Short of simultaneous evolution world wide, a notion I have championed from a very early age, everyone in this nation came from somewhere else. It’s just that Mesoamericans and other indigenous peoples were here thousands of years earlier. So shouldn’t that count for something? I mean the people calling Mesoamericans, “illegal aliens” are relative newcomers. Many only just arrived with the flood of the real wetbacks--- the millions of immigrants who crossed the Atlantic Ocean between 1890 and 1910.
How can anyone be “illegal?” Besides being poor use of the language, it’s just plain wrong. An “alien” maybe---illegal? Please, spare me. That’s just the racist, xenophobic segment of white people’s new way of saying “n—gers” and applying it to a new group---plain and simple. Don’t believe me? Check out whose using the word. You don’t need a degree in sociology, or history for that matter, to figure it out.
Don’t forget that just last year (2009) a high school in the state of Mississippi held its first integrated prom and then only because someone from outside the system paid for it. Earlier this year a long time civil servant justice of the peace in Louisiana resigned his post rather than perform an interracial marriage ceremony. African-Americans were bought, sold and traded until after WWII. In case you don’t recall that war ended in 1945. Many African-American servicemen returning from the war were treated to the same brutal treatment they would have received a century earlier. Really, do I need to continue?
Okay. And in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas Mexican-Americans were not served at the lunch counter at a popular department store in the early 1970’s. Until then that same group were not allowed into the city’s “public swimming pools.” Don’t forget the episode involving African-Americans and swimming pools recently either.
Post racial? That has to be a joke.
The idea of “immigration reform” or “securing our borders” is racist and xenophobic. White people, those of European-Anglo ancestry realize their “majority rule” days are numbered. They realize they have a lot of “equality-debt”---centuries worth.
Thus since the mid-1990’s made worse by the “w” administration and still worse by the present one we’ve had an aggressive and violent backlash toward immigrants approaching the good old days of South African apartheid.
“Daniel Kanstroom, a law professor who founded Boston College’s Post-Deportation Human Rights Project, calls it a “radical policy experiment with devastating effects. Deportation was a relatively small-scale operation until the last 15 years or so. Since 1996, though, we have seen a tsunami of deportation because of harsh new laws that, in my view, overreacted to the problem. They removed discretion and mercy, and reduced judicial oversight.
The results are clear. In 2009, a record 387,000 immigrants were deported. The feds do not report how many were legal immigrants like Roybal, or how many were kicked out of the country for minor drug possession. Immigration attorneys and scholars say the number has skyrocketed. For 2010, ICE set a goal of 400,000 deportations, according to an internal memo unearthed by The Washington Post.”
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/deportation-madness
“If we could secure the border against Mexican workers, it would still have no effect on the drug cartels. They are too powerful and too sinister to be stopped by fences or by National Guard patrols. Why? Because their influence stretches deep into the U.S. One need only think about the failures of Prohibition to understand that this is a war we will lose. There is a solution here as well, but this is a topic for another time.
We must acknowledge that the U.S.-Mexico border cannot be secured. The reality is that we simply cannot secure thousands of miles of border – even if it was in our interest to do so, and it is not. In economic terms, the more vigorously enforced the border is, the higher the price of drugs becomes and the greater the violence. And according to the Congressional Research Service, the cost of trying to secure an unsecurable border is costing us a fortune: “Appropriations for the Border Patrol have grown steadily from $1.06 billion in FY2000 to $3.58 billion requested in FY2011—an increase of 238%.” Also, “The cost of building and maintaining a double set of steel fences along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border could be five to 25 times greater than congressional leaders forecast last year, or as much as $49 billion over the expected 25-year life span of the fence.”http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
“If we could secure the border against Mexican workers, it would still have no effect on the drug cartels. They are too powerful and too sinister to be stopped by fences or by National Guard patrols. Why? Because their influence stretches deep into the U.S. One need only think about the failures of Prohibition to understand that this is a war we will lose. There is a solution here as well, but this is a topic for another time.
We must acknowledge that the U.S.-Mexico border cannot be secured. The reality is that we simply cannot secure thousands of miles of border – even if it was in our interest to do so, and it is not. In economic terms, the more vigorously enforced the border is, the higher the price of drugs becomes and the greater the violence. And according to the Congressional Research Service, the cost of trying to secure an unsecurable border is costing us a fortune: “Appropriations for the Border Patrol have grown steadily from $1.06 billion in FY2000 to $3.58 billion requested in FY2011—an increase of 238%.” Also, “The cost of building and maintaining a double set of steel fences along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border could be five to 25 times greater than congressional leaders forecast last year, or as much as $49 billion over the expected 25-year life span of the fence.” http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
“Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?”
There is no such thing as coincidence.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Public Policy: Immigration?
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=MjdKcGJ1TG1zVllZcDE5ZWxINjdoNlNuN0FFaXpidWNHeE5SaHZvQ3hUTT0%3D&CFID=110550834&CFTOKEN=84219291#
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
Eyes on the Prize
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/
Anti-Mexican American violence (1840's to 1920's)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Mexican Immigration in the 20th Century
When the U.S. entered World War II, it turned to Mexico to address wartime labor shortages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Deportation Madness
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/deportation-madness
Deportation of illegal immigrants increases under Obama administration
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072501790.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
The Immigration Dilemma
http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
More 'Eyes in the Skies' but Not on Accountability
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/more-eyes-in-the-skies-but-not-on-accountability
A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
A People's History (The 20th Century) - Howard Zinn [1/53]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwq_jiTjAuY
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