As usual, Mark Steyn's Sunday column in the Orange County Register is a read-the-whole-thinger.

Steyn takes on the lunacy of sanctuary cities, media-report tiptoeing, and the apparently hopelessly-in-denial political elites:

..... there's been a succession of prominent stories with one common feature that the very same pundits, politicians and lobby groups have a curious reluctance to go anywhere near. In a New York Times report headlined "Sorrow And Anger As Newark Buries Slain Youth," the limpidly tasteful Times prose prioritized "sorrow" over "anger," and offered only the following reference to the perpetrators: "The authorities have said robbery appeared to be the motive. Three suspects – two 15-year-olds and a 28-year-old construction worker from Peru – have been arrested."

So, this Peruvian guy was here on a green card? Or did he apply for a temporary construction-work visa from the U.S. Embassy in Lima?

Not exactly. Jose Carranza is an "undocumented" immigrant. His criminal career did not begin with the triple murder he's alleged to have committed, nor with the barroom assault from earlier this year, nor with the 31 counts of aggravated sexual assault relating to the rape of a 5-year-old child, for which Mr. Carranza had been released on bail. (His $50,000 bail on the assault charge and $150,000 bail on the child-rape charges have now been revoked.) No, Mr. Carranza's criminal career in the United States began when he decided to live in this country unlawfully.

Jose Carranza isn't exactly a member of an exclusive club. Violent crime committed by fine upstanding members of the Undocumented-American community is now a routine feature of American life.

..... Three thousand people died Sept. 11, 2001, in an act of murder facilitated by the illegal-immigration support structures in this country, and, if that didn't rouse Americans to action, another trio of victims seems unlikely to tip the scales. As Michelle Malkin documented in her book "Invasion," four of the killers boarded the plane with photo ID obtained through the "undocumented worker" network at the 7-Eleven in Falls Church, Va. That's to say, officialdom's tolerance of the illegal immigration shadow-state enabled 9/11.

..... (Newark is) an illegal-immigrant "sanctuary city." Like Los Angeles, New York and untold others, Newark has formally erased the distinction between U.S. citizens and the armies of the undocumented. This is the active collusion by multiple cities and states in the subversion of U.S. sovereignty. In Newark, N.J., it means an illegal-immigrant child rapist is free to murder on a Saturday night. In Somerville, Mass., it means two deaf girls are raped by MS-13 members. And in Falls Church, Va., it means Saudi Wahhabists figuring out that, if the "sanctuary nation" (in Michelle Malkin's phrases) offers such rich pickings to imported killers and imported gangs, why not to jihadists?

Newark mayor Cory Booker, who appeared to show some promise when first elected, has chosen denial (with an interesting wiggle in bold), as shown at this excerpt near the end of a Newsweek interview, and won't budge on continuing to allow his city to be a safe haven for illegals:

NEWSWEEK: Some argue the police have downplayed a gang connection, despite finding symbols of MS-13, one of the most dangerous Latino gangs in the country, on the MySpace profile of at least one of the suspects. And this was an execution-style shooting. Even if these young men were only wannabe gang members, isn’t that a worrying sign for your community?

BOOKER: I think the police have been very candid with people that there is no obvious gang affiliation or ties here. The number of MS-13’s gang members we even know about in the city, unlike the Bloods, Crips or Latin Kings, is very, very small, so it’s very likely, though we don’t know yet, that this was just a wannabe.

How "obvious" does it have to get (the New York Post article linked was written SIX days ago; HT Michelle Malkin; Malkin update here)? As has been the case so often in the past, if the neighbors had told reporters "they were such nice, quiet boys; we can't imagine how they could do those things," those assessments would likely have been spread far and wide throughout the country. Newark's police chief has also joined the crumbling charade in denying gang involvement, also saying that the immigration status of the suspects is "irrelevant."

All the puff pieces in the world (the linked Associated Press article has none of the following words: illegal, alien, immigrant, undocumented, sanctuary, or MS-13) won't turn around Newark, or fill in the country's still-gaping homeland security holes. Respect for and aggressive enforcement of laws already on the books will.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.

—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters