Posted on 08/14/2007 8:26:26 AM PDT by ovrtaxt
I was just about to speak to the Republican gathering in Ames, Iowa, Saturday when I learned something so distressing that it caused me to change the topic of my speech.
By now you have heard about the three young college students who were murdered execution-style in Newark, N.J., last week. Another student was shot in the head but survived.
What you might not have heard is that the shooter in this horrendous crime was in the country illegally.
This was not his first vicious crime. He was indicted last month for raping a five-year-old girl repeatedly over a four-year period and threatening to kill her family.
And 10 months ago, he was charged with assaulting patrons in a bar.
A career criminal whose illegal status, Fox News reports, the authorities have known since his prior arrests.
A murderer who, despite all these facts, was still free on a Saturday night to line up four young people in a Newark schoolyard and shoot them in the head.
At the funeral of one of the young victims, Newark Mayor Cory Booker pounded the coffin and shouted, "Enough is enough!"
He was more right than he knew.
The War Here at Home
There is a war here at home, and it is even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Far more Americans are being killed by violent, evil people here in America than in our official military "combat zones" overseas.
The truth is, all too many Americans are being killed. But what is so completely senseless is having the lives of three young, achieving students cut brutally short by someone who not only should not have been in the United States in the first place but also, after two previous arrests for violence, should not have been on the streets. Instead, the suspected killer should have been in jail awaiting trial, sentencing, prison and eventual deportation.
Another case in point: Authorities are now seeking an additional suspect in the Newark killings -- yet another suspected illegal alien.
The second suspect is a Nicaraguan national who was ordered deported in 1993 but clearly never left. He, too, has a long record of arrests for violent crimes going all the way back to 1999.
New Jersey was already recently in the news for its failure to protect its citizens from illegal aliens when the federal government arrested six would-be terrorists for plotting to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix. We soon learned that three of them had been illegally in the U.S. for 23 years, during which they had been charged by the New Jersey police more than 75 times. And still, our government never discovered they were here illegally.
Now the failure of our government to determine if a criminal is here illegally and to detain him has played a role in the execution-style killing of three young college students and the shooting in the head of a fourth student.
The Government of the United States Is Not Protecting the People of America
Yet the problem is by no means confined to New Jersey.
Mayor Booker cannot protect the people of Newark if the government of the United States is not protecting the people of America.
The federal government's incompetence, timidity and uncoordinated efforts to identify and deport criminal illegal aliens have had devastating consequences for innocent Americans.
While Fox News has reported that immigration authorities knew that the Newark shooter was here illegally, the Newark Star Ledger quoted Mark Ali, head of the Essex County Prosecutor's child abuse unit, who "questioned whether immigration officials would have taken any action to detain [the shooter] even if they had been notified of his prior arrests."
Ali told the Star Ledger: "In 19 years, I have called immigration maybe a dozen times, and not once have they come to put a detainer or arrest someone."
Trapped in Partisan Wrangling as Usual
As a father and grandfather, I am outraged that our government failed to protect these four promising young people in Newark.
As an American, I am sickened that the political leadership of America could continue to go on vacation and do nothing, even when there was the most painful and tragic proof of the failure of the current system.
As I told the crowd at Ames, a fundamental reality of where we are as a country is this: Real change requires real change.
No matter how painful, big or urgent the problem, we are trapped in politics as usual and partisan wrangling as usual:
Real Change Requires a Special Congressional Session
The President should call Congress back into special session for three days to pass a single, decisive bill.
It should be called the "Terrance Aeriel, Dashon Harvey, Iofemi Hightower Act" in honor of the three young students who lost their lives due to their government's failure to protect them.
We need a special session because, as the Newark Mayor said, "enough is enough."
Either Congress will pass a bill to establish a new system for winning the war here at home and protecting Americans from criminal illegal aliens or Congress will fail to act and we would know we need a new Congress.
Either way, enough is enough.
The President, too, ought to be furious at the failure of bureaucracies to protect the American people.
Why are the August vacations for the President and the Congress more precious than the lives of young Americans who are being killed because of government incompetence and inaction?
The Aeriel-Harvey-Hightower Act to Protect Americans
The Aeriel-Harvey-Hightower Act should be very simple and straightforward:
The War at Home Is Just as Important as the War Abroad
The issue is simple: Either Congress and the President want to defend innocent Americans from violent illegal aliens or they don't.
Either the killing of three young Americans is a horrendous event that requires us to act or we will go on with politics as usual while young Americans in our inner cities are massacred by people who should not be here.
There is a war here at home that is just as important as the war against terrorism overseas.
There are combat casualties here in America just as there are combat casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When you watch the President and the members of Congress on their August vacations, ask yourself why they can't spend a few days honoring the lost lives of Dashon Harvey, Terrance Aeriel and Iofemi Hightower by passing a law to save their younger relatives from the same tragic end.
We Should Demand More of Our Leaders, or We Should Get New Leaders.
Real change will only come when we, the American people, insist on real change.
A special session would be one step toward real change.
A law establishing a system for identifying felons who are here illegally and detaining them would be real change.
Having the government take responsibility for its failures would be real change.
More talk and more pious hand wringing while doing nothing is just politics and bureaucracy as usual.
We should demand more of our leaders, or we should get new leaders.
Imagine that these four college students had been your children, your nieces or nephews. We cannot expect Mayor Booker to defend Newark if the government of the United States does not defend America, and we need to win the war at home as much as we need to win the war overseas.
Please pray for the families and friends of these students.
I think he is entirely right. He deals with this ‘sanctuary city’ BS directy:
“2.Every person arrested for a felony will be checked against the federal data base, and unless there is positive proof they are American citizens or legal residents in America, they will be presumed to be here illegally and will be detained.
