“Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor…”
Butler County, Pennsylvania, recently ended its status as a “sanctuary county.” The argument for the change centers on fentanyl, a drug seeming to arrive in the pockets of illegal border crossers. What about this “sanctuary” policy that swept the nation over the past decade or two? Doesn’t the Statue of Liberty invite everyone with “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”? Isn’t America the melting pot into which millions from across the planet mixed? My wife’s ancestors came from northern Europe; mine from southern Europe; my late brother-in-law’s, from Africa. Melting pot. What’s going on in Butler? Are they xenophobic? Racist?
Or, is there a difference in the nature of immigration today, something about the immigrants, or something about the “holding capacity” of America? Isn’t the driver of many immigrants the same as it was when the English, Germans, Norwegians, Polish, Irish, and Italians arrived a century or so ago? You know, that “huddled” stuff? The “yearning”? Why should any be turned away? Is there a “new reality” that affected Butler’s citizens? Or what of New Yorkers? What’s this I hear about sending immigrants to Canada? I thought NY City, home of the Statue of Liberty, would be among the most welcoming places in the country; Queens, after all, has the most diverse genetic population on the planet. And in Chicago, another “sanctuary city,” the mayor bussed the illegals to the suburbs, taking the same position as those poor people in Martha’s Vineyard who kicked illegal immigrants off the island: “Yeah, we are a sanctuary, but not for you.” *
The Old Reality
The huddled masses of the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries contained some bad actors. That’s the nature of humanity: Some of us, regardless of point of origin, regardless of race or ethnicity, and regardless of religion, are bad actors. Thus and because “birds of a feather flock together,” some neighborhoods became enclaves where gang activity associated with the local “ethnic” population spoiled the human landscape of those who had arrived to “breathe free.” What’s the principle? Bad before emigration; bad after immigration. And the same principle applies to the good: Good before; good after. Sufficient historical evidence suggests that not everyone in the melting pot came to America with the best intentions, but the majority probably did. Some among the “huddled masses” were, as some are now, especially bad actors. Thus gangs from every ethnicity have disrupted the peace and security of many citizens, including the naturalized.
The old reality is that in any population of humans there’s a chance, however small, that some are bad guys.
A New Reality
But the “bad guys of old” didn’t transport drugs in quantities and in potency capable of killing millions of Americans. Take, for example, what happened in Colorado in December, 2022, where a Sinaloa Cartel member was arrested for 45 pounds of a fentanyl and cocaine mixture. As Ryan L. Spradlin, Special Agent in Charge, HSI Denver, said, “Fentanyl related deaths rose over 70% in Colorado during 2021 and it isn’t slowing down. This poison that transnational criminal organizations increasingly smuggle into the United States is responsible for over 100,000 deaths nationwide while putting millions of dollars in the pockets of drug cartels.” **
This “ain’t” my grandmas’ and grandpas’ huddled masses. There’s no simple “yearning to breathe free” in this new reality. There’s a difference in what bad actors can do now that they could not do during that previous great migration. In the context of well-organized cartels with criminal intent, the true “huddled masses” arrive under a veil of suspicion.
Is this what motivated the County of Butler to change its proclaimed “sanctuary status”? Is this what the supposed xenophobes were warning about when Butler proclaimed “sanctuary.” No doubt Butler wanted to be welcoming just as Martha’s Vineyard, New York City, and Chicago wanted to be welcoming. Probably (I want to believe) their intentions were noble, but they also derived from a very naive perspective of today’s realities. It’s one thing to welcome a poor person from another country; it’s another to welcome someone who wants to do you harm or who is indifferent to your safety.
When Trump sought to construct a wall across the southern border, his political enemies—and there were many—called the President a xenophobe and a racist. Some populations, notably those in large cities, defied him and proclaimed themselves to be open and free to one and all. “All” turned out to include some nasty people, rapists and murderers, for example, and drug and human smugglers. American citizens have been assaulted, injured, and killed by some of those not deported or prevented from entering. That appears to be an undeniable reality. And today, the interception (thankfully) of more doses of fentanyl than there are citizens to kill in a region makes that point to which I’ll add people on the terror watch list caught among illegal aliens.
