August 4, 2006
Any
death caused by a drunk driver is, at once, tragic, inexcusable and preventable. But
when that drunk driver is an illegal alien, it's a national outrage. The
death of Gibson Guitar master craftsman Charlie Derrington at the hand of
an illegal alien has ratcheted up the argument against illegal immigration. The
governor of Tennessee has refused to take the steps necessary to eliminate
the problem, instead passing the buck to the federal government. One
step he could take is getting behind the effort to, in essence, deputize state
law enforcement agents as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents
so they can stop this nonsense of turning a blind eye to illegal aliens they
all see on a day-to-day basis.
Unfortunately, Charlie Derrington's death is not isolated. A study
by the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel
Hill tells us in cold, hard facts what we already knew in our hearts. Hispanic
drivers (we assume illegal ones) are far more likely to drive drunk than the
national average. The study reveals that 7.04 percent of Hispanic
drivers involved in crashes in 2005 were intoxicated, compared with 4.87 percent
of Native Americans, 2.82 percent of whites and 2.28 percent of blacks. An
investigation by WRAL-TV in Raleigh found that the problem was far worse in
the state capital's county than even the UNC study shows. They
found that 33 percent of all drunk driving cases in Wake County involved Hispanics,
many of them illegal, while Hispanics make up only 7 percent of the county's
population.
The problem with these types of studies is they rarely differentiate between
legal and illegal Hispanics therefore they unwittingly fuel the fire of resentment
against all Hispanics, which is unwarranted. Because of political
correctness, these studies gloss over the salient point of legal status in
order to avoid making anyone feel, um, uncomfortable. In the process,
they do a great disservice to law-abiding Hispanics who came to this country
legally and whose drunk driving numbers are skewed by illegals. This
only adds to the stereotype about which so many Hispanic activists complain.
My informal research, which includes directly talking with law enforcement
officers, tells me that the vast majority of drunk driving cases involve illegal
aliens. Why can't we just come right out and say it!?! Well,
I am. Crime by illegal aliens, in general - which includes drunk
driving and drunk driving deaths - is far beyond our turning a blind eye. As
society chooses to ignore this problem, people continue to die. These
are deaths that are entirely preventable. These are, in many cases,
productive members of society who are taken from us by the leeches of society
who totally disregard our laws and continue to drain our coffers of valuable
resources and clog our courts. These are the people who flaunt
our laws from the second they invade our country. They continue
to ignore our laws as they either steal or fraudulently obtain identification
that allows them to dodge deportation. They use this identification
to either undercut an American worker and take his job or enroll themselves
in endless government services or both. They commit crimes at an
alarmingly high rate compared to the rest of society. They cost
the taxpayers a minimum of $35 billion a year, even after taking into account
the taxes they pay, which are minimal. They skirt our schools'
requirements for valid ID and immunization records, putting our children at
risk. They jam our emergency rooms to the point that several hospitals
in California have had to close their doors.
I've had enough. How about you?