04/22/2010
Walter Olson writes at Overlawyered.com:
Arizona Sen. John McCain is under fire for asserting on the Bill O’Reilly show that “the drivers of cars with illegals in it … are intentionally causing accidents on the freeway.” It would be natural to assume he was referring to the well-established “swoop-and-squat” racket described repeatedly in these columns — here, for instance. You might think illegal aliens would avoid these scams for fear of deportation, but you would be wrong: they are well represented among the participants.
I hold no brief for McCain, and I doubt very much that the workings of this particular criminal subculture should figure among the top twenty policy considerations in deciding how best to handle illegal immigration. And if a Senate spokeswoman is to be credited, McCain may actually had in mind the phenomenon of high-speed police chases — though it is far from clear why those crashes would ordinarily count as intentional. But blogger incredulity about the idea that car crashes can ever be intentional seems misplaced.
The "blogger incredulity" — see it at the Washington Monthly — is caused by the fact that most Washington-area pundits have no idea what’s happening out in Arizona, or for that matter in "Americaland" in general.
I know because immigration is my beat, Olson knows because lawyers are his beat. Rob Sanchez knows because he actually lives there. But how would the Washington Monthly know? It’s not like you ever see headlines saying "Mexican Illegal Charged With Insurance Fraud."
By the way, while Olson doubts that "that the workings of this particular criminal subculture should figure among the top twenty policy considerations in deciding how best to handle illegal immigration," I'd like to say that a bigger reason is all the people illegal immigrant drivers kill and maim without meaning to. Except on VDARE.com, you also don’t see headlines saying Illegal Guatemalan Sentenced for DUI Deaths in New York State or Drunk Driving Illegal Alien Pleads Guilty in Death of Michigan Grandfather.
The MSM headlines in those cases were DWI killer of mother, daughter gets maximum sentence, and Grandpa killed 3 minutes from home, and you would have to read the story to find out who did it.
That difference between us and the MainStream Media is why we keep asking you for your donations in order to continue.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.