The days of Ellis Island seem to be over. Should we welcome immigrants? Of course. Should we have inducements such as free stuff? I don’t think my grandparents got any government help. They didn’t get free transportation, hotel rooms, and health care. They didn’t get free phones. They came with nothing, worked, and put food on the table. Should we provide sanctuaries for criminals? Aren’t they people, too? How heartless can those in favor of a wall actually be?
The Ideal vs. the Real
Ideally, everyone is welcome on Martha’s Vineyard. There’s a welcoming sign. Everyone is welcome in Butler County, too. The ideal is that all humans have dignity and inestimable worth. But the reality is not all humans are well intentioned. Some seek to harm. Those who glibly decided to open sanctuaries are only now beginning to see that some restrictions are necessary. Without them, citizens are at risk. Even other migrants, as the tales of abuse and rape reveal, are at risk.
Is there a difference in attitude framed by political view? Did some citizens in some cities decide to open their doors as sanctuaries just for spite? Did they want to prove how noble they were in contrast to a guy they didn’t like? "Hey, if Trump’s for it; I’m against it, no matter what.” And, of course, the “what” rarely affects those who act solely on the ideal, rather on the real. Does reality never hit them? Oh! Wait, didn’t an illegal, left-leaning nudist attack Nancy Pelosi’s husband? Doesn’t she live in an ideal sanctuary city? ***
Reality Reality
There’s evidence to show that illegal immigrants are NOT proportionally more prone to criminal activity than native citizens. In fact, they appear to be less prone according to the statistics. For that reason alone, many should be welcomed, but the very nature of sanctuary cities has prevented local authorities from cooperating with Federal agents in deporting those who do perpetrate criminal acts.
Consider this before dismissing this little essay as xenophobic, which I can assure you, it isn’t.
The US Department of Justice released this statement on Thursday, June 7, 2018 under the title “Departments of Justice and Homeland Security Release Quarterly Alien Incarceration Report Highlighting the Negative Effects of Illegal Immigration and the Need for Border Security”:
Of the 19,688 confirmed aliens in USMS custody, 10,971 (56 percent) were in custody for an immigration related offense. Additionally, 4,665 (nearly 24 percent) aliens were in custody for drug related offenses. Further details regarding the related charges of these inmates are as follows:
You are free to draw your own conclusions about what is ideal or real. In the list above some 889 property offenses might be small matters of trespass, maybe even unknowing trespass. Accidental property offenses happen. They happen all the time everywhere, don’t they, so, 889 offenses aren’t necessarily indicative of anything except to those whose property has been affected. Even 378 in custody for violent crimes seems small by comparison with all in jail for such crimes, but consider that this is just the first quarter report for fiscal year 2018. And consider that violent crimes is a category that includes assault and murder. Kate Steinle of San Francisco was a victim. Sarah Root of Iowa. Terry and Brenda Aultman of Daytona Beach. Kayla Hamilton of Maryland. Julie Graichen of Massachusetts. Want me to name the many others whose families will never see them again? If it were a family member of a sanctuary city’s councilman or councilwoman, would there be any statement about xenophobia? “What, you want to undeclare sanctuary status just because some illegal alien murdered you daughter? You xenophobe. You racist.”
Should those who have cautioned against unlimited sanctuary be censored and ostracized? What if they simply wanted to see an orderly Ellis Island processing to sift through the identities of those entering the country or to intercept dangerous materials. Can anyone say “dirty bomb” or “fentanyl”?
*The Island of Martha’s Vineyard’s welcoming sign reads:
“We respect WOMEN. We value BLACK LIVES. We stand with our LGBTQ COMMUNITY MEMBERS. We stand with IMMIGRANTS, with REFUGEES, with INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, and with PEOPLE OF ALL FAITHS. We stand with our COMMUNITY. All Are Welcome Here.”
Great sentiments, right? But not for the immigrants that a southern governor sent to the welcoming island! Forty-four hours of “breathing free” on Martha’s Vineyard, 44 hours; that’s all the immigrants got. Then they were shipped off.
Remind you of some other place? How about the Vatican which is surrounded by a wall? The Vatican, from which the Pope decried the American border wall!
**DEA. December 5, 2022. Press release.
***San Francisco
A Sanctuary City.
We welcome all.
Watch where you step.
