Linda Chavez needs to put down her talking points and actually listen to people who are opposed to illegal immigration. Her column (click here to read) on Townhall last week is an appalling example of the Friends of Bush protecting the President to the point that one begins to wonder who needs friends...

Chavez alleged that anti-illegal immigrant conservatives are all racist. She is right that many Hispanic people do well in America. But she is wrong that they all do- and that isn't the point anyway. Being opposed to offering amnesty to illegal aliens may just be a manifestation of many conservatives' belief in the importance of the rule of law.

People who are here illegally made a choice- the choice to take a risk that if discovered in this country they would be deported.

People who came here illegally and married an American or who had children in this country took a risk that they could someday face separation from family members.

People who came here illegally and bought property took a risk that they could someday lose that property.

I don't feel sorry for the criminals who go to jail, leaving children behind. They have been separated from their families. I don't hear liberals calling for amnesty for people in prison who have small children. (I guess the National Black Panther Party does list this as one of their demands.) Criminals made a choice. Illegal aliens made a choice. They can all take responsibility for those choices. They should blame themselves for the consequences.

The arguments made by Chavez are disingenuous. She has to know better and is pandering to a puppeteer we may never identify. Why she would do this I don't know. Chavez called in to Laura Ingraham's show on Friday and dug the hole deeper- she was defensive and came off as less informed than I had hoped.

Her performance started with her criticizing conservatives for being racist but then admitted that Hispanic people are actually more racist than white people. Chavez actually said that Caucasian people tend to be less racist than all people of color.

Chavez tried to argue that because the greatest number of illegals crossed the border in the late 1990s and we did nothing to stop them then now means we are saddled with them forever. I wonder if it has ever occurred to her that people did not realize the extent of illegal immigration while it was occurring in the 1990s?

After September 11th, Americans were forced to begin acknowledging the implications of an unprotected border. As more and more illegal aliens invade our country, the consequences grow.

Americans are an incredibly tolerant people. Americans looked the other way for years in the hopes that all would work out. Now that upwards of 20 million people have ignored our laws and entered the country illegally, we have to begin to question when will it end?

Now that schools across the country are saddled with second and third generation children who have not assimilated into American culture...

Now that hospitals are losing billions and billions of dollars providing free medical care to illegal aliens while a growing number 0f Americans are actually considering the need for government run health care...

Now that the social service systems across the country are spending billions of dollars providing services to illegal aliens while American children are being left in abusive homes because the local governments lack the funds to help them...

Now that our government has decided to spend untold millions of dollars translating documents into foreign languages to cater to those who refuse to learn English...

Now that there are thousands and thousands of illegal aliens in our jails across the country, committing crimes against Americans, forever harming American families...

Do I need to go on?

This Immigration Bill is not comprehensive. If George Bush actually believes the ignorant rhetoric he is spewing, I am at a loss. His position can not be defended. He may be a nice man, but on this issue he is so wrong, so off base, so naive... If he thinks this bill is the answer then the honest truth is he doesn't think there is an answer.

While he may question the patriotism of conservatives like me, I know to the very core of my being that the greatest country in the history of man stands at a crossroads- one path will lead us further down the road to globalization and the idea that no country is sovereign. The failure to protect our border and control immigration leads to the diminishment of what it means to be an American.

The second path, the only path that protects the future of the United States of America, requires our Congress to stand up to this President and remind him of his oath. The United States must protect and defend its sovereignty, which means defending the border and punishing those who refuse to respect it.

President Bush should be far less concerned with the feelings of a bunch of illegal aliens or the demands of a group of business people whose wealth shelters them from the consequences of the migration of illegal aliens.

The President of the Unites States has a duty to listen to the growing number of American citizens whose message is loud and clear: Protect the border and enforce the countless laws already on the books.

May God bless America and protect us from threats from around the world and from within.