Journalist Sympathizes With Illegal Immigrants
AIM Column | By Bethany Stotts | May 27, 2008
...Nazario carefully omitted any mention of these persons’ legal status, referring to them instead “immigrants,” “migrants,” or, simply, women and children…
Social justice took on a whole new meaning at Messiah College’s 2008 Commencement when award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario explained the factors motivating her human-interest coverage of illegal immigration and hunger in California schools.
A reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Nazario started her career at the Wall Street Journal two decades ago. Her book, Enrique’s Journey,
recounts the perils faced by a young Honduran boy traveling north on
the “train of death” to reunite with his illegal immigrant mother in
the United States.
She told Publisher’s Weekly that
she was inspired to tell Enrique’s story when she found that her
part-time housekeeper had four children whom she had not seen for years
after she illegally entered the United States.
During her Commencement speech at Messiah College, Nazario carefully
omitted any mention of these persons’ legal status, referring to them
instead “immigrants,” “migrants,” or, simply, women and children
seeking a better life in the United States.
She labeled Latin American police as corrupt not for taking bribes, but
because they deport illegal immigrants back to their home countries.
“All along the way, [these children] are hunted down like
animals....They must elude bandits who rob and kill migrants along the
tracks. Corrupt cops all along the way are out to deport them,” she
said.
Despite this, Nazario admits that writing the book changed her view on illegal immigration. She told Publisher’s Weekly that “The main change for me has been to recognize that such a powerful
stream will only change if it is addressed at its source, if the
economies of these countries that are sending large numbers of people
to the United States improves [sic].”
She added, “I talked to one kid in southern Mexico who had made 27
attempts to reach his mother in the United States, and he was getting
ready to make attempt number 28. You come to believe that no number of
border control guards is going to stop someone like that.”
“[Enrique and his friend] taught me to be grateful every day for the
opportunities I have by sheer luck of having been born in the United
States,” said Nazario at Commencement. College President Kim Phipps noted that Nazario’s book “has been selected by many campuses as the common reading.”
“Today, as you leave the ivory tower, think about embracing a different
kind of learning. Put yourself out there. Take risks. Go places you
know nothing about, worlds where people of your economic class or race
or education don’t often venture,” Nazario counseled the graduates.
The Pulitzer-winning journalist is also well-known for her 1994 series on hunger among California school-children. Nazario said that one in
four children in southern California “come to class undernourished”—a
problem which she believes can be blamed on conservatives. She said,
“Still, half of California schools did not offer a ready remedy:
breakfast, a federally-funded entitlement. Often these were barred or
eliminated by schools officials who opposed this on philosophical
[grounds]. Many of them...were Christian conservatives dominating
school boards who opposed feeding children breakfast at school. They
called it ‘anti-family,’ and a usurpation for what should be a parent’s
responsibility.”
“Teachers like Ernie Sanchez were left to pick up the slack,” she
continued. She later added, “It was Sanchez who reminded me of another
lesson: never lose your sense of outrage.”
Despite these activist undertones, Messiah College advertised Nazario’s
journalistic approach as one of “sensible viewpoint[s]” mixed with
“sensitivity.” The Commencement program biography reads,
“With a reporter’s eye to the truth, she humanizes the issue, posing
new perspectives that fall on both sides, while offering solutions
destined to change the national dialogue on the influx of immigrants
and the effect they will have on the state of the nation.”
Rice University, which invited Nazario to speak in March, used the same description.
American Prospect special correspondent Sarah Wildman notes in her New York Times book review of Enrique’s Journey that “Nazario also pays homage to people who have dedicated their lives
to aiding migrants.” In her speech at Messiah College, Nazario likewise
spoke of how these people and other public servants had taught her life
lessons. She also insinuated that God’s reward would (and has) come to
those who help downtrodden illegal migrants.
Recounting her journey on “the train of death,” Nazario said, “These
are the poorest Mexicans who live along the tracks, people who make $1
or $2 a day, who can barely feed their own children tortillas and
beans. Yet they give to total strangers from other countries who they
will never see again and they told me that they did it because they
this is the Christian thing to do, this is the right thing to do.” She
added, “They said that this is what Jesus Christ would do.”
