The Need for Effective and Thoughtful Immigration Legislation

J. Michael Sharman

          Virginia’s Attorney General Bob McDonnell on September 5^th, 2007 sent a letter to President Bush and to Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leaders of Congress, demanding that, “After years of debate and inaction by the Congress and the President, I implore you to promptly enact  effective and thoughtful legislation.”[1]

Attorney General McDonnell urged the President, if necessary, to call a special session of Congress and “make this a top priority now for the good of the country.”

McDonnell cited the statistics that explain why this issue is a top priority to him as the Commonwealth’s chief crime fighter:

• Illegal aliens comprise 10% of Virginia’s jail population, and 39% of them  are charged with a felony.
• Nationally, there are 632,000 illegal aliens who have already been convicted of deportable offenses but they cannot be found.
• The average illegal alien who is currently in jail has previously been convicted of eight other crimes.

The Washington Post reported that in a recent four week period the Prince William County jail identified 56 inmates who were deportation eligible. “Deportation eligible” means they had previously been convicted of a felony before being jailed again on their current  charge.[2]

This snapshot of 56 deportable felons being held on new criminal charges in just one month, in just one jail, in a single county, in only one state, clearly shows that obviously something has got to be done and it has got to be done sooner rather than later.

 But, as Attorney General McDonnell suggested, the immigration legislation needs to be both effective in protecting us and thoughtful in dealing with the forces that motivate millions to leave their countries of birth and risk their lives in the journey to come here.

Otto Perez-Molina is one of the two run-off candidates in Guatemala’s presidential race. He estimates that 60% of the 1.3 million Guatemalans working in the U.S. are undocumented, and he praises them for being his nation’s main source of foreign currency.[3]

It would be nice if Molina, who is a retired general, would be committed to simply making his nation a safe place to live and work so that his fellow citizens do not feel the need to literally flee for their lives.

That doesn’t seem likely, however. In Francisco Goldman’s just-released book, “The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop”, Molina is implicated as the “intellectual author” of the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi which occurred days after the Bishop published his report on human rights violations in Guatemala.[4] Retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina of the conservative Patriot Party Retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina of the conservative Patriot Party,

Retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina of the conservative Patriot Party

After thirty-six years of violent civil conflict, political assassination is a standard tool in Guatemalan politics, with 49 assassinations in this year alone.[5]

Political assassination reaches beyond the candidates. Earlier this year, the 14 year-old daughter of Congressional candidate Hector Montenegro had her hands tied behind her back, her fingernails pulled out, her throat slit, and her body stuffed with two other murdered persons in the trunk of an abandoned car.[6]

Nor is violent death limited to political candidates and their families: Guatemala has one of the highest murder rates in the world.[7]

Guatemala’s population of 13 million is almost exactly the same as that of Illinois, but Illinois had 766 murders, compared to Guatemala’s 6,000. Illinois had two murders a day and Guatemala had 16 a day. Illinois had one murder for every 16,971 people, and Guatemala had one murder for every 2,166 people.[8]

Guatemalans die economic deaths, also. Nationally, our U.S. per capita income is $33,671. In Virginia, it is $23,975.[9] Worldwide, the average per capita income is $7,011.[10] Guatemala’s per capita income, though, is only $2,400.[11]

Here in the United States, we claim to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

We will be watching our own political leaders to see if they can be brave enough to actually pass the legislation we need to accomplish two essential goals: to protect us from the spreading new culture of lawlessness, and to offer our traditional American freedom to those huddled masses whose own countries have given them only three bleak choices: flee, submit, or die.

By J. Michael Sharman Click here for bio and archived articles