Who Are The Illegal Immigrants?

When a driver fleeing the cops kills a young man in Somerville, it's a tragedy. When the driver's name is Javier Morales, a new level of "tragedy" is added: Every person reading the news story immediately wonders if Mr. Morales is an illegal immigrant.

That's a shame for all the Americans and legal residents named Morales, but they are not the victim of racism. Rather, they are the victims of a US government that has refused to enforce border security and essentially invited millions of people from Mexico and Central America to become criminals within America.

The act of violating our borders is a crime. The conduct required to remain here--fake IDs, fake Social Security numbers, false claims of a legal residence used to collect government benefits, etc--is fraudulent and criminal.

However, the Morales case (and just for the record, I have NO idea what his citizenship status is) highlight that additional level of crime that is also attendant to immigration crime.

There's a reason why the "Z-Visa" amnesty program specifically gives gang members a pathway to legal status. Would such a requirement be necessary if America had 12 million illegals from Great Britain or Belgium?

The fact is, low-skill immigrants cost America money whether they're legal or illegal. Added to that are the specific behaviors of Hispanic immigrants--America's highest teen pregnancy rate, highest drop-out rate, etc.--and the current illegal immigrant population is not a "value-neutral" addition to American society.

When even the Bushies have to acknowledge that 20% of the current illegal immigrants have committed so many felonies and/or misdemeanors that they won't qualify for the Z-Visa program, they're acknowledging the problematic behavior of the illegals who live among us.

The point isn't that there's something wrong with being Hispanic or being from Mexico. Rather, the point is that those Mexicans and Central Americans who choose to become immigration criminals are telling us something about their overall attitudes towards the law and personal responsibility.

They're trying to tell us, but we Americans just don't have the guts to listen.