DETROIT -- The fear-mongers are always warning us: Immigrants and their children bring crime to our nation. They have no respect for our basic institutions. They tear apart the social fabric that has held us together and made America a beacon of liberty. They must be stopped or sent back to wherever they came from. The greatest threat to our freedom and security comes from Mexico.
Right-wing politicos and the shout chorus in broadcasting have been warning us about the decadence immigration brings to all we value. Now is the time to listen. Alberto Gonzales is a criminal.
The attorney general of the United States is the poster child for lawlessness. This child of Mexican immigrants is a serial felon. He has approved of torture and secret prisons, asserted that the president has the authority to do anything in the name of national security, rejected the Geneva Conventions and international law, created rogue military tribunals, denied habeas corpus and legal counsel for detainees not charged with specific crimes, and authorized illegal wiretaps and eavesdropping on millions of Americans.
His lesser felonies include repeated acts of perjury, destroying evidence and obstruction of justice. Richard Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell -- who approved the Watergate break-in, helped cover up the crime and did a prison stretch for his vile deeds -- was a model of probity compared to Gonzales.
What Nixon, Mitchell and their co-conspirators and fellow felons did brought great harm to our republic. But our national resilience overcame the nightmare. What President George W. Bush and Gonzales have done requires nothing short of a political exorcism. In a nation built on the rule of law, they are the bedmates of Beelzebub.
Bush must have been channeling Nixon when he made his "generous" offer to let his political "brain," Karl Rove, meet with members of Congress behind closed doors, not under oath, and explain how he and Gonzales connived to fire eight U.S. Attorneys in transparent political executions.
Nixon's unraveling and final days mean nothing to Bush. In those days, he was failing in business and dulling his memory with Jack Daniels and cocaine. Vice President Dick Cheney was working for Nixon and serving his apprenticeship in treachery.
Gonzales is the perfect lawyer for Bush and Cheney. He tells them they can do whatever they want to. He is their unflinching ally in keeping the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in operation.
After last November's election prompted Bush to reluctantly sack Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the most incompetent and disastrous military leader in American history, his successor, Robert Gates, brought fresh eyes to the Pentagon.
One of his first recommendations was to shut down Guantanamo as quickly as possible. The New York Times reports Gates recognized that the detention facility had "become so tainted abroad that legal proceedings would be viewed as illegitimate."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice supported Gates' move to shut down Guantanamo. She knew what foreign governments, even our allies, think about the infamous camp, and how its existence erodes U.S. credibility throughout the civilized world. Even the British want it closed.
When the secretary of state and defense secretary make such a recommendation, it should be a slam dunk. At a recent news conference, Gates said, "I think that Guantanamo has become symbolic, whether we like it or not, for many around the world."
Gates and Rice made their pitch to Bush, who has said on many occasions that he wants to eventually close the detention facility. But the legal limbo at Guantanamo was defended by none other than Gonzales, the nation's top lawyer, and Cheney, who considers torture a "no-brainer." They prevailed. Guantanamo lives.
Find me another example in American history where the vice president and attorney general get to nix a largely military and diplomatic move the secretaries of defense and state supported.
Gonzales didn't want to jeopardize the status of the detainees -- and, as usual, he chose to suck up and please his protectors. Denying people their rights and thumbing his nose at the law is signature Gonzales. Is there not one member of the bar in this nation willing to bring professional charges against him? Gonzales has already established a disgraceful legacy of legal slime that will forever stain him as the worst attorney general in American history. Some clever member of Congress should propose we formally name the Guantanamo prison the Alberto Gonzales Detention Facility. Who could object?
The Times reports Gonzales' toadies at the Justice Department "are deeply reluctant to move terror suspects to American soil because it could increase their constitutional and statutory rights -- and invite an explosion of civil litigation. Guantanamo was chosen because it was an American military facility but not on American soil."
Fortunately, most Mexican-Americans have much more decency and respect for liberty than Gonzales. The plight of Mexican workers and immigration issues should be a top priority for the Justice Department. Instead, Gonzales is running around the county lying about the hits he carried out for Rove.
Rove claimed Carol Lam, the U.S. Attorney in San Diego, was fired because she failed to vigorously pursue immigration cases. Her prosecution of corrupt Republicans had nothing to do with her ouster, Rove would like us to believe. It's telling, however, how he waved the bloody shirt of immigration to play to the Bushevik base.
Immigration reform is one of the most important issues we face, and however contentious it is, the Congress, now in Democratic hands, must move ahead. It will be difficult, but action is imperative this year. Nothing will happen in the 2008 election year.
"I am optimistic," said J. Kevin Appleby, the director of migration and refugee policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. For the last seven years, Appleby has worked tirelessly to build support for an immigration bill that will legalize the status of millions of undocumented persons and create safe and legal ways for migrant workers to enter the country.
Appleby will be speaking at Niagara University on Tuesday, March 27, at 7 p.m. at the Castellani Art Center. He will deliver the inaugural lecture in a series on religion and the modern world. The Henry and Grace McNulty Lectures were established through a grant from Father Thomas McGourty, C.M., retired professor of religious studies. (McGourty was my professor for courses in apologetics and moral theology, but he is in no way responsible for my shortcomings.) Appleby's lecture is entitled "Solving Our Immigration Crises: The Catholic Perspective."
I spoke with him last week, and he offered a practical but upbeat assessment of the prospect of congressional action on immigration this year.
"We have legislation that addresses our basic concerns," Appleby said.
The Catholic bishops outlined an approach to immigration reform in their 2003 pastoral letter, "Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope." Appleby travels around the country and works in the corridors of power in Washington articulating and arguing the bishops' position.
They want legislation that provides undocumented persons a process for "earned" legalization. The bishops want a program that will allow foreign-born workers "to enter and work in the United States safely and legally and that provides a living wage and adequate workplace protections."
Appleby pointed out that while we quickly recognize a global economy, where capital, goods and services move swiftly around the world, we sometimes fail to see the mobility and globalization of the work force.
Family reunification is another important element of the bishops' position on immigration. The cruelty and indignity of forced separations should be replaced with a system that will "permit families to reunite in a timely and dignified manner."
The bishops want the restoration of due-process protections, eliminated in the 1996 immigration legislation. They also want an examination of the forces driving migration, especially "global economic inequities."
The "centerpiece" of immigration reform Appleby describes is the earned-legalization program or "path to citizenship." In an article in "America" magazine, Appleby outlined the proposal that would "require at least six years of employment, the payment of a fine or any back taxes owed, and English instruction -- all before workers (and their families) can become eligible for permanent residency. Those eligible would then have to go to the end of the application line, behind all who are already waiting. It would ultimately take 11 to 13 years for an eligible individual to become a U.S. citizen. Such a program is hardly a 'giveaway,' which is how Webster's dictionary defines amnesty."
An approach to immigration focused only on enforcement and building stupid border walls is an expensive, ineffective mistake. Only a comprehensive program including a "path to citizenship" for more than 12 million people makes any sense. Justice cries out for leaders with the political will to make it happen.
"Immigration reform is one of the most pressing domestic issues in the nation today," Kevin Appleby argued. "The future of millions of persons and their families is at stake. Congress is poised to act, but the outcome is uncertain. Such a moment comes once in every generation. The Catholic voice could win justice for immigrants in 2007."
In these bleak political times, that would be a shining moment that will endure for generations and enrich our national character.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 27 2007 |