About 1000 delegates at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials were having lunch when they heard a very odd request. “It’s very important that you use your utensils as soon as possible,” board member Raquel Regalado told the delegates at the group’s annual conference. It seems their utensils were a security threat to the President who was speaking at the event.

“The Secret Service coordinates this process with staff and host committee to ensure tables are cleared of material that may be deemed hazardous prior to the arrival of the president,” Special Agent Max Milien told POLITICO. “Any implication that this was unique for this event is completely inaccurate.”

We’re told that this is a typical security measure at large events. But POLITICO noted:

“Still, there are a wide variety of breakfasts, lunches and dinners the president attends where diners still have the full complement of silverware as Obama speaks.

“Milien declined to comment on the discrepancy. However, it’s known that the Secret Service adjusts security depending on the size of the crowd and how much officials know about who’s in attendance. At some events, guests must pass through magnetometers. At others, they don’t.”

Why was an Hispanic crowd deemed a security risk? Just wondering

The latest immigration ploy of Barack Obama has a poison pill attached. How does a young person prove that he or she was brought to the United States by parents who are — according to our laws — “illegal aliens”?

If the parents are in the United States illegally, then to prove that their children were brought here through no fault of their own, the parents would be setting themselves up for deportation. It’s a classic Catch-22 dilemma. To prove one point for a positive outcome proves another point with a negative outcome. No one wins.

Everybody knows that what President Obama did to subvert standing law was done to secure the Hispanic vote for the November 2012 election. But it will solve nothing.

Republicans need to be careful on the immigration issue so they don’t come across as anti-immigrant. Many Hispanics I’ve met share conservative values. I’m not saying that all do, but I bet it’s a majority. It’s the welfare state and government education (which is welfare) that often corrupts the next generation.

I’m not for amnesty, but I am for some way to help people who came here illegally to find a lawful path to citizenship. There is no possible way that we’re going to ship millions of people back across the border.

One of the first things we should do is shut down the welfare state for everybody, but most especially for legals and illegals. It would take time, but it removes the incentive for some people to cross the border.

Those pursuing a path to citizenship that came illegally could not vote for two four-year election cycles from the time they earn their legal status. This takes most of the politics out of the immigration issue.

As much as we might understand the plight of people who want to come to America, we don’t like being taken advantage of. Our government does enough of that already.