Marietta Daily Journal

October 30, 2009

D.A. King: Illegals’ invasion tears lives apart on this side, too

Robert Rosas is a name that is sadly unfamiliar to most Americans. It shouldn’t be. His tragic story is one of many that represent the “other side” of the illegal immigration “debate” that is routinely avoided by the various anti-enforcement groups and in the media.

Rosas, a three-year United States Border Patrol agent, was mercilessly gunned down while on patrol on the U.S. – Mexico border near Campo, Calif., in July.

Agent Rosas was tracking suspected illegal border crossers who were headed north from Mexico looking for a better life when he was killed by multiple gunshots. According to the Border Patrol, seven people have been arrested in the U.S. and Mexico in connection with Rosas’ murder, but the suspected shooter is still at large.

Maybe he made it into the interior of the United States. Maybe he is right now taking a job from an American worker in Georgia. Maybe he will be given a traffic ticket for a broken taillight by an American policeman and then sent on his way, as the ACLU demands. Maybe you will see soon him marching with other illegal aliens in American streets demanding “justice,” legalization … and U.S. citizenship.

Killed at age 30, Rosas was one of more than 100 Border Patrol Agents who have died in the line of duty. He leaves behind a wife, Rosalie, a 2-year-old son, Robert and a now 1-year-old daughter, Allysa.

Rosas’ murder came to mind again while reading numerous reports about the nationally reported outrage from “immigrant rights” organizations over an illegal alien Halloween costume. The trick or treat costume consisted of a space alien mask, an orange jumpsuit emblazoned with the words “illegal alien” and a hand-held “green card.”

In various e-mails of protest to merchants, Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, called the costume “distasteful, mean-spirited and ignorant of social stigmas and current debate on immigration reform.”

Another coalition spokesman, Jorge-Mario Cabrera, said the costume “perpetuates this idea we have about undocumented immigrants as alien foreigners, strangers, scary.” According to Cabrera the jumpsuit was too similar to what many captured illegal aliens wear in detention centers, “where they can spend months at a time, and where there is a lot of suffering.”

Rosas’ death should also be remembered when we consider a recent Zogby International opinion poll conducted in Mexico on American immigration policy.

The survey finds that people in Mexico think that granting legal status to illegal aliens in the United States would encourage more illegal immigration to the United States. As happened with the 1986 amnesty.

As the top immigrant-sending country for both legal and illegal immigrants, views on immigration in Mexico provide insight into the impact of another amnesty, as well as other questions related to immigration.

Among the findings taken from a report on the poll from the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C.:

“A clear majority of people in Mexico, 56 percent, thought giving legal status to illegal immigrants in the United States would make it more likely that people they know would go to the United States illegally. Of Mexicans with a member of their immediate household in the United States, 65 percent said a legalization program would make people they know more likely to go to America illegally.”

More from CIS:

* Interest in going to the United States remains strong even in the current recession, with 36 percent of Mexicans (39 million people) telling Zogby they would move to the United States if they could.

* A new Pew Research Center poll also found that about one-third of Mexicans would go to the United States if they could.

* An overwhelming majority (69 percent) of people in Mexico thought that the primary loyalty of Mexican-Americans (Mexico- and U.S.-born) should be to … Mexico. Just 20 percent said it should be to the United States. The rest were unsure.

Like most Americans, Robert Rosas was sure of his loyalty. He died trying to protect his country. His dedication to duty represents the pro-American side of the “immigration debate.”

Radical anti-enforcement, amnesty-again groups that demand “dignity” for the illegal aliens who make it past the Border Patrol and howl that deportation would “tear undocumented families apart” should be reminded of Robert Rosas and his American family.

D.A. King is a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration and president of the Cobb-based Dustin Inman Society. On the Web: www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org.