Butler County, Pennsylvania, recently ended its status as a “sanctuary county.” The argument for the change centers on fentanyl, a drug seeming to arrive in the pockets of illegal border crossers. What about this “sanctuary” policy that swept the nation over the past decade or two? Doesn’t the Statue of Liberty invite everyone with “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”? Isn’t America the melting pot into which millions from across the planet mixed? My wife’s ancestors came from northern Europe; mine from southern Europe; my late brother-in-law’s, from Africa. Melting pot. What’s going on in Butler? Are they xenophobic? Racist?
Or, is there a difference in the nature of immigration today, something about the immigrants, or something about the “holding capacity” of America? Isn’t the driver of many immigrants the same as it was when the English, Germans, Norwegians, Polish, Irish, and Italians arrived a century or so ago? You know, that “huddled” stuff? The “yearning”? Why should any be turned away? Is there a “new reality” that affected Butler’s citizens? Or what of New Yorkers? What’s this I hear about sending immigrants to Canada? I thought NY City, home of the Statue of Liberty, would be among the most welcoming places in the country; Queens, after all, has the most diverse genetic population on the planet. And in Chicago, another “sanctuary city,” the mayor bussed the illegals to the suburbs, taking the same position as those poor people in Martha’s Vineyard who kicked illegal immigrants off the island: “Yeah, we are a sanctuary, but not for you.” *
The Old Reality
The huddled masses of the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries contained some bad actors. That’s the nature of humanity: Some of us, regardless of point of origin, regardless of race or ethnicity, and regardless of religion, are bad actors. Thus and because “birds of a feather flock together,” some neighborhoods became enclaves where gang activity associated with the local “ethnic” population spoiled the human landscape of those who had arrived to “breathe free.” What’s the principle? Bad before emigration; bad after immigration. And the same principle applies to the good: Good before; good after. Sufficient historical evidence suggests that not everyone in the melting pot came to America with the best intentions, but the majority probably did. Some among the “huddled masses” were, as some are now, especially bad actors. Thus gangs from every ethnicity have disrupted the peace and security of many citizens, including the naturalized.
The old reality is that in any population of humans there’s a chance, however small, that some are bad guys.
A New Reality
But the “bad guys of old” didn’t transport drugs in quantities and in potency capable of killing millions of Americans. Take, for example, what happened in Colorado in December, 2022, where a Sinaloa Cartel member was arrested for 45 pounds of a fentanyl and cocaine mixture. As Ryan L. Spradlin, Special Agent in Charge, HSI Denver, said, “Fentanyl related deaths rose over 70% in Colorado during 2021 and it isn’t slowing down. This poison that transnational criminal organizations increasingly smuggle into the United States is responsible for over 100,000 deaths nationwide while putting millions of dollars in the pockets of drug cartels.” **
This “ain’t” my grandmas’ and grandpas’ huddled masses. There’s no simple “yearning to breathe free” in this new reality. There’s a difference in what bad actors can do now that they could not do during that previous great migration. In the context of well-organized cartels with criminal intent, the true “huddled masses” arrive under a veil of suspicion.
Is this what motivated the County of Butler to change its proclaimed “sanctuary status”? Is this what the supposed xenophobes were warning about when Butler proclaimed “sanctuary.” No doubt Butler wanted to be welcoming just as Martha’s Vineyard, New York City, and Chicago wanted to be welcoming. Probably (I want to believe) their intentions were noble, but they also derived from a very naive perspective of today’s realities. It’s one thing to welcome a poor person from another country; it’s another to welcome someone who wants to do you harm or who is indifferent to your safety.
When Trump sought to construct a wall across the southern border, his political enemies—and there were many—called the President a xenophobe and a racist. Some populations, notably those in large cities, defied him and proclaimed themselves to be open and free to one and all. “All” turned out to include some nasty people, rapists and murderers, for example, and drug and human smugglers. American citizens have been assaulted, injured, and killed by some of those not deported or prevented from entering. That appears to be an undeniable reality. And today, the interception (thankfully) of more doses of fentanyl than there are citizens to kill in a region makes that point to which I’ll add people on the terror watch list caught among illegal aliens.
The days of Ellis Island seem to be over. Should we welcome immigrants? Of course. Should we have inducements such as free stuff? I don’t think my grandparents got any government help. They didn’t get free transportation, hotel rooms, and health care. They didn’t get free phones. They came with nothing, worked, and put food on the table. Should we provide sanctuaries for criminals? Aren’t they people, too? How heartless can those in favor of a wall actually be?
