[Adapted from the latest Radio Derb, now available exclusively on VDARE.com]
Just when you’re thinking things couldn’t get any crazier on the immigration front, … they get crazier.
In last week’s podcast I noted the lavish benefits being showered on illegal aliens by New York City politicians—at the generous expense of New York taxpayers, of course.
New York City Progressives have got new pets. Progressives derive their spiritual nourishment from there being some population of poor people on whose behalf they can pose as humanitarians. - @DissidentRight https://t.co/itFHy7VuC4
— VDARE (@vdare) November 26, 2022
And yes, it’s gotten crazier. I’ll just read a couple of paragraphs from the story in Wednesday’s New York Post.
A pair of Albany Democrats from New York City want taxpayers to pick up as much as $300 million in legal fees to help illegal immigrants fight deportation—despite worries it could also help potentially ”dangerous people” stay in the country.
[Inner quote.] ”We have a moral obligation to make sure that new Americans have legal representation. Otherwise, the odds are without a lawyer they’ll be sent back to their country of origin and could face dire circumstances, including death,” [end inner quote] state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) said of legislation he is sponsoring alongside Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (D-Queens).
Legislators estimate the effort would cost $300 million once fully funded, with supporters pushing for a $55 million down payment next year.[‘Last thing we need’: Pols want NYers to pay $300M so illegal migrants can stay, by Zach Williams, NY Post, November 30, 2022]
”Moral obligation”? State Sen. Brad Hoylman—both gay and Jewish according to Wikipedia—is a sanctimonious weasel.
Now Democrats want you to pay $300M to fight deportations for illegal migrants who COMMITTED CRIME on our streets.https://t.co/i7cFUD7QbN
— Candice Giove (@candicegiove) December 1, 2022
The moral obligations of State Senators and State Assemblycritters are, one, to safeguard and further the interests of citizens and, two, to show proper respect for the people’s laws, and to ensure that people who wantonly violate those laws are apprehended and suitably punished.
Illegal aliens are, one, not citizens and two, lawbreakers by definition. They should be punished, not rewarded
If there is a single pothole unfilled in the streets of New York City—and, believe me, there is more than one—then the spending of New Yorkers’ money to the advantage of foreign scofflaws is a shameful dereliction of duty on the part of our state legislators, spitting in the faces of law-abiding citizens.
(Assemblywoman Cruz, according to Wikipedia, was herself an illegal immigrant, from Colombia.)
So much for illegal aliens. What’s going on with legal ones? More craziness, that’s what.
This is at the national, not municipal level. It concerns the so-called EAGLE Act of 2022, which will come up before Congress when that body reassembles after the Thanksgiving recess.
EAGLE stands for Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment. I know, I know, there should be a ”C” in there somewhere: EAG-CLE. If it helps your memory, just think of EAGLE as standing for Equal Access to Goodies for Lawyers and Employers.
EAGLE basically imposes a complete overhaul of the 1990 Immigration Act, relaxing various restrictions. For example:
There’s more, but you get the idea. EAGLE is a frontal assault on the livelihoods of American workers, especially middle-class tech workers.
Who is bringing this monstrosity to Congress? Well, the EAGLE Act of 2022 is being introduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from, duh, California. In common with well-nigh every other Democrat in the House, Ms. Lofgren is a NumbersUSA ”F-minus” on immigration legislation. The lady really hates Americans.
Who else we got? Oh look: Rep. Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota, the third highest ranking Republican in the House and just elected House majority whip for the next Congress.
Mr. Emmer is a NumbersUSA ”B-plus” on immigration, so I don’t know why he’s helping all those F-minus Democrats to launch this EAGLE on American workers to peck their guts out.
I guess the extra burden of responsibility he’s acquired as House majority whip has caused him to revise his opinions. EAGLE does, the news reports tell us, have bipartisan support; so perhaps Rep. Emmer wants to show a good bipartisan spirit. Or perhaps he just got a big fat donation from AILA, the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association, who will be cheering and high-fiving when this EAGLE has landed.
The word ”Uniparty” mean anything?
And then there’s the rest of the world—that part of the world, I mean, that anyone actually wants to live in.
Wait, no, correction: that part of the world that (a) anyone wants to live in and (b) whose native inhabitants are so careless of their nation’s demographic stability that they allow tens of thousands of foreigners every year to enter unchecked. So not Japan, for example, or Australia.
Greece last week apprehended one of the largest individual shipments of illegal aliens to land there in many years: a boat packed with 483 illegals, only nineteen of them female. The illegals come mostly from Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, and Sudan.
