Southern Inhospitality: Playing the Immigration Issue
Congress may be deadlocked on immigration, but municipalities across the nation are working to make life as difficult as possible for illegals.
On a hot August afternoon at the Prince William County Fair in northern Virginia, Greg Letiecq tried to make eye contact with passersby gorging themselves on funnel cakes and cotton candy. Standing before a booth draped with American flags and "Help Save Manassas" signs, Letiecq was enjoying a kind of local celebrity. The Washington Post had recently run a front-page story on how his blog, Black Velvet Bruce Li, had become the "most influential local blog in Virginia." (A previous incarnation, Black Velvet Bruce Lee, was taken down in the wake of a slander suit.) Several days earlier, former Virginia Senator George Allen had visited Letiecq's booth; he and his wife Susan walked away wearing Help Save Manassas stickers.
All this notoriety came after Letiecq helped draft a series of tough local ordinances targeting illegal immigrants. Unanimously passed by the county Board of Supervisors on July 10, the purposely vague measures aimed to deny illegal aliens "public benefits" and to empower police to question criminal suspects about their immigration status and, if necessary, initiate deportation. County officials are checking to see if the ordinances violate state or federal law; the county's police chief, Charlie Deane, issued a five-page public plea to moderate the proposals, saying they would lead to more crime, higher taxes, and the perception that the county is racist. But Letiecq, a sometime defense-industry programmer, expects the ordinances to be law by year's end. And they'd already produced the desired results, he told me between drags on his cigarette. "They're moving out," he said. "I know a guy who runs a pool hall in Manassas Park, where they have lots of illegals. He says they're moving to Centreville. Some of them are going to Montgomery County in Maryland."
Prince William County lies about an hour southwest of Washington, D.C. For much of its history, it was known primarily for the Civil War battles fought near Manassas, the county seat. Its population was overwhelmingly white and comfortable with the pace of rural life. But as property values in Washington have soared, Prince William County's population has swelled by 60 percent since 1990, with almost half of the increase occurring since 2000. This growth has demanded new houses, shopping malls, parking lots, gas stations, and roads. Construction projects have required cheap labor, which in turn has attracted a large influx of recent immigrants: The proportion of foreign-born residents has ballooned from 6 percent in 1990 to almost 20 percent in 2005. Today one in four students enrolled in the county's school system is Hispanic.
It's a demographic shift playing out all over America, but perhaps nowhere more than in the Washington area—6 of its counties are among the nation's 20 fastest-growing Hispanic population centers. Since Letiecq founded Help Save Manassas in April (modeled after a similar group in nearby Herndon), "Help Save" chapters have begun popping up statewide and spread to Maryland. They represent a growing movement among municipal and county officials who, frustrated by Congress' failure to address the issue, are taking on illegal immigration themselves. According to Michael Hethmon, director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which helped craft the Prince William ordinances and is assisting with similar efforts in at least six other states, the sum of these local measures is greater than its parts. "We're testing some really fundamental issues about citizenship and national identity," he told me. "Because of the importance of the issues—national security, civil rights, nationality, privacy—it's better to use local and state efforts, not only as attempts to deal with the problems themselves, but as an essential test bed for, ultimately, a viable federal solution." Letiecq admits the failure of federal immigration reform "helped us grow in numbers and influence." But, he adds, "what really moves an electorate is when these issues are local, when it affects life on your street."
Talk of "illegals" dominates conversation in Prince William. I had gone to the county fair with my wife, herself of Hispanic ethnicity. Within minutes of arriving, we were pulled aside by one of the vendors, a white man in a Hawaiian shirt with sandy, feathered hair and a gold necklace. He could tell we were from out of town, and asked, "You here to see how the other half live? We're okay; we're nice people down here, even the illegals." He agreed to talk about the issue if I didn't use his name. The proposed ordinances had scared illegals, he said. Many now stayed indoors and, if forced to go out, drove slowly for fear of being pulled over. Among county residents, the most common complaints centered on overcrowded houses, which threatened to lower property values, and on public services and school funding being diverted to people who "don't pay taxes." But the vendor also worried the ordinances would scare illegal immigrants from sending their kids to public schools. "You have to educate them," he said. "If you don't, you're just left with a bunch of dumb illegals, and you don't want that." He looked at my wife and joked, "Are you legal?"
