Posse Is Headed for the Wrong Roundup

Except for the fact that the posse is headed in the wrong direction, you can’t really blame the cowboys riding to the border near Tombstone, Ariz., to git them durned e-leegles.

Los Angeles will have subways to the beach before the United States gets its goofy immigration policy straightened out, so I can understand the frustration of the group that calls itself the Minuteman Project.

The ringleaders, who include a retired Orange County accountant, were expecting several hundred volunteers to saddle up -- some of them armed -- and seal the Arizona-Mexico border today. If you happen to be in the area, give wide berth to anyone who looks like a cast member from “F-Troop,” and do not wear a straw hat or carry a jug of water, because you could be shot dead.

I don’t know if the Minutemen gave it any thought, but I’d have asked Pat Buchanan to get everyone’s adrenaline pumping by firing a few rounds into the air and yelling, “Lock and load!”

My call to the Minutemen, who were using the Arizona office of the Tombstone Tumbleweed on Toughnut Street (I swear it’s all true), was not returned. But the Minuteman website had a nifty slogan at the top of the screen:

“Americans doing the job Congress won’t do.”

Right on target. So why not saddle up and ride to D.C.?

“This represents a general tendency to demonize the immigrant,” said Harry Pachon of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. He spoke to me during a break at a downtown Los Angeles conference on immigration.

As I’ve said before, it’s fair to ask hard questions about the impact of illegal immigration.

Can we afford to pick up the healthcare tab? Can we afford to educate every child who crosses the border?

Last year, a Fullerton printer asked me how she could keep paying living wages and health benefits to her employees when competitors were hiring illegals at minimum wage and no benefits.

Fair questions, all.

But how can anyone blame immigrants for leaving corrupt and economically inept countries to come here? They wouldn’t risk their lives, hungry for work, if we weren’t hungry to hire them with a wink and a nod, if not give them driver’s licenses.

Look, I don’t want to break up the party now that those amateur cowboys are on the job, guarding a border that will always be impossible to seal unless we stand agents shoulder to shoulder along its 2,000-mile length. But as I said, the posse went the wrong way.

It should ride to Wal-Mart, which hired illegal immigrants to clean the floors.

It should ride to the poultry farms that have hired illegals to cut costs and boost profits.

It should ride to Wells Fargo and other banks that are happy to cash in on the fat business of opening accounts for illegals.

It should ride to the farms where U.S. ranchers get taxpayer subsidies that help drive Mexican farmers out of business and north across the border.

And it should ride to Washington, D.C., where Congress sees a few thousand dead border crossers as a small price to pay for an endless supply of dirt-cheap labor.

A compromise immigration bill won’t be easy to work out, but it’s long past due. It would offer some form of legalization, safe passage that puts an end to smuggling, and a crackdown on employers and immigrants who don’t play by the rules.

One last thought:

While the Minutemen ride to the border, Harry Pachon asked, are their children being watched by nannies without papers?