As many of you know, after spending my entire life in Minnesota, (except for the year that all Minnesotans are required to spend in Iowa for penance) Mrs. Shoe, the Things and I loaded up the Beverly Hillbillies truck and moved to Kentucky. As attuned to Minnesota politics as I had become, I am nearly as untuned to the political scene in Kentucky.
Reading a few web news stories I came across this from my own new backyard:
Ky. Republicans file immigration bill as promised
Kentucky Republicans are attempting to pass an immigration enforcement law ala Arizona. The Kentucky version would allow law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants for trespassing if they are found on
“any public or private land in this state.” As the article notes, that should cover all property in Kentucky. Even though the Democrats here tend to be of the blue dog variety, I’m not placing a lot of money on the final passage of this bill given the Senate (where the bill was introduced) is controlled by the Republicans and the House is controlled by the Democrats.
Regardless of whether the bill passes, I find some of the comments and arguments against the bill illuminating.
The local representative of the Catholic Church, similar to how this issue is handled everywhere by the Catholic Church says this about the bill:
“It’s much broader and much more harmful than the Arizona law,” said the Rev. Patrick Delahanty, head of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, which is opposing the bill. “This bill does nothing but turn people who are generally hard-working and law-abiding into criminals and drains resources from local governments and police departments that ought to be put into protecting citizens from serious criminals.”
(emphasis mine)
Um, Rev. Patrick, doesn’t the fact that they broke they law to get here and continue to break the law to stay here, fly in the face of your assertion that they are “generally…law-abiding?” Haven’t they turned themselves into criminals but not following our immigration laws?
The good Reverend goes on to display his ignorance of all things not theological with his follow up statement:
Delahanty said Republicans are trying to solve a problem with illegal immigrants that doesn’t exist in Kentucky. The Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center estimated last year that Kentucky has about 30,000 illegal immigrants.
I wonder at what level Reverend Delahanty believes the law should be enforced. Should one person speeding be OK but two not? How about drunk drivers? Vandalism; how much should be OK?
More and more I see Catholics at least talking about (I can’t say I’ve actually heard that Pelosi and others have been denied Communion) not conveying Communion to a Communicant who lives in unrepentant sin. I can only assume that Reverend Delahnty follows the Catholic Church in this regard. Isn’t it ironic that when dealing with issues of eternal life the Reverend likely believes that unrepentant sin has consequences but in our momentary, earthly life it shouldn’t?