Back at the Help Save Manassas booth, volunteers wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "What part of illegal don't you understand?" displayed photographs of garbage-strewn houses and yards. One showed a tent next to an overturned wading pool propped up by a stick—overflow, Letiecq claimed, from a house full of illegals. An elderly woman in a Democratic Party T-shirt confronted a stocky ex-Marine named Steve, asking, "How do you know that the people living in these houses are illegal? Poor people would live like that, too."
"Ma'am, they're illegal. They are," Steve said. "You're in denial."
She later told me Help Save Manassas was closely aligned with the local Republican Party and had taken up the issue of illegal immigration as a matter of political convenience. "It used to be gays. Now it's illegals. They're just looking for ways to scare and divide people." The real issue that Letiecq and his supporters have with the immigrants "is only that they're not quite white."
Letiecq—who derailed Democratic General Assembly candidate Jeff Dion by revealing he's gay, is being sued for defamation by former gop House of Delegates candidate Steve Chapman, and now promotes a blog that impugns Chapman's attorney Fasail Gill as a "terrorist"—insists he is equally opposed to illegals from Canada or Sweden. Regardless, mobilizing the community is too important to worry about offending people's sensibilities. "Around here, numbers is the game," Letiecq said. "We're building a grassroots movement, an issue-advocacy, membership-based organization. We're trying to get really big, really fast."
In that, he seems to be succeeding: Before the county fair, Help Save Manassas' membership was 690. By the end, it had 1,453 members, making it by far the largest anti-illegal-immigration group in the Washington area.
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Illegal immigrants are a by-product of an unethical alliance of politicians, big business, and special interests. Politicians have acted like the immigration system is broken, when in fact it has not been enforced. In return, politicians received campaign contributions, party contributions, and who knows what else. Big business received the cheap labor and large profits. Special interests received grants and funds from politicians and big business. This summer the "Alliance" tried to get in "Amnesty" to make it all legal. Now we must deal with the mess. Now the politicians are pushing for the SAVE Act of 2007. When you read into this bill the part where some businesses will have up to 4 years for verifying employees are legal or not, sure makes you wonder, are they doing this for us, the citizens, or for big business?
That's right kids, the LAW EXISTS. So to piss and moan about enforcing something that is the very CORE of this society's survival is to have citizens that pay their tax for the services they use. Illegals send that money home tax free. so.. F- them. Send them back home and make them use the legal process and jail anyone that hires them for 25 years.
Anyone interested in a very different story (and analysis) on illegal immigration should try:
http://goupstate.us/index.php/lanefiller/2007/11/14/the_illegal_immigran...
Mother Jones hasn't bothered to actually research and cover the long term unemployment and underemployment problem faced by American citizen workers that has been ongoing since the 1980s. I unsubscribed from the print edition when it became patently obvious that it wasn't honoring the legacy of it's namesake. They need to paint any American citizen as racist or xenophobic, who seeks to petition their government, for redress against corporate and foreign interests and their lobbies who are promoting the discriminatin against American citizen workers who are black, brown and white, because they would be legally entitled to an American wage standard and workplace protections. Mother Jones is as tied at the hip to the far right wing, as others on the far leftist extreme.
They have not once reported on how the US Chamber of Commerce gives millions to The National Council of La Raza, Maldef and LULAC to lobby for them. It's been an opportunity to achieve what they never could in the past, to destroy the minimum wage and other wage standards, and workplace protections. Nor has Mother Jones railed against corrupt, but wealthy governments like those in Mexico, Central and South America who refuse to raise wage standards and raise taxes on their wealthiest and corporate interests to provide more opportunities for their people. Nor have they sought to expose the hypocrisies of the illegal alien lobby, La Raza, MALDEF and LULAC for not seeking to be activist to demand Latin American countries raise the quality of life for those in their own countries.
Mother Jones is a part of the far left and right wing extreme machine who seek to impose third world suffering and oppresson on the American people, and to insure that those in poor countries around the world never have an opportunity to lift themselves out of crushing poverty. It is just one more example of a selfish elite who are attempting to propagandize, in much the same way Bush did to push us into the war in Iraq, for idelogical opportunity. The outcome both political extremes seek is no different. Crushing poverty and exploitation to benefit a small, affluent elite.
Read about Cesar Chavez sometime, and
what he had to say on the issue of
illegal immigration.