Bethany Stotts is a Staff Writer for Accuracy in Academia, and can be contacted at
51 Comments | Post a Comment
I gagged a little but I DID finish the article. She is right about one thing. The plight of poor people around the world won’t change until the conditions and governments of their home countries are changed.
However, America does not make enough money to subsidize all the poor people in the world, nor does it have the space to house all of them, nor jobs for all of them. That is why we have clearly defined rules and laws for legal immigration to the US, to weed out the criminals, give preference to those in life threatening situations or to those who fit our country’s particular work force needs, and also have demonstrated a desire to integrate into our culture by learning the basics of the language and our laws.
Finally, BTW, the relatives of legal immigrants are given preferential status and are very likely to be given the opportunity to becomes legal citizens before others on the list. This, and the legal process to citizenship in general, negates the need to take trips on death trains and the rapes and other horrible crimes associated with the illegal human transport trade.
Perhaps spending a little time enforcing and funding existing laws that encourage legal immigration and rescinding the laws that subsidize illegal immigration and all of its unsavory side effects would be a better use of our time than running around tilting the windmill of world poverty through higher taxes on Americans. Ridiculous.
Please friends,
Are any of these unqualified politico Buffoons talking about the real issues, INSIDE OUR BORDERS!? This abomination IS coming to America soon!
My article yesterday. http://www.jihadchat.com/index.php?showtopic=12701
Kind regards,
Howie
Regional Co-ordinator
UAC
Sonia’s level of scholastic perversion reminds me of Barak Osama and Hillary. They wrap it is a package that smells nice, but it’s still putrid on the inside. Only bobbleheads drinking the same sewage embrace her brand of journalism. They’re used to the flavor and don’t know any better.
Importing problems from other countries and making them our own is not a good solution to helping them fix their own problems. It just creates new problems that we own and they are problems that are far more difficult and costly to fix.
Ahhh… the rantings of Miss Feelgood Nazario are old. I am also of hispanic heritage, but my grandfathers came to the USA back at the turn of the 20th Century, and as most immigrants of the era they simply waited their turn. Their dream was the American Dream which made our country great. These new “migrants” have their own agenda and their allegiance is not to the USA but to the old country and their dreams of “reconquista”. So if their country is so wonderful why don’t they stay there? Largely because leftist globalists such as Sheik Obama, Comrade Hillary, and RINO Juan Macain. The internationalists have “empowered” the illegals to invade our country, and that is precisely what they are doing. Coming in droves to take and not to contribute.
I sympathize with many people in foreign lands but I can’t support them all. If given a choice I would prefer to accept those who take legal steps to gain entry.
My former husband grew up in Iraq as a minority Christian in a land ruled by Islam. At age 10 he slept with a gun under his pillow to protect his family from marauders. His father, although a wealthy business owner, applied for American entry and waited twenty years without a reply. When he died leaving a family of five, they were immediately brought to America. He never made it because he waited to do it legally.
That is the story of many others. They wait and pray and live in hope.
I’m so sorry that Sonia feels illegals deserve more than other suffering people, and then preaches that to students who don’t know about those who wait and try to live according to law.
Let me preach for those people. Not only do they deserve it more but there is no one to write their saga of futility and abuse.
Let them use their energy to become free of dictators who steal their money, freedom and lives instead of trying to take what they want from those of us who’s ancestors have fought and died for us to have what we have here - and we have followed laws and participated in the growth of our own country.
I can understand looking at individual stories and people and feeling empathy. But, there is an invasion going on - a huge number of criminals illegally enter our country every day. A study was done, out of 1500 illegals who perpetrated crimes, only TWO PERCENT had no previous criminal activity. Sexual assaults from illegals towards Americans is astounding. I wrote an article on it the other day. To read it, go to http://speakingof.blogtownhall.com/2008/05/26/immigration_brings_yet_another_epidemic.thtml
Like the scene from Dodgeball, “I think I just threw up a little”. How grand to just travel through,why doesn’t she try immigrating to those countries. She will find much tougher laws that would prevent her from doing so. Those mean old conservatives trying to teach parents to get up and feed their children; shame on them all.
Also, it has struck me recently that we wouldn’t need ANY illegal immigrants; if we hadn’t murdered 40 million babies in the past 30 years. Think of the potential that never had a chance!