"Greeks Arrest Suspected Smugglers over Boat Filled with Nearly 500 Migrants" Greek authorities have arrested seven Egyptian nationals accused of people-smuggling after a boat with nearly 500 migrants aboard was brought to the island of Crete this week.https://t.co/I16fa1lYkl
— Democracy In Motion (@DemocracyMotion) November 27, 2022
That brings total arrivals to Greece this year up to near sixteen thousand, an increase from nine thousand and some last year—almost double.
Italy same. The numbers of illegal boat people are more than ninety-four thousand so far this year, up from sixty-seven thousand last year.
Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Pippalina (this is my joke, she’s actually Giorgia Meloni) has been talking a good game, although it’s a bit early to judge results; she’s only been in office five weeks. Her main achievement so far—a very worthwhile one—has been to stir up uncontrolled rage among the NGOs who are enabling the illegals.
'Ideological activity of some NGOs helps traffickers,' Meloni https://t.co/KOZ4GIFegl
— Refugees Lives Matter (@migrantslives) November 30, 2022
”NGO” stands for ”Non-Governmental Organization.” They don’t mind if you call them ”charities,” although you should do so with big extra-bold inverted commas.
The Prime Minister hinted in a newspaper interview published on Tuesday that the NGOs are in cahoots with the people-smugglers. From what I know about Italian public affairs, and considering the huge fortunes being made by the smugglers, I wouldn’t be at all surprised, but the NGOs feigned horrified outrage none the less.
They were already mad at Ms. Meloni even before she became Prime Minister for suggesting that NGO ships assisting the smugglers should be sunk. One journalist fronting for the NGOs called her a ”bastard,” responsible for the deaths of children. Our heroine sued him for criminal defamation and the trial is still under way.
These south-to-north Mediterranean crossings by boatloads of illegals have surged this year, up 74 percent on last year. They’re heading back fast to the peak years of 2015 and 2016.
And back then the Mediterranean countries could take a more relaxed attitude. They knew that few of the invaders wanted to live in Greece, Italy, or Spain. They had their eyes on the richer, softer welfare states of Northern Europe: Germany, Britain, Sweden. So the Mediterranean countries could just shunt them northwards.
Now, with the North European countries slowly stirring awake from their multicultural fantasies, the Mediterraneans may find themselves stuck with hundreds of thousands—in a few more years, millions—of illegals, most of them poorly educated young men.
I can’t leave the immigration topic without noting this story about the rudder guys.
In case you missed it: An oil tanker flying a Maltese flag sailed from Lagos in Nigeria to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. That’s more than 3,100 miles, from the deep West African bight west and north up around the bulge almost to Spain, to which the Canary Islands belong. Total travel time: eleven days.
When the tanker arrived at Las Palmas harbor security found three stowaways, apparently Nigerians, sitting on the ship’s rudder. There’s just enough of a platform on top of the rudder for three guys to sit, along with a crawl space above the rudder where one man can sleep. For eleven days…
This isn’t a one-off, either. The BBC report says there have been several cases of these rudder riders. More generally, quote:
The number of migrants crossing on boats from west Africa to the Spanish-owned Canary Islands has risen significantly in recent years.
The number of migrants crossing on boats from west Africa to the Spanish-owned Canary Islands has risen significantly in recent years.
— Nathalia Vásquez (@NathaliaVasquez) November 29, 2022
The journeys are long, hazardous and deadly. In 2021, the UN's IOM recorded 1,126 deaths on the route. https://t.co/0X12imMQhl
Because the Canaries are Spanish territory, you see, if you can survive the trip there, you’re in Europe. You’re home and dry… although in the case of the rudder riders, perhaps not dry.
One more example, as I’ve said before, of black Africans risking their lives in an unforgiving sea; all in the hope—which seems about to be fulfilled—of living at last under the blessings of white supremacy.
To these boat people, life under white supremacy is a radiant vision, a golden dream, to attain which they are prepared to risk their lives.
Of course, it would be a humane action for some governmental organization—for example the Italian Navy—to send them back.
John Derbyshire [email him] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him.) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books. He has had two books published by VDARE.com com: FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT (also available in Kindle) and FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT II: ESSAYS 2013.
For years he’s been podcasting at Radio Derb, now available at VDARE.com for no charge. His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com.
Readers who wish to donate (tax deductible) funds specifically earmarked for John Derbyshire’s writings at VDARE.com can do so here.