IG Farben, anyone?
I love that Mother Jones was able to get the nativists to read this!
The nativts are walking lawsuits. Assuming someone is undocumented simply because they are Hispanic is just asking to be sued.
Come on-the South equals racism and bigotry. And it won't change as long as rednecks live there. I know it sounds bad, but having lived in the "South" for almost ten years now, the ignorance and hatred of the "good'ole boys" toward anybody who doesn't look or sound like them is scary. Thank God Republicans have started a losing battle: it is called demographics. America is changing , and changing fast. The GOP will get a wake up call as early as next November...
The "blame the illegal" game will lead us nowhere. It is a shame that the bigotry is leading the debate these days. Republicans are killing themselves-they have successfully alienated the fastest growing and already the largest minority in the country. I don't see them ever winning another election.
The title of this article alone shows the bias of the writer. Because Mr. Falconer is not a native of Prince William County, he cannot possibly understand what has happened here. I AM a native of Prince William County, and our quality of life has deteriorated since the large influx of illegal aliens began in the late 90's. The operative word here is illegal. This has nothing to do with race, as Mr. Falconer infers. The residents are insisting that the RULE OF LAW be enforced. Luckily for us, our local politicians are not afraid to do the right thing. Jenny's post below is completely accurate. Mother Jones needs to be exposing the racism and hypocrisy in La Raza, Mexicans without Borders, the Woodbridge Workers Committee, MALDEF, PRLDEF, etc...
Until we the American citizens link arms in a grass roots effort nothing will be done to enforce the Laws that are already in place. Not only does BIG business benefit but many a small business owners as well. In fact, farmers prefer to hire illegals because they don't have to pay a livable wage and all those taxes. Do you know why so many illegals can work those long hours? Check out their fingers. Their "pinkie" nail is left extra long. Now, why do you think that is?
I live in PWC and the 'Help Save' groups are a very scary bunch of local yocals. Mr. Letiecq himself is certifiable. There's an interesting video of him on youtube at 9500Liberty proclaiming the Bible supports his point of view and that slave owners were to be admired.
I've considered myself to be a liberal for many years but do not see this as an issue for the liberal agenda. If anything, I see this is a way to isolate ourselves from moderates. I work in social services and can attest to local schools spending more on ESL programs than is spent on reading programs. Further, costs of court cases and criminal justice are increased as well as the payment for interpretation services is born by the community. Stop aiding big business, the Chamber of Commerce, and Farm Bureau and start looking towards saving our blue collar jobs.
1858 My Immigrant Grand sire Irishman Monahan came over from Donegal - got a job ~ applied for citizenship - got naturalized in 1860 ` learned to speak English & proudly called himself an American-Irishman - Today whats up with this illegal Immigrant situation? What part of illegal don't ya understand? How dare they? They gotta get in line ~ get legal {Americanized} - get a job & they don't get a driver's license till they do. Period.
It's amazing and sick how since this present administration has been in office, bigotry, racism, and intolerance has emerged from the depths of black hearts who are really "Afraid" of a changing America.
Wow what a great idea, those who don't pay taxes don't get any services, we need to apply this to the wealthiest 1/4 of 1% of the population also, no more fixing their roads, paying for their protection, paying for their free plane and copter use, heck they are the main ones hiring the illegals both at home and at the companies they lead, lets deport them minus their money also!
I cannot fathom the people making the huge deal out of this issue, when 1 by 1 all of our civil rights have been stripped from us by the Bush Administration, who have so successfully used racism as a tool to blind the masses with hatred. Fools, these people aren't threats to you, the very leaders you in the south support are the main threat to this nation.
"Illegals" are Americans, descended from the various indigenous tribes in Mexico, Central, and South America. Their crime is that come come from the other side of the Rio Bravo,a boundary created by the white descendants of the first illegal aliens from Europe.
If the USA really wants to secure its borders, it should do so not only along Mexico but also along Canada, whose border is longer and easier to cross.
I have absolutely no problem with immigrants coming to the US. I admire their pluck for leaving their country of origin and starting a new life in a country with (usually) a different language than their own.
My issue that a huge population of them does it illegally. They use local resources without paying their fair share of taxes. Schools are a prime example of that. We educate their kids because its better than having a slew of uneducated immigrants than paying for what isn't funded by their tax dollars. And rather than pay taxes, they ship billions of dollars overseas.
