Border Patrol vs Cardinal Mahony
Reported by Marie Therese - June 26, 2004 -
FOX reporter, Trace Gallagher, reports on the latest innovation in the administration's campaign to protect our Southern borders. This policy change has resulted in a confrontation between Border Patrol and Roger Cardinal Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles.
On June 24, 2004 at 5:33 PM ET, Gallagher reports to Judge Andrew Napolitano:
GALLAGHER: Hey, Judge, all of a sudden those dark green cars are seen cruising city streets, a shift in the policy is allowing Border Patrol agents now to extend their reach inland. They are conducting sweeps in cities, arresting hundreds of illegal immigrants from southern California down to southern Texas. The crackdown is causing panic in some heavily Latino areas. The Catholic Church is even weighing in."
The Cardinal, distressed by the level of fear among Hispanic Catholics in Los Angeles, has issued a statement, saying: "Recent interior activity has generated fear, confusion and anger throughout Hispanic neightborhoods in Southern California."
Gallagher reports that several Latino groups have compared these raids to Iraq and that similar raids are occurring in San Francisco, where they're rounding up illegal Asians.
Comment: Other than the fact that we're spending our hard-earned tax money on rounding up poor Mexican workers, what disturbed me most about this report was Trace Gallagher's gleeful delivery. He makes the Border Patrol excursions sound like an old western. "They're roundin' up all them evil claim jumpers who are out to take what's not rightly theirs." Never mind that no less a personage than Cardinal Mahony is appalled by their tactics, which include midnight raids and breaking down doors. Yet again, the Bush administratin targets those with no voice who are already afraid. As long as there are children to be watched, floors to be cleaned, homes to be built and gardens to be weeded, there will be illegal immigration over the southern border and across the Pacific Ocean.
