The Houston Chronicle hits a home-run with this sap-fest on Illegal Immigration, delivering one sympathetic story after another on how mean the US border control policies are to people breaking the law.
So, we get to hear about a "Mexican youth who washes windshields for tips on Brownsville streets," and a "group of men who waded the Rio Grande." One public defender quoted in the Chronicle complains that "you have a guy who washes car windshields, and now he's facing a (potential) felony." Certainly he isn't facing a felony for washing windows, and probably for illegall entering the country, but I guess that is a different point for a different day.
The Chronicle then seems shocked to learn that enforcing the border will, in turn, need an increase in people actually enforcing the border:
"Wilde is not alone among critics who say the prosecutions are of dubious value since, under sentencing guidelines, even maximum sentences are no more than six months. Jailing the approximately 200,000 undocumented migrants caught in the Southern District each year also will require a significant increase in staffing of Border Patrol agents, immigration inspectors, federal prosecutors, probation officers, marshals and a huge increase in detention facilities."
But now, back to the sap-fest. The Houston Chronicles sympathizes with the illegal's claiming that they are doing so because "most cases were economic or an attempt to reunite a family." Robbing a bank is done for economic reasons too, but it is still illegal to do so. But that's nonsense, lets get to the emotional side of things. The Chronicle goes on to tell us about another young man who complains to the judge that he wants only to work in order to buy diapers for his son, and a high school teacher who was "sobbing" after being caught trying to smuggle (or in Chron-speak: "bring") her brother over the border.
And while we are wasting our time with such petty crimes as illegal immigration, the real thugs are escaping because, apparently, "in addition to taking the focus off prosecution of drug traffickers and sexual predators, will do little to stem illegal immigration."
I guess it should just be a free-for-all.
