, 'broken", but that fact means that illegal aliens have been able to 'push down the doors' to get in. Let's secure our nation's borders by passing, and then enforcing, strict new laws on immigration.