This Sept. 26, 1957 file photo, shows members of the
101st Airborne Division taking up positions outside Central High School in
Little Rock, Ark. The troopers were on duty to enforce integration at the
school. (AP)
Elected Democratic officials in sanctuary cities openly
defying federal immigration laws remind me of those Democratic segregationist
governors in the south who challenged and disobeyed federal civil rights laws.
Sixty years ago, nine black students, who became known as
the "Little Rock Nine," were initially prevented from entering a
racially segregated school in Arkansas by its Democratic segregationist
governor Orval Faubus.
The Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, ordered
1,000 troops of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock and federalized the
entire 10,000-member Arkansas National Guard — which Faubus had ordered to
prevent black students from enrolling at all-white Central High School.
In a telegram dated Sept. 5, 1957 to Faubus, Eisenhower,
noting that Faubus was defying orders of a Federal district court and the U.S.
Supreme Court mandating school integration, said, "When I became
president, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United
States. The only assurance I can give you is that the federal Constitution will
be upheld by me by every legal means at my command."
Six years later, another southern governor, Democrat
George Wallace of Alabama, boasted he would personally stand in front of the
door of any Alabama schoolhouse that was ordered by the federal courts to admit
black students.
When a U.S. district court ordered Wallace to allow the
students to register, he refused.
He then stood in front of the University of Alabama
campus auditorium flanked by Alabama state troopers to block the entry and
registration of the two black students in defiance of federal judicial orders
and the law.
In response, Democratic President John F. Kennedy signed
a proclamation ordering Wallace to comply and authorized the calling up of the
Alabama National Guard.
When Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach returned
with the students and asked him to step aside — Wallace backed down and the
students registered.
In subsequent years in Washington, D.C., I had the
pleasure of working with one of the Alabama students — Vivian Malone Jones —
and came to know one of the "Little Rock Nine," Ernie Green, who was
assistant secretary of labor under President Jimmy Carter.
Wallace in 1963 sounded very much like today’s sanctuary
city mayors.
He said, in part. "I stand here today, as governor
of this sovereign state, and refuse to willingly submit to illegal usurpation
of power by the central government (and) denounce and forbid this illegal and
unwarranted action by the central government.''
Substitute the words "mayor" for
'governor," "city" for "state," and, Trump
administration for "central government" and we have the current
so-called argument for defying immigration laws by liberal Democratic mayors in
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco — and other communities.
What a contrast!
While Eisenhower and Kennedy were enforcing federal laws
to protect the rights of black students to get an equal education as guaranteed
by the U.S. Constitution; today’s liberal, Democratic mayors are violating
federal laws to protect illegal immigrants who have committed crimes — serious
and often heinous crimes — including gang members.
Why should cities and counties be allowed to have a
double standard in law enforcement — one which protects illegal alien felons,
and another which enforces criminal laws against legal immigrants and U.S.
citizens — black, white and Hispanic — who commit the same crimes?
It's also ironic that in many of our cities such as
Chicago, mayors can’t even protect their own American citizens, especially
children, from being slaughtered by criminal gangs many of which have illegal
immigrant members who have committed heinous crimes such as MS-13.
The MS (Mara Salvatrucha)-13 gang is considered by many
to be one of the most violent, organized and dangerous gangs in the U.S. with
counterparts in El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and several other South
American countries. It is blamed for violent crimes in many parts of the
country.
Recently, CNN reported that more than a dozen members of
the MS-13 gang were indicted in seven brutal killings on Long Island spanning
three years, including the brutal deaths of several high school students last
year.
Sanctuary cities provide a perfect haven for illegal
MS-13 gang members!
The sanctuary city movement represents a sad decline in
basic values and sense of decency when political correctness demands protection
for those who have raped, robbed, and murdered American citizens.
Proponents of sanctuary cities apparently won’t be
satisfied until we have a George Wallace type confrontation when some publicity
seeking mayor, surrounded by local police, attempts to prevent the federal
authorities of Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) from entering a
municipal facility.
Many believe that none of this will change until,
unfortunately, a loved one of a pro-sanctuary city, county, state or federal
official becomes a victim of one of the criminal illegal aliens their policies
attempt to protect.
In the tradition of Eisenhower and Kennedy as noted
above, affirming the primacy of federal law, let’s hope that the Trump
administration follows through on its promise to hold sanctuary cities — and
their leaders — accountable.
Clarence
V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political,
and media relations consulting firm in Florida. He held several positions in
the Reagan administration as well as in the Reagan presidential campaigns. He
is a former co-owner of WTVT-TV in Tampa and former president of the Florida
Association of Broadcasters.
