"California is going to become a Hispanic state and if anyone doesn't like it they should leave, they ought to go back to Europe." - Mario Obledo, founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 1998.

"This has set us back tremendously." - Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials on Cobb County's policy of using available federal tools to enforce American law. (as reported by the Atlanta newspaper), Oct. 24, 2006.

Having long studied illegal immigration and the characters involved in that organized crime here in Georgia, it is very interesting to me to watch as GALEO's Jerry Gonzalez receives media attention in the MDJ and elsewhere.

Gonzalez hopes we will believe that equal application of the law is somehow "anti-immigrant" "anti-Latino" and "discriminatory."

Coming from the far, far left and, rather comically, ignoring the fact that most Americans recognize the difference between a legal act and those that violate the laws most of us are held to, Gonzalez is shameless in his never-ending attempt to equate all Hispanics/Latinos and real immigrants with illegal aliens. What could be a greater insult to Latinos - or be more anti-immigrant?

Gonzalez is now howling "discrimination" because Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren is using his authority to alert the feds to illegal aliens who have committed additional crimes. This - and Gonzalez's marching with MALDEF in the streets of Atlanta last year leading self-announced illegals demanding an end to enforcement of American immigration and employment laws - provides clear insight into GALEO's real agenda.

Because he presents himself as speaking for an entire ethnic group, a question: Why does the law-abiding Latino community not raise its voice and disavow this race-baiter?

My friend Olga Robles, who lives a few blocks from the U.S.-Mexican border in Douglas, Ariz., is very familiar with people like that. Her family came here from Mexico many years ago. She will proudly tell you that she is an American. No hyphen. But she is called an "apple polisher for the 'Gringos," when she speaks up against illegal border crossers who swarm into her yard at night.

For his demand that America secure its borders and enforce its immigration and employment laws, my friend - and a former Canyon County Commissioner in Idaho Robert Vasquez - is called a "coconut" (brown on the outside, white on the inside). Vasquez, a Vietnam War veteran who left part of his right leg there, happens to be of Mexican descent.

One must wonder where the Americans like Olga Robles and Vasquez are here in Georgia.

We guess that Gonzalez and MALDEF are not too keen on organizations like "You Don't Speak for Me," a national group that describes its purpose as "American Hispanic voices speaking out against illegal immigration."

We would all be better off if the big donor money - including that from Jane Fonda, State Farm Insurance company and the local Teamsters Union 728 - was going to these folks instead of GALEO, and if UGA's Fanning Institute chose a more pro-American organization with which to form a "partnership."

Gonzalez is less than happy to know that little tidbits of facts like these get out to the public, particularly from this American. His normal response is to wail that a "convicted felon" should not be allowed to speak out against illegal immigration or ethnic hustlers. The criminal conviction here is true enough.

In 1977, this writer admitted to taking bets on football games and was punished by the U.S. court system with a fine and probation.

I never thought to use the "I was just looking for a better life" defense - or to scream that having violated the law, I could blame enforcement on "discrimination." Because enforcement works, I would put the odds of my ever gambling illegally again at a thousand to one. Enforcement of our immigration laws will eventually have the same result on illegal aliens and criminal employers.

As for Gonzalez, GALEO and MALDEF, one can only hope that Americans don't judge all Latinos by their actions.

Gonzalez often hosts showings of a "documentary" titled "Fighting 529" on Georgia college campuses. If you want to see why he thinks Georgia's 2006 law (SB 529) aimed at illegal immigration is "discriminatory," don't miss it.

D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society, a Cobb-based non-profit actively opposed to illegal employment and illegal immigration.

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