Community Service is not Auschwitz

Don Goldwater, gubernatorial candidate in Arizona and nephew of the late great Barry Goldwater, has caused an uproar by advocating the establishment of work camps along the border and making illegal aliens perform manual labor. His proposal calls for putting those who have broken our laws to work cleaning up the messes that other invaders have made, and assisting in building a fence along the border to keep more of them from coming. This is an eminently sensible proposal, one which has considerable legal precedent, yet the pro-immigration lobby is having a fit; one would think he is proposing the reinstitution of Auschwitz in the Arizona desert!

Many of you may remember that I`ve been advocating this very thing for a long time now.

These people are lawbreakers, criminals who have invaded our sovereignty, thieves, and trespassers. If we are serious about enforcing border integrity, we MUST have punishment for the crime-that is, after all, how laws are enforced; punishments are meted out to the lawbreaker. If these people are willing to violate our laws in order to find work, we should give them work a-plenty (orange jumper supplied) for room and board, but no pay. If an invader loses a few weeks pay he will start believing it`s not worth the effort. How are speed limit laws enforced? Shoplifting laws? Drunken Driving laws? These are all PUNISHED by the Courts. How many people would cheat on their income taxes if they knew they could get away with it? People don`t because they fear the full weight of the United States Internal Revenue Service coming down on their heads. Our current approach to illegal immigration is to simply make the invader go back into Mexico-where he`ll walk down the border a mile or so and cross the same day. We are playing a game of hide-and-seek, with no real consequences for lawbreaking. This must stop. We have to offer unpleasant consequences for violating our laws.

This is NOT the least bit unreasonable! We punish minor criminals with workhouses and community service. We make (or at least we used to, before liberal pop-psychology came to dominate the penal system) drunk drivers, shoplifters, and the like walk along highways picking up trash, or digging holes, or what-have-you. Nobody has ever seen this as cruel or unusual; it is merely punishment fitting to the crime. The petty criminal owes a debt to society, which he pays through relatively easy manual labor. The labor has to be visible, and is a bit embarrassing to the criminal, for it to be effective. We call it community service. For that matter, does anyone remember the WPA? We made the poor engage in very similar activities (why was Roosevelt so great for proposing the poor in this country perform such labor, while Goldwater is so evil for proposing it for lawbreaking aliens?)

This proposal, much like community service for petty crimes, can only work if the illegals are visible to other would-be invaders inside of Mexico. Everyone needs to see that there are real consequences to violating our sovereignty. Why bother sneaking into America if you are going to lose your pay and end up digging holes for a couple of weeks? The current enforcement system has no teeth.

The Administration has bragged that it has caught 6 million illegals trying to cross the border. Fine. My question is, what did they do with them? They escorted them to the border and sent them across, that`s what! The 6 million were probably back in the States the same day. This is ridiculous!

Mr. Goldwater has a very reasonable proposal. We should rally to this cause!