I think this lady has it planned out, lets encourage the college educated kids to travel to third world hell holes, get raped, sick, killed or just disappeared then the us will care about those places. If we bring everybody to the same level, dirt poor substance work, then the liberal elites will have farther to look down on all of us, thats the plan folks. Equal outcomes regardless of input.
Here’s your basic problem:
Still, half of California schools did not offer a ready remedy: breakfast, a federally-funded entitlement.
When Charity becomes entitlement, everyone becomes a either a parasite or a slave. “Redistribution of wealth” and altruistic whining about the “wealth gap” are Orwellian Newspeak for theft by force (robbery).
When the Government takes my wealth by force and gives it to some “needy” person, then charity becomes theft, and I become a slave to any parasite who claims a need.
The only thing a person is entitled to is their life and the opportunity to use their abilities to preserve their life. If they choose not to use their abilities, let them die.
If they have no ability, then benevolent charity is my option to give, not my obligation by force of tax law.
Perhaps journalist Nazario will emulate the kind Mexicans who give part of their dollar-a-day earnings to passersby, by donating all but a dollar-a-day of her own earnings to support an assortment of illegal aliens?
I think somewhere in the Bible it says “the poor you have with you always” or something like that.
No matter how much effort you put into caring for and feeding the poor, they will out-multiply you real fast, and then they will not ask for stuff, they will TAKE it.
Robert Heinlein wrote: “Much as we may feel and act as individuals, our race is a single organism, always growing and branching - which must be pruned regularly to be healthy. This necessity need not be argued, anyone with eyes can see that any organism which grows without limit always dies in its own poisons. The only rational question is whether pruning is best done before or after birth. Being an incurable sentimentalist I favor the former of these methods . . . .
But this may be a matter of taste. Some shamans think that it is better to be killed in a war,or to die in childbirth, or to starve in misery, than never to have lived at all. They may be right.
But I don’t have to like it - and I don’t.”
John
You will always have these types of people with grandiose ideas of utopia for everyone.
Last year, I thought that Americans were sick of the cost of illegal immigration. The costs being our health care system, our education system, our prison system and our clean streets and highways.
I can’t tell there was any dissatisfaction from our choice of presidental candidates. What happened?
To Mary R.
What happened? Our politicians forgot that they are elected to SERVE the people. Hopefully somewhere in the wide selection of candidates we can all find one who has not yet forgotten what that means, and vote him into office. There are more than two parties......
Well I couldn’t make it through the whole article. You’d think we were able to underwrite the upkeep for the whole world. I am really sick of these liberals and the garbage they keep spewing out. Every last one of the illegals should be rounded up and sent back to their own country. It isn’t our responsibility to educate them or feed them or pay for their medical expenses. There are much too many of our own people already on welfare. Sucking up every freebee they can. I personally know people who are taking in ssi and welfare checks to the tune of a couple thousand a month and they have never worked at least since I have known them.
Mary R.
I hadn’t realized that we were given a choice of presidential candidates. There isn’t anything presidential about any of the three in mo opinion. This election reminds of the communist nations where your only choice is another commie.
Stop ALL immigration until we get our house in order!
Some compelling information:
As Americans are pinched between falling real estate values, loss of good paying work, and the inflation of necessities such as gasoline and food, they are entitled to know how their tax dollars are being spent. The big bite that social benefits to immigrants (one-third of whom are illegal) takes out of taxpayers’ paychecks should be factored into any debate about immigration or amnesty policy. There could be as many as 39 million people inside our gates that are illegal, i.e. expired visas, illegal entry, disappeared ‘students’,forged documents, etc.
Mark Krikorian presents a new argument in his forthcoming book called “The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal.”
http://www.jihadchat.com/index.php?showtopic=12694
Mary R. There is the Libertarian and Green party and you can write in the Ron Paul presidency, who was a Republican turned Libertarian and went Republican this year to get onto the ballot. He’s one of the well-kept secrets with great ideas and a love for his country. Go read his views and see how you feel. http://www.ronpaul.com/
You people bitching about immigration because of the cost to welfare are shooting at the wrong target. Immigration isn’t the problem, the welfare state is the problem. Adjust your aim and hit the right target.
