Thread: Silencio! The Immigration Non-Debate

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OP-Ed: Silencio! The Immigration Non-Debate



SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Feb. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following
is an Op-Ed by Mark Cromer of Californians for Population Stabilization:
By Mark Cromer
The night before allegedly frightened officials at UCLA cancelled a
planned campus address by a member of the Minutemen earlier this month, I
found myself at Claremont Graduate University, facing a room jammed with
students from both disciplines of environmental and Chicano studies.
Sitting next to me was Dr. Jose Calderon, a sociology and Chicano
Studies professor from Pitzer College, and Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the
Minutemen and perpetual piñata for militant Latino and immigration
activists.
For the better part of three hours we held forth on the issue of
illegal immigration and its correlation to population issues, environmental
concerns and culture clash.
And the most amazing thing happened: we had a reasoned-if at times
heated- debate about the issues. The students, as well as a few workers
from the Pomona Day Labor Center who also came to the debate, listened
intently, respectfully and offered mostly tough, thoughtful questions for
hours.
The UCLA "students" who successfully muzzled a viewpoint on illegal
immigration they find objectionable and the university officials who
ultimately caved might be stunned to learn that; at CGU anyway, expressing
radically divergent ideas is still valued and confronted with counter
ideas- not threats of violence or chaos.
Gilchrist, who remains a blue-eyed Diablo incarnate for Latino
activists, must have been particularly impressed, considering the
anarchistic thugs who prevented him from speaking at Colombia University
just a few months ago; an act that apparently inspired the UCLA students
who were intent on keeping Minuteman Carl Braun off campus.
Despite the high-minded discourse at CGU, the censorship enforced by
the intellectual cowards posing as student radicals is likely to get much
worse before it gets better, in large part because it has accomplices
within the academy; from professors who are happy to see opposing
viewpoints stamped out to administrators who simply go with the flow while
fishing for money.
This stands in stark contrast with the vast majority of students who
are truly hungry for honest debate on illegal immigration and
overpopulation issues.
Over the past few months I have debated the issue of illegal
immigration in front of several thousand students at a variety of colleges
and universities across Southern California. I have been encouraged by the
students; and yet equally concerned by the continued smear tactics from a
significant number of activists and their supporters that are hurled to
silence opponents.
During the debate at CGU, Chicano Studies Professor Calderon deftly
displayed the insidious and intellectually dishonest attacks that are now
routinely employed against virtually all opponents of illegal immigration.
In a calm, reassuring voice, Calderon staked out his main points
favoring an amnesty that embraces all illegal immigrants and called for
greater American acceptance of immigrant cultures. While I might find that
somewhat misguided, his views are certainly not offensive and deserve to be
aired and discussed.
But then in the next breath, Calderon also told students that groups
raising the alarm over an increasingly crowded California were actually
little more than a cadre of sinister bigots cloaking a creepy agenda in the
disguise of honest concern for the environment.
In case anyone missed the point, he declared that discussing illegal
immigration within the context of overpopulation and its associated ills
was reminiscent of anti-Jewish rhetoric in early 1930s Germany.
In Calderon's world, the debate over illegal immigration is between
good souls trying to help desperate people living in the shadows; and
third- generation Nazis ready to load them into cattle cars. One can
express concern over California's eroding environmental health and our
quality of life, but one dare not mention mass illegal immigration as a
contributing factor-lest one reveal themselves as an anti-Mexican
xenophobe.
The cherry topping off Calderon's serving of rich irony was his
subsequent decrying of "divisive" tactics used by the "anti-immigrant"
forces.
Perhaps most alarming is that Calderon knows better.
The good doctor is simply seeking to smear the people posing arguments
counter to his own policy suggestions, perhaps afraid he can't win by
arguing factual points and facing overwhelming anecdotal evidence of a
looming crisis.
So on one hand, professors like Calderon encourage students to
participate in free and fair debate-at least when they are on stage. Yet
the subtext of their perpetually dismissing opposing viewpoints as "racist"
or worse is to give moral cover to those who chant such mindless Orwellian
slogans' as "Hate speech is not free speech" and the militants who threaten
violence in order to prevent speech they don't like.
Calderon and his ilk don't mind if students remain quiet enough to hear
opponents speak, but they are scared to death that students might listen.
I suspect that students throughout California aren't going to be duped
into dismissing the corrosive effects of increasing population densities as
merely the rhetorical parlor tricks of an anti-immigrant cabal. The
students who have shared their views with me sound far more nuanced and
balanced between admirable humanitarianism and pragmatic realism.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that hysterical zealots on many campuses are still
wielding influence far greater than their actual numbers, as the debacle at
UCLA demonstrates. And the growing danger is that professors like Calderon
are tacitly encouraging such censorship for pure political advantage.
Mark Cromer is a Senior Writing Fellow for Californians for Population
Stabilization (CAPS), http://www.capsweb.org. He can be reached at
Mrcromer@aol.com or info@capsweb.org.

Unless something drastic changes within the Ivy walled colleges, we are going to lose a generation of young people to these anti-american professors. They cannot be for America and have these kinds of views that would completely change the culture of our country.

open borders activitist believe that free speech is only for them. sound just like bush on iraq and the house democrats. giving away america is something that should be teason but our politicans have a free ride.