There’s virtually no one who feels our nation’s immigration laws are working, from the vigilante groups patrolling Arizona’s southern border to organizations advocating blanket amnesty for the millions of people currently living in America illegally. Whether it’s building a wall along the Mexican border from Texas to California, giving police the authority to stop anyone who doesn’t “look American” and demand proof of their legal status, or creating a road to citizenship for the millions of undocumented people who have entered the country unlawfully in the past, nearly every politician seemingly has some idea of how to fix a system that nearly everyone agrees is broken.

But due to an uneasy mutual accord between Barack Obama and congressional leaders from both major political parties immigration isn’t going to be dealt with anytime soon. Even before oil began gushing up from beneath the Gulf of Mexico it was obvious the president and the nominal heads of the Republican Party had tacitly agreed to put off tackling this tricky issue. No specific reasons for procrastinating have been mentioned, but it’s likely that both Republicans and Democrats are more concerned with possible short-term losses they might absorb in this November’s congressional elections than they are with the potential long-term benefits of establishing policies that would best serve all current and future Americans. Both political parties are hedging their bets: Republicans have lightened up on rhetoric claiming their opponents are lax on border security for fear of alienating growing numbers of Hispanic voters in key states, while Democrats, leery of being depicted as soft on terrorism, have lowered the volume on portraying the GOP’s stand on immigration as too Draconian. Nor do they wish to offend labor unions which traditionally support them, but want their members’ jobs protected against the seeming onslaught of cheap labor continuing to stream across America’s southwestern frontier.

With all the hand-wringing and empty talk regarding immigration there’s been precious little concern expressed with who’s coming in over our other borders, but maybe there should be. Consider London, Ontario native Peter Pocklington, the former owner of the National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers won five Stanley Cup championships between 1984 and 1990, and were considered one of the NHL’s top franchises. But Pocklington, who cut his entrepreneurial teeth running car dealerships and later dabbled in politics, saw his luck begin to run out when he traded superstar Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988. The Oilers began crumbling, and by the mid-1990s they were a pedestrian squad on the ice. Off it they were beset by economic problems that inevitably come with slackening fan support. On several occasions Pocklington threatened to move his team to the United States, while continuing to pay himself a $2 million salary. That didn’t endear him to the team’s rabid but increasingly hostile fan base. Ultimately Pocklington sold the team to local owners in 1998. Four years later, owing millions of dollars to Alberta Treasury Branches (ATB), a financial institution owned by the province of Alberta, he divested himself of all his Canadian holdings and moved (one assumes legally) to Palm Springs, California, where he quickly involved himself in a variety of financial ventures.

Unfortunately Pocklington’s business acumen didn’t prove any keener than it had been north of the border. He declared bankruptcy in 2008, citing debts of $19.7 million and assets of only $2,900.

Last Thursday in Riverside, California Pocklington pleaded guilty to perjury in his bankruptcy fraud case. According to wire service reports Pocklington, in a classic example of a bad workman blaming his tools, said, “Unfortunately, the lawyer I hired to do the original case is what caused all the problems. He said, ”˜Sign here,’ and I did, and unfortunately he left a multitude of things out.” His other explanation for pleading guilty to charges he claims are false: “Unfortunately the jury pool is not a jury of your peers; it’s a jury of some of them unemployed, some of them that aren’t particularly bright,” he said. “And of course with press and so on, and in this country and Canada they seem to hate anyone that has been successful.” Pocklington’s corrosive, ignorant, and widely-published comments indicate that while he may well need more skillful legal assistance, his want for a Dale Carnegie course is far greater than his need of a new lawyer.

Sooner or later Congress and the president will get around to doing something about immigration. And when they do let’s hope the new laws make it just as tough for jet-setting, arrogant, condescending, four-flushing Caucasians who are up to their teeth in debt to gain entry to the United States as they do for swarthy manual laborers whose first language is something other than English.

— Andy Young teaches in Kennebunk and lives in Cumberland.