What’s Wrong with the World

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What’s Wrong with the World is dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism...read more

Speaking of Illegal Immigration...

It seems that some folks at the New York Times are all bent out of shape, because a few illegal Haitian immigrants, who have been convicted of crimes in the U.S., are getting repatriated - and finding conditions in their country of origin not at all to their liking! Behold:

Ughhh. "Embedding disabled by request."

So you'll just have to follow one of these links:

YouTube

NYT

Take your pick - you will be richly rewarded with one of the all-time masterpieces of unintentional hilarity.

Item: Wilkins Delabranche, convicted of assault, discovers that his coethnics back in Haiti are prejudiced against English-speakers. (Too white, you see).

Item: Serge Doval, convicted of cocaine possession, is shocked to see sewage running in the street.

Item: Mr. Delabranche's friend Eugene, also deported from the U.S., for a crime that remains unspecified, but for which he begs God's forgiveness, considers the showers and toilets in the country of his origin not at all up to snuff. He finds himself helpless in the face of an onslaught of (admittedly, some really big, healthy looking) roaches, and cries out, from his very heart: "this is not the way I'm s'posed to be livin', y'know?"

And so on, and so forth.

In due course, lady activists & lawyers (why are they all ladies?) show up, anxious to hold these guys' hands, and to secure their return to the U.S.

Rest assured, there's a hopeful ending: Mr. Delabranche's application for a permanent visa has been approved.

Huzzah!

Comments (26)

The Haitians' violent and anarchic response to their last earthquake (vis-a-vis the ordered, cooperative Japanese approach) lets me know that Haitians are exactly the type of people we want immigrating to the US. The future is bright, indeed.

Did anyone happen to notice that Delabranche seems to have enough wealth to (a) own a decent vehicle, and (b) be able to buy gas for it? How does he manage this?

Haiti was a hell-hole before the earthquake, and likely will remain one for most of the next generation. Are we supposed to NOT deport illegal immigrants back there for the next generation?

This reminds me of complaints that 5 YEARS after we went into Iraq, there were numerous villages that STILL did not have electricity running. Somebody forgot to ask whether they EVER had electricity at all. Turns out that for many they had never had any kind of electricity because the wonderful government of Saddam never managed to get around to that.

Not to be totally flippant, there does seem to be a kind of injustice in sending a young adult "back" to his homeland when he hasn't seen that land since he was 5. The question is, is that unfairness essentially the simple, direct, and proper consequence of his parent's unjust decision to illegally immigrate, or are we as a people obligated to undo the natural consequences of his parent's unjust illegal act?

I yield to no one in my lack of sympathy for illegal immigration or criminals of any stripe but how can anyone find deporting people to the hell known as Haiti just? Are we to let starvation, cholera, violence, et al. impose the death sentence that we are too effete to impose anymore? Let's be at least honest. God will not be mocked. If we want them dead, let's execute them as humanely as possible.

I am a regular lurker and it is a sign of how outraged I am that I am posting. I just don't understand how anyone could find this acceptable, much less funny.


Lily: "how outraged I am that I am posting"

You must be easily outraged. I find Steve's post spot on.


No, actually I am not easily outraged. However, anyone who thinks this is funny is beyond any argument I am capable of making. I say man up and take responsibility for frying the bastards. Don't ship them off to hell so that someone or something else will kill them for you. Your hands will be no cleaner.

Lily, deportation to Haiti may or may not be acceptable in my view, but one thing it definitely isn't is funny. You are right that "anyone who thinks this is funny is beyond any argument I am capable of making", or any argument at all. Welcome to the locker room at Burton-Roberts University.

Jeff C. - so you prefer to feel, while others prefer to think.

Anyway, as I said in the thread below, I realy do think that you need to take a time-out.

Lily: as Tony points out above, Mr. Delabranche's situation hardly seems quite as horrific as you make out. Do you think that *he'd* prefer to be "fried?" Surely not.

Well, Tony for one person is discussing this topic in a normal way:

Not to be totally flippant, there does seem to be a kind of injustice in sending a young adult "back" to his homeland when he hasn't seen that land since he was 5. The question is, is that unfairness essentially the simple, direct, and proper consequence of his parent's unjust decision to illegally immigrate, or are we as a people obligated to undo the natural consequences of his parent's unjust illegal act?

The thing is, though, Tony, he's only being sent back there after, and as a causal result of, his having committed a crime. And I don't mean the crime of existing as an illegal immigrant in the U.S., which as you say was his parents' fault. Let's face it, he would otherwise have been allowed to continue flying under the radar. My sympathy ends unless we're talking about some "crime" that shouldn't really be a crime, like, I dunno, selling lemonade without a license. If someone wants to invoke the complicated nature of the immigration situation with our non-enforcement policy and his own innocence in being brought here as a child, then at a minimum he needs to avoid getting arrested on a cocaine charge. It was these fellows' business to find out their legal situation once they reached adulthood and at that point to realize that they had a _huge_ interest in being exceedingly well-behaved and sober.

That being said, I'm not into deeply dark humor or highly unpleasant videos, have no interest in clicking on any of the links above, and am not at all sure I can find any aspect of this situation funny, from any perspective.

Jeff C. - so you prefer to feel, while others prefer to think.

So, those who laugh at dying of cholera and living in sewers are "thinking", while those who find no humor in the situation are "feeling"?

Anyway, as I said in the thread below, I realy do think that you need to take a time-out.

Steve, I probably do need a "time out", but what are you, my mother? If you don't want me to say unpleasant things on your comment threads then please just say so.

Mr. Delabranche's situation hardly seems quite as horrific as you make out.

Mr. Delabranche hasn't yet died of cholera.

Lily: " I say man up and take responsibility for frying the bastards. ... Your hands will be no cleaner."

I know here we're talking about people being deported, but by your very logic, shouldn't we allow all of the world's despondent living in hell holes immigrate to the US? Aren't our hands dirty if we let them stay in these hell holes? BTW, there may be over 1 billion of them. And as the world's population grows to over 10 billion in the coming decades, there will be billions more of them. If we don't allow all these people to come to the US, are we "pulling the trigger ourselves" so to speak?

The fact that the left is in an uproar over these criminals being deported only underscores the knee-jerk frenetic focus of the current left -- the US empire is in precipitous decline, Obama is bombing Libya, our currency may soon be hyper-inflated, and Carlos Slim's NY times is sending a team of journalists to Haiti to cover the plight of some two-bit deported criminals. If only we had real humor! If only we had a Juvenal or Petronius to satirize it!


If there was anything in the video that was funny (not much, I grant you) it was this: one American legal aid type after another saying things like (with outraged expression) "after you PAID your debt to society", as if once you did that, we OWE it to you to give you a better life than every Haitian who ISN'T here illegally. Why should we owe that to an illegal alien?

Lydia, that's exactly why I put my point as a question. There really is an issue there that needs to be fleshed out, and liberals sure aren't interested in it, not one least little bit.

Lily, one of the deported criminals was living in a tent, just like 300,000 OTHER Haitians, who were victimized by the earthquake. I don't think that putting a Haitian into Haiti to live just like Haitians something that arises to an INTRINSIC offense against justice. There are a few places in the US where people live not all that much better than what was depicted in the video, though - certainly the cockroaches, the danger of walking the streets in slums. And the total number of homeless in the US who live with incredibly unsanitary conditions is not far off from the number of Haitians in the tent camps. I do have questions about the limits of the concept of just deportation though, and where they ought to be drawn. Certainly some facts on the ground could make a difference: for example, if the government itself were to target returned deportees for special negative attention (harassment, persecution) merely for being returned, then we might need to reconsider deportation. But Haitians who speak English being thought "other" by people who speak Creole is pretty standard and does not amount to unjust conditions.

I love it when homeboy has to remind his friend that they aren't Haitians. Growing up around Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, I knew many who would visit the old country and be called Americans or be treated differently, but for almost all of them it was no more severe than Americans moving from one section of the US to another. I feel bad for the kids who are brought into the country illegally and grow up here, but I don't think we have to start demonizing Haiti and its free people (which is especially silly coming from such a bastion of multiculturalism as the NYT).

For the humor-impaired, I also want to recall the suggestion that the demonic practices of the witch doctor made it possible for his son to return to America, and the whole isn't that wonderful tone the video takes to it.

It matters how we treat people. It is one thing not to allow people to immigrate to our country to escape poor conditions abroad. It is simply immoral to deliberately put anyone in harm's way. Would we send a Japanese citizen here illegally back to Japan now? As far as the suggestion goes that

It was these fellows' business to find out their legal situation once they reached adulthood and at that point to realize that they had a _huge_ interest in being exceedingly well-behaved and sober.
all I can say is yeah. Of course. We all know what clear thinkers the criminal classes are.

This is about us. Not them. And we should not be in the business of deliberately endangering anyone.

This is about us. Not them. And we should not be in the business of deliberately endangering anyone.

By that logic we need to shut down the enforcement of our immigration laws for Mexicans (Mexicans being literally about 90% of the illegal immigrants) since there's a civil war in Mexico right now.

And we should not be in the business of deliberately endangering anyone.

Right. But then, we are not the cause of the Haitian streets being dangerous. We are not returning criminals there in order to put them in danger. And those streets are not so dangerous that these guys cannot survive taking the normal precautions all the OTHER Haitian people already practice, along with a few more measures because they speak English. What we are doing is putting through the natural just consequences of their illegal acts: returning them to their fellow Haitian citizens. Certainly we are not putting them in a situation much worse than our aid workers suffer under. Of course the NYT is playing up the danger and the horror of the conditions, but did you notice that they were driving down a street simply FILLED with traffic, and nobody gave them any hassles?

Would you rather give them a choice: Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's nice desert jail, or Haiti?

Food, water, medicine and all the very basic necessities can be found in Mexico. More to the point, we are not responsible for the world and I have not said that we should be. We need to enforce our laws and stop people from entering illegally. But it is an entirely different matter to take someone without means, who doesn't even speak the language, and deliberately drop him in a hell hole. I am puzzled that anyone can fail to make this distinction. Puzzled and disheartened.

Haiti was a hell-hole before the earthquake, and likely will remain one for most of the next generation.

None of us can forsee the future, but I suspect Haiti will remain a hell-hole for a very long time. Maybe always.

The only thing I have to say is: Daylight come and you're going home! ROTFL! HT to Harry Belafonte.

We all know what clear thinkers the criminal classes are.

Um, Lily, that's an _awful_ argument. It's not even an argument. The "criminal classes" are not "clear thinkers," _therefore_, deportation should not be an option for somebody who gets involved in cocaine in our country, because the poor fellow couldn't possibly have thought of that possibility as a consequence of his drug involvement? Good grief.

I am puzzled that anyone can fail to make this distinction. Puzzled and disheartened.

Because you're drawing arbitrary distinctions. Mexico is going through a civil war. In the last two years, around 30,000-45,000 civilians have died in the violence between the cartels and Mexican government and the violence is getting worse.

So what does the US do in these cases? Keep them incarcerated? That's unjust. Let them go without deportation? That denies other illegals equal treatment under the law since most illegal immigrants come from places that are relatively dangerous and impoverished.

all I can say is yeah. Of course. We all know what clear thinkers the criminal classes are.

I should also point out that Jus Soli (birthright citizenship) is rejected by almost every country on Earth. No major European, African, Middle Eastern or Asian state confers citizenship based on geography at birth, only by the citizenship of one's parents. It's almost exclusively found in the Americas.

The 14th amendment actually doesn't require the federal government to recognize Jus Soli American citizenship. The wording of it actually leans toward Jus Sanguinis (the part about one's parents being "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States).

Um, Lily, that's an _awful_ argument. It's not even an argument. The "criminal classes" are not "clear thinkers," _therefore_, deportation should not be an option for somebody who gets involved in cocaine in our country, because the poor fellow couldn't possibly have thought of that possibility as a consequence of his drug involvement?

It is not an argument at all. It is sarcasm. I give up.

Carry on.

Jeff C. - I find neither "dying of cholera" nor "living in sewers" the least bit amusing. Nor do I find it amusing that you accuse me of such.

Do I really have to spell out some of the things I find so funny, here? Are you genuinely incapable of figuring it out for yourself?

Surely not. But here's a hint: it involves *irony*:

Minor-league gangsters and thugs, used to being coddled by the non-gangster/thug culture into which they've been illegally introduced and against which they constantly act out, suddenly find themselves, as a result of their own crimes, thrust back into the major-league gangster/thug culture of their birth.

They are shocked, SHOCKED, to discover what it's like to be victims, rather than victimizers, and immediately set about getting themselves un-repatriated.

This is not just comedy - it is HIGH comedy.

A bunch of hopeless-sucker do-gooder females from the States then show up to cry on their gangster/thug con-man shoulders.

Higher and higher go the comedy stakes!

Is all this really just totally lost on you?

"Minor-league gangsters and thugs, used to being coddled by the non-gangster/thug culture into which they've been illegally introduced and against which they constantly act out, suddenly find themselves, as a result of their own crimes, thrust back into the major-league gangster/thug culture of their birth."

Priceless.

@Lily: "It matters how we treat people. It is one thing not to allow people to immigrate to our country to escape poor conditions abroad. It is simply immoral to deliberately put anyone in harm's way."

Lily - so if somebody arrives on our shores, successfully violating our immigration laws, he suddenly acquires a right to special solicitude, not enjoyed by those who *haven't* violated our immigration laws?

Naively, I would have thought precisely the opposite.

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