For those who are too lazy to look up the real numbers, be it known that the largest group of welfare parasites is whites (39%) followed by blacks (37%) followed by Hispanics (17%) so not only are you shooting at the wrong target (Hispanic immigrants), but you’re dead wrong about them being the biggest group of welfare parasites.
Kirkorian is not only wrong, but simply a populist rabble rouser with a racist agenda.
Ron Paul: (close to) right message, wrong messenger.
Some good comments, gives me hope.
We did have some people speaking out against illegal aliens in the beginning of the race - but they fell by the wayside as the media had their choice made - Obama, I’m thinking.
Illegals are the problem. The only way welfare enters into this discussion is that illegals are allowed to receive welfare. They have less restrictions and less ‘qualifying’ to do than do citzens. It is the welfare system that allows them to remain here. Most of them could not support their families here on what they make. For those who are birthing a baby every 1 1/2 years, the cost of that alone would be prohibitive without taxpayers paying for it.
US citizens on welfare is a problem - it is destructive, it is a waste of human potential and we need to address it. But it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with illegal aliens.
Citizens who draw welfare, or assistance, in many, many cases work. They work, they pay what taxes are required of them, they obey the law, they carry insurance to protect others, they respect this country. They don’t demand that everyone speak some other language.
No, the old ‘the problem is lazy white people on welfare’ is a dead horse and totally unrelated to this problem.
I am in agreement, we need to put a halt to immigration altogether, except for reuniting spouses or underage children. Some asylum cases, but that has been abused.
We are no longer a country with unlimited resources, space, a robust economy, etc. We need to rethink and limit those coming into the country to ones who are interested in becoming citizens, behaving like citizens, and who will add something to the country - not be a burden to other working families.
If people in other countries need help, then let’s help them in their own countries. It would be a lot cheaper to pay for the aid to poor people in their own country than it is to pay for all the services they need when we bring them here. The world won’t get better by just shifting the problems.
When I say aid, I don’t mean palm-greasing of despotic rulers. We have been sending foreign aid to Mexico for a very long time, and for 30 years, we have been taking in their poor and criminals - and the Mexicans here are sending back to Mexico a huge amount of money. Where is that money going?
The illegal alien problem is potentially the most destructive problem we have. We can survive a terrorist attack - we have. We can survive a depression - we have. We cannot survive being destroyed from the inside. There is already a blurring of our sovereignty and it will only get worse if amnesty is given - and I fear it will by any of the chosen ones. WE cannot survive that.
Yes, the goal of taking back part of the US is real.
Ron Paul does have the right message and I think the messenger that has the courage to speak out is the best messenger. So far, the only one is Ron Paul. The problem is, for far too many, the media is their messenger.
ladytexan:
I’ve pointed out to you before that immigrants are not eligible for welfare or other public-funded benefits for their 1st 5 years in this country under legislation passed in 1996, yet you persist in claiming wrongly that they are the biggest cost in welfare. So-called “illegal immigrants” do not use public support systems for the simple fact they fear being found out and deported.
You continue to ignore facts to suit your agenda. We are a nation of immigrants and will be forever. Get over it.
As to “helping them in their own countries” this is simply a variation on the same welfare state agenda, only extending the “benefits” to foreigners. Foreign “aid” is simply theft from the American taxpayer to aggrandize the President or Congress. It should cease with the exception of military aid for our true allies who need it.
To clarify: foreign aid should be restricted to military aid (weapons, material, and training) to those nations who are committed to helping us kill our enemies.
There could be certain, infrequent exceptions where aid other than military is in our nation’s interest. For example, the food, water, medical, and shelter aid we supplied (by way of the US Navy) after the 2005 tsunami. It had the beneficial effect of halting the Islamic insurgency that had been paralyzing the people of Aceh province in Sumatra and generating significant good will toward Americans. The Islamics figured out that Americans weren’t the baby-eating infidels they’d been told by their Arab/Wahabi indoctrinators.
Reading the blogs, it’s encouraging to know that there really are people who think with their heads. The libs don’t use their brains; they react based on emotion. That’s no way to live your life, let alone run our country!
I notice everytime after ‘it’s the lazy citizens on welfare that is the problem’ and that gets debunked by the facts that illegals get welfare, less restricted than do citizens - the next statement is ‘illegals are not eligible for welfare’. Yes, that is a fact.
