Thread: Playing the Raza Card

http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/p/ ... 052905.htm

May 29, 2005

by Burt Prelutsky

Out here in Southern California, a local Spanish-language TV station caused a stink recently by putting up several billboards reaching out to potential viewers in Los Angeles, Mexico. Predictably, as soon as outraged Gringos complained, they were accused of being racists.

How is it, I keep asking myself, that it’s only the biggest racists in America who are given carte blanche to condemn others for being what they are themselves? Who but a racist would conclude that America’s sovereignty is merely a minor inconvenience they are free to ignore for no other reason than that they are members of la raza, and they are therefore entitled? I mean, it’s not as if the folks sneaking across our border are, like so many other people around the world, trying to escape bloody tyrants or religious intolerance. They simply want the opportunity to make a better living. Well, who doesn’t? But that’s no reason to give them special treatment.

Among their other entitlements, we are given to understand, are schooling, medical attention and a higher minimum wage. In addition, they, along with his eminence, Vicente Fox, believe they should be allowed to vote in our elections as well as Mexico’s, even if they know less English than I know Greek.

It’s been estimated that there are ten million illegals in America. The number must be higher than that if only because that’s the same number I’ve heard bandied about for several years. For that number to be even close to accurate, it would mean, one, that the border has been securely sealed for all that time, which we and the Minutemen know is absurd, and, two, it presumes that they haven’t had babies in the U.S. And, yes, I understand that the Constitution states that any child born within our borders is a citizen, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. After all, in no other instance is a person allowed to benefit from the commission of a crime. How is it that sneaking into America is the single exception to that rule?

It’s no secret why President Fox goes so far as to provide illegals with tips on how best to avoid detection by our border patrol. At my local post office, most of the people in line with me are Latinos mailing postal orders to their relatives. I’m not suggesting that all those people are here illegally, but if only ten million of them mail only twenty dollars a week back home, it amounts to ten billion dollars a year. That’s a hell of a lot of pesos. Is it any wonder that Fox is in no rush to turn off the golden faucet?

What confounds me, though, is that, instead of displaying some amount of gratitude for our taking millions of unemployed Mexicans off his hands, he tweaks our nose by refusing to extradite cop killers and serial rapists because Mexico, which has raised police and political corruption to levels reminiscent of Chicago in the 1920s, doesn’t happen to believe in capital punishment or even life imprisonment!

Some of my fellow conservatives don’t believe in foreign aid. It so happens that I do. But I don’t believe in offering up our tax dollars with no strings attached. For instance, however much we currently give Mexico, I suggest we deduct a large amount for every illegal we catch and an even larger amount for every killer who finds sanctuary south of the border. And, furthermore, when we catch one of them committing felonies on our turf, we should deduct the cost of his trial and incarceration from all future assistance.

Finally, it’s not racism when you resent people sneaking into your country simply because, by reason of geographical proximity, they’re able to get away with it. In fact, that’s why the idea of simply deporting illegals has never made any sense to me. It’s not like sending scofflaws back to Europe or Asia. Our border, after all, is nothing but a line in the sand.

If you actually believe that Mexicans are entitled to be here simply because they want to be here, it’s you who are a racist. Furthermore, I’d like to know where you live so I can sneak into your house and help myself to whatever I find lying around. And, remember, no fair calling the cops.

And, yes, I understand that the Constitution states that any child born within our borders is a citizen

It depends on your interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
I don't think it says what many think that it does.

The Fourteenth Amendment states,"(A) Persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

Is a foreign citizen "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" the United States? I don't think so.

I like this guy a lot! Kinda a PJ O'Rourke of the Immigration Reform movement. I put this gem on the Front Page. http://www.alipac.us/article-436--0-0.html

yes, he says it like it is and without the PC.

If you actually believe that Mexicans are entitled to be here simply because they want to be here, it’s you who are a racist. Furthermore, I’d like to know where you live so I can sneak into your house and help myself to whatever I find lying around. And, remember, no fair calling the cops.

Very true.

Great piece!

Some of my fellow conservatives don’t believe in foreign aid. It so happens that I do. But I don’t believe in offering up our tax dollars with no strings attached. For instance, however much we currently give Mexico, I suggest we deduct a large amount for every illegal we catch and an even larger amount for every killer who finds sanctuary south of the border. And, furthermore, when we catch one of them committing felonies on our turf, we should deduct the cost of his trial and incarceration from all future assistance.

This sounds like a PLAN!!

miscellaneous ramblings:


The 14th amendment does not grant citizenship to children of illegal aliens. That misinterpretation currently prevails in the federal courts, but it is wrong. The framers of the 14th amendment made it clear that it was not to apply to foreign nationals.

The 14th amendment was to grant citizenship to the children of slaves, not the children of illegal aliens.

But, since the misinterpretation currently prevails in the courts, it is possible we may need to do yet another constitutional amendment to make it absolutely ironclad that the children of illegals do not get citizenship.

And, what I'd like to see is to make it retroactive. Not just prohibit the children of illegal aliens born in the US subsequent to the ratification of the amendment from getting citizenship, but also those that got it prior to the ratification of the amendment.

No doubt the ACLU would scream "that's unconstitutional". But, that won't hold water because amendments are by definition part of the constitution, and thus can modify, clarify, or reverse any previous portion of the constitution.

on the topic of foreign aid:


If we give any foreign aid to Mexico it is very little. In fact my understanding is that Mexican law prohibits Mexico from receiving foreign aid from the US.

So the "stick" of cutting aid to Mexico doesn't carry any weight I don't think.

I would guess it also may pose a complication if we tried a "carrot" approach. In other words, if we offered a certain amount of aid to Mexico for every net illegal alien who is permanently resettled back in Mexico.

But I'm not sure Mexican law would permit that.

One thing I would take issue with:

It didn't seem to me the Los Angeles, Mexico sign should have been as big a deal as it was made out to be.


Although, the radio station managers were pretty clumsy in their attempts to defend it.


They could have said something like this: "A large portion of the LA population consists of American citizens and legal residents of Mexican ancestry. Our sign was an attempt to highlight that fact, and the fact that these Americans of Mexican ancestry maintain some cultural ties to their old country, which results in a considerable Mexican influence on cultural affairs in Los Angeles."


Or some crap like that. It would of course be a pretty slippery answer, since the real truth is that the vast majority of the customers of Spanish Language media are undoubtedly illegal aliens.

But, it would have at least have provided a plausible claim that the message was not an "in your face" attempt to flaunt the nonmilitary takeover of Los Angeles by citizens of a foreign nation residing illegally in the city.