The Opinion Blog

Last in the Nation

Sunday's editorial calls on South Carolina to follow North Carolina's lead - and every other state in the nation's - and allow immigrants to attend college, regardless of citizenship status.

Despite the usual protests, the N.C. Community Colleges board last week voted boldly and overwhelmingly to restore their "open-door" policy that controversially allowed some illegal immigrants to attend classes.

Back to School?

Thursday's editorial calls attention to a handful of well-qualified Grand Strand students who aren't allowed to go back to college this semester.

Readers of The Sun News surely remember the plight of Dayana Rodrigues, a Myrtle Beach High School graduate whose name last appeared in our pages on the 2008 spring and summer semester President's List at Horry-Georgetown Technical College.

Despite her obvious academic gifts, however, those two semesters were all Dayana could attend before the S.C. legislature passed new laws requiring proof of U.S. citizenship for college admittance. Dayana's mother moved her here from their home in Brazil when she was 14, so the college followed state law and asked Dayana and a dozen others not to return, leading to a profile in The Sun News.

Immigration redux

Sunday's editorial suggests U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham as a natural leader on the next federal immigration-reform go-round.

Mixed messages seem to surround the future of the immigration debate in Washington these days. President Obama has indicated that despite the issue's thorny history - as well as daunting other reforms of the financial sector, health care and energy policy - he hoped to tackle immigration in the first year of his presidency. Recently, however, the White House meeting intended to launch the effort has been postponed - twice - though officials insist that the moves were only because of scheduling issues.

If and when that meeting does take place, however, South Carolina offers an obvious suggestion for a participant, Sen. Lindsey Graham. His qualifications are many: Foremost, he was among the bipartisan panel of authors of the Bush administration's narrowly defeated attempt at reform, an experience he describes with a glow straight out of a civics class, as he and a handful of members of both parties started with the basic issues and hammered out a law that addressed them all. Based partly out of that experience and partly out of his own solution-oriented temperament, Graham is a supporter of comprehensive reform - simultaneously improving border security, bringing order to an inept legal immigration system and dealing with the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally - and his approach evinces a broad understanding of the issue's many complexities, rather than a simple dogmatic set of demands.

Minutemen to protest Mexico's 'invasion' of Conway

From the morning e-mail ... The local Minutemen Chapter Saturday will show its displeasure that Mexican diplomats are meeting with Mexican citizens in Conway:

Horry County Minuteman Chapter to Protest Mobile Mexican Consulate

In yet another invasion of a foreign government into the lives of the American people in general and South Carolinians in particular, the Mexican Consulate from Raleigh North Carolina has decided to come to Conway, South Carolina this Saturday September 27, 2008 to provide questionable services to Mexican nationals who reside (legally and illegally) in the area.

Hispanic street gangs a threat here and abroad

Ripped from the wires ... Here's a piece of red meat for those of you concerned about criminal illegal aliens to chew on:

By Rocky Delgadillo

LOS ANGELES -- The two fastest-growing and most powerful gangs in the world are homegrown products of Los Angeles.

The Mara Salvatrucha gang, or "MS-13,'' and the 18th Street gang, known in Central America as "Mara 18,'' sprang up in the Pico-Union district and densely populated neighborhoods around MacArthur Park.

Illegals treated in un-kosher fashion

Ripped from the wires ... Robyn Blumner provides a contrarian view of the recent immigration-enforcement raid on an Iowa slaughterhouse -- that it was a mission of mercy, not persecution:

By Robyn Blumner

The list of allegations against the Postville, Iowa, slaughterhouse, recently raided by federal officials for its use of illegal immigrant workers, reads like a story collectively written by Upton Sinclair, Charles Dickens and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, is at the center of page after page of sickening accusations. These are contained in an affidavit for a search warrant filed by a federal agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

No habla ingles? No problemo, says Obama

Ripped from the wires ... Kathleen Parker notes the contrasts in the ways that John McCain and Barack Obama pander -- er,appeal -- to Hispanic voters:

By KATHLEEN PARKER

La cucaracha, la cucaracha, ya no puede caminar. La cucaracha, la cuca ...

Oh, perdon. I was just tuning up for an interview with Baracko Obama and Juan McCain.

Juan y Baracko have been busy lately wooing los que hablan espanol. That is, people who speak Spanish. With an estimated 9.2 million Hispanic votes in play this November, the stakes are high. And the pandering is in high gear.

Immigrant grapevine counsels against illegal border crossings

Ripped from the wires ... Forget building a wall at the Mexican border, says Texas writer Victor Landa. Our deteriorating economy is taking care of illegal immigration for us:

By VICTOR LANDA

Who needs moats, walls or virtual fences? The strength and reach of America's most powerful assets are doing a good job of dissuading immigration.

Americans believe that the economy is in bad shape. And the lack of confidence is spreading. The latest calculation is grim.

The latest report from the Conference Board (the group that measures the confidence level) says consumer confidence which had declined in April, continued its downward trend in May. The Index now stands at 57.2, down from 62.8 in April. The Present Situation Index decreased to 74.4 from 81.9. The Expectations Index declined to 45.7 from 50.0 in April.

Bad news travels fast. Word from communities south of the border is that a life-gambling trip to the United States in search of work is not worth the effort.

Do immigration reform right or not at all

Today's editorial notes the resumption in Columbia of negotations toward an S.C. immigration-reform package:

On no issue are South Carolinians more insistent on legislative action than immigration reform. Residents want the General Assembly to plug the federal immigration policy gaps that allow thousands of undocumented persons to live and work in the state.

Legislators have tried to satisfy the public demand for action but thus far are stalemated on how, exactly, to do so. This week, senators and representatives will make one last attempt to agree on legislation that not only makes South Carolina less hospitable to undocumented foreign workers but is also enforceable long term.

Needed: An S.C. immigration bill that actually works

Friends: Here's an advance look at the newspaper's editorial for Friday. I'd be interested in reading your thoughts, if you have any. Thanks, dc.

A slim majority of S.C. senators are taking a drubbing this week because -- horrors! -- they wish to pass an immigration-reform law that regulators and prosecutors can actually enforce. The S.C. House and Gov. Mark Sanford seem more interested in passing a bill that "gets tough'' on employers who use foreign labor, with insufficient regard for whether the measure stands up in court.

The pressure on senators to "do something, fast," is intense. Some residents apparently want the heads of employers who hire illegals to be mounted on spikes along public roads. Sanford and the House leadership, meanwhile, are conducting an intense public-relations campaign that ridicules the Senate for refusing to pass an employer-crackdown bill that the House adopted last week.