Thread: Extremists hijacking immigration issue

http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?a ... A-04-26-06

Extremists hijacking immigration issue

By JOSE DE LA ISLA
Hispanic Link News Service
26-APR-06

MEXICO CITY -- A friend of mine asked me, during the height of the pro-immigrant demonstrations, "So what's the problem? What does Mexico need? More jobs, huh?" He believes like most people that all you have to do is put salve on a sore spot. He wants a quick-fix answer.

Ronald Reagan once said, "There are no easy answers, but there are simple ones." It's that kind of flashlight perspective that's needed now. Away from my Texas home, I am more concerned about how the U.S. presence of undocumented immigrants, as a public policy issue, got hijacked. It has been turned into something frightening, even before hard issues concerning future U.S.-Mexico relations are addressed seriously. Take, for instance, Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrist's scary threat to the Orange County Register: "I will not promote violence in resolving this, but I will not stop others who might pursue that."

The Southern Poverty Law Center (www.splcenter.org) reports that elected U.S. officials were targets of death threats after the Senate Judiciary Committee backed President Bush's guestworker plan. Still other threats were made against the protesters and even Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Postings to a Yahoo user group called "Close Borders" advocate killing young, pro-immigration protesters. One nativist wants nuclear weapons to guard our border.

Some of these agitators are linked to white-supremacist groups. Some insist there's a Latino "reconquista" conspiracy to take back the Southwest.

You might say the above threats come from the nut and violent fringe. But consider that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano just had to veto one bill that would have allowed local police to arrest migrants on "trespassing" charges and another measure to put more U.S. troops on the Mexican border by taking away the governor's "commander in chief" authority over the National Guard.

Reporting on the spreading U.S. backlash, Mexico City media note a disappointment in the further erosion of the moral high ground the United States held previously. Hate acts and extreme measures are stealing the spotlight.

Extremists are helping put the United States in the tradition of the Great Diaspora when Muslims and Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492; the Chinese Exclusion Act passed by the U.S. Congress in the late 19th century; and forced expulsions by the United States of "Mexicans," including many who were U.S. citizens, during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The "authoritarian personality" has re-emerged in U.S. public affairs, not from common sense but from "an emotional response," writes Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Such people "identify with the strong and are contemptuous of the weak."

Because of relative prosperity and need for labor, U.S. businesses, weekend gardeners, carpenters, small contractors, and others have procreated a bastard in the family.

What if we apply Reagan's "simple but not easy" answer to the undocumented immigrant issue and demonstrate the moral grit to take responsibility for our complicity? What if we make these workers and their families legitimate, not as a bad thing but a good one?

For our own society's sake, it's important to come clean by denouncing extremist nuts. After that, we can address the "jobs" thing in Mexico.

My friend listens to hard-right talk-radio as entertainment. There, hosts edge up ratings with inflammatory words about the weak. Somehow, the toxic information has invaded his discernment. He needs relief from their grip.


(Jose de la Isla writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. He may be contacted by e-mail at joseisla3(at)yahoo.com.)

"Ronald Reagan once said, "There are no easy answers, but there are simple ones"

Ronald Reagan.....Wasn't he the one who got this Illegal Immigration mess started 20 years ago?

Yes....he was and he's the one who beleived in the "Trickel Down" theory.
May have had his heart in the right place, but unfortunatly not enforcing laws and greed have made both ideas a fiasco.

Uhhhh when did Jim Gilcrest say that quote?

I notice that no mention is made of the death threats to the Minute Men, the physical assaults on them, how that 70 YO Minute Man grandmother was smashed in the head by a frozen water bottle and HOSPITALIZED, the death threats to Tancredo, the attacks on illegal immigration protesters in Boston, emongst a thousand other things. Oh yeah and the thousands of Americans murdered and assaulted by illegals.

Just once I'd like to see THAT information in the press.

Here is a prime example of why we have important rules to follow and our moderators are diligent at ALIPAC.

Notice how a quote on some Yahoo group ends up being used to falsely label our entire movement and AZ lawmakers?

For all we know, the person that made those comments was an OBL supporter.

Just goes to show that they have people that are paid big salaries to watch what you and I have to say. They are prepared to seize on any small comment they feel they can use to try and paralyze the national movement.

W

Right--but people are seeing through it, William. It's not Jim Gilcrest's job to stop anybody from doing anything so him saying that doesn't mean a thing. I just get so tired of one-sided reporting. I am not about to watch what I say anymore.

You know the houston Free Press this week has as it's cover story an American flag where the red and white stripes are replaced by stripes of red, green and white and the headline is "This land is mi Tierra."

Also--I stupidly switched on Houston news this morning--maybe channel 8--and they ran a story about a "disturbing videogame" where white people could hunt and shoot immigrants. This videogame has been around for a million years and I'm just sitting there thinking we have dozens of videogames where you shoot cops, prostitutes, whites, blacks, everything and nobody calls them disturbing. It's almost like they latch on to anything to make us look like drooling racist retards.

Oh and by the way this same news channel AND newspaper reported on a recent kidnapping at knifepoint at the Prolatariot bar a couple of weeks ago--a bar I go to. They both reported the attacker as a "white male." I went to the Prolatariat the following night and asked about the kidnapping--and they told me the guy was NOT white. He was a non-english speaking Hispanic.

ahhhhh and people say the mainstream media is unbiased. They aren't even pretending anymore.

This is a sham propaganda piece designed to lull us into sleep while they take over this Country.

Skrips Howard, what would you expect? Just a comment on the main stream media report the fact that over 25% of Mexico’s private sector jobs with regular pay are provided by US firms. Walmex is a subsidiary of Wal-Mart and is the largest private employer with 140,000 workers. Another US company Delphi (yes the same US auto parts company that wants to void its collective bargaining agreements and is currently in bankruptcy) is the second largest employer with over 70,000 employees. And these great American companies pay wages of $4.35 per day. Wonder how much these companies contributed to George Bush, Bill Frist and the rest of our so called representatives?

I agree totally we need to get the aliens (immigration law violators are not immigrants, they are aliens who are in the United States in violation of law) out of the US and tighten up our borders but at the same time we need to vote with our purchasing power and let these companies know that it is their reasonability to pay workers in other countries a decent wage so they don’t have to break our laws and earn a decent wage in their own country.

And just to add a little additional food for thought, it is well documented that hiring aliens at below minimum wage brings down the wages of all American workers. Could it be that companies like Wal-Mart and Delphi want to destroy America and its workers in the name of a Global Economy or maybe more to the point to line the pockets of their corporate execs?