Thread: Mexican-American fights illegal immigration

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/30/ ... igrant.php

Mexican-American fights illegal immigration
By Timothy Egan The New York Times

TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2005

CALDWELL, Idaho To hear people who call in to Idaho's leading conservative talk radio station, Robert Vasquez is a hero: one of the few politicians to tell it straight.

Vasquez, 55, a Republican county commissioner and Mexican-American in a part of the country where Hispanics are ascendant, has been on a crusade against illegal immigration - what he calls "an imminent invasion" from south of the border.

Vasquez has tried to get Canyon County declared a disaster area because of the strain from illegal immigrants. He has also sent a bill to the Mexican government for more than $2 million; that is the cost, he said, of Mexicans who are in the county illegally.

Vasquez says the newcomers overwhelm public services, bring gang violence and drugs, spread diseases like tuberculosis and insist on rights that should not be granted to noncitizens.

His latest salvo, a plan to sue employers who hire the illegal immigrants, has angered the solidly Republican business community and many of the senior political leaders in this heavily Republican state.

The plan would make Canyon County the only local government in the country to use federal racketeering statutes to pursue people who employ illegal immigrants, said Howard Foster, a Chicago-based lawyer who is advising the county.

As a result, Vasquez has forced a sharp fight over an issue that poses difficulties for the Republican coalition, pitting business owners and others who rely on illegal immigrants for labor against people who see them as a threat to jobs and security.

The struggle is contained in Canyon County, outside Boise, the state capital. But it is part of a broader clash taking place across the country in the Republican Party. President George W. Bush is pushing a guest worker program for illegal immigrants, while other Republicans are supporting private efforts to patrol the border and calling for additional muscle to seal it off.

Vasquez says it is a fight that the party needs to have. "Some people say I'm a racist, that I'm a traitor to my heritage," he said. "There is nothing racial about this. The only color involved is green - for money."

Such talk has brought many people to the commissioner's side.

"We talk a lot about Vasquez on the air, and most of our listeners are on his side," said Paul Schneider, a morning host of KBOI News Talk, Idaho's leading talk radio station. "But he's a real thorn in the side of the mainstream business Republicans."

Many farmers and construction contractors in Idaho - closer to Canada than Mexico - say they could not survive without the pool of workers from Mexico. They have lined up behind a proposal by Senator Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho, to allow undocumented workers to stay in the country under certain conditions - a variation of a similar plan offered by Bush.

While promoting his bill this year, Craig said that 72 percent to 78 percent of the agricultural work force was undocumented and that without these workers, "we could literally collapse American agriculture."

Farmers and contractors also accuse Vasquez of painting an overly harsh picture of Mexican workers.

"If he wasn't a Mexican-American himself, he would be labeled a racist and no one would listen to him," said Keith Esplin, executive director of the Potato Growers of Idaho. "He's attacking good people, good workers. You've got to have that population, because they're doing the jobs that no one else wants."

In response, Vasquez says the wing of the Republican Party represented by Craig has sold out on the immigration issue to business interests. Vasquez is exploring a run for governor or Congress next year, with this issue as his central theme.

Whether Vasquez can make headway in a statewide election is an open question. Many of the agricultural interests are big Republican donors, and Vasquez said he was likely to have trouble raising money from them. He is also likely to face stiff resistance from the Hispanic community.

In Canyon County, for example, nearly one resident in five is Hispanic, census figures show. Statewide, Hispanics make up 8 percent of the population, but they represented only about 4 percent of the voters in last year's election.

Leaders in both parties have generally shied away from calling for strong measures against illegal immigrants, fearing a backlash. Whether the political dynamic would change with a Hispanic leading the way would be one of the things that a statewide run for office by Vasquez would test.

"Vasquez does have populist support," said Garry Lough, executive director of the Idaho Republican Party. "But I have to believe that this issue is going to go against him among Hispanics."

To stroll around Canyon County, which grew by 45 percent from 1990 to 2000, is to see the transformation that is taking place throughout the West. The business district in Caldwell has been revitalized by bakeries, clothing stores and restaurants owned by relatively recent arrivals from Mexico.