If they played by the rules, fine. No problem. Bring 'em in. But they don't. I agree with "Help Save..." regardless of the other beliefs they may espouse.
Make 'em pay the same as any other other law-abiding citizen does and follow the rules of immigration (you wouldn't believe the BS I'll have to go though to bring my Korean wife back home) and I'd welcome them as I would anyone coming to my community. If they don't follow the rules, run 'em off.
More importantly, if employers don't follow the rules, fine 'em - heavily. They are THE PRIME reason so many illegals are here. Fix that problem and many more are solved.
What's with the "four years to verify" Howard? Can you provide links to info so I can beat up my representative and senators about it?
I'm a born US citizen, Hispanic, and disgusted with what is happening in Prince William County. The biggest problem is that people think that we're going to disappear from the neighborhoods. I can tell you this, we're here to stay and try to make it better for everyone. If I can help one family to stay and become legal, I'll. If I can help a child to get an education, legal o ilegal, I will. I'm tired of the politicians and racist people running our lives. I hope that we can make it better to everyone in this county. Those that think that the county is going to be a WHITE only county, I'll tell them that that it's in the past. We have enough legal immigrants here that can raise their voices loud enough to be heard. We'll become more active in the community and speak up until we're heard. There are human rights and civil rights, and we'll ensure that people in this county comply with our rights; enough lawsuits will make people understand that no matter our skin color or accent we have rights. If people don't understand, we'll make them understand with their pockets. We are all tools for corporations and government, we just have to push the right bottons to ensure that they don't violate our rights. At the end of the day, I know that I want to treat people the way I would like to be treated. We need solutions to the illegal immigration problem that can be just and fair for everyone. Racism in our county needs to be addressed as well. We have it in the school system, public pools, and work places. I'm planning to take a strong stand against racism. Are you?
By their very nature of being here "illegal", violating federal laws, they are criminals and should be prosecuted as such. And so should the employers who hire them.
Your bigotry and ignorance of the south is dumbfounding. The biggest proponents of closed borders that I know are African Americans. I don't care if an individual is here legally(think we should open it up to more immigrants worldwide), but they are criminals by just being here violating federal law. And their employers should be prosecuted.
Im all for treating each human with dignity and respect, but it is Illegal to enter the US without going through the proper channels, and it does hurt states, cities and citizens with cost of medical, educational and social services and others things that in the end cost billions of dollars each year.
Allowing employers to hire illegals just because they can increase their profit is ridiculous.
If someone wants to come to the US, there are many legal ways to do it. They should follow the laws. If they dont, then they should pay the price, leave, and not come back until they are willing to follow the rules.
I cant stop paying taxes because I want to , or because the extra money might help support my family.
I cant rob a store because I need the money to support my family.
I cant steal from an individual because I need to make money to support my family.
Why can someone break laws to enter the country, work for usually less than the legal minimum wage, to support his family in another country, and expect everything to be just cheeky ?
Illegal is illegal regardless of race, color or creed. It is illegal to enter this country as an immigrant without going through the proper channels. Anyone who does not respect our laws, does not respect this country and is only coming here for the money. Every illegal immigrant needs to be returned to their country and make the proper application for entering the United States. I do not care if you are the hardest working, most wonderful person on the planet. Repect our laws. It is really that simple.
Prince William County may technically be in the south, but in reality, it's a Yankee town in that it's a backyard for Washington D.C. In my experiences, people in the real south, (MS, TN, AR, LA, AL, Northern FL) have treated me (a hispanic) just like any other guy. It's in the north, northeast and west (raised in California), where I found people to tend to be inhospitable. BTW, I have found people in Central and South America to be the most racist (towards 'indios'[indians]) and people in The Netherlands to be the least racist. Just an observation of mine.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. You are right on the points you have made.
Well, I'm a Democrat. And I was incensed when I was nice to a handyman when he couldn't speak English. He then suggested that I learn Spanish because, "there are so many around here." Humph! He got no work from me. My next door neighbors were born in Japan and Burma; they learned English. My across the street neighbors were born in Italy. They learned English. Both couples came here legally. And we are friends. I am not a friend of illegals who expect me to learn their language. Good for Manassas!
Jenny, you hit the nail on the head!
Follow the money, it never fails to lead to the motive/culprit.