3.Any city, county or state that refuses to participate in checking every felony arrest will immediately lose all their federal aid.”
This would address the neglect of the local authorities and their dangerous political correctness.
Is he still in the US?
He is a fast mover - Speedy Gonzalez.
ovrtaxt - this not to you personally, I’m new to posting here and apologize in advance if it seems like I jumped all over you.
What’s missing here in Newt’s selective “outrage” is this:
A) “Government” cannot “protect” anyone. YOU MUST DO IT YOURSELF at the EXACT instant and moment of crisis. When SECONDS count, the police (as reps of government, etc.,) are MINUTES away (or as in the case of New Orleans, conspicuously absent). And quite frankly, if a person is not willing to take the time and effort to LEARN how to protect themselves, how can they reasonably expect someone else to risk THEIR life to protect them? A few hours of training with a firearm, the most expediant self-defense device ever created, is all it takes. My children are all expert marksmen with both handgun and rifle; I TAUGHT them that way since they were little so that they could protect themselves if the need ever arose.
B) New Jersey disarms its citizens, err, subjects with ridiculously strict gun control laws. Strict gun control laws disarm only law-abiding people, but not the criminal scumbags that did this (obviously - 3 dead kids prove it). Yet, NO ONE BRINGS THIS UP. The media darlings cry “We have to do THIS, and THAT...too easy to get guns, blah blah blah” But hey, don’t DARE bring up the fact that these people are disallowed by law to carry firearms for personal defense. In democrat-controlled NJ (as in other Dem-controlled states) it is very, very diffcult to get a concealed carry license, but not for a criminal to get a gun. These people were MURDERED by the STATE as much as by the scumbag illegal. Or at the very least, the state made it easier for them to be murdered. Think I’m too harsh? Ask those three kids.
C) A person carrying a firearm (as in the RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS) has at least a fighting chance to defend him/herself; these people were slaughtered LIKE SHEEP. We were NOT born to be sheep. “Government” intends to make us that way. They violate your RIGHT, breaking the law, and nothing is said about it. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness - it means NOTHING if you can’t defend it.
D) Illegal alien argument notwithstanding - it makes no difference. Would it have mattered if the dirtbag was born and raised here and did the same things? No. Those kids would still be dead because they weren’t taught to defend themselves properly - it starts at home.
They were probably taught “Conflict Resolution” - give the guy what he wants and he’ll go away (to rape/rob/assault/execute someone else). Forget your duty, obligation, and responsibility as a CITIZEN to PREVENT this dirtbag from harming someone else. No, just give him what he wants and it’ll be all right. Kneel down? Sure...why not? Yes sir, don’t worry, I won’t bleed on you.
Pathetic...I am SO disgusted and outraged with this whole episode. And here’s one more big government type, Newt, standing up there saying government has to do more to protect us..
Self-defense is THE MOST BASIC HUMAN RIGHT. Did he mention ANYWHERE about making it easier for law-abiding citizens to exercise their RIGHT to self-defense?
Nope. Not part of the agenda.
I weep for my Country.
Thanks for perpetuating the myth Newt. We didn't seem to have any problem in Florida. At least not on the level of NO.
...he differentiates between illegals arrested for violent felonies and the vast majority of illegals who...[paraphrased] "like the rest of us, are just peacefully struggling to get by".
Good job, Newt!
The guy’s whereabouts are currently unknown. He left town. Hard to say if he left the country; if he could manage to, it would be a good bet.
Are you serious? They don't know where the guy is?
Carolyn
Those are excellent points. BANG!
I guess skipping bail in’t a big deal for an illegal. What are they going to do, go by his job and get him? right.
I rather have Newt as President-OTUS than George Bush right now !!!
This is just red meat demagoguery for the Know Nothings. He knows full well this is a State problem NOT a Federal problem. This is a failure by the State of NJ to act in a sane manner. Amazing how the Conservative movement, who use to be all about Federalism, NOW want to simply nationalize every level of US Govt.
Heck Newt, let just abolish the states so all you politically connect elitist like you and your good buddy Hillary, can run everything for us.
Newt just knows which emotional hot buttons to push to get the Know Nothings all fired up to put the money into his pocket. This is pure demagoguery and nothing else
Controlling the borders is the Federal government’s Constitutional responsibility Johnnie. Go read it.
Policy made in the heat of passion over a tragedy is always a disaster.
It is as stupid to try to legislate in the heat of the moment response to this failure by the State of New Jersey to keep dangerous criminals locked up, as it is for the Lunatic Left to demand we legislate in the heat of the moment response to the collapse of the I35W Bridge.
Bad things happen. NO amount of Govt will stop that. The solution here is NOT to dream up MORE bureaucracy, the solution here is to figure out WHERE the existing bureaucracy failed and fix it. That is a state of New Jersey problem in this case.
MNJ, I have to agree this is a State & Local failure, but the Federals need to feel the heat also.
Is that a typo? Since she was one??? Threats or not, I can't understand why the parents didn't go the police.
And three murders (+ 1 who lived) on top of that?
This beast needs to be put down. I'm normally against the death penalty, but I'm not even talking about a death penalty. He just needs to be put down like the wild rabid animal that he is.
“I rather have Newt as President-OTUS than George Bush right now !!!”
Well, that’s more an unfortunate testament to your state of mind right now than anything else.
Well put!
The only idiot’s are the fools who stay on the George Bush band wagaon.
This country is being swamped by bad things (mostly from outside our borders) why don’t you come down in live in Houston (I mean little Houstijuna Mexico) for a while. It is not safe to go to the store anymore and even if you make it there safely, harldy anyone is speaking English anymore.
Thanks you GWB and the rest of your Democratic/RINO Open Borders buds !!
Anything posted from Johnnie has all the credibility of an Alec Baldwin rant.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.