Thread: Alice In Wonderland Immigration Debate

http://www.americandaily.com/article/18987

Our Alice in Wonderland Immigration Debate
By David Paulin (05/27/07)

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales soft-peddles the fact that many street gangs are composed of illegal immigrants. At a Texas police academy, meanwhile, cadets are warned about the problematic aspects of Hispanic culture, amid dollops of political correctness that would please the attorney general.

Certain gangs, certain street crews are composed predominantly of people that are here unlawfully, but there are many people here unlawfully who have also made tremendous contributions to our country. (Emphasis added.)

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales speaks to a reporter following his May 15, 2007, speech on the Justice Department's anti-gang initiative a speech that failed to acknowledge that many gangs are comprised of illegal Hispanic immigrants.

No, no (illegal immigrants are) not more crime prone. In fact, when you look at the national statistics, its just amazing. Theres not a single scientific study that shows immigrants are more likely to commit crime than native-born, in fact, or U.S. born.

So there you have it. Two comments from two esteemed sources, yet they reach totally different conclusions! One admits theres a problem but he does so reluctantly. The other says theres no problem at all. Such is the schizophrenic nature of the national immigration debate being conducted by the nations policy makers and intellectual elite people who share little if any of the consequences of massive levels of illegal immigration that ordinary Americans encounter every day.

Last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales outlined a nationwide anti-gang initiative being undertaken by the Justice Department, amid a nationwide spike in the rate of violent crime. Yet in his 3,582-word speech, not a single word even hinted at what Gonzales knew all too well illegal immigrants comprise the ranks of many gangs. It took a reporter from the Austin American-Statesman to pry that admission from Gonzales after his speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Careful not to cause offense to pro-illegal immigrant groups and his own administration, the politically correct attorney general was quick to note that there are many people here unlawfully who have also made tremendous contributions to our country. What kinds of contributions? Perhaps Gonzales was referring to the illegal immigrants in Austin who hang out on street corners and at a controversial city-sponsored “day labor site, or who work in landscaping, construction, and in restaurants around town. I used to work these types of jobs in high school and college; now this is the work Americans won't do.

Curiously, the politically liberal American-Statesman failed to call attention to Gonzales's troubling comments. They merited only a few paragraphs in the reporter's immigration blog, The Borderline. Speaking of Hispanic street gangs, heres the latest from Texas: Houstons oldest Latino gang, La Tercera Crips, is threatening to retaliate against the Houston Police Department after one of the citys officers allegedly shot a gang member in the back, according to Houstons local television channel, 11 News. The stations viewers must be confused. Seven months ago, 11 News reported that illegal immigrants were actually more law-abiding than native-born Americans, citing statistics from Federal Reserve Bank economist Pia Orrenius. An estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants live in the Houston area.

The stations no-need-to-worry report followed public outrage over an illegal Mexican immigrant who allegedly murdered a Houston police officer weeks earlier. That report failed to even mention La Tercera Crips.

Hows an ordinary American supposed to stay well informed amid such convoluted reporting and the reluctance of public officials to admit the truth? In all likelihood, ordinary Americans are keeping informed by looking at whats going on around them. Consider whats happened in Texas and, specifically, in my own neighborhood in Austin, the capital. Now, most of my neighbors are illegal Mexican immigrants.

Spanish only, please.

The transformation happened over the last six or seven years. My street used to be orderly and people were well mannered. Now, some young Hispanic men driving pick-ups regularly screech their tires as they pull into the street, while Mexican music pounds from their speakers. More than a few Hispanic motorists blast their horns when they pull into the parking lot to pick up friends.

A local grocery store puts out ice-cold buckets of beer at 7 a.m. to serve the new market of lower-class Mexican men. Now, grade-school age kids are everywhere, the offspring of illegal immigrants. Graffiti has started to pop up here and there. In the evening, a group of shabbily dressed Mexican men sometimes drinks beer by a nearby curb, leaving a pile of empties on the ground. This is not to say there are not hard-working families here, too. There are. But there also is a low-life element here that the open-borders folks never want to talk about.

A few years ago, illegal immigration and high Hispanic birthrates pushed white Anglo Texans into minority group status. Now Anglos account for 49.8 percent of 20 million Texas residents, with non-whites comprising what the Associated Press called the Å“majority-minority population. As a consequence, bilingual signs and bilingual education are now the norm; and the courts and charities provide Spanish-speaking personnel. On Austins busy Lamar Boulevard, tiny Mexican flags even fly outside some car dealerships.

In early 2000, I returned to Austin after an absence of several years. Immediately, I was struck by the shabby and obviously uneducated Hispanic men arriving here. I used to visit Miami a lot, and the Hispanic immigrants there legal and illegal seemed much better educated and more likely to assimilate and move up the socio-economic ladder.

Whats going on? I said to a Venezuelan friend, a Miami investment banker.

He wryly observed, The fact that the immigrants coming to Miami had to come up with 400 bucks for a plane ticket makes a big difference in the quality of people you get.

And they keep coming.

Two years ago, I realized a tipping point had been reached when it became more common to have illegal Mexican immigrants jabbering at me (a 6’2’’ gringo) in Spanish: They expected to be spoken to in their own language.

