Collins of the Times: 'Sanctuary City' Sounds Sort of Nice

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Last week, I described Gail Collins' condescension to what she sees as the bumpkins of Middle America. The New York Times columnist is back at it again this morning, suggesting that illegal immigration is not so much a problem as an issue exploited by Republican candidates to stir the passions of gullible Republican rubes.

The jumping-off point for Collins' [p.p.v.] Of Mitt, Monks, and Mowers is the criticism Mitt Romney has levelled at Rudy Giuliani for the latter's embrace of New York's status as a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants when he was Big Apple mayor. Note that Rudy has since toughened his stance, vowing to end illegal immigration.

In Collins' eyes, telling police and others to ignore the fact that people they encountered in the course of their duties were in the country illegally is "a perfectly rational position."

According to Collins:

If you’ve got hundreds of thousands of undocumented people living in your town, you want them to be willing to report crimes, to go to a doctor if they have a communicable disease, to keep their kids in school and off the street.

Guess what? If police and others were told to report illegals, maybe you wouldn't have "hundreds of thousands" of illegals in your city, with more coming every day knowing there'd be no questions asked.

But for Collins:

“Sanctuary city” is the new “amnesty” — a right-wing buzzword aimed at freaking out the red state voters. There is, of course, the small side effect of making it utterly impossible to have a rational policy-making discussion about a critical national issue. But what the heck. We’re talking Iowa.

What is it with Collins and Iowa? Last week Hawkeye Staters were a bunch of hicks gorging themselves on anything within deep-frying reach. Today they're [to quote Rush] mind-numbed robots, prey to manipulation by cynical politicians. Yeah, why can't Iowans be discerning voters, say like the ones in New York State who elected Eliot Spitzer to clean up government -- by using the state police to spy on political rivals?

Then, in what she admits to being a "cheap shot," Collins, ever the environmentalist, recycles the story of Mitt Romney's contract with a landscaping company that employed illegals. Except that Collins utterly misrepresented the situation, claiming that Romney "hire[d] illegal immigrants." So if the dishwasher in the next fancy restaurant where Collins dines is illegal, she's hired him, too?

Then there's this:

There’s nothing wrong with being worried about the nation’s porous borders, violent criminals who manage to avoid deportation and the massive number of undocumented people living here without any ties to the community. We should have this discussion. Like it or not, we’ve got 14 months of presidential campaign to go. Nobody on the voter side wants to spend it listening to politicians shriek meaningless catchphrases.

Translation: Like all good liberals, I don't really care about this issue. But I suppose you redneck nativists have my permission to care -- just not too much. We can have a "discussion." Say, maybe someone can organize a teach-in on campus. I have a friend at La Raza who can speak!

Concludes Collins:

By the way, doesn’t the term “sanctuary city” sound sort of nice, actually? Remember all those sci-fi movies where the heroes were stuck in a terrible world where everybody but them was a mutant or a pod person or a hologram and their only hope was to reach a legendary and possibly mythical refuge? Next time you hear a politician ranting about a “sanctuary city,” say: “Wasn’t that where Keanu Reeves was trying to get in “The Matrix?”

Note that by her analogy, Collins casts the legal citizens of the United States as the mutants and pod persons, while the illegals are the "heroes." Sums up the liberal position nicely.Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[ontap]

Gail Collins positions are certainly what has caused the leap in subscribers to the NYT. They are making money hand over fist. A model for successful economic policies. The support in the populace for her positions are tremendous. Everyone agrees that cities should protect illegal aliens.

[ontap]

It has gone from the “Old Gray Lady” to the “Pathetic Pink Skank”

[jmaroneps37]

I use to just smile and nod when people would say that liberalism is a mental disorder. Having some training in such matters, I should have known better. I now believe that one can be mentally disturbed and still function, sometimes very well, as to areas that do not pertain to the defective area of your life. Collins can obviously write at a high professional level, but she shares a distinction with Harry Stack Sullivan. Sullivan was hospitalized many times for his mental illness, but he still developed the “psychological (or therapeutic) interview. At times Sullivan was so crazy he had to be locked up, but he could function somehow as a psychologist. Collins is a sick woman. The fact that she appears on the pages of the NYT changes nothing, she’s still disturbed as are most devoted liberals.

[ontap]

Not possessing a brain is a requirement for employment at the NYT.

[APFel]

Remember all those sci-fi movies where the heroes were stuck in a terrible world where everybody but them was a mutant or a pod person or a hologram and their only hope was to reach a legendary and possibly mythical refuge? Next time you hear a politician ranting about a “sanctuary city,” say: “Wasn’t that where Keanu Reeves was trying to get in “The Matrix?”

Try Logan's Run. But there was no sanctuary. There was only a robot waiting to kill them.

APf

[kittymyrib]

If this twit’s NYC apartment building is being cleaned by illegal aliens...a sure bet...then she is employing illegal aliens, too.
New York libs like having slave labor because they can hire work that is beneath them. They are too good for mundane chores, having to save the world, doncha know.

[Puppage]

If you’ve got hundreds of thousands of undocumented people living in your town, you want them to be willing to report crimes

Yep....and they can start with themselves.

[EDINVA]

Iowa? Iowa gave us Tom Harkin, one of the most leftist members of the U.S. Senate. It also has a Democrat governor (Culver) who succeeded a Democrat governor (Vilsack)... what is her problem ?? We can’t ALL live on the Upper West Side.

[USS Alaska]

Here are some examples of a sanctuary city.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

By the way, doesn’t the term “sanctuary city” sound sort of nice, actually? Remember all those sci-fi movies where the heroes were stuck in a terrible world where everybody but them was a mutant or a pod person ...

[gubamyster]

ping

[stephenjohnbanker]

Collins is an idiot!

[Travis McGee]

Current federal law 8USC 1373(a) PROHIBITS SANCTUARY CITIES. It reads as follows:

"Notwithstanding any other provision of federal, state, or local law, a federal, state, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual."

But I guess it's only a law if El Presidente tells the AG to enforce it. And we know how HE feels.