St. Pete Times & the Border-Jumpers

The St. Pete Times on Sunday had a frontpage article by Mary Spicuzza that told one and all very explicitly how to break the law. Matter of fact, the story’s tone almost made it sound heroic to commit an unlawful act. Maybe next week the good folks at the St. Pete Times will favor us with a nice story that tells us, step-by-step how to make, say, methamphetamine. This week, however, they were content to tell us how to violate customs and immigration law and, believe it or not, attempted to evoke pity for those who died while violating our country’s laws.

We all know the Times never met a liberal cause it didn’t love, but somehow an American newspaper championing the cause of a group of lawbreakers, U.S. lawbreakers at that seems wrong. Of course, were these the 1930s we’d expect the Times to be championing the cause of the Nazis because they were attempting to overthrow the oppression of the Kaiser, but that’s another topic.

Spicuzza tells the story from the point of view of the Zavaleta family’s women. The men are off jumping the Mexico/U.S. border, an internationally illegal act which she attempts to portray as some sort of heroism. She also tells of one member of the family who died crossing the border illegally. That’s sad, but it’s no more sad than Al Capone being shot dead in a theatre marquee. Criminals sometimes die and most of us think they deserve what they get. After all, there’s not much sympathy for the burglar who is torn apart by the guard dog who is guarding the place the burglar is attempting to burgle, now is there?

Spicuzza tries to justify the illegal border crossings because of economic necessity. She uses an example of the U.S., thanks to NAFTA, flooding the Mexican market with cheap onions, thus putting the Mexican onion farmers out of business. Get real Mary or, better yet, go talk to a Texas farmer about Mexican market flooding.

Of course, we’re taking to task the poor, downtrodden, St. Petersburg Times to make a point: There is no glory in breaking U.S. Immigration law, any more than there is glory in breaking any other of our laws, and that includes the ones against murder, fraud and elderly abuse.

One of the reasons border-jumping is wrong is that it violates our national sovreigenity. It is as if we’re being invaded when, in fact, we are. One of the things the government was worried about during World War II was something called the Fifth Column. It was a buzzword for something worse than spies. It denoted organized groups of foreign elements who actively worked against the U.S. government. In case you haven’t been paying attention, folks, those immigrant marches and protests two weeks ago – that’s your Fifth Column in action in the 21^st Century.

But I digress. Spicuzza’s story leaves us in suspense over the fate of the wayward Mexican border crosser. Did he live? Did he die? Did he fall into the hands of the Evil Empire? Stay tuned.

Arjay