Did Senator McCain Ignite Immigration Reform Wildfire?
06/21/2011
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Sometimes it takes just one match to light the fire that brings massive citizen indignation and corrective action.

You may have seen the powerful story about the vegetable seller who in a remote Tunisian city set himself afire and ultimately caused the uprising that led its long-repressive dictator Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia! ([How a slap sparked Tunisia's revolution, February 20, 2011]

Well, here's a worthy American (I don't care what you think of his views on war or other matters, he is a true American hero) talking about the immigration border crisis like it is.

According to a Huffington Post story,

"John McCain (R-AZ) says undocumented immigrants are to blame for the massive wildfires that have ravaged Arizona

"There is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally," McCain, said at a press conference Saturday after touring the Wallow fire, which began on May 29 and has burned over 500,000 acres to date.

"They have set fires because they signal others, they have set fires to keep warm, and they have set fires in order to divert law enforcement agents and agencies from them," McCain said. "The answer to that part of the problem is to get a secure border."[John McCain: Immigrants Caused Arizona Wildfires, June 19, 2011]

Hey, the Senator actually used the term "illegal", Huffington!

Then the Huffington reportorial predictably begins its tattoo of attacks:

 "McCain did not provide any evidence to support his claim, however.

"On Sunday, Tom Berglund, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman, told ABC News that there is no evidence that undocumented immigrants had caused the Wallow fire. 'Absolutely not, at this level,' Berglund said. 'There's no evidence that I'm aware, no evidence that's been public, indicating such a thing.'

"Berglund did say, however, that the cause of the Wallow fire, now the largest wildfire in Arizona history, had been determined to be human — specifically an 'escaped campfire.' Two persons of interest were questioned, but no arrests were made."

But I can tell you first hand from my February/March 2011 trip sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), led by a long time AZ resident reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner, Jerry Kammer, to the border at Nogales, Douglas and other cities that the ranch land there is exactly ripe for such fires, dry, upland, tough to police and rampant with illegal alien crossings, all under the control now of the Mexican drug cartels.

Thanks to Jerry's extensive connections there, our CIS group heard from border patrol leaders, AZ sheriffs, on the ground reporters, long-time ranchers and other border officials who disproved clearly the official stories coming from the Obama Administration's Janet Napolitano, about border violence and the security promised in Article 4 of our Constitution which is not being provided to us American citizens.

For example, one of several ranchers we met, John Ladd, who took us all over his huge 20,000 plus acre spread, told us that 100,000 illegals have crossed his property every year for 20 years. This dry ranch land which only supports a few head of cattle per 1000 acres is ripe for fire. He and his family have worked this ranch since 1893!

Hey, Huffington, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck, is it a duck? Hiding behind legalistic legerdemain about "evidence" doesn't detract from the obvious probability that illegal aliens—drug cartel operatives and the desperate aliens they "guide" —don't worry too much about starting fires.  

As to be expected, the Latino crowd chimes in, eagerly amplified by Huffington:

"Latino groups sharply criticized McCain for his remarks. 'With the lack of evidence, he might as well also blame aliens from outer space for the fires,' Angelo Falcon, [Email him] the president of the National Institute for Latino Policy, told CNN. Randy Parraz, whose organization Citizens for a Better Arizona, is trying to recall the senator who sponsored the state's controversial anti-illegal immigration law, called McCain's remarks 'careless and reckless.'"

Yes, Mr. Falcon, our ranch lands might seem to many big city dwellers like "outer space", but to anyone viewing the CIS films on the trash and garbage by those thousands of border-crossing aliens, the likelihood of their starting these fires is hardly an "outer space" stretch!

Falcon continues: "It's easier to fan the flames of intolerance, especially in Arizona".

Yes, Falcon's group continues to fan the flames of intolerance—for American sovereignty and American citizens' rights.  But, it is becoming increasingly clear that such smears no longer can fool the American people.(See, as an example of the kind of low-credibility smear I'm talking about,  John McCain Doubles Down on Racist Scapegoating of Latino Migrants,  By Stephen Lemons, Phoenix New Times, June 21, 2011 which not only blames the Senator for his truth-telling, but blames him for earning the praise of what they call  the racist website VDARE.com.") They can see the obvious way in which they are being and have been for decades hoodwinked into thinking America needed the 140 million of new unneeded unskilled aliens added to our population since 1965.

McCain himself is unimpressed:

On Tuesday, Mr. McCain said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show he was "puzzled" by the firestorm that has erupted after his remarks.

"We know that people who come across our border illegally … that these fires are sometimes, some of them, caused by this," he said. Mr. McCain added, "I'm puzzled … that there should be any controversy." He said he was merely repeating information he'd been given during a briefing with federal officials, including the U.S. Forest Service, before he appeared at the news conference. McCain under fire for blaming blazes on immigrants, Bob Christie and Jacques Billeaud, Washington Times, June 21, 2011

Could Senator McCain have offered the match to a wildfire that Treason Lobby slander can't extinguish? Talk about perfect symbolism!—so obviously related to the immigration invasion on our Southern borders.

Most current, could it result in the urgently needed passage of permanent E verify legislation—which could begin America's return to our traditional Rule of Law?

How many wake-up calls do the American people need?

Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.

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