The mere fact that the creature-in-chief has so soft pedaled the issue should have been the poker player's "tell."
Working folks should not be steered by fallacious sentiments guised as beatitudes.
They got the name right Man-ass-as. This stinks of Racism. First he went after gays, now illegals. Is that just Hispanics or is he also after Chinese,Vietanmese, etc. They will be next. Where does this guy think the term "White Trash "means? They also have sh...hole houses.
They got the name right Man-ass-as. This stinks of Racism. First he went after gays, now illegals. Is that just Hispanics or is he also after Chinese,Vietanmese, etc. They will be next. Where does this guy think the term "White Trash "means? They also have sh...hole houses.
Check out 9500Liberty.blogspot.com. It covers a sign in the middle of "downtown" Molassas- oh I mean "Manassas" that nails the whole controversy on the head. Locally, most folks are o.k. with newcomers. Why, both Letiecq and our newly re-elected Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, Cory Stewert, have lived here for less than ten years! The housing market here has tanked, so they don't need the cheap labor any more. Don't let anyone tell you the the quality of life has gone down since the 90's. Ha! Manassas was a run-down armpit of worn out buildings, fast-food cuisine, and about thirty auto dealerships. All this noise, nation-wide, has been a red herring to distract poeple from the oil war in Iraq. Every Latino here has some of the blood of the first citizens of America. They were here first. The first settlement of illegal aliens was at Jamestown, pre-Virginia, 1667.
sure the border with Canada is longer, but you don't see 20 million or so Canadians marching through American streets demanding that WE accomodate THEM and quit trying to enforce our laws. If ya did, you'd find just as much angst against them as you do against the south-of-the-border scofflaws.
That's 1607. Any other mistakes?
Along with 70% of the US population, I disagree with Bruce Falconer. I have a hispanic friend that has worked for years to legally immigrate. He has a stable job, pays taxes, is married to a US citizen, and has jumped hoops and filed all the required documents. He has never resided in the US illegally. He and his wife are furious that people who break the law are in a possition to benefit from another amnesty law.
Illegals are putting strain on our legal system, health care system, education system and environment. It's not about being racist--as Lou Dobbs can tell you--he is married to a hispanic. It's about protecting our borders, obeying the laws, deciding as a society how much legal immigration our country can support, and insuring that immigrants are law-abiding. The federal government needs to finally step up instead of being beholden to businesses interested only in cheap labor. Business cheap labor is costing society a tremendous amount in services. Let's get creative here...in Colorado inmates are picking crops for example. By the way, most of my friends consider me their friend that is farthest to the left. Neither Republicans (least of all Bush) or Democrats are really addressing this issue.
Greg Letiecq on YouTube on how God is against "Illegals"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAWEMOgAJw
"Illegal Immigration" has it's roots in a number of fundamental issues that must be understood and addressed in depth in order to resolve the conflicts of legitimate (and not-so-legitimate) interests (and the myriad perceptions that generates, even on this once-progressive blog).
To do that (understand and address the issue), we can begin by asking:
Why do citizens of other countries (particularly Mexico), come to the USA?
The reasons include:
1).- NAFTA opened the door of the Mexican market for the entry of heavily subsidized farm products and others made by USA based corporations in countries with lower wages and lax to null environmental standards;
2).- Global Climate change (a large part of which is generated by contaminants from the USA);
3).- Insufficient governmental support for agricultural production (made mandatory by policies imposed on Mexico's federal government by the US dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund); and
4).- Low prices paid for raw materials produced in less industrialized nations and consumed in the USA (with a disproportional share of the profits going to intermediaries in the US);
Drove most farmers to seek employment in the USA (where 90% percent of the crops are harvested by "illegal immigrants", so eat hearty)!
5).- Even so, the number of visas available for farm laborers from Mexico is insufficient for the demand for farm labor.
6).- Unlike Brazil, the USA is a nation whose diverse ethnic and racial groups have mixed at a relatively low rate;
7).- A federal government in the USA that's dedicated it's 8 years in office to painting a picture of external threats (while privatizing national security in benefit of corporate interests, ignoring the need to invest in socially beneficial services at home), and providing tax breaks for the already very wealthy; has left the population feeling exploited, on edge and resentful of any perceived threat to their own security; and lastly
8).- A tradition that began with the migratory routes indigenous nations used to engage in trade, provide forage for their domestic animals and hunt, before borders were invented by those that came much later to conquer their leaders, assume control of their open-range lands and create "reservations to relegate them to.
