I had a raucous time last night at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The College Republicans and YAF sponsored my lecture on immigration and CRs from across the state were there in conjunction with the CR state convention. It was heartening to meet so many staunch young conservatives holding down the fort. The UW-Madison CR chapter is an exemplar of Right-minded activism on campus. They rock.

UW-Madison rivals Berkeley as the moonbattiest of university campuses. It’s the home of notorious Truther Kevin Barrett, impeachment zealots, and anti-military recruiter thugs. No pies were thrown, but within 20 seconds of the start of my talk, an unhinged member shouted “Bullshit.” That was the response to my simple assertion that entry into this country is a privilege, not a right. After making the painstaking case for systemic reform and immigration enforcement, another student shouted out that I was “dumb fuck”–at which point I invited his fellow basket cases to go ahead and use the opportunity unleash any other epithets and ad hominem attacks they were dying to articulate. “RACIST!” they inveighed. Hope it provided some therapeutic benefits. My gracious CR hosts apologized profusely for their profane classmates. But the potty-mouthed fools only embarrassed themselves–and provided us with many comic moments. I really do feel very sorry for the parents paying for their “education.”

Here’s a pretty fair piece on the event. One of the audience members who identified himself as an “undocumented student” used the question-and-answer session to complain that it took years to gain citizenship (he couldn’t tell me how exactly he obtained it) and then lamented that he wasn’t being treated as an American. I asked him if he felt like an American and whether he felt grateful for having obtained US citizenship (however the hell he gained it). His answer: He wants to go back to Mexico.

Several of the hostile students were stirred up by the scheduled deportation of a UW-Madison pharmacy student, Tope Awe. The 22-year-old from Nigeria has lived in the US since she was 3. Her family has ignored deportation orders for years. From the Capital Times:

A former high school track star studying to be a pharmacist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her brother have been released from custody pending their deportation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday.

Tope Awe, 22, and her brother, Oluwagbenga Awe, 24, were detained Thursday after a meeting with immigration officials in Milwaukee. They were released Tuesday but must wear ankle monitoring bracelets and check in regularly with immigration officials while they wait for travel documents for their return to Nigeria, the agency said Tuesday in a statement.

The siblings and their parents came to the United States from Nigeria in 1989 on a six-month tourist visas. An immigration judge rejected their request to stay in the country in 1999 and gave them 60 days to leave.

The Awes stayed in the country while they unsuccessfully appealed the decision. In 2003, the family received a stay on their deportation because Samuel Awe, the siblings’ father, was ill. That stay expired on July 31, 2004, the immigration agency said.

Samuel Awe and his wife, Julianah, have remained in Milwaukee, where he said he is on dialysis treatment for kidney failure.

Tope and Oluwagbenga Awe did not contact the immigration service after July 2004 and are now considered immigration fugitives, the agency said.

“These are individuals who have been through the immigration court process, have had their day in court, have been ordered deported from the United States and failed to comply with that order,” said Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for the immigration service.

ORDER IT NOW

I told the students that I agree with the late Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan–a liberal black Democrat and respected immigration authority– who noted that credibility in immigration policy rests on three simple principles: “People who should get in, get in; people who should not enter are kept out; and people who are deportable should be required to leave.”

Open borders proponents often use the specious argument that we can’t deport all illegal aliens. No, we can’t deport all of them in a day, a week, or a decade. But we should have priorities and we should start with those who have been ordered deported by judges and have flagrantly evaded those orders.

When foreigners apply for short term visas to get into this country, they agree to abide the rules. If they apply for asylum once they are in this country and are denied, they can appeal. If they lose their appeal and their out-of-status family members are ordered deported, they need to respect the rules they agreed to when we allowed them to enter in the first place.

Why not bend the rules just this once, you might ask. Wouldn’t that be the compassionate thing to do?

Well, when would that end? On exception becomes 20, 1,000, 100,000, three times that–and you end up with complete anarchy. If you want to nullify the entire Immigration and Nationality Act, go to Washington and win the votes. Otherwise, those who repeatedly break our laws and subvert judicial rulings must face consequences. Before catastrophe strikes again.

Protesters are demanding that Awe be allowed to finish classes and stay at least through graduation while they try to work the system to evade deportation. Democrat Sen. Herb Kohl intervened and helped win her release from detention pending deportation. I predict they’ll shoot for a private relief bill. As I’ve reported many times, and as I discussed in my speech yesterday, the deportation abyss is ruled by the mantra: “It ain’t over ’til the alien wins.”

There was more shouting and the usual incoherent babble of leftist students with their “No human being is illegal” signs and warmed-over reconquista talk. But there were also many engaged listeners committed to fighting immigration chaos in their neighborhoods–and even a moderate Democrat who kept an open mind.

It’s a start.