Commentary
12/11/06 Miami: Canary In The Immigration Coalmine
By: Joe Murray, The Bulletin
12/11/2006

Look at what happened to Miami," stated Colorado Congressman and immigration reform leader Tom Tancredo. "It has become a Third World country. You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World County," Tancredo told a crown of conservative activists in Palm Beach.

This comment, not surprisingly, has created a political spectacle that would rival the effect of a bottle of Cuervo at a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

The rush to the spotlight to be the first to rebuke Tancredo's words was furious and Florida Governor Jeb Bush was among the first to issue Tancredo a stinging criticism. "The bottom line," wrote Bush, "is Miami is wonderful city filled with diversity and heritage and we choose to celebrate, not insult." Bush further stated that "Miami has been my home for years and I am looking forward to returning there in January." Something tells this author that the good Governor will be moving to Fisher Island and not the barrios of this North American Rio.

Bush, however, was not alone for long in the condemnation of Tancredo as many of our elected officials sought to quickly appease the gods of political correctness.

While taking a more congenial tone, Miami Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen told the media that her colleague was "flat out wrong" about Miami. Ros-Lehtinen then invited the Colorado congressman to visit Miami and enjoy the city's hospitality. "Come on down, Tom, the water's fine," said Ros-Lehtinen. The water, congresswoman, was never in question.

And finally, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz had the harshest response to Tancredo, going as far as to subtly link the congressman to hate mongering.

"Most of us are pretty offended down here," Mayor Diaz told Tucker Carlson of MSNBC. "I think it is pretty sad when you have an American in Colorado almost classifying an American in Miami as a second class citizen." And with visions of Rosa Parks dancing through the heads of those listening, Diaz went in for the kill and whipped out the big burrito: "I think that breeds hatred." Thus capturing the moral San Juan Hill.

So, in order to recap this fireball of a fiesta, we have learned that stating the obvious about a city battered by immigration, drugs and crime insults the city's diversity.

Second, if you try to suggest that Miami is the poster child for why American borders should be secured and her culture preserved, you need to check your racist ways at the door and come on down and hob-knob with the rich and famous on Miami's pristine beaches. Remember, in Miami the water is fine and the tide, with the help of a Pina Colada, conveniently carries out those concerns of cultural pollution, crime, poverty and corruption.

The third lesson we have learned, compliments of Mayor Manny, is that it is bad to be a Third World nation. And if you dare to call a region "Third World," you must hang you hat with the folks at the Aryan Nation, for, like everything else in American politics, every comment has racial roots.
But given Diaz's reaction to Tancredo's words, it seems that the Mayor's racial funny bone is a tad sensitive, considering the last time this author checked race is not a qualifier on the Third World Wheel of (Mis)Fortune.
"It is not a race issue," Tancredo told MSNBC, "it is a condition issue;" thus begging the question-what is Miami's condition?

While the water may be fine in Miami, what is taking place on her streets is far from pristine. Miami's crime rate is worst than Washington, D.C. The number of murders, robberies and aggravated assaults in Miami are higher than the national average. Miami is also higher than the national average in regards to burglaries, larcenies and vehicle thefts.

Miami has the third worst poverty rate in the nation and the gap between the haves and have-nots is so large that the Macarthur Causeway cannot connect the two. According to TIME Magazine, the median house costs $372,000 and the median income is $33,000. The magazine also reports that Miami has "the country's highest proportion of renters and homeowners who spend 30% or more of their pay on housing."

Another telltale sign of the Third worldization of Miami is the fact that many of her residents are pulling up their beach umbrellas and getting out of Dodge. Longtime residents Joseph and Teresa Burke told TIME that it is time to vamoose.

"I am leaving everything I've known my entire life," Mr. Burke told TIME. Why the Burke's are leaving Miami?

"[I]f the rest of the country was based on the same out of whack economic-fluid levels Miami's on these days, America would be a Third World banana republic," argued Mr. Burke. Thus begging this question-how can a Colorado congressman be more in touch with Miami constituents than the mayor, congresswoman and governor? Easy-it is the immigration, stupid.

Tancredo understands that the melting pot is broken and is in desperate need of repair-and the folks in Miami can relate to that fact. Those coming into the nation today, largely from Latin America, are drawn to the United States by currency, not country. Their wallets may be filled with American dollars, but their hearts are full of Mexican pride.

The current Hispanic wave of immigration is unlike the waves that crashed upon our shores in the past. With the border to the Mexican motherland porous and unsecured, Mexicans can come to America, earn a paycheck and retain a connection with their homeland. The Irish, Chinese, Polish, and Germans that preceded this new Mexican immigrant had an ocean that was conducive to healthy assimilation.

Even more importantly, Mexico City is dumping her poor and undesirables on this nation, and this, in turn, is changing the cultural climate of America. A few months ago this author wrote:

"Like a piņata that has been hit so many times it is ready to burst, America is on the verge of her own breaking point. Twenty-nine percent of those sitting in the federal penitentiary are illegal aliens. Ten percent of Mexico's 107 million people have relocated to the United States. By 2050, there will be more than 100 million Hispanics concentrated in the American Southwest and those of European decent will be a enjoying a taste of minority status."

Make no mistake, this is the diversity celebrated by Jeb.

With the Migration Policy Institute reporting last week that 1 in 7 Mexicans are employed in the United States, what result will be realized by unfettered immigration based on love of commerce and not love of country? The extinction of the middle class.

If you take a situation, like the one facing America today, where good paying jobs are America's leading export and low skilled workers from Mexico are our leading import, you have a perfect storm that will result in a collapse US economy, further erosion of an already anemic real wage, and, in the words of Tancredo, a Third World America. The only question left is "when," not "if," this "inconvenient truth" is realized.

Joe Murray is a news reporter with The Bulletin Murray is a former staff attorney for the American Family Association and has also served as national director of correspondence for Patrick J. Buchanan's 2000 presidential bid. Murray has been a guest on numerous radio and television talk shows, including the O'Reilly Factor. He can be reached at jmurray@theeveningbulletin.com.

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