The
kind of people who have ideological hang-ups that cause them to want mass
deportations of individuals whom they believe have no business being in this
country have long made it clear they are going to challenge the order issued by
President Barack Obama in the courts.
SO
IT ISN’T the least bit of a surprise that they filed a lawsuit in the U.S.
District court system, and went ahead and had it pushed in a federal district
where they thought it would be sympathetically viewed.
In
this case, that was south Texas, where U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen issued
an order this week that put a stay on the Obama immigration executive order.
Federal agencies can’t do anything to enforce it while the larger lawsuit on the
immigration policy issue is pending.
Admittedly,
most of south Texas’ population is not only Latino, it is of Mexican ethnic
origins. But it has white establishments who are more inclined to view that
land located just south of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte as some sort of
decrepit hellhole.
You
know, the land that probably is to blame for measles outbreaks.
SO
EVEN THOUGH Hanen was born in suburban Elgin, he lived the bulk of his life in
south Texas. His federal courtroom is in Brownsville, which is a town right on
the U.S./Mexico (or should I say Texas/Tamaulipas) border.
Which
is what made the ruling ever so predictable. And ever so offensive!!!
I’m
not saying people should single Hanen out for any kind of abuse. But I wouldn’t
be surprised if he becomes about as popular in his locality as that Little
League coach from suburban Evergreen Park is these days in areas around the
Roseland neighborhood.
When
I learned that 26 states (including Indiana and Wisconsin, but fortunately for
us NOT Illinois) were joining together to sue the federal government to
challenge Obama’s desire for a sensible immigration policy, I expected this
effort to thwart it.
JUST
AS I expect the case will work its way up to the fifth circuit Appeals Court in
New Orleans, and eventually to the Supreme Court of the United States. This is
an issue that likely will not be resolved until after the end of the Obama
presidency in early January of 2017.
In
fact, it may not get resolved until the day comes that conservative ideologues
in Congress get off their collective duff and decide to behave in a way that
addresses our nation’s immigration policy in a serious manner – and not just
one that plays partisan politics.
Which
is why I was pleased to see Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., try to address the
issue seriously, by admitting that a final solution will take time to achieve.
“I
am telling immigrant communities to keep preparing to sign up millions of
families for protection for deportation,” he said on Tuesday.
WHILE
ALSO TRASHING the Republican partisan measures now pending in Congress to go
for a federal government shutdown (by cutting off funding) if Obama and his
allies continue to support serious immigration reform in coming months.
I’m
sure there are those who are going to engage in their own trash talk in coming
days because the Mexican government issued a statement condemning Hanen’s
federal court ruling.
This
is an issue that will linger so long as the ideologues believe they can gain
partisan benefits from their ethnic-motivated hang-ups and don’t care how
ridiculous they come across to the real masses of our society.
Which
I’d like to say is something seriously embarrassing to the public perception of
the United States of America. Although to be honest, it’s not even the most
ridiculous thing to come out of Texas.
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