Jessica Colotl is here in the United States illegally, according to the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. She lives in metro Atlanta. Her parents brought her here to the U.S. when she was 10 years old. She attended metro Atlanta public schools and is now enrolled at Kennesaw State University, paying in-state tuition. Note that this means that yours truly has been helping to pay for her public school and college education through my taxes. Yes, I know, my individual contribution was fractions of a penny. Those fractions I pay for this and that add up over time.
Ms. Colotl is in legal trouble stemming from a recent traffic stop. She provided an expired passport as identification and a false address. That is a felony. The rest of her story unfolded shortly thereafter.
Colotl has hired an attorney, Chris Taylor. Taylor told WSB Radio,“There has been no crime committed.” I thought attorneys were not supposed to lie on behalf of their clients. How can an illegal alien using an expired passport and providing police with a false address not have committed a crime? I wonder if there is a board of lawyers that will investigate him? (Bill, you out there?)
Human rights groups, Latino rights groups, KSU students, and many others are furious over her treatment. Accusations are flying. Terms like, “Witch hunt,” and “Draconian” continue to be hurled. Colotl will hold a press conference later today.
I have a great deal of sympathy for Colotl. She can not really be faulted for her situation. Her parents brought her here when she was 10 years old. She is now 22. She certainly could have recognized her illegal status and returned to Mexico when she turned 18, but that is hardly realistic. She only knows life in the U.S.
This entire situation has me furious.
What I want to say is, “let her stay.” She is about to graduate from college. She will add value to the U.S. Grant her permanent status in exchange for some kind of activity helping legal immigrants succeed in the U.S. That would turn this into a winning situation all around.
But folks, when I read that she has supporters, and that supporters are attacking those who arrested her, and I recall that those angry with Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law and every other anti-illegal immigration law can’t seem to get the concept straight about what is legal and what is illegal—Colotl loses my sympathy.
We the People need to improve legal immigration. U.S. businesses and the U.S. economy benefit from immigration both from the labor pool, and yes, through immigrants sending money back to their native countries -we need dynamic economies throughout the hemisphere and the U.S. needs to always serve as a beacon of hope.
However, we will never get to an immigration fix that stays in place until we get the basics down. Stated simply; illegal immigration is a crime. End of story.
There are too many logistical problems to warrant deporting all illegal aliens; Hispanic/Latino and all the others. We are best served by properly sealing our borders, improving legal immigration, and allowing the population of illegals to diminish naturally over time. Some permanent legal status may be acceptable but there should be NO granting citizenship because citizenship includes voting rights. The possible exception is for those serving honorably in the U.S. military.
The federal government can not be allowed to continue to shirk its duty to guard the borders and manage immigration. Our president doesn’t intend to address immigration now because he does not have time. Therefore, he has failed in his duty. At least former President Bush tried to get Congress to consider comprehensive reform (of course, Republicans are too dumb to turn that into a political win).
So Colotl and others like her suffer.
Message to human rights groups, Hispanic/Latino groups, and all other supporters of illegal immigrants: focus your anger where it belongs– The White House and President Obama, not Arizona and not Cobb county.
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Let her stay…..fine her parents to pay back tuition and other freebies she got. Sentence her to community service maintaining the cemeteries of soldiers that have defended freedom in this country. Make her join the military and get her citizenship or go back to Mexico.
In America, an individual is presumed innocent until proven guilty. According to the AJC article, the sheriff said she gave a false address. But she was not arrested until the day after she was stopped for “impeding the flow of traffic”, so the police obviously know where to find her. The AJC article also reported that her attorney said “it is obvious from all the documents that I’ve seen that she has done nothing wrong and has given her proper address to Cobb County and immigration officials”. Until there is a trial, the fact dispute about whether she gave a “false arrest” is not resolved and she is entitled to the presumption of innocence. (Otherwise, you are taking the government’s word that a crime has been committed.) As for the expired passport, it is not good for travel, but using it for identification is not a crime. I say it’s too soon to say whether she has committed a crime. It’s certainly not her fault that she is here in America.
Hey ASA, The crime is that she is here “illegal”. Open your eyes and see the real truth, that she’s been living off our dime for 12 years. And when she turned 18 she still hid in this country ILLEGALLY!! Kick her ass out!
