Navarrette Nation

St Patrick's Day Gives Us A Chance to Honor Irish, The Original Bad Hombres

They were the Mexicans of the 1800's -- despised, picked on, abused, and scapegoated. Part of the reason they caught such grief was because they were Catholic, and recent immigrants. Sound familiar? It should. Americans are known for making history, and just as well-known for not learning from it. But when I wrote this very thing in a column, some of my Irish-American readers were furious at the comparison to Mexican immigrants. After all, they said, Mexicans come illegally and the Irish came legally. Well, yes and no -- on both counts.

Heartbreaking Central CA Immigrant Tragedy Leaves Six Children Orphaned

It's a terrible story of loss, death and heartache. And it all could have been avoided if a few gung-ho Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents hadn't made a mistake and chased the wrong person -- and his wife -- to their death. Dead are 35-year-old Santo Hilario Garcia and 33-year-old Marcelina Garcia Profecto, a pair of farm workers who -- at 6 am -- were on their way to work, to do jobs that Americans won't do at any price. ICE agents chased them because they mistook Santo for a fugitive they were hunting. Now six kids don't have parents. A lot of people say the immigration system is broken. They have no idea how right they are. My God! What has become of us?

Anti-Feminist Hillary Clinton is Stuck in the 1950's

Hillary Clinton won't go away, and she won't shut up. She's done it again, and angered many of her own Democratic voters by saying something incredibly stupid and sexist. At a conference in India over the weekend, she said that she lost to Donald Trump because women took their orders from the men in their lives -- husband, son, father, boyfriend, handyman etc. What? It's hard to come up with a sentiment that is more backward and anti-feminist. This from the pioneer who was going to break the glass ceiling. It sounds more like someone is having a breakdown. We dodged a bullet by making sure that Hillary didn't get close to the White House -- again.

Sec of State Rex Tillerson Is Out. Now What?

Rex Tillerson found out that President Trump had fired him as Secretary of State (and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo) the same way that the rest of the world did: Via Twitter. That's bad form. You don't treat people that way, especially when they've been loyal to you. Trump is loyal to no one, and it breeds chaos. You can't lead or push your agenda without continuity. Like the owner of a baseball team that keeps replacing managers to feed his ego, Trump seems desperate to advance a narrative that he alone is the one indispensable part of this administration. Everyone else is on probation. It's no way to run a railroad.

Trump Hurts Credibility By Doing Half Flip on Guns

Like cops, journos hate being lied to. So we should be especially careful about sticking our neck out and putting our trust in politicians, who lie with ease. We could wind up getting our heads chopped off. So imagine my disappointment now that President Trump has hedged on what seemed to be his expressed support for raising the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21. The good news is that the White House, in its official gun & school safety plan, did leave in the parts about circumventing due process to seize guns in an emergency and outlawing bump-stocks. So it's half a loaf. But it's also a reminder that, in politics, character and trust is everything.