The Ideal vs. the Real
Ideally, everyone is welcome on Martha’s Vineyard. There’s a welcoming sign. Everyone is welcome in Butler County, too. The ideal is that all humans have dignity and inestimable worth. But the reality is not all humans are well intentioned. Some seek to harm. Those who glibly decided to open sanctuaries are only now beginning to see that some restrictions are necessary. Without them, citizens are at risk. Even other migrants, as the tales of abuse and rape reveal, are at risk.
Is there a difference in attitude framed by political view? Did some citizens in some cities decide to open their doors as sanctuaries just for spite? Did they want to prove how noble they were in contrast to a guy they didn’t like? "Hey, if Trump’s for it; I’m against it, no matter what.” And, of course, the “what” rarely affects those who act solely on the ideal, rather on the real. Does reality never hit them? Oh! Wait, didn’t an illegal, left-leaning nudist attack Nancy Pelosi’s husband? Doesn’t she live in an ideal sanctuary city? ***
Reality Reality
There’s evidence to show that illegal immigrants are NOT proportionally more prone to criminal activity than native citizens. In fact, they appear to be less prone according to the statistics. For that reason alone, many should be welcomed, but the very nature of sanctuary cities has prevented local authorities from cooperating with Federal agents in deporting those who do perpetrate criminal acts.
Consider this before dismissing this little essay as xenophobic, which I can assure you, it isn’t.
The US Department of Justice released this statement on Thursday, June 7, 2018 under the title “Departments of Justice and Homeland Security Release Quarterly Alien Incarceration Report Highlighting the Negative Effects of Illegal Immigration and the Need for Border Security”:
Of the 19,688 confirmed aliens in USMS custody, 10,971 (56 percent) were in custody for an immigration related offense. Additionally, 4,665 (nearly 24 percent) aliens were in custody for drug related offenses. Further details regarding the related charges of these inmates are as follows:
- 974 (approximately five percent) were in custody for supervision violations;
- 889 (approximately five percent) were in custody for property offenses;
- 391 (approximately five percent) were in custody for weapons violations;
- 378 (approximately two percent) were in custody for violent crimes
You are free to draw your own conclusions about what is ideal or real. In the list above some 889 property offenses might be small matters of trespass, maybe even unknowing trespass. Accidental property offenses happen. They happen all the time everywhere, don’t they, so, 889 offenses aren’t necessarily indicative of anything except to those whose property has been affected. Even 378 in custody for violent crimes seems small by comparison with all in jail for such crimes, but consider that this is just the first quarter report for fiscal year 2018. And consider that violent crimes is a category that includes assault and murder. Kate Steinle of San Francisco was a victim. Sarah Root of Iowa. Terry and Brenda Aultman of Daytona Beach. Kayla Hamilton of Maryland. Julie Graichen of Massachusetts. Want me to name the many others whose families will never see them again? If it were a family member of a sanctuary city’s councilman or councilwoman, would there be any statement about xenophobia? “What, you want to undeclare sanctuary status just because some illegal alien murdered you daughter? You xenophobe. You racist.”
Should those who have cautioned against unlimited sanctuary be censored and ostracized? What if they simply wanted to see an orderly Ellis Island processing to sift through the identities of those entering the country or to intercept dangerous materials. Can anyone say “dirty bomb” or “fentanyl”?
*The Island of Martha’s Vineyard’s welcoming sign reads:
“We respect WOMEN. We value BLACK LIVES. We stand with our LGBTQ COMMUNITY MEMBERS. We stand with IMMIGRANTS, with REFUGEES, with INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, and with PEOPLE OF ALL FAITHS. We stand with our COMMUNITY. All Are Welcome Here.”
Great sentiments, right? But not for the immigrants that a southern governor sent to the welcoming island! Forty-four hours of “breathing free” on Martha’s Vineyard, 44 hours; that’s all the immigrants got. Then they were shipped off.
Remind you of some other place? How about the Vatican which is surrounded by a wall? The Vatican, from which the Pope decried the American border wall!
**DEA. December 5, 2022. Press release.
***San Francisco
A Sanctuary City.
We welcome all.
Watch where you step.
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