Listening to Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory on the Keith Larson show this morning you had to come away impressed with the mayor’s take on illegal immigration. McCrory named names, pulled no punches, and was very blunt about the issues facing the Queen City. Anyone fond of saying there is no problem or advocating impossible “solutions” was not pleased.
McCrory laid the blame squarely at the feet of a federal government that has ignored the issue in a bipartisan fashion for almost 20 years. He also correctly posited that California Gov. Pete Wilson’s perceived political failure to handle immigration issues in the late 1980s simply chased politicians away from the issue. In truth, immigration reform, not Social Security, is the third-rail of American politics.
In the federal vacuum it has been left to localities like Charlotte to deal with the fallout of illegal immigration, a fallout which includes crime and gang activity and terrible public education challenges. As McCrory said, it simply is not possible for local law enforcement to morph into Immigration agents. There is no where to hold persons accused of violating immigration laws and, in fact, precious little incentive for beat cops to make their jobs exponentially more difficult by also enforcing federal immigration laws. Immigrant communities — Central Ave. for example — would simply lock-down at the sight of police cruiser. Try solving a crime, a shooting or robbery, in that environment, with every knock unanswered, every gaze averted, every question met with a head-long sprint in the other direction. Some “crackdown.”
McCrory was also blunt in admitting that city of Charlotte funds doubtless pay illegals to do work for the city, just like virtually everyone who hires any kind of contractor who performs manual, skilled or semi-skilled also pays illegals. That is just the reality of the situation. In fact, there is simply no way Charlotte’s on-going building boom could happen without all the illegal labor involved.
The mayor did not get in details about possible solutions, but a good place to start might be trying to find a way to sue the feds for failure to enforce the law. Not quick or easy or good for a 30-second ad, but with the virtue of actually possibly working.
