Victorina Morales is the best reason yet to cancel the SOTU speech... permanently

Assuming someone else doesn’t throw a temper tantrum over the weekend, it appears that we’re going forward with the State of the Union speech next week. This no doubt comes as wonderful news to almost no one, except possibly some of the participants and cable news producers looking for something to fill the schedule. As usual, there will likely be more interest in the audience than the SOTU speech itself. Who will refuse to show up? Perhaps more to the point, who will show up and who will be invited as guests?

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In a true low moment in the history of these dog and pony shows, one New Jersey Democrat has invited Victorina Morales to be her guest on the big night. In case you’d missed it, Morales is the illegal alien who was working at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey until the media exposed her immigration status. This is presumably a maneuver designed as a jab at the president.

An undocumented worker who was fired from the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., after she publicly disclosed her immigration status will attend President Trump’s State of the Union address next week.

Victorina Morales, who was born in Guatemala, will be a guest of Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat, when the president speaks to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Watson Coleman’s office confirmed the decision Wednesday.

The choice to invite Morales follows news stories about the Trump Organization’s failure to fully check the work status of all its employees, even as Trump described illegal immigration as a national crisis and demanded funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The Post reported Saturday that about a dozen undocumented workers were fired this month from the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y. Eric Trump said Tuesday that the company will implement E-Verify, a federal program that vets workers’ immigration status, across all of its properties.

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This is beyond the limits of stupidity. If the Trump property was hiring illegal immigrants and not doing their due diligence in checking their immigration status (or worse, knowingly hiring illegals) then they should be prosecuted. Heck… I’ll go so far as to say that if the President himself knew about this (as unlikely as that sounds in an organization that size) he should be impeached. That would at least be an actual crime as opposed to the Russian collusion story. But that’s not the real issue here.

We have a Democrat willing to violate federal law to transport an illegal immigrant to the State of the Union address. (8 U.S. Code § 1324 makes it a felony to “transport, or move or attempt to transport or move” an illegal alien.) Even forgetting about the security risks inherent in bringing a criminal into this event, none of this has anything to do with the Constitutional responsibilities of the President to periodically inform Congress about the state of the nation.

If you want to bring a particular guest to such a high profile event as a way to honor them for something I can at least understand it. But we have people, both presidents and members of Congress, going out of their way to invite people for the sole reason of antagonizing or embarrassing “the other side,” or simply to make them uncomfortable. I’ve seen more mature behavior on an elementary school playground.

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For the umpteenth time, the entire State of the Union speech has devolved into a farce. We even have red carpet coverage outside so reporters can ask the guests “who they are wearing.” There is nothing in the Constitution that demands a speech be given at all. The President can write out what he or she has to say in a letter every year or so and just send it to all the members of Congress. If they really want the American people to hear it they can read it from the Oval Office. I’m sure the networks will carry it and we can decide for ourselves if we want to tune in.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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