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Linda Chavez yells 'racist!'
By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 24, 2006


Immigration pundit Linda Chavez could have said the e-mail message was a hoax, a merry mix-up like in one of those screwball 1940s comedies or that she did not consider my writing to be "racist propaganda." What she said was "no comment." Her office manager said "it's just not that big of a deal. Honestly, we don't have time for something like this. It's just silliness."

If accusing someone of penning racist propaganda is not a big deal to the Center for Equal Opportunity, a nonprofit public policy research organization in Sterling, Va., headed by Mrs. Chavez, what is?

This bizarre story strips the pretense cloaking the contempt amnesty advocates have for those opposed to illegal immigration. It starts with an e-mail to Chavez from Diane Alden, author, research analyst and media pundit for Newsmax.com.

Ms. Alden sent Chavez my Sept. 17 column -- "Illegals: An apocalypse now" and three government reports about the impact of illegal immigration on infrastructure and crime.

Alden forwarded me the response: "Don't email to us your racist propaganda again."

The "apocalypse" column described the near-anarchy in a federal wildlife refuge along the Mexican border. There was a mention of a pamphlet published by the U.S. government (for visitors to the refuge) with grave warnings about the many problems caused by the thousands of illegals who pour in daily from Mexico.

Two women who work at the refuge spoke on the record about their harrowing experiences.

Race never was mentioned.

In every illegal-immigration column, and every response to readers commenting on them, I stress the issue is "legality -- not nationality."

Frustrated readers continually suggest surefire, eyeball-grabbing, hot-button topics such as lashing out at American cities that embrace parades celebrating Mexican heritage, neighborhoods changing overnight because of an influx of immigrants from (fill in the blank) and even companies running advertisements targeting Hispanics.

The topics look inviting but they're as seductive as they would be destructive. Who can say that the person marching in the parade, moving into the neighborhood or reading an ad written in Spanish is here illegally?

Apologists for illegals such as Mrs. Chavez have no argument when the topic is about obeying the law. That's why she and others do the only thing they can do -- name-calling.

"America's ability to accept newcomers will increasingly depend upon finding a pro-assimilation middle-ground between nativists who say that today's immigrants cannot assimilate and multiculturalists who say that they should not," reads the C.E.O. Web site. In other words, moderate, sensible pro-amnesty people such as Chavez could actually look reasonable positioned between racists ("nativists") on the left and right.

This is the same Linda Chavez who was President George W. Bush's nominee for Labor secretary -- until the public learned she had housed and employed an illegal from Guatemala. Chavez claimed she didn't recall how long Marta Mercado lived with her but she said she paid her illegal "in several hundred-dollar increments."

FBI agents who investigated the case were not satisfied with Chavez's responses, according to The New York Times.


Dimitri Vassilaros is a Trib editorial page columnist. His column appears Sundays, Mondays and Fridays. Call him at 412-380-5637. E-mail him at dvassilaros@tribweb.com.