This is an odd story that my friend Kenneth Levine, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, sent me. Kevin Venhuis, the deputy sheriff in Abbeville, Alabama, is facing deportation because he lacks legal immigration status. He's Canadian and has apparently been in the US for 25 years and has apparently just blended in. He married a US citizen a few years back and tried to get a green card, but divorced before the process finished.
Alabama's new immigration law ensnared him. His problems started when he was pulled over in a traffic stop and his immigration status was checked. And being the deputy sheriff, he had various firearms which triggered being charged with various deportable offenses.
What struck Ken is the hypocrisy on display here. I've seen many people defend the tough crackdown on illegally present immigrants, but suddenly change their tune when someone they know is affected. Or someone from one of the "good" countries is affected. People love to be hawks on enforcement as long as they don't actually know much about the people they want to exile.
Even the language is different in this case. Note that the man is not labeled as an "illegal immigrant" (or "undocumented" or any other variation) by the paper. He's a Canadian man, he's *accused* of being an illegal immigrant...
Even the headline eschews the labeling of the person.
Don't get me wrong - this is how the reporters on the immigration beat should write. The problem is that we don't get this kind of writing until the subject is one of "us."
Posted by: John Lamb | December 26, 2012 at 01:48 PM
1. Jack really, I thought you were against immigration because immigrants just don't blend in.
2. A white male in Alabama, an enforcement officer, owns guns. Something tells me he might be an anti himself. The hypocricy might be mind bending here. Yep, chap, you are no better than one of 'em illegal immigrants. In fact, you are them.
Posted by: Legal and no longer waiting | December 09, 2012 at 12:57 PM
Or should I say that white Alabamians are white skin worshippers so committed to their religion of white skin worship that they could not detect a white illegal in their midst.
Posted by: George Chell | December 08, 2012 at 09:32 AM
"That's what we don't want--the ability of someone who is not supposed to be in the country to just go about their business and not be detected for decades."
All good in theory, not in practice. Racist Alabamians, and yes, most white Alabamians are racist will never detect one of their own...he probably fit in well with the racists too with his southern accent!
Posted by: George Chell | December 08, 2012 at 09:30 AM
"apparently just blended in"
That's what we don't want--the ability of someone who is not supposed to be in the country to just go about their business and not be detected for decades.
Posted by: Jack | December 07, 2012 at 05:08 PM