Ron Paul's other unlovely guest

So it turns out that Tom Tancredo will not be coming to Texas to wish Ron Paul a happy birthday today, though he was invited to attend. Paul will have to make do with someone almost as charming.

[Paul] has invited Chris Simcox, the founder and president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, to be the event’s special guest. The fundraiser will be held at the Charles T. Doyle Convention Center in Texas City Sunday afternoon.

Simcox heads the controversial group that patrols the United States-Mexico border on the lookout for illegal immigrants. The Minuteman group also is pushing for tougher border security as well as enforcement of immigration laws.

That's a very generous way of describing the Minutemen. For a more realistic description, I refer you to David Neiwert, who has a six-part series on the Minutemen linked on his sidebar (or go to the final article and work your way through the previous entries).

Paul recently waded a bit deeper into the immigration fray by introducing legislation that would deny citizenship to children born in the United States to illegal immigrant parents. He referred to those children as "anchor babies."

"As long as illegal immigrants know that their children born here will be citizens, the perverse incentive to sneak into this country remains strong," Paul said last month. "Citizenship involves more than the mere location of one's birth. True citizenship requires cultural connections and an allegiance to the United States.

"Birthright citizenship sometimes confers the benefits of being American on people who do not truly embrace America."

You know, there's a lot of truth to that. It just doesn't go far enough. After all, what guarantee do we have that having parents or grandparents or even great-grandparents that were born in America will lead to truly embracing America? Clearly, we need to have some way of testing everybody for true embracement of America before we let any benefits confer on them. It's time for Ron Paul to sponsor a bill that would create the Department of Embracing America to make sure this sort of thing never happens again.

Paul's stance on illegal immigration and the recent legislation drew the ire of Texas Democrats who are backing political newcomer Shane Sklar in his bid to unseat the longtime congressman.

"Our response to illegal immigration must be absolute vigilance at the border and a commitment to end the demand for illegal labor in this country. Changing the definition of citizenship is a radical measure that will affect every American family and create a whole new bureaucracy," Sklar said.

If you'd prefer to give Shane Sklar a birthday present instead of Ron Paul, you can do so here.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 20, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBack