The Courtroom of Public Opinion

This past July, the Prince William Virginia Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) took a major step to stem the tide of public abuse by illegal aliens. A wave of regional counties followed in their wake. Loudoun County passed a similar resolution. Stafford County announced that it would begin taking steps to implement the 287g program. The Stafford BOCS also voted 4-1 to make English the official language of their county. The Spotsylvania BOCS recently set in motion a study to determine the impact of illegal aliens in their community. Other Virginia counties moving in the same direction include Chesterfield, Shenandoah, and Culpeper. The City of Manassas is also taking steps to deal with these issues. And the Town of Herndon, in Fairfax County, is where the battle truly began last year.

Each of these jurisdictions is using the law, the legal process, to take measured steps to combat abuse by illegals on as many fronts as the law allows. The city of Hazelton, Pennsylvania recently lost a court battle in this arena after being sued by the ACLU. But Hazelton Mayor, Lou Barletta, vows to continue the fight.

There is another courtroom where this battle is being fought as well. It is the courtroom of public opinion.

In late June of this year, Americans from all over the country rose up with a single voice and scared fifty-three U.S. Senators into rejecting their "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill," a piece of legislation that would have granted amnesty to millions of illegal alien lawbreakers. This time, the public prevailed.

The courtroom of public opinion must not be discounted in this war. In fact, the war cannot be won without it.

History provides several strong examples of the power of the public voice. In the late 1950's and early 1960's, voices in the Civil Rights Movement grew so loud that Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a sweeping piece of legislation with the tools to dismantle decades of Jim Crow abuse. Black Americans, under the law, would no longer be second class citizens.

Earlier in the century, women suffragettes in America spoke loudly and persistently. On August 26th, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment became law, and women in America finally obtained the right to vote. Loud voices, beating the drums of truth, had finally prevailed.

Exactly two hundred years ago, in 1807, one man's crusade ended in victory when Great Britain's parlaiment voted to end the slave trade. Despite overwhelming odds, William Wilberforce never surrendered in his quest to bring death to that dastardly national vice. Over time, his tireless efforts swayed public opinion and won the battle.

Our arenas of battle in the fight against the scourge of illegal alien lawbreakers are no different. We engage the enemy in three courtrooms: the judges' benches across our land, the voting booth, and the courtroom of public opinion.

In the courtroom of public opinion, our most powerful weapon is truth. Our opponents do not have truth on their side, they have only slander, innuendo, the guilt trip, and the race card. Those who fight with these anemic swords cast truth to the ground and trample upon it.

We must hold up their vain arguments to the light of day, and demolish their feeble ideas with our superior principles. In so doing, we instruct, we lead, and we defend our sovereign nation.