Thread: Schlafly calls for concrete barrier along border

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Schlafly calls for concrete barrier along border
By Janine Zeitlin

Saturday, March 18, 2006

A conservative leader called on the federal government to construct a concrete fence on the U.S.-Mexico border and add thousands of border guards to help block illegal immigration.

Phyllis Schlafly, 81, talked about illegal immigration and her solutions to about 300 people Friday at a luncheon hosted by the Naples chapter of the Eagle Forum. Schlafly started the conservative, pro-family group in 1972.

"If a Mexican day laborer can sneak over the border, so can an al-Qaida terrorist," she said. "It ought to be manpower plus infrastructure."

Schlafly, known for taking on feminists, is a lawyer and author of 20 books. The Eagle Forum in Naples counts more than 550 supporters.

She urged the crowd to push lawmakers for solutions such as starting a tracking system for visas, requiring employers to check Social Security numbers and stopping temporary work visas.

Schlafly blamed illegal immigrants for an array of social ills including crime, spreading disease, draining taxpayer dollars and having traffic crashes.

But for Stephanie Alvarez, 15, a Barron Collier High School sophomore, her views on illegal immigrants didn't jibe with the undocumented people she knows.

Her family emigrated from Colombia before she was born.

"Obviously it's illegal and I don't believe it should be done ... but it makes me sad to think there's such a negative image," Alvarez said. "It didn't seem exactly fair to accuse immigrants of driving so badly. Any white Republican could be doing the same thing."

The Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group, estimated nearly 11 million undocumented people were living in the U.S. in 2005.

Schlafly said a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona also could prevent smuggling of immigrants across borders and human trafficking, or forced labor and sexual slavery.

Human smuggling can turn to human trafficking if the smuggler doesn't let the person go free once they're in this country.

"These people are virtual hostages. They are all scared and don't speak the language. It's a bad situation," Schlafly said. "I think the compassionate thing to do is build a fence so that these people don't think it's worth the risk."

A guest-worker program to bring in workers from other countries could create a peasant or underclass and is immoral, she said, adding that Americans could do those jobs.

"I think the arguments used for guest workers are the same arguments used for slavery and that's not the America we want," she said.

Ken Andiorio, a Barron Collier social studies teacher, said he brought students because to introduce them to another perspective.

"They don't see a lot of different viewpoints. Students have a tendency to be on the liberal side," he said. "It causes them to think and make more informed decisions."

© 2006 Naples Daily News and NDN Productions. Published in Naples, Florida, USA by the E.W. Scripps Co.

Quote:
A guest-worker program to bring in workers from other countries could create a peasant or underclass and is immoral, she said, adding that Americans could do those jobs.

"I think the arguments used for guest workers are the same arguments used for slavery and that's not the America we want," she said.
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I agree with Phyllis Schalfy!