Commentary

On October 15, 2018, I referred to Elvia Diaz, an editorial staff member of the left-leaning Arizona Republic, as “an embarrassment,“ citing her editorial in which she wrote, “incivility has its place in these divisive times of ours.”

She sided with Hillary Clinton, reasoning that Democrats needed to wage war on Trump’s Republican Party “that’s ripping the nation to pieces.”

Over the years, I often referred to Diaz as “a naïve, lightweight journalist, a gift that keeps on giving.

Then, on May 22, 2022, in my blog, “The Peter Principle Lives,” I wrote about her promotion to director of opinions and board chair at the Republic.  Identity politics played a role in Executive Editor Greg Burton’s decision, noting with pride that Diaz become the first Latina to serve as the editorial page editor since the paper was founded 132 years ago.

In his book, Lawrence J. Peter refers to a member of the hierarchy who is promoted until he or she reaches a level at which that individual is no longer competent.  I’m not so sure she was ever competent, having read most of her work column after column.

She’s a Gift That Keeps on Giving

Diaz’s column covered two-thirds of the first page of the Republic’s VIEWPOINTS section on Sunday.  A color photo of President Elect Trump in front of the border wall is as wide as the page over the headline, “Trump’s deportation plan is a power grab,” in 72 pt type.   Diaz still suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

She writes of an Arizona Cavalry, “itching to shut down the U.S. -Mexico border to asylum seekers, conduct workplace raids and militarize neighborhoods to root out migrants.”

Diaz objects to calling the massive crossing of millions of migrants at non-port locations an “invasion.” They swam across the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass, Texas or scaled a rugged mountainside near Jacumba, California. 

They come from more than 150 countries, including China, Kazakhstan, Congo, and even Iran, and they are not properly vetted.  Some 13,000 convicted of homicides are living among U.S. citizens with an estimated 1.6 million “gotaways” with unknown identities and records who are also living among us.

It was an invasion.

Poll after poll revealed that most Americans, even Latinos, approved of the planned mass deportation.  Just before the election, a Scripps News/Ipsos poll recorded 54 percent strongly support deportation.  In an AXIOS poll, 51 percent approved, including 42 percent Democrats.

“This is a hair-on-fire moment for those of who still consider America’s immigrant roots an economic and cultural asset worth protecting,” Diaz wrote.

I agree, but for those who came legally before the Biden administration opened the gates with a seriously flawed asylum procedure.

She writes about the “huge human and financial toll” to be inflicted on suffering families and children,” but chooses not to mention the fact that Biden-Harris lost track of 320,000 migrant children, many of whom are suffering in sex trafficking and forced labor.

Diaz asks readers, “Don’t care and want it (deportations) done at any price?” as she conveniently has amnesia when it comes to the cost to taxpayers of providing migrants with benefits not given to our own homeless. The cost of busing them across the nation is one thing, but we also paid for those airlifted from South America to U.S. cities.

During an appearance of Trump’s newly appointed Border Czar Tom Homan on 60 Minutes, Cecelia Vega, another bleeding-heart liberal like Diaz, questioned the billions the deportations will cost. “What price do you put on National Security?” he responded. “Is that worth it?”

An aside: we taxpayers are paying for the defense of the Venezuelan illegal who plotted, brutely attacked, raped and killed nursing student Laken Riley while she was jogging on a University of Georgia campus trail.

Yet, with the deportation plan in the works, to initially remove the criminals and those on the terrorist list, Diaz says, “buckle up, because you – not Trump or any of his folks – will pay for it,” eager to pin her ridiculous “power grab” label on Trump.

She is so out of touch.

May God bless the plan to rid our nation of those who illegally crossed our border.