How to Clear the Hot Air on Immigration

Immigration control forces are at work to qualify a measure for the California ballot, the California Lawful Employment and Residency (CLEAR) initiative, that would impose criminal penalties for renting, leasing or selling property to illegal aliens. The liberal media are, as can be expected, predicting defeat, labeling the measure too extreme. The truth is that it will probably fail because it is not nearly extreme enough.

Much tougher initiatives are needed to counter the threat to our state and nation. The Stop Sucking Oxygen Out of Our State Initiative (SSOOOS) is one such measure.

Housing is a serious matter but in smog-plagued California, we ought to look at the even more crucial issue: air. It is a scarce resource and one that shouldn’t be given away to anybody who feels like coming to America and breathing it.

SSOOOS was patterned after its successful predecessor, SOS, the Save Our State initiative, Proposition 187. SOS, if it had not been stalled by some below-the-belt lawsuits claiming that it’s unconstitutional, would have tossed all illegal alien children out of school by now, sparing Elton Gallegly the effort to enact such a ban in Congress.

SSOOOS would get tough on oxygen criminals. It would require that the countries that send us illegal immigrants--all right, let’s just say it: Mexico-- replace the oxygen that illegal immigrants take from California. Mexico would furthermore have to accept shipments of the carbon monoxide its citizens expelled into the American environment. To bring personal responsibility into the picture, oxygen criminals would be held liable for the shipping costs.

It may seem like it would be too hard to figure out just how much oxygen, carbon monoxide and shipping cylinders we’re talking about here, but that’s just not so. The simple formula is as follows: Take the number of illegal aliens; former presidential contender Pat Buchanan puts the figure at 1, 2 or 3 million, which is close enough for our purposes. Multiply that by the scientifically calculated figure of one quarter of a cubic foot of oxygen per breath, multiplied by .0001888 to account for compression, and multiply that times an average of 21,613.3 breaths in a 24-hour period.

Do the math. It’s just that simple.

And making individual oxygen criminals pay for shipping the gases will at least encourage them to hold their breath a little more often, guaranteeing more oxygen for real Americans.

This initiative is sure to gather even more support than Proposition 187. There will be the usual whining about scapegoating and racism, but Californians will get much less squeamish about the alleged civil rights of immigrants if they really see that their oxygen is at stake.

Moreover, there is an intellectual precedent for the thinking that underlies SSOOOS. The Federation for American Immigration Reform has already pointed out that all immigrants--illegal or not, whatever the difference may be--use the infrastructure--roads, bridges, shopping malls--that our tax dollars have built.

FAIR has not, however, pushed this argument too hard. They can’t. They are driven by Realpolitik and are therefore forced by the liberal media and spineless politicians to acknowledge the reality that all immigrants, legal or not, pay the sales, income and property taxes that support infrastructure.

Other arguments and policy initiatives have foundered for lack of leadership. The wall at our southern border is still just a dream. And the CLEAR initiative has a massive loophole: Illegals will just put their property in the name of their children who are citizens merely because they were born here. Weak-kneed bleeding hearts say that the 14th Amendment grants birthright citizenship. If the 14th Amendment really says that, it points to the need to be able to pass and enforce laws without regard to the Constitution, which was only meant to establish ideals anyway, not legislate practical day-to-day concerns. Whatever happened to the will of the people?

The time is now for the Stop Sucking Oxygen Out of Our State initiative. If we don’t pass it now, immigrants will continue to come to California to pick our crops, make our clothing, care for our children and clean our bathrooms. And, in doing so, they will use the God-given oxygen that is our birthright. Stop them now, and we’ll all breathe easier.