Police Face Problems

What kind of affect has this had on crime? Getting solid answers is problematic. Its politically incorrect to maintain such databases, and if they do exist, nobody wants to reveal whats in them. The news media here throws little light on the issue: Race and ethnicity are only relevant when white police officers allegedly abuse their authority when dealing with Hispanics or African-Americans or other members of the majority-minority.

Police officials may not publicly admit it, and Attorney General Gonzales may only reluctantly admit it. But if the curriculum in at least one police academy is anything to go by then the reconquista has definitely posed special problems for law enforcement.

Consider a hefty spiral-bound training manual being used in one of the police academies in Austin. Not long ago, I paged through a manual that belongs to an acquaintance attending the academy. Simply put, an incongruous coupling of materials reflected a case of police academy schizophrenia.

Specifically, it seemed that two items did not belong together. One was obviously written by an academic: "Multiculturalism and Human Relations. It introduced cadets to the ideology of political correctness, warning them against conduct such as negatively judging other cultures or even harboring thoughts to this effect.

Yet in the same manual, another hand-out offered blunt and unflattering real-world insights into some Hispanic cultures, touching on traits such as machismo and proclivities toward domestic abuse and clannish behavior. These tidbits were contained in a 67-plus page manual in survival Spanish, a Berlitz-style approach for police officers. It was loaded with quick-and-dirty grammar; cultural insights; Spanish swear words; and survival phrases such as "Policia No se Mueva! ("Police! Don't Move!").

The multicultural paper warned cadets against racist behavior such as stereotyping. On the other hand, the Berlitz-for-cops manual made it clear that officers could very well expect certain types of problematic behavior from some Hispanic cultures; and those were patriarchal cultures for the most part. It explained, for instance, that men from such cultures live by a code "machismo" and "honor. They put family and fellow Hispanics above the larger community and even the rule of law. Presumably, such commentary referred to unassimilated Hispanic males; but perhaps not. In multicultural America, Hispanics are not really expected to assimilate, and that includes learning English.

Arresting a Hispanic male poses special problems, as the Spanish-language manual pointed out:

When arrested, he may routinely protest verbally or fight back to 'save face' (quedar bien). To be embarrassed in front of others may be more painful than the arrest itself, for most Latinos have great difficulty with feelings of verguenza (shame). Sometimes, a macho attitude may cause a Latino to blame his wife or daughter in the event she is raped or beaten. Some, but by no means all or even a majority, may abuse women physically or verbally. If that is the case, many Latino women may not want to press charges, because the female ideal is to be delicate, sensitive, non aggressive and submissive to the man. The woman may consider it her duty to stand by her man, no matter what happens."

One thing about these Hispanic family values was startling clear: Theyre like nothing Americans ever saw in TV sit-coms like Leave It To Beaver or The Cosby Show.

Interestingly, the multicultural papers intended audience appeared to be only white police officers and cadets. Why? Presumably, thats because multicultural ideology pits dominant groups against victimized ones. Accordingly, white cadets are presumed to be the only group capable of racism; no matter that theyre now a minority in Texas. Theyre expected to adapt to Hispanic values. And new Hispanic immigrants are not expected to assimilate.

Not surprisingly, the multiculturalism hand-out devotes much space to describing the traits of prejudiced people. One is ethnocentrism: "the act of regarding one's culture as the center of the universe and hence the basis for all comparisons with other cultures." Another is stereotyping: a convenient grouping of people of whom one is ignorant.

According to the multiculturalism hand-out, prejudiced people possess "a self-assured feeling, believing they are superior or better than others, which is frequently expressed in inappropriate jokes and disparaging remarks about people they regard as inferiors and thus label as lazy, too aggressive, stupid, tricky, deceitful, clannish, (and) pushy.

Of course, the point of such lessons is to ensure that officers behave professionally and treat ever member of the public with the same levels of courtesy and respect. Yet the multicultural paper goes beyond this, stating that officers must not even privately judge other cultures in a negative light or even harbor feelings of superiority.

And what if the culture in question embraces values and notions of citizenship that are at odds with traditional American values, culture, and concepts of citizenship? The issue isnt addressed; but it amounts to a white elephant in the room in light of the harsh spotlight the Spanish-language manual puts on some Hispanic cultures namely (though not always) those with patriarchal traditions.

Despite the multicultural hand-outs warnings about making generalizations about other cultures, the Berlitz-style manual states:

"Regardless of their specific cultural or national background, Latinos will most likely side with each other than an outsider. An individual will assist family members and friends regardless of the consequences, and expect the same in return. A sense of honor is so important in Latino culture, that it may keep an individual from cooperating with the police against a friend or family members, even though he or she may not condone any of the actions." (They tell us that that don't cooperate because of a fear of deportation)

This can pose special problems for police investigations, as the language manual observed:

"Due to the profound importance of family and community in Hispanic culture, officers need to be aware of common group identification styles. Under questioning, for instance, a Hispanic family member may 'eye-check' family members before coming up with a question, and may follow this action with what seems to be an inappropriate use of the pronoun “weâ€Â

The problem stems more from poverty and lack of education than from race, color, creed or place of national origin.