Has Montgomery County, Maryland, seceded from the Union? If only the federal government may promulgate and enforce immigration law, and conduct foreign relations, then Montgomery County is now a sovereign nation.

Last week, the Montgomery County Council voted to accept the matricula consular (MC) card issued by the Mexican government, as legal ID for illegal immigrants seeking social services. That was not a typo. Actually, the council reportedly said “immigrants,” but the MC is only distributed by the Mexican government for use by illegal immigrants. For folks looking to engage in legal travel outside of Mexico, the Mexican government provides something called a passport.

The federal government, which has sole jurisdiction in immigration matters, does not recognize the matricula consular. (Yet.) That might be because: It is only used by illegal immigrants, whose presence in the country is a crime (legal immigrants present visas, green cards or U.S. passports as ID), and the MC is insecure, involves no criminal background check by the Mexican government, may easily be gotten under an alias, and thus encourages ever more illegal immigration, and even terrorism.

The matricula consular is a crime card, pure and simple.

In order to aid and abet illegal immigrant criminality, many local officials have barred civil servants from asking applicants to prove they are citizens.

Of course, Montgomery County isn’t the only place that recognizes the MC; according to an August 29, New York Post editorial, “thirteen states and more than 100 cities” now accept it. And that was before California joined the gang. Blink, and you’ll miss another MC moment, as yet another municipal, county, or state government jumps on the MC bandwagon. Hundreds of local governments have been contacted by Mexican consulates, whose representatives have sought to, and in many cases have actually negotiated with officials. That is a criminal act; no foreign government may initiate negotiations with any government body in America but the U.S. federal government. Mexican officials are unlawfully seeking to undermine U.S. federal law.

Fourteen state governments now issue drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants, something that was also heretofore illegal, and which, if the feds maintain jurisdiction, still is. (Issuing drivers licenses may be a state prerogative, but how in today’s federal- dominated legal environment can it be legal for a state to issue a license to someone whose very presence in the state is a federal crime?)

California just passed a driver’s license bill, SB60, which Gov. Gray Davis signed on September 5, in a special, secret ceremony for California Hispanics that was reportedly announced in advance on Spanish-speaking radio stations, while Davis’ people froze out the English-speaking media. English-speaking media discovered Davis’ coupe, from Spanish-speaking employees who heard the Spanish broadcasts.

In many recent articles on immigration, state and municipal officials across the U.S. have sought to justify their acceptance of the MC, and extending of drivers licenses and social services to illegals, by saying, with an unusual contempt for federal power, that it isn’t their job to do the feds' enforcing. If this excuse were valid, local and state authorities could legally ignore or actively subvert all federal laws and court rulings (including the USSC’s), since federal law enforcement “isn't their job." Then, I guess we can ignore those dopey federal rulings on the separation of church and state, and USSC rulings ending all state sodomy laws, and supporting affirmative action, and chief Justice Roy Moore can move his Ten Commandments monument back into the Alabama state judiciary building.

But, of course, it doesn’t work that way. Indeed, it’s called obstruction of justice, when anyone (including officials) actively subverts the law.

Oddly enough, given all this activism by local lawmakers, immigration law is one of the few things that truly is a federal prerogative, reserved to Congress. The Constitution cedes most public functions to the states, via the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. In its 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, the Supreme Court began its tradition of nullification regarding the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, which protect states’ rights. Those amendments have never been repealed; for the past 49 years, the Court has simply acted as though they had been. And so, nowadays, in matters that are not properly federal concerns, such as education, most local and state officials are in awe of the federal leviathan, and yet in immigration matters, officials who otherwise hold states’ rights in contempt, act like rabid states rightists.

If I’m not mistaken, local officials who violate federal laws, as the Montgomery County Council, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, and others are presently doing, are liable for arrest, and California’s SB60 should be thrown out by a federal court. Whether any of this will happen, however, is highly doubtful. And Douglas Duncan has invited countless foreign governments to introduce their own phony IDs for illegals. So, expect a huge outmigration of real American citizens from Montgomery County in the coming years, as illegals take over, and bankrupt the local community chest. It’ll be a small-scale version of has already been taking place in California.

Washington Times reporter Patrick Badgley writes, “Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan praised the council's vote. He said immigrants have struggled to participate in the economy and in social networking because they didn't have any type of identification.

"People living in this country have a right to certain basic amenities.”

Newsflash, Mr. Duncan: They’re illegal. Their participation in the economy is a crime. They have no right to any amenities. And encouraging them is a felony. As Michelle Malkin writes in her powerful book, Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores,

“Not only is illegal entry into this country a criminal misdemeanor subject to fines and imprisonment and punishable as a felony after repeat violations, it is also a federal felony to recruit, hire, harbor, and encourage illegal aliens.”

Note that Douglas Duncan’s anti-American attitude is not an isolated form of madness or evil in Montgomery County. Last fall, then-county police Chief Charles Moose, who had initially spread the false report that the D.C. sniper suspects were white, later kept secret his knowledge that the suspects were black for precious days, as more victims were killed.

Duncan’s outlaw mentality is at home in major urban centers: During the past week, the Los Angeles city council and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, both decreed that they would continue to refuse to cooperate with federal attempts to crack down on illegal immigrants. (Such policies have actually already been in effect in both cities for years.)

The feds have done their own part to undermine federal law. In Invasion, Michelle Malkin quotes Fred Alexander, then the deputy district director of the Atlanta INS office (now the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services), as misrepresenting immigration law.

“Just one day after the September 11 terrorist attacks … Fred Alexander was quoted reassuring ‘undocumented’ day laborers who plan to build a shelter in Marietta, Ga.: ‘It’s not a crime to be in the U.S. illegally. It’s a violation of civil law.’”

And the IRS has for years issued taxpayer ID numbers to illegals. ‘You may not legally reside or work here, but in case you do, here’s this trusty number you can use to pay taxes and open bank accounts.’ Next thing, illegals will be complaining about “taxation without representation” – that is, if they aren’t already illegally voting! (A driver’s license and utility bill are sufficient to register to vote in most states, and in states with motor voter laws, like California, people can automatically register to vote when they get their drivers license.)

A chief executive who clearly understood the requirements of national survival, as opposed to nation-building, and as opposed to trolling for votes from ethnic groups that will never vote for him anyway, would be working to stem the tide of official outlaw culture, on both sides of the Rio Grande. That would include ordering all Mexican embassies shuttered, and their ambassadors, consuls, and staffs to leave the country, for illegally interfering in American government operations, ordering the IRS to stop issuing taxpayer ID numbers to individuals, unless they have proven they are legal residents, and ordering banks to require that any prospective customer prove that he is a legal resident, before permitting him to open a bank account. Unfortunately, the only thing that has so far managed to keep President Bush, with his brilliant advisor Karl Rove whispering in his ear, from granting an amnesty to 4 million-5 million illegal Mexican immigrants, was 911. Indeed, the man seeks to pay American social security benefits to illegal Mexican immigrants. American citizens wish they had a leader who was as concerned about them.

Copyright 2003 by Nicholas Stix. All rights reserved.
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