By Stefanie Schappert
Special to The Clyde Fitch Report
stefanie@lipstickconservative.com
Since when did beauty pageants become a litmus test on controversial issues? In a repeat of last year’s “I’m-a-beauty-contest-judge-turned-Supreme-Court-justice-in-the-making,” another beauty contestant, this time Miss Oklahoma, was thrown to the political wolves during Sunday night’s Miss USA Pageant. It was all about Arizona’s new immigration bill, SB 1070, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer on Apr. 24 and protested by thousands ever since.
The big question is: Why are people automatically branded racist if they support immigration enforcement? It seems that 69 percent of America is racist, then, because that’s how many agree with the amended law stating that police will ask for proof of immigration status of anyone stopped for suspicious or unlawful behavior. Many say the recent spate of drug-related murders along the Arizona border spurred on the legislation, but now, polls show over that half of the country wants similar laws in their own states. According to Rasmussen, 70 percent of Massachusetts voters would go even further, favoring a proposal “recently rejected by the state legislature that would stop illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits.”
Call me illogical, but since when do you leave the house without a license? I pulled that crap trying to get into bars when I was under 21. The bouncers didn’t believe me then, and I don’t believe the protesters arguing now. If you get stopped by a cop in this country, they ask for your license. If you don’t have ID, guess what? They throw you in jail — even if you’re an American citizen. If we leave the US, we travel with a passport. Why does it suddenly become racist if we ask for proof of citizenship in our own country? In Mexico, they’ll throw you in jail for less; in China, they shoot first and ask questions later. Sorry, Michael H. Posner, the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, but to try and publicly compare Arizona’s illegal immigration law to China’s abominable human rights record is a bit ridiculous.
Recently, I spoke with a former New Yorker, ‘Kathy,” who now lives in Arizona, about two miles from the border with Mexico, in the small town of Palominas, in Cochise County. This is what she had to say.
On the Law: Kathy and most of her neighbors were surprised by all the fuss made about the new law. She thinks at this point SB1070 will probably get hung up in the courts. Still, “The law does not stem from racism,” she says, adding that the Mexican culture is so ingrained in the region that “it’s a non-issue” where she lives. She says the law is about money, safety and the distribution of services.
On Arizona politics: Both sides of the aisle have done nothing to help the illegal immigration problem, Kathy says. When Janet Napolitano, now Secretary for Homeland Security, was governor here, “she accomplished nothing.” Kathy feels the same about her four-term incumbent senator, John McCain.
On Los Angeles boycotting Arizona: “The city responsible for Rodney King calls us racist?,” she asks. “Just look at the two sanctuary cities in California and how they’re doing financially.” Kathy plans to meet up with her kids in Yosemite Park this month. She wishes it wasn’t in California, but she’s going anyway.
On life on the border with Mexico: It’s about living with the garbage-filled ‘Pan-American Highway’ on our protected lands — one rancher she knows picks up about 150 empty milk jugs a day. It’s about knowing that, when you go on vacation, people will use your water and sleep in your crawl spaces. It’s about knowing high tech cameras more than two miles can see you undress in your own bedroom. Or about when Border Patrol helicopters are descending feet from your home to rally up fence-jumpers.
On the border fence: Kathy says that before the 10-foot-high fence, illegal immigrants would just “walk across.” Now, “they have to work harder…they have to bring ladders right up to it to get over.” She sees the fence as a deterrent, not a solution, and says it’s “just the first step in what should be a multi-step plan to close the border” with Mexico. The next step on her list would be deploying the National Guard.
On safety: Kathy lives in a development and across the street from a cop, so she feels pretty safe. But over a year ago, it wasn’t that way. “The smugglers have dozens of routes they take,” she explains, “but once they know the border patrol is onto them, they just switch from route A to D.” Her small town used to be on one of those routes. Still, she says, “My husband has guns.”
What gets her mad: US school buses picking up kids at the border to bring to American schools, and Mexican ambulances transporting Mexican patients across the border to use US hospitals.
What gets her sad: Nearby towns like Naco, which are separated in the middle by the border, and the Mexican families separated as a result.
Her vision: Kathy believes in a work-visa program, but also that those here illegally should leave the US first, apply for the visas and then come back in. She also thinks Americans should be able to sponsor families from Mexico, just like they allow for immigrant refugees from other countries.
Now back to my two cents.
I think about how New Yorkers would react to living with illegal immigration on this level, day in and day out, especially in this age of terrorism. Undocumented people floating around this country (and it’s not just Hispanics) makes absolutely no sense. That’s in addition to the Mexican drug smugglers and human traffickers who pretty much have free reign on some parts of the border. Yes, many illegals are just hardworking people that come here to make money, but how do you know who is who? You don’t. So do you keep bending the law like we have been doing for the last 20 years? Well, Arizonans said no. And they have the constitutional right as a state to create their own laws. Or, in this case, to create laws that enforce the laws already on the books.
Check out this video of a UCLA professor actually promoting a Latin revolution to take over the “imperialist USA” right on our own soil:
The teacher keeps asking why Americans don’t want millions of illegals in our country. I’ll tell you why: because people are getting fed up with a never-ending stream of illegals who continue to use our system while our overtaxed citizens are paying for it. Most of the country is struggling to make ends meet, to find jobs, to pay mortgages, to pay student loans, to pay their medical bills. And right now it’s our tax dollars that feed, clothe, house, educate, medically take care of, transport, pick-up after, insure, enforce, discipline and legally fight for people who have no reason to abide by our laws, rules and regulations. People who aren’t here to better our country, but to strengthen their own.
Let’s say the average amount of time an illegal alien stays in this country and uses our services is 20 years. If they have children here, add another 40. So, my impromptu math says 60 years of government entitlements paid for by taxpayers for one illegal immigrant. Multiply that by the estimated 10 million illegals here in the US today, then multiply that by the 500,000 additional illegals that cross the border every year, then multiply that over the next 10 years. When does it end? It can’t be kum-ba-ya, all for one, one for all — who is going to pay for this? And if that’s racist, then sue me. Oh yeah, Attorney General Eric Holder already said he would. Actually, he said he would sue Arizona over a law he admitted to not even reading. Brilliant.
Stefanie Schappert is a freelance journalist based in New York. A staunch conservative in a self-professed city of liberals and the military wife of a Green Beret, she created Lipstick Conservative to share her unique viewpoint on politics and culture. Schappert is also reporting on the Tea Party movement for the New York edition of the Examiner.com. Other credits include Fox News Channel and NY1 News. Schappert’s conservative viewpoint came into sharp focus following the events of September 11, 2001, the resulting political climate, and living through her husband’s multiple deployments to the Middle East. This former NFL cheerleader and lifelong dancer is known to hang out with quite a liberal crowd and has been the buzz kill during many a dinner party. Contact Stefanie or learn more at lipstickconservative.com.
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