Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson          Red Bluff Daily News 3/18/2025

        St. Patrick’s Day immigration theme

Behind the shamrocks, bagpipes and green beer, there’s a deep lesson in the Irish ballad, “Danny Boy.”

“Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling, From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.

“The summer's gone, and all the roses falling, It's you, it's you must go and I must bide.”

As an Irish descendant and performer explained to his audience, the story behind those lyrics is an Irish father who accompanied his son to the embarkation port, both laboring for passage to America—but only for the son to board and leave his homeland.

With heartbreak all around, the father knows he will likely never see his dear son again; the son will never see his beloved mother, father, home and village again. Indeed, he sets his sights on a land foreign in every way, with only a promise and a stipend to assure his acceptance into America.

“The pipes (that) are calling” are the ship’s loud steam pipes, that echo up the “glens” and “down the mountain sides.” After a day’s labor, families made their way out of the port town to sleep among the nearby hills, within earshot of those “pipes”; folks would arise upon their trumpeting in the dawn, and hike to the gangplank. There they would tearfully bid adieu for a likely lifetime separation.

“But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow, or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow…If I am dead, as dead I well may be, Ye’ll come and find the place where I am lying, And kneel and say an Ave [Maria] there for me. And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me, and all my grave will warmer, sweeter be; for you will bend and tell me that you love me, And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me!”

It can choke you up to visualize the scenario of family separation. The Irish, like almost every immigrant group that migrated to a new, foreign land, faced discrimination (“No Irish Allowed” signs and anti-Catholic bigotry); but they persevered to carve a niche, learn English, fight in wars for their adopted homeland, and contribute vastly more to this nation than was ever given to them.

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Obviously, we are talking about “legal immigration,” not the border-hopping, (previous) administration “processing,” bussing, housing, feeding and other taxpayer-funded livelihood-supporting dependency. Saint Patrick’s Day, as does Cinco de Mayo and German Oktoberfest, celebrates, well, beer; but also a recognition that “Out of many, one” the “E pluribus unum” of America’s motto. I’ll drink to that.

Instead, we have such headlines as “Feds Bust Huge California-Based Guatemalan Human Smuggling Ring…” (Bob Hoge, Redstate.com, March 3). Also, “Newsom seeks $3.4B bailout for Medi-Cal after spending $9.5B on noncitizens—At the time Medi-Cal expanded coverage to all illegal immigrants in the state at the start of 2024, the taxpayer-funded healthcare system was already under strain” (Kenneth Schrupp, The Center Square, 3/13). A related headline: “California Begs For Emergency Loan After Showering Illegal Immigrants With Healthcare Benefits,” (Dailycaller.com). Search by title for details.

The current Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director, Todd Lyons, revealed that the “Biden Administration Cooked the Books on Illegal Alien Arrests,” (Pjmedia.com, 3/13). “They were purposely misleading the American people by categorizing individuals processed and released into the interior of the United States as ICE arrests…

“Senior officials said that the majority of the overall 113,431 arrests made in FY 2024 were ‘pass-through’ arrests, meaning that ICE didn’t take an enforcement action against those foreign nationals, (and were) just passed through ICE before being released into the interior...told to report to an ICE office.”

Finally, the “open borders” mentality taken to the extreme: “Federal Judge Tells Trump He Can’t Use the Law to Deport Illegals,” (M. Margolis, Pjmedia.com, 3/15). Of all the anti-Trump judicial rulings, it’s most outrageous that a federal judge decides that “The Alien Enemies Act” cannot be used to deport members of the Tren de Aragua gang. He even ordered flights to return to the U.S. where defense attorneys will line up for “Pro Bono” work on behalf of the gang.

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Hypocritically, the Democrat/media cabal bemoans federal workers losing jobs after, in California alone, millions of people lost jobs, livelihoods, businesses, needed benefits, and irreplaceable school-time learning—little sympathy then. All due to COVID rules, mandates that we now know had no scientific basis: Not the masking, vaccine efficacy, “6-foot distancing,” the isolation of otherwise healthy adults and young people in school; not the bans on businesses being open, nor on families visiting elderly relatives.

Yet, after employment by the federal government soared from about 5 percent of all new hires, to 25 percent in 2024 to juice the numbers for the election—we can’t let any tax-payer supported federal workers lose their jobs. Welcome to real-world fortunes.