Oops – sorry, “false address”, not “false arrest” in the 8th line above. Must be a Freudian slip.
The false address claim is in question. Please check the facts – there is a difference between “charged with” and “proved”.
Let’s see, she’s here illegally, driving without a license, making a false statement to law enforcement. Deport her! If she was here from any other country, there would be no controversy. Just because she is latino, she gets special treatment? Why is that? If she were Asian, Muslim or any other ethnicity there would be no controversy. If she ends up staying, why do we even have illegal immigration laws on the books? Either deport her, or let her stay and change the laws.
Innocent until proven guilty. Once proven guilty she should be deported. Why should anyone give their proper id to the police if we don’t do anything? Is giving false id ok as long as you are here Illegaly?
You have a bunch of sensible arguments here. I also think there’s something to be said for the fact that people from all over the world may want to come here to get work, and there’s no reason that people from Mexico necessarily are more deserving than those from Asia or Africa. If we looked at our labor needs rationally and set the quotas for guest workers appropriately, we’d lessen our brain drain, and have workers here who are less exploited and legal.
By the way, I love hearing people who think nothing of breaking the law themselves (drug laws, for example, or music piracy) get sanctimonious about illegal immigration–”It’s illegal, period.” Not that I know about people who sign on here, but many of my aquaintences certainly fall into this category. The US is not exactly a nation of perfect law-abiding citizens.
We lack the ability to enforce our own laws and regulations. People are admittedly ‘acquainted’ with thieves. What does this say of our country? We are a weak nation, and will only continue to get weaker. Who does that benefit? Quite possibly nobody. I think it’s funny that some people label this ‘progressive’.
Colotl also said she has been working. An illegal alien cannot do that in the U.S. without committing a felony. In addition, an American worker was denied the paychecks she has been spending and with 15 million American workers jobless, at least one of them would have benefitted from the job.
While sympathys may run high, she is what she is, illegal. Her fault should not be with the police or American Immigration Services, but with her parents. They are the ones who put her in this situation, not the American public. If they do not send her and her parents back, it will (as it has been) an on-going effort to deborderize the American country. Globilization is fine. Send the jobs to other countries to see to it they have a good economy. Fine, order your stuff on the Internet. Fine that America is diverse and half the population refuses to speak English, there’s always sign language and printing everything in 20 different langauges to keep our economy stiffled. But being here illegally is wrong and sooner or later we will suffer the consequences for lax border control. If you let her in knowing she and her parents are illegall, then just hang out the welcome sign to every person who doesn’t like living where they live outside America. Someday due to non organized planning, we will run out of natural resources for everyone who steals into this country. Currently we do not have enough finances to take care them the way they expect to be cared for. Medical facilities in America are going broke due to the illegal influx. And on it goes. While I realize that pro-illegal immigration advocates could care less about this country, I do. Return to your country of origin and come in the way you should and they we will welcome you. True Americans are sick and tired of this cheating and disruption to services intended for tax paying American citizens or those who have come here through the legal process. Trust me, there are millions of people just like her sitting on the edge of their suitcases waiting for America to play pity politics.
It is ridiculous to blame President Obama. He has an EMERGENCY list of priorities to handle and all the while the Republicans want him and our country to fail so they are blocking everything they can. He has the things he is doing in the correct order according to priority. First, he stopped the country from a total crash and Depression. Then he passed HC reform which is the single biggest chunk of our GNP and rising at a rapid unsustainable rate. Now he going to pass FIN REG to keep the same crash from occurring again. Next in like will be Energy and Educational reform. All the while fighting wars and keeping us safe and handling the emergencies that come up. Just because the old Far Right is screaming its last scream of frustration and hatred because they are losing power does not mean we need to jump in the direction they want us to. The Commander in Chief has his priorities straight.
You’re wrong. President Obama is responsible. He is derelict in his duty to enforce our nation’s laws. Granted, he has a lot on his plate. But, guess what, he’s the President… it’s his job to handle everything that comes his way! Including enforcing our laws pertaining to illegal aliens. President Obama has decided that he is not going to enforce the laws pertaining to illegal aliens. Thus he has decided to not uphold his oath of office. Plain and simple, he’s breaking the law. I think he should be held accountable. The question is how can this be accomplished?
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