By Benjamin Wachs
Go ahead “activists,” hold all the die-ins you want. Sure, Board of Supervisors: you go ahead and pass resolution after resolution calling for an end to the war and condemning talk show hosts for their anti-immigrant bile.

Wake me up when you’re done.

It’s two members of San Francisco’s judiciary – rock on, judges – who have managed to grind the gears of the Bush Administration’s juggernaut of incompetence to a screeching halt … and nobody’s paying attention.

On Aug. 29 U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney issued an order stopping the Bush Administration from forcing employers to turn in their illegal immigrant employees. That order lasted until October first, when another San Francisco Federal Judge, Charles R. Breyer, ruled to extend it. Between the two of them, they are single handedly keeping an estimated 8.7 million illegal immigrants from the long arm of the law.

The least you could do is send them a card.

Hey activists: see this? It’s called “effectiveness.”

But instead of celebrating this triumph of the human spirit (I think a hearty “viva Mexico” is surely in order), San Francisco’s liberal press is taking a pass. Apparently because they’ve got better shit to do: bitching about fleet week is waaaaaay more important.

When you search the Guardian’s website for Judge Chesney’s name, you get zilch.

A search at BeyondChron yields … nada.

SFist? Nope.

Fog City Journal? Nichts.

I’m running out of languages here. What happened to home town pride?

Even Salon, that paragon of can-do, holier than thou leftism, gives you no hits on Chesney’s immigration stance … although it does provide a lively little article about a copyright infringement for Starbucks that she ruled about in 2000.

That’s so cute.

Why are the torch carriers of progressivism in America’s most progressive city, who would cut off their noses for a chance to spit in George Bush’s face, not out there celebrating that somebody’s finally done something?

Guess number 1: they’re so mad that it’s somebody else they could just bite their tongues. That’s the most likely culprit, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion it’s something more insidious.

Guess number 2 : “immigrants” are going to become the next “homeless.” After decades of friendly, cooperative, service providing, pro-homeless policies, we’ve become sick of the smelly bastards and just want the police to shove them in a dark room somewhere. Sure, we want to help the homeless – as long as we don’t have to look at them.

Could it be that, after decades of pro-illegal immigrant policies, filled with cooperative, service providing programs, that San Francisco’s going to see an anti-immigrant backlash too? That we’re happy to defend illegal immigrants so long as we don’t need to DO anything about it? Like … you know … the Board of Supes?

Okay, that’s a cheep shot, and we’re not quite there yet. But I’m willing to bet you a C.W. Nevius column … hell, I’ll bet you two of them, they’re cheap … that we’re headed in that direction. All illegal immigrants have to do is become just a liiiiiiitle bit more inconvenient for people with Blackberries, and then it’ll get ugly.

And then, then, you bet we’ll see headlines.