Hispanics dominate the crews putting up drywall in big new houses; they mow, weed and water the lawns; they work the fields and dairy farms; and they staff many fast food outlets.

Last year, Vasquez persuaded Idaho counties to pass a state resolution requiring people to be citizens before applying for indigent medical care.

"If I were governor," he said in an interview, "I would close the borders of Idaho and mobilize the National Guard to secure checkpoints against all illegal aliens."

Born in El Paso, Texas, as the grandson of a Mexican immigrant, Vasquez joined the army at 17, he said, and was wounded in Vietnam. He earned two Purple Hearts. He has lived in Caldwell for 27 years.

"The people I speak for are the working people," he said.

But others here say Vasquez speaks for no one but himself.

"He's an opportunist," said Corrine Tafoya-Fisher, the leader of a group that took out newspaper advertisements, with community leaders, opposing Vasquez.

"What he's done is cause a lot of divisions within this community," Tafoya-Fisher said. "If you're brown, you're targeted. But the Latino community is united against him."

Quote
While promoting his bill this year, Craig said that 72 percent to 78 percent of the agricultural work force was undocumented and that without these workers, "we could literally collapse American agriculture."

More BS to scare us. It's a complete falsehood that our country's agriculture will collapse. There are plenty of Americans standing in line for these jobs. Pay them fairly, and Americans will adjust to any increases in food prices. We DON"T want illegals messing with our food supply!

Front Page read!! http://www.alipac.us/article-435--0-0.html

Vasquez says it is a fight that the party needs to have. "Some people say I'm a racist, that I'm a traitor to my heritage," he said. "There is nothing racial about this. The only color involved is green - for money."

I'm shocked he wasn't called a coconut. He sounds like a sensible guy and would get my vote if I lived in Idaho.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-4046.html

This was posted earlier from the NY Times.

Larry Craig's up for re-election in 2008.

How about:

President Tom Tancredo
U.S. Senator Robert Vasquez



Call me a utopian, but who knows?

I think Robert Vasquez has a good handle on the situation. I'm glad others want to see the racketeering statutes applied to pursue people who employ illegal immigrants. This is WAY over due. Robert, I'd vote for you if I could.

For some to suggest that w/o illegals in this country, it could literally collapse American agriculture is BS. This country's agriculture was working long before the illegals arrived and it will continue to work as long as it is a supply and demand economy. There will be adjustments in the food chain made but anyone suggesting it will collapse it, it just spreading hysteria and fear. Any economist will tell you in a supply and demand economy, adjustments will be made over time when there is a change in either one. Some will be more pleasant than others. I am more than willing for jobs to go unfilled by vacated illegals until they are filled by us legals. I don't think it can or will be done overnight but it can be done.

It is critical that the border be sealed and do it now, the business community be held lawfully responsible for hiring illegals, and finally illegals be returned to the country of their origin.

Without all three tasks being accomplished, the illegal problem facing this country will not be resolved I don't care what face some politicians put on it.

It is WAY over due. Let’s get on with it starting with SEALING THE BORDER FIRST!

Robert Vasquez Commissioner
Canyon County
115 Albany
Caldwell, ID 83605
(20 454-7507
rvasquez@canyoncounty.org

If you havent already, send Mr Vasquez a thnak you.

JP, thanx! Will do....

Illegal aliens are driving the wage base down for every American in every corner of the United States. That is why they are Economic Terrorists!!!!!

They are hurting the working class and helping the Company owners. No wonder the politicians want the economic terrorists here. The Big Companies can make more money if they pay lower wages, no health insurance and no benes at all.

Why do you think large companies like GM are tanking? It's because of the health insurance and benes. Those items are putting them in the hole!!!

As long as the economic terrorists are willing to work for SLAVE WAGES (AND THEY ARE SLAVE WAGES), the wage base will sink lower and lower for American citizens and eventually, we will all be paid beneath poverty level wages.

Just like some of the North Carolina State Employees are now!