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Guarding the Wrong Flank

By Dara Lind

So let me get this straight.

The Obama administration isn’t doing anything to clean up the millions of gallons of oil washing ashore along the Gulf coastline. But it’s sending 1200 National Guard troops and half a billion dollars to the U.S.-Mexico border to quell a spike in violence that (on the U.S. side) is completely overblown.

I’m pretty sure that this isn’t what Emma Lazarus meant by “the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

If Arizonans are whipping themselves into a frenzy despite a reality that doesn’t justify the hysteria, is there any indication that sending real knights to slay imaginary dragons will make them feel any safer? Which is the greater threat to the public, the specter of border violence or the toxins in the dispersant BP is using? I know it’s naive to expect that public officials will actually do something to educate the public when the public is wrong, but this seems like a dereliction of duty to me.

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Permadisclaimer: my opinions on immigration policy are entirely my own and are in no way associated with my employer or any other organization.