Thread: Enigmatic illegals

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Enigmatic illegals

DWIGHT WOODWARD
Other Voices

Saturday, May 24, 2008


GREEN VALLEY, ARIZ. - A couple weeks after driving from Athens to this retirement community 40 miles north of the Mexican border, I met my first illegal alien.

Early one morning, Miguel knocked on my door and asked me for some water. In limited English, he explained that he was from Honduras and had taken a train across Mexico to the U.S. border and then walked to Green Valley. Miguel said he hoped to find work as a mechanic in Phoenix before joining family members in Atlanta.

I gave him water, food and a couple of T-shirts and pointed him towards Tucson, knowing he might be arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents on daily patrol in trucks and helicopters.

Miguel put a face on a high-profile local issue that is slowly finding its way into the national press and certain to be a hot topic in the presidential campaign.

Recently I met a U.S. Border Patrol agent at a Mexican restaurant near a highway checkpoint for illegals 20 miles north of the Mexican border. He estimated some 1,200 illegal aliens, known locally as simply "illegals," cross the Arizona border daily. About half of those are arrested and deported or detained if they have previous illegal entry arrests.

Many local residents I've spoken to express sympathy for the plight of the illegals arguing they are looking for a better life, performing menial jobs most U.S. citizens won't perform - motel maids, custodians, dishwashers, agricultural workers and other labor jobs. Proponents of tougher enforcement of immigration laws argue many illegals are infected with diseases, have criminal backgrounds and import and use drugs.

The spate of news stories detailing law enforcement efforts to stem the tide of illegals flooding across the U.S.-Mexican border highlights the enigmatic nature of the hydra-headed problem.

If you haven't been keeping track, consider the following:

• Earlier this month Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he was suspending more than 30 environmental laws that would interfere with the completion of a barrier along the southern borders of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. Chertoff's unprecedented action was made possible by Congress in 2005 when it passed legislation allowing the executive branch to suspend laws to secure the nation's borders as part of the Secure Border Initiative. Chertoff's action, aimed at finishing the fence in the last nine months of the Bush administration, is being challenged in the Supreme Court.

• The first Secure Border Initiative, Project 28, a "virtual fence" constructed by the Boeing Corp. along 28 miles of the border in southern Arizona, has been plagued with cost overruns and technological failures. Boeing, granted an initial contract of $20.6 million to construct the radar fence, was granted an additional $64.5 million contract in December to upgrade computer software to operate the fence and another $8 million for maintenance and logistics support. Last week, Homeland Security announced Boeing will build 80-foot radar towers to replace technology already outdated since construction began in 2006. Boeing has been awarded $1.154 billion in contracts for SBI projects, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

• A second part of the border initiative allows federal officials to train local law enforcement officials in federal immigration laws. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio participates in the federal program with a zeal that borders on the spirit of the Wild West. Operating in Arizona's most populous county that includes Phoenix, the fifth largest city in the United States, Arpaio brags about his 30,000-person posse and their guns, airplanes, jeeps and motorcycles deployed to track down and arrest illegal day laborers. Arpaio is up for re-election and critics claim he is spending too much time hunting illegals as a public relations ploy while neglecting investigation of more serious crimes. In a letter earlier this month, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon asked U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to launch a Justice Department investigation into possible violations of the Civil Rights Act by Arpaio.

Despite law enforcement efforts, experts estimate there are some 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, providing a significant component of the nation's cheap labor force. They pick potatoes in Idaho, lettuce in California and they landscape in Westerville and Shaker Heights, sending money back to their impoverished families south of the border.

Recent statistics indicate the initiative has slightly reduced illegal migration and U.S. employers confirm the findings. Farmers in Pennsylvania say they won't plant as many tomatoes this year because seasonal workers are no longer migrating because of their concern about being arrested. Landscapers in Michigan report the migrant workers they have relied on for years are no longer available for the same reason.

On a recent bicycle ride through the pecan groves that line the Santa Cruz River, I came upon a group of five Mexicans, equipped only with plastic bags for luggage and water bottles. The leader of the group was clearly a "coyote," a middle-aged man who spoke English and had been paid to escort his younger non-English speaking compadres on foot to Tucson. The coyote was cautious in our conversation and assured me he was a U.S. citizen.

Less than a mile from where I encountered the Mexicans, a historical plaque marks the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. De Anza, a colonel in the Spanish cavalry, led a 1,000-mile migratory expedition, including children, Indians, cowboys, horses and beef cattle, from Mexico to the California coast where he established the city of San Francisco. Remnants of his group founded San Jose and Los Angeles. That was in 1775, before the United States was founded and long before Arizona became a state in 1912.

Much like their Anglo-American immigrant counterparts who crossed the Atlantic in search of a better life centuries ago, migration along the Southern border continues a long tradition.

A recent report from the Pew Institute predicts 29 percent of the U.S. population will be Hispanic by 2050 - legal or illegal - indicating the historical migration will continue no matter what the U.S. government does to stop it.

Former Athens resident Dwight Woodward is a 12th generation American.

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Dwight Woodward is a propagandist for our rulers.

Look at this crap...

A recent report from the Pew Institute predicts 29 percent of the U.S. population will be Hispanic by 2050 - legal or illegal - indicating the historical migration will continue no matter what the U.S. government does to stop it.

Oh, so the Pew Hispanic Center is now the final word on such matters and determines the future for us. Great.

W