Hear about the bus accident on Monday in Pennsylvania where the vehicle was left hanging off a bridge 100 feet above the Lehigh River? Where the Police found 23 of the 44 people involved were illegal immigrants, many unable to speak English?

You didn’t? Neither did I, although I have been trawling Google News for immigration stories pretty thoroughly this week.

As far as I can tell, only two small Pennsylvania news services noted the story, although it was carried on AP:

Charter Bus Carrying Illegal Chinese Immigrants Hits I-80 Bridge Over Lehigh By Kevin Amerman The Morning Call April17 2007

and

Bus carrying illegal immigrants dangles off bridge AP 4/18/07

For the MSM, clearly, the human interest of a dramatic near-accident which could easily have killed more people than the Virginia Tech atrocity was completely eradicated by the inconvenience of it vividly illustrating the scale of America’s immigration disaster. Rather than increasing the story’s newsworthiness, that made it non-news.

Happily, the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader has more journalistic integrity. This and other stories have exasperated it and lead it to sensible conclusions:

We can only speculate on how many other buses — buses that don’t crash — are, minute-by-minute, traveling our interstates with similar passenger lists.
What does this all mean?
It means we have a huge problem that we cannot afford to ignore anymore, one that will determine the essence of our society into the next century and beyond.
The federal government, ostensibly in control of immigration matters, is asleep at the wheel…
What we can see, however, is that we can’t wait for the federal cavalry to charge in and save us. It may never happen or, if it does, it may be too late.
It’s a problem we — and by we, we mean all of us in Northeastern Pennsylvania — need to start addressing now…
Let’s get all the local mayors — not just Hazleton’s Lou Barletta — looking at ways to deal with these issues, whether it’s gang units or sharing information in a better and more timely fashion.
Most importantly, we call upon our county commissioners to take the lead on this issue, which impacts every county resident.

(Immigration a tough issue that we must address now Sunday, April22 2007)

Northeastern Pennsylvania has already made a tremendous contribution to preserving America by supplying the heroic Lou Barletta. Now it seems to providing media wisdom too. This may be the first explicit endorsement of local action I have seen.

Applaud the Times Leader.

According to Instapundit, who, by the way, mows his own lawn:

[April 22, 2007] THE LOGJAM ON IMMIGRATION AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL has produced record amounts of state legislation on the subject. There’s an employer-sanctions bill moving in Tennessee:

It’s not just the logjam that’s making the states pass these bill, it’s the Executive Branch’s total failure to enforce already existing laws.

Employer sanctions–Federal ones–were included in the IRCA Amnesty of 1986.

The State Department has just released its latest Public Announcement for Americans headed to Mexico, you can read it here. It’s a good summary of the current Mexican security situation.

To put things in perspective, millions of Americans visit Mexico annually without incident, only a small percentage are crime victims. That’s little consolation to those who are victims, however .

The important thing is, if you visit Mexico, be prepared, and know what you’re doing. Study up on the particular region and city you are visiting. There are many resources available for visitors to Mexico. Drop me a line if I can help.

The aforementioned State Department document also includes this comment about demonstrations in Mexico:

” The State Department reminds U.S. citizens to avoid participating in demonstrations and other activities that might be deemed political by Mexican authorities. The Mexican Constitution prohibits political activities by foreigners, and such actions may result in detention and/or deportation.”

I have written about this before (see here.)

An American in Mexico is free to do pretty much anything he wants, but he can’t get involved in politics or even march in a demonstration.

That’s quite a contrast to what we allow in the United States, where illegal aliens openly march in the streets and demand their “rights”.

But then, who’s stopping them? Not our own government, that’s for sure !