The facts are also that illegals are
Not supposed to be here
Not supposed to work here
Not supposed to drive without licenses
Not supposed to drive with insurance (in TExas, anyway)
And on and on. The list is very long about what they are not supposed to do. The list is just as long as to what they are allowed to do because our government doesn’t enforce the laws
The statements are always very carefully worded to say either ‘it is illegal for them to get welfare’ or ‘they are ineligible for welfare’. Both statments are true. At the same time, both statements have nothing to do with the facts and with the situation.
I’m all for foreign aid being private charities - not our government.
One of the reasons Bin Laden became a folk hero was because we praised him and helped him with weapons during Afghanistan fight against Russia. One reason Saddam was able to get and keep control was because we operated under the ‘the enemy of my enemy (Iran) is my friend’.
Look where that got us - both times.
My suggestion would be to just butt out, let the charities do what they are supposed to do, and take care of the many problems here - such as the invasion of our country.
If I have to give welfare to foreigners, I would rather it were in their own country. We do not need to allow any more illegals in and we need to be very careful of who and how many other immigrants we allow in - until we get a handle on it.
If it’s a matter of feeding people in their own country or taking them into this one - feed them in their own country. That way we will have a fighting chance of survival.
John Galt: Any bill passed in 1996 can easily be changed in 2009…
You say: “immigrants are not eligible for welfare or other public-funded benefits for their 1st 5 years in this country under legislation passed in 1996”
What do we do with those without an income? Let them starve?
You are wrong in just about everything stated in your postings here. I think you should move up and read the latest news on amnesty. Here’s one for you John.
by William Gheen
McClintObama Amnesty Plan: 20 million Illegal Alien Voters by 2010
February 04, 2008 02:00 PM EST
2010? That looks like less than two years to me. If they can vote, they vote themselves better representation and more benefits, just like our politicians do.
This article below was submitted on behalf of current immigrants. Imagine how much more it will cost us when we accept another 400,000 people!
It found that these low-skill immigrant households, on average, receive three dollars in benefits for every one dollar in taxes paid. Low-skill immigrant households (both legal and illegal) now comprise five percent of the U.S. population and impose a net cost of $89 billion per year on the U.S. taxpayer.
New babies born on this soil are eligible for lifetime social security, medicare and food stamps. Not to mention free schooling. WHO do you think picks up the tab?
IMHO, foreign aid is essential to maintain people living under dictators, and to maintain a relationship with the rest of the world. This is simply the ‘right’ thing for a wealthy country to be giving.
Loral, I’m pretty sure John Galt knows illegals get welfare.
In this case, the law cited is talking about legal immigrants - nothing whatsoever to do with the subject of illegal aliens - who do most assuredly get welfare - and lots of it.
Whenever the topic of illegal aliens comes up, first a post ‘it’s the fat, lazy welfare citizens that are causing the problem.’
When the facts are pointed out that illegals get welfare, less restricted than citizens, we get the ‘they are not eligible for welfare.’.
If a person cannot support themselves in this country, or they do not have a sponsor to assure the taxpayers they will not become a burden on the system, then they should not be admitted.
No child should ever be hungry or sick without treatment. If they are here illegally, give them food and medication and deport them.
If they are here legally, unless there is something in the law that allows them to be returned home, then we are stuck with them. That’s where we need new laws.
As to illegal aliens, we have all the laws we need to fix the problem, they just need to be enforced.
William Gheen certainly deserves credit and gratitude for what he has and is doing, and may he continue. I just don’t think a good solution will come via the government, however. It will have to come from citizens coming together, using their only real weapon, purchasing power (while we still have it) and putting our money where it should go or withholding it where it shouldn’t. It’s really that simple. WE are buying the rope to hang us.
Foreign aid is all too often just a euphemism for palm greasing of foreign politicians to allow sweatshops, military installations, for some of it to be used to purchase military equipment. It is seldom for the good of the people.
Nothing I have posted here is either untrue or wrong. Everything others have said here about how much low-skill (immigrant or otherwise) households “get” in relation to what they “give” simply reinforces my point about the immorality of the welfare system.
