Welcome the New Neighbors - II
I really have to stop visiting the web site of the Raleigh News and Observer. While it does get my heart started in the morning, it's probably quite bad for my blood pressure. When last we left them, the Snooze and Deceiver crew were editorializing about welcoming illegal immigrants as our new neighbors and running articles about how bogus foreign government ID cards are really useful if you're "undocumented".

Today's contribution to the canon of heartwarming tales about our "new neighbors" is Born of necessity: Spanish-speaking women help immigrants through childbirth . In a nutshell:

With help from the Duke Endowment, more than 20 women from Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile and Honduras took more than 45 hours of initial training through Chatham Hospital as part of the Immigrant Health Initiative. The Chatham Comadres aren't midwives who deliver babies; their role is to help women navigate the confusing health-care system and prepare for a healthy birth.

Ah, the system! Must make sure that illegal aliens get full benefits from churlish taxpayers.

Time to cut to the tale of Agripina Paredones, one of the "new neighbors" who is expecting:

Paredones had three babies in Mexico, but the birth of her fourth child, 6-year-old Christian, wasn't easy. He was born in North Carolina, and she often couldn't understand what was happening at the doctor's office. At one point she had to stay in the hospital overnight and didn't know why, until a friend came to visit. "It was scary, it was frustrating," she said in Spanish, "because the water broke and I was there not knowing anything."

This time is different.

This time with the help of her trusty "doulas", she fully engages with the medical facilities provided by the taxpayers and delivers Giselle Guadalupe Murillo Paredones.

A little after midnight, Maldonado and Lopez said goodbye to Paredones, who was nursing Giselle, and told her they'd be back the next day.

The nurses at the front desk waved to the doulas. "Bye -- see you for the next one!"

I can hardly wait. The Immigrant (sic) Health Initiative also has a dental plan.

Well, let's add things up: illegal aliens receive benefits they aren't entitled to through the intercession of a large foundation. But that gets glossed over by the emotionalism: spunky mother gets help to give birth to a bouncing baby daughter, another addition to a happy family far away from home in a foreign land. Sniff! I regret to inform all involved that the sheer fact of the matter is that the American taxpayer cannot provide medical care for all 3rd world families. And the language difficulties would be obviated by an immediate return by the patients to the country of origin. Undoubtedly, the Snooze vends this stuff in an ongoing effort to make the illegality and absurdity acceptable. After all, it's for the children!

Finally, the Snooze does occasionally mention the downside of illegal immigration:

Raleigh police have 17 unsolved homicides on the books, plus 11 cases like Nguyen's in which a suspect has been charged but never found. That list includes recent killings: Jose Hernandez, 35, charged with stabbing Raleigh merchant Nguyen Ngoc Truong, 31, earlier this month; Jose Francisco Martinez, 30, charged with shooting Carlos Barron Gomez in his bed in June; Garcia brothers Noel, 32, Orlando, 26, and Thomas, 31, charged with shooting Martin Herrera Sotelo, 27, after a card game in February.

Police think nine of the 11 fugitives are not U.S. citizens, evidence that an immigration explosion in recent years is making Triangle manhunts an international affair.

Cary police have two unsolved homicides and are chasing one fugitive murder suspect: Oscar Espinosa Perez, 29, charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Octavio Salinas-Sanchez, 20, in an apartment complex last year.

By contrast, investigators in Durham face four times the number of unsolved homicides in Raleigh, and police have trouble keeping tabs on suspects prone to flee the country before enough evidence is assembled to establish probable cause.

"Before a case gets to the point of issuing a warrant, suspects flee," said Sgt. Brett Hallan, head of the Durham homicide unit.

Fugitives with local connections are easier to find. On Wednesday, Winston-Salem police picked up Marreco Francis Hackney, 23, whom Raleigh police wanted for first-degree murder in this month's shooting of Stephen Maurice Watkins, 30.

Suspects with international contacts are prone to cross not just state lines but the border. Wake County magistrates issued a warrant in June charging Martinez, of Raleigh, in connection with the June 19 shooting death of his neighbor, Gomez, but police have yet to locate the Mexico City native who they say has no known Social Security number and few ties to the community.

"With many members of the Hispanic community, it's very easy for them -- since many are working without proper documentation -- it's very easy for them to leave and go to another city and hide," Morgan said.

Details in fugitive files are sketchy, even more so for suspects with arrest records but without Social Security numbers, which tells investigators they entered the country illegally, Morgan said.

When a nation has no borders, all kinds of refuse show up.