Although the media are not typically interested in helping Republicans win elections, it seems awfully concerned that Donald Trump's immigration raids in Charlotte, North Carolina, could hurt the GOP's electoral prospects. The New York Times reports, for example, that the raids "brought one of the Trump administration's showiest crackdown strategies into a purple state ... creating a rare test of one of his core priorities in fiercely contested political territory."
Hold it right there. A purple state? When did North Carolina become a purple state? The state of "Senator No" (Jesse Helms) and other staunch conservatives like John East?
Here's a clue! From 1900 until around 1980, North Carolina's foreign-born population was less than 1%. Today, it's 15% -- and that's not including third-generation immigrants. The immigrants are mostly Hispanic and Asian, groups that block vote, 70% to 30%, for the Democrats.
In Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, 65% of new residents were born outside of the country. Talk about a sanctuary: The Mecklenburg County Sheriff, Garry McFadden, is a black man who not only thinks "Black Lives Matter," but also "Illegal Alien Child Rapist and Murderers' Lives Matter."
Ignoring ICE detainer requests -- and common sense -- he promptly releases those accused of committing such minor and inconsequential infractions as car theft, drunk driving, rape, child molestation and murder onto the streets, never to be heard from again. [ATTENTION SEN. MARK KELLY: Sheriff McFadden's underlings are being forced to comply with illegal orders!]
Arguably, the state isn't turning blue because enforcement of immigration laws has been too aggressive, but rather because it's been nonexistent.
The Times quoted "moderate Republican" Edwin Peacock III -- because he agreed with the Times -- saying the GOP is in BIG trouble if these Charlotte raids continue. This is classic Republican math: We're losing 10 cents on every apple we sell. To make up for it, we're going to have to double our sales.
At least when California flipped from Reagan country to The Poop State, it wasn't Californians' fault, but resulted from the evil machinations of Carter-appointed District Court Judge Mariana Pfaelzer and Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (later recalled -- but not soon enough).
North Carolina, by contrast, is being destroyed by some people's greed. Following in the footsteps of their slave-owning forebears, the state's biggest employers demand cheap labor, and they don't care what they're doing to the country. Their grandkids will be living in Uganda -- but they can make a pile NOW.
With all the money employers are saving by hiring low-wage illegals, they have lots of money to lavish on politicians -- and the politicians are happy to accommodate them. (See amnesty-happy Sen. Thom Tillis and former Rep. Renee Ellmers.)
Sure, the employers' taxes will go up. They aren't paying illegals enough to live on, so somebody's got to subsidize all that cheap labor. But taxes are paid by everybody, whereas the profits go only to the illegals' bosses. (It's estimated that "undocumented immigrants" cost North Carolina taxpayers several billion dollars a year.)
The immediate pain of mass third-world immigration is borne not only by the state's taxpayers, but also by its little girls.
For years, North Carolinians for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (NCFIRE) has been keeping lists of illegal immigrants arrested in the state, only for sex crimes against children. (August seems to be a banner month for child rape, with 169, 131 and 107 assaults on children in 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. What is the harvesting season for soybeans, corn and sweet potatoes?)
We always hear about the "valedictorian" illegal alien or the one -- featured on the Times' front page this week -- arrested by ICE while flying to have Thanksgiving dinner with her family.
The Charlotte raids produced tales (probably apocryphal) of illegals "approached or arrested" while "putting up Christmas decorations," or helping with a "church cleanup." NBC, CNN, The Hill and the Times all reported on the (unnamed) church guy and the Christmas decorations guy.
But none of these news outlets, nor any national media, ever got around to mentioning this illegal: Francisco Marquez Martinez -- despite the fact that he was a 38-year-old married man who preached at his church and provided Winston-Salem, North Carolina, residents with cheap lawn care.
As Marquez Martinez was mowing a family's lawn one day, it began to rain, and he asked to come inside the house. The two daughters, ages 8 and 12, home alone, declined, telling him to stand under the outside awning. Whereupon the illegal forced his way in, chased the 12-year-old to the bathroom and raped her in the tub.
But it's all worth it, as long as North Carolina farmers can make an extra buck!
I guess it's fine for Trump to send ICE agents to the blue states, even though they want to become third world hellholes. Illegals can travel, a fact well-known by everyone killed by an illegal alien truck driver who got a commercial driver's license from Gavin Newsom's California.
But I'd really rather he round up illegals in North Carolina, so maybe we could have a shot at preventing this "purple state" from becoming California.