These people don't invade other countries (except to work where they're needed) and revere a past President (with 100% Native American ancestry) who said: "Among nations as among individuals, respect for the rights of others brings peace"; they come from a country whose constitution guarantees freedom from discrimination based on national origin, race, religion, physical capacity, economic condition, age, sex and preferences; a country that doesn't employ capital punishment, applies agrarian land reform, whose natural resources (including oil) form part of the nation's patrimony, that elects it's President by direct vote using a paper ballot provided and counted by an autonomous electoral entity formed and overseen by all political parties, a country that doesn't permit corporate or private funds to be used for electoral campaigns, that has outlawed reelection and whose people are more likely to say "My house is your house", rather than some of the kind of callous things I'm reading here.
The combined effect of the eight causative elements listed above established a culture populated by people who ignore the causes, are concerned only with their own interests and could care less about anyone else - and this is NOT an atmosphere that's conducive for solving a problem that the USA HELPED CAUSE and continues to maintain!
Until steps are taken to deal with the root causes mentioned above, all the sanctimonious threats, ill will, fences and sanctions thrown at the problem are unlikely to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Yet we all share an admirable goal: Create a selectively permeable border and an immigration process that allows both the USA and it's neighbors to enjoy an orderly flow of goods and services (including needed labor).
Enforcing laws that fail to recognize or deal with the underlying reality of the situation is not likely to resolve the problem. Is the USA as a whole ready to deal with that? Maybe not, but perhaps some of the presidential aspirants are.
Well said An Informed Observer. I've read many articles and posts and heard many discussions. I have to stand on the side of the common man. That is all of you. You're fighting and arguing (less An Informed Observer) about the wrong issues. We fight amoung ourselves while we, the common man, suffer. As An Informed Observer points out, why do illegal immigrants come to the US? Because we the US impoverish and devestate other nations. Our trade policies, policies of the IMF and World Bank, the CIA, empirical designs of our nation (Manifest Destiny, Project for the New American Century,etc..) devestate whole communities, governments, nations. If you had a choice of living well in your home would you leave. It takes a lot of motivation to get people to leave their home. Our wealthy (and other 1st world nations) give them the motivation through horrific policies designed to syphon off the wealth and resources of third world nations. Stop blaming other people like ourselves. Look to those who own over 90% of America and much of the rest of the world. If not for these sick and inhumane policies and designs our jobs would be secure. No one would need to enter the US illegally. Focus on the real issues. Not on other victims.
Very good, Nakis. Recognizing the nature of the problem allows us to deal with the root issues that permit the kind of injustice and exploitation you describe to occur, and I see no means of accomplishing that goal except through the current socioeconomic-political system, using existing mechanisms to promote legislation that can provide electoral and corporate reforms capable of returning government to, for and by the people.
As Ralph Nader predicted, W's radical excesses have united the population around the sense that something is radically wrong, although the critical path to a better way is still far from clear, for most. The time may be ripe though for a visionary leader to take the steps needed to head into waters that are not quite uncharted, since other countries have been busy trying to create a more equitable system, one that responds to the public interest rather than benefit a privileged few.
All of the current Presidential hopefuls for the Democratic Party discuss these issues, and in last Friday's NY Times
the economist and op-ed contributor Paul Krugman ended his column titled "Banks Gone Wild" with:
"John Edwards recently came out with a corporate reform plan, but it didn't receive a lot of attention. Corporate governance still isn't regarded as a major political issue. But it should be".
Corporate Reform isn't listed on John's Issues Page
and last night I asked his staff for a copy of the plan Paul Krugman referred to.
I have found some of the campaign staffs to be unidirectional rather than interactive - they either don't respond or whoever does so has little information and little or no contact with either the candidate or his immediate staff, none of whom respond; although it's too soon to tell for most candidates.
As a result, I haven't been able to identify anyone that seems capable of getting the job done, quite yet.
I am shocked to find opinions like this on Mother Jones. Racist doesn't begin to describe it. And the reporter for this article went out of his way to be an apologist for the bigots he is interviewing. "...my wife, herself of Hispanic ethnicity." excuses the sniveling manner that this story is written? What ever happened to the firebreathing, counterculture haridan? Mother Jones is spinning in her grave.
