An enlightened redneck counts among his heroes mayors like Herbert Gears of Irving, Texas, who takes the rule of law seriously enough to impose a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Here’s the story from The New York Times, including a “redneck” quote from Gears:

[T]wo years ago, Irving made a decision, championed by its first-term mayor, Herbert A. Gears, to conduct immigration checks on everyone booked into the local jail. …

Irving is one of a growing number of cities across America where immigration control, a federal prerogative, is reshaping politics at the other end of the spectrum, the local level, in the absence of a national policy overhaul. To watch its experiment play out over the better part of the past year in City Hall and in its residents’ lives is to see how difficult political moderation has become in the debate over what to do with the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

Irving’s jail program was started by the city’s police chief as an experiment with federal immigration officials. But Mr. Gears saw in it a kind of release valve for the political pressure building around him, which had been energized by much more aggressive measures to force out illegal immigrants in Farmers Branch, a smaller suburb next door.

“I let my instincts rule the moment in that instance,” he said. “What weighed heavily in my thoughts is that if we didn’t do something, a lot more immigrants were going to be hurt. And now … I’m the hero of every redneck in America.”

I sense a bit of sarcasm in Gears’ use of the term redneck; I don’t think he meant it as flattery. But I see his subtle jab at rednecks as a compliment.

Our family is majority-minority. My wife and I adopted our three children from Guatemala, and when we did, the Latino world in general and Guatemala in particular became a part of us. When we see Hispanics roaming the streets of America, we see our children. We don’t fear them; we dream of who they can become by being blessed to live in this great country.

That’s the way enlightened rednecks think about legal immigration. Illegal immigration is another matter entirely.

No one should be allowed to enter and stay in this country if they break the law to get here. Our laws need to be strengthened to prevent that from happening. People who come here illegally should be deported if discovered. And mayors like Herbert Gears should be lauded for enforcing the law, even if they distort the meaning of “redneck.”