Like everyone else, I am grieved by the deaths of four children in a van-school bus accident in Cottonwood last week. I am also grieved by the demagoguery that this accident is giving some an excuse to exhibit. By way of example, a reader of the popular Powerline blog, which is run by two local lawyers and a Washington, D.C., lawyer, placed as a comment to a Feb. 21 John Hinderaker post ("Illegal alien caused fatal bus accident") a photo of open train cars packed with people standing in them along with the caption, “We need to round up the illegals. We need to put them on a train.” To me, it looks like a picture of prisoners heading for a concentration camp. Offensive photo and language aside, the author of the comment -- along with much of the media and the original post on Powerline -- wrongly focuses on the fact that the driver was in the country illegally. Illegal immigration is a serious social issue, but it doesn’t cause car accidents.
I call on lawyers, who are skilled at logical reasoning, to bring some honor to the discussion by challenging the connection between immigration law and the deaths of these children. Let the legal process against the driver take its course. Jesse, Hunter, Emilee and Reed don’t deserve to be used to further other people’s hatred.
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This is a an example of the bigotry and intolerance for which Powerline's is known based on the opinions of its creators and most of its contributors.
Check the date and time of the first Powerline posting on the accident. Relying on "unnamed sources" provided to ONE media outlet (Fox 9 News), Powerline wasted no time in rushing to the conclusion that the driver with the Hispanic appearance and last name MUST be an undocumented immigrant. Trouble is, at the time of Powerline's rush to judgment, no one in a position to know, such as the immigration authorities, had said anything about Ms. Franco's immigration status. They didn't even know who she was. For all Powerline knew, the driver could have been a citizen or an immigrant seeking a green card or citizenship.
The USCIS has since determined Ms. Franco's identity and announced that she did not enter the country legally. But the folks at Powerline just couldn't wait until the facts were in to make their own uninformed pronouncement.
What's worse than Powerline's bigoted rush to judgment about the immigration status of the van driver, perhaps, is the illogical and ludicrous assertion that, but for lax enforcement of our nations's immigration law, the terrible accident would not have happened.
You "call[ed] on lawyers, who are skilled at logical reasoning, to bring some honor to the discussion by challenging the connection between immigration law and the deaths of these children." But all three of Powerline's authors are lawyers. You'd think their legal training would check their collective impulse to post such an asinine and absurd statement on a widely read blog.
You'd be wrong.
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