Any American who supports breaking our laws for crooks are crooks themselves. Business people that evade taxes and help screw the tax-payers by stealing benefits for their buddy crooks. They NEVER intended to obey our laws. Their objective is to take over America and turn into a mexican country. They not only said so themselves...(are they lying?) but they have been quickly and silently laying the foundation of mexican government with Mexican consulates and Hispanic Chambers of Commerce all over the country. Have Americans went so long without a war that they don't recognize a passive-aggressive attack on our country? What better way to conquer a people than a blood-less coup. If the Americans helping these criminals break our laws, what other laws are they breaking? They are accomplices to crime and should be jailed themselves.
Mother Jones is showing its bias--yet again. Those who enter the U.S. illegally aren't even suppose to be here. Yet the U.S. provides them with free education, free medical care....and on and on.
You know the rest.
Balance your "reporting" with the truth of the matter--and engage in objective, thorough reporting. Are readers supposed to sympathize with the the authors position and bias. Mr. Falconer needs an editor--preferably from a different magazine.
Oh Hell why don't the illegals all come to Nevada...we just love them here. We are a "santuary" state.
All white people in Prince William county are illegal aliens or their descendants. This land was stolen from the rightful owners, the native Americans.
Since hispanic immigrants are mostly descended from native peoples, they are the ones who have the rightful claim to the land.
why isnt the discussion more in the way of "how can the organizations that are pro illegal immigrant help these immigrants to become legal..maybe they can propose changes that will cut through some of the red tape...or if the problem is communication, act as a liason for the illegals so that they will understand what needs to be done so they can become legal. For example, make sure the proper paperwork is filed and on time, with the proper identifying information. The liasons should also emphasize to the illegals the importance of integrating and assimilating in the country, ie, learning to speak English, not insisting that Spanish be our national language.
It just seems like common sense to talk about how to become legal, instead of how to get rid of the illegals
hopefully all imigrants will be deported before the [deleted] hits the fan
Finally a couple people on here who've actually done their homework on this subject. I agree that in general most Hispanics & Latinos- be it legal or illegal- need to learn to speak English. It's a matter of survival and means to get ahead.
However, I am so sick of people using this issue as a way to blanket their inherent racism. Most illegal immigrants do the work that no one else wants to do, except maybe the blue-collar work. (And these blue collar companies should be fined for hiring illegal workers and paying both them and legal workers slave wages.) I agree that people who wish to come live & work in this country do so in a legal fashion. However no one looks at the fact that any number of people who come here via plane & with a visa overstay their visit. Also the blame should really lie on big business exporting the jobs elsewhere- for these jobs are usually white-collar and any number of people here in the US can, & would do these jobs. We should also blame our foreign policy. Most legal & illegal immigrants do not have it easy and come here because the situation in their home country is awful- and don't even start with "Well they should fix their own problems!" because alot of people have tried to do so but US intervention has prevented them from solving the issue on their soil (Nicaragua in the 70's, the Carter & Reagan administration interfering with the civil war in El Salvador in the 80's, and of course Vietnam for starters.) Let's face it, the xenophobes in this country are always looking for a scapegoat- whether it was placing the "Japs" (as they so elquently called Japanese-Americans-I'm being sarcastic of course) in internment camps during WWII (and how ironic that no one of German or Italian descent faced the same fate) and it just so happens Latinos are the scapegoat du jour reg'd our failing economy and our disappearing middle class, as well as the racial profiling of Middle-Easterners & South Asians reg'd the "war on terrorism".
I would love to see the average American go to any country and try to create a life for themselves elsewhere-hell most Americans who travel for business and vacation usually expect everyone to speak English for them!
Also, reminder: California, along with Texas and a few other Western states all used to be part of Mexico so these people bitching about the border need to take a look at who really stole land.
So if people really want to be informed rather than talking out their a**, then read "They take our Jobs!" by Aviva Chomsky for starters and read Kucinich's, Obama's and Nader's stance on immigration on www.ontheissues.org
And finally, a non-racist article on immigration, with a short explanation on why Cesar Chavez was against illegal immigration: www.commondreams.org/views06/0329-21.ht
I don't think you can say Teddy Roosevelt was afraid. He just wanted foreigners to become Americans or get the hell out.
