This is a comment we don’t want you to miss from ‘pungentpeppers’ in response to the previous post on the South Carolina cigarette trafficking story.
“Immigrants open businesses and revitalize communities,” politicians say. Nasser Alquza boasted that he owned 30 businesses! He and his nephew Kamel Qazah (same family name, just spelled differently) ran a pizza parlor, a Subway franchise, a car lot, two gas stations, etc. Ideal, upstanding immigrants – or thieving, economic terrorists?
The nephew Qazah bragged to undercover agents that he could “sell anything.” That ranged from stolen electronics to Christmas decorations pilfered from a hijacked Wal-Mart truck. Uncle Alquza told investigators that he, too, sold a diversified portfolio of stolen merchandise – from baby formula to Advil to condoms. He also confided that he could launder hundreds of thousands of dollars overseas each month through various accounts. The secret to his success: Keep changing your operation, he told agents, and you’ll never get caught. And they weren’t alone – they ran their scheme in cooperation with a large network of family, friends and associates in the immigrant community.
Is that what America needs?! Immigrant “entrepreneurs” who steal merchandise, sell it, skip paying taxes, and ship the money overseas?!
Our legitimate business owners are burdened by taxes – but at least they have the satisfaction of knowing that the money they send to their to local governments pays for police protection, schools, road repair, local parks, trash collection, and to help fellow citizens who have hit on hard times. But our decent business owners just cannot compete against people who couldn’t give a hoot about the local community, and instead just milk whatever money they can get out of the American cash cow – ignoring all rules and obligations – and then launder their ill-gotten stolen money abroad to the Middle East.
Stop this harmful, “immigrant business” foreign aid program! Our towns and cities cannot afford it anymore!
Readers: I had forgotten we had this category “Comments worth noting.” I’ll keep an eye out for other good comments like this one and try to publish them more prominently going forward.