Immigration nondebate

The losers in this encounter were students who might have learned something.

Article Launched: 11/14/2007 08:18:55 PM PST


The losers in this encounter were students who might have learned something.

A debate between two zealous partisans mightn't have produced much useful information about illegal immigration, but it would have been better than nothing, which is what an audience got this week at Cal State Long Beach.

One of the two, Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels, which helps illegal migrants near the border, spouted off against the other, Jim Gilchrist, cofounder of the Minuteman Project, which opposes illegal immigration, then walked off. He called on the audience to do the same, and most did.

That's a pathetic showing for an institution of higher learning. Don't listen to the opposition because, what: You might learn something? Instead, attend a noisy rally outside the auditorium where everybody thinks alike?

Gilchrist's performance wasn't much better, but at least he stayed to talk with the small group of students who remained. First, though, he flamboyantly removed a bullet-proof jacket to show, evidently, that he was ready to give up the ghost for his beliefs.

A few of the students remaining in the audience actually were far more in agreement with Morones than with Gilchrist, but their attitude, not much in evidence on campuses these days, was that they at least wanted to hear the other side. Those at Morones' rally heard exactly what they expected.

The kindest thing we could say about this stagey event was that unlike similar appearances recently at Columbia University in New York and at Pomona College, it didn't get out of hand.

A Cal State lecturer in Chicano and Latino studies, Armando Vasquez-Ramos, told reporter Greg Mellen it wasn't going to be anything like a debate anyway. He said both of the invitees showed up only to clash and polarize.

If that's the case, they got what they came for. The institution was the loser.

http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_7464990