Another huge march for immigrant rights

3 Comments

1. Hello,

   I love that the immigrants are getting together and fighting for what they believe is right. Immigrants need to show that they now represent a majority in the US and without them the country would be in a financial crisis. However, until there are more Hispanics in political power I feel there is little that the current government will do. I feel that there is so much more that immigrants need to do at this time (eg. Boycott specific targeted industries this will make those industries put pressure on the government, have legal immigrants send letters to the president, congress and senate making sure that this topic is always on the agenda, etc). Also, immigrants need to make sure that they teach their children that education is very important and that they go to university. Also, they need to speak to them about taboo subjects e.g sex, drugs. I know that many Hispanic parents especially with girls still believe that getting married and having children is the main priority (not to say that this is a bad thing but just that there are other options). Immigrants need to empower the young as they will be able to have the power tomorrow to fight these battles

2. You’re also going to see some vigorous grass-roots reactions against the Spanish-language usage in the demonstration, and a fear of native Americans of being submerged by people judged to be different. Nothing particularly racist about this; Ben Franklin was concerned that the Germans would overpopulate Pennsylvania to deliterious effect.

   My take is that the reaction will be a wash: more energy from the immigrants and the left, and a vigorous cultural/threatened-culture reaction from the right, particularly since the right has nothing to boast about in policy successes. Demonstrations elsewhere like the French demonstrations are not connected to the American demonstrations in any material or lasting way, and will now peter out, especially since exams are coming up and the French, a wonderfully practical people, know where their interests lie.

3. The Minutemen Project, Not A Left Or Right Issue

   This project seems to have been quite successful. A CNN story stated “ The Border Patrol has acknowledged receiving 317 calls from Naco and Douglas, resulting in 846 arrests, but the agency will not say whether any of those calls came from project volunteers.” From the Washington Times quoting one of the Minutemen organizers: “ Mr. Gilchrist noted that fewer than 5,000 illegal aliens will be apprehended this month by the U.S. Border Patrol in the Minuteman Project’s 20-mile patrol area compared with 64,000 in April 2004 and 73,000 in April 2003.” and “ The U.S. Border Patrol has acknowledged making hundreds of arrests after receiving calls from the area being patrolled by the Minuteman volunteers, but has not confirmed whether any of those calls came from the volunteers.” The San Francisco Chronicle wrote “And, according to the Border Patrol, the Mexican military is now actively helping illegal immigrants, including known drug runners, reach safer border-crossing points in order to avoid the Minutemen. No doubt this little citizen uprising didn’t figure into the handbook on how to enter the U.S. illegally the Mexican government distributed to citizens last year.”
   So they proved it can be done. Yet our government tells us we can’t secure our borders but plans to spend another 81 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its primary job is to protect us and it is failing to do this both physically and economically. It is supposed to regulate business, not act as an accessory in flooding the country with cheap labor to drive down wages for higher profits. If a neighboring country is encouraging and abetting its citizens to break our laws, and those same citizens are sending home more money than that nation makes selling oil, its motives are plain. Yet our president agrees with Vicente Fox that the Minutemen are “vigilantes” and wants to implement a thinly-disguised amnesty program. Some state legislatures have voted to give illegal aliens in-state college tuition while denying that right to American citizens from other states. Others have passed laws allowing them to obtain driver’s licenses. The matricula consular visa, an ID issued by the Mexican government, is starting to be accepted by banks as a form of identification necessary to open an account and obtain a mortgage loan, a direct violation of federal law. Meanwhile, over 3 million people around the world are on the waiting list for US visas.
   Our elected officials are acting in violation of their oath to uphold the laws of the country and are themselves encouraging and abetting illegal immigration by granting these privileges. There are three obvious benefits the federal government reaps from this.
   1) The influx of people will drive the housing market, one of the few industries that can’t be completely outsourced. The federal government owns 42% of America’s land, most of that in the western states. For example, they own 87% of Nevada. Las Vegas is expanding onto government land that was auctioned off to consortiums of homebuilders. The same thing is happening near Mesquite, NV, about 90 miles northeast of Vegas. Here’s a specific example.
   At this government site, http://propertydisposal.gsa.gov/property , it shows land and other property the government is selling or has sold. Recently, lots A thru J just north of Mesquite were auctioned off. Lot J was 1250 acres. The government assigned a pre-auction fair market value of $335,000 to this parcel. The winning bid was $4.1 million. There are many other parcels around Vegas that have been sold with similar results, where the sales price was substantially more than the fair market value. There is currently another federal auction of land near Laughlin. Once that land gets sold for exorbitant amounts, it immediately inflates the value of that land and the surrounding land, etc., etc. The government will continue to sell off America to the highest bidder to help finance its overseas war on terror. Accepting the matricula visa as required identification to get loans will encourage this process.

   2) The special interests that fill campaign coffers are well served. Since labor costs make up on average 70% of the total cost of doing business, cheap labor makes for better profits. This means more independent contractors, less benefits for workers and more money for executives and shareholders. Of course lobbyists will then have more cash to spread around in Washington which will send more congressmen on free golf trips overseas.

   3) This flood of workers drives down wages and raises unemployment to create more poverty. More poverty brings more crime which helps to fill up the increasingly privatized prisons. This also creates a slave labor class that performs tasks for a fraction of the cost in free society. The joke of a drug war contributes even more inmates. And you can’t have an all-volunteer army with full employment. The US birthrate alone can’t provide enough cannon fodder for the new crusades in the Middle East. The average age of the current American population is 36. Mexico’s is 24.93, Honduras-19.15, Dominican Republic-23.88, Nicaragua-20.56, etc. The average ages of the populations in Middle Eastern countries, where most terrorists come from, are even lower. Here’s an excerpt from a Chicago Tribune editorial, 10/9/05, entitled “Back To Immigration Reform”, concerning some rules of the guest worker program legislation currently before Congress:

   “After the first six years of work here- and proof of some English proficiency, additional security and criminal record checks, medical exam and registration in the armed forces- temporary workers could apply for permanent residency.”

   The young people sucked across the border from Latin America will find themselves legitimized alright- legitimized to the point where they can serve in the US armed forces and participate in a prolonged ground war in the Middle East.

   The government, therefore, is just unwilling to change what benefits them. Corporations run the world and national borders have become nothing more than public relations. Many on the left take a generic liberal stance that it is racism driving those who would control our borders since the majority of illegal aliens come from Mexico. This issue is now beyond politics- it’s a matter of survival of this country. We cannot continue to absorb Mexico’s poverty at this alarming rate. Our leaders should have taken Vicente Fox and others to task long ago for their feeble efforts to improve the lives of poor Mexicans. Otherwise they will continue to use the US as the safety valve for the discontent of the impoverished. Mexico wins both ways – immigrants remit billions back home and as our population grows we import more of their oil. The current situation cannot stand.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.