The welfare system punishes those who produce and rewards those who do not produce. It is quite simply collectivism, socialism or Marxism and is fundamentally opposed to the ideals this country was founded on (self-reliance and individual rights). For examples of what socialism produces, you need look no farther than Cuba, Venezuela, the former Soviet Union, or Ecuador: universal poverty. I for one do not wish the United States to end up repeating those mistakes.
Government sponsored welfare is not charity, it is theft pure and simple. The producer who creates the wealth that is being redistributed has no say over who gets the wealth that is extorted from him under the tax laws. Charity by definition must be voluntary and benevolent, not involuntary and enforced under threat of imprisonment.
Foreign aid is even more immoral than welfare as the beneficiaries of it are not citizens and therefore of absolutely no concern whatsoever to our government. If individuals wish to contribute voluntarily to charities that benefit foreigners, that is fine, but for our government to extract money from our wallets forcibly to distribute to foreigners is morally wrong.
This goes for “public education” as well. If a parent values education for his children, he will pay the price to get it for them. If individuals (rather than the state) are paying for education, you can bet they will demand higher quality results than they settle for with “free” education.
If you want to “take back our country,” then the proper method for doing so is to get government and politicians out of our wallets, bedrooms, businesses, churches, and every other aspect of our lives.
“I’ve pointed out to you before that immigrants are not eligible for welfare or other public-funded benefits for their 1st 5 years in this country under legislation passed in 1996, yet you persist in claiming wrongly that they are the biggest cost in welfare.”
I don’t know about legal immigrants and what they get in terms of welfare. I have never said legal immigrants ‘were the biggest cost in welfare’- - I have never said illegal aliens were the biggest cost in welfare - just that they received welfare in huge numbers.
So something that isn’t true.
“ So-called “illegal immigrants” do not use public support systems for the simple fact they fear being found out and deported. “
That is simply not true. They do. They get food stamps, they have babies, they send their kids to school, for goodness sakes. They are not in fear. What do they have to fear, they have the power of the federal government, many state governments, and big business protecting them.
We are not a ‘nation of immigrants’ - although the numbers are growing. We certainly aren’t a nation of illegal aliens, although the numbers are certainly growing tremendously.
We are a nation of citizens. Once you become a citizen, you are no longer an immigrant, you are a citizen. If you were born here, you are a citzen. If you are an illegal alien, you are here illegally.
So some things that are not true.
Very few places on the planet are still inhabited by the original people. People have moved around this globe many times. So do we just all start musical countries and we all get to just settle anywhere we like? Does that mean that the country we choose will let us work, pay no payroll taxes, give us food, medical care, education for our kids, and allow us to ignore laws their citizens must obey?
I know Mexico doesn’t.
Does Ireland do that? If so, I’m beginning my search for that ‘wee thatched cottage’ right now.
I think the next talking point is ‘well, what about the Indians (American)’, we took the land from the Indians.’
ladytexan:
Have you ever applied for food stamps? If you had you would know that you won’t get them without picture ID (driver’s license), a legal residence (utility bill with your name and address), a statement of your income and assets (bank account numbers), employer or unemployment claim document, and a taxpayer ID (aka SSN).
Show me some proof of your assertion that illegal aliens (what are those? little green men?) get them, as well as proof of the “huge numbers” you claim.
Until then, you’re just another angry old bigot spouting off bullshit.
Oh, John, just because I recognized LaRaza talking points!!!
Yes, insult, when there are no more facts or ideas.
No, I have never applied for food stamps - hope I never need them.
I have worked, though, and I had to have all manner of ID to work. My very own legal ID.
Illegals are working.
I have opened a bank account - and I had to have two forms of ID - legal ID - one with a picture.
Illegals have bank accounts.
I have renewed my DL. I had to show my SS card, and my old license and have my picture made.
Illegals have driver’s license.
Illegals have driver’s license with their picture, they have utility bills, they have everything they need to get welfare. That doesn’t mean the ID’s are valid - the government doesn’t care.
One proof is my DIL found one was receiving food stamps using her SS number.
The other proof is standing behind them in the grocery store check out and having a daughter who worked for a grocery store, and having them tell me they were getting food stamps.
Get real now - everyone knows they get welfare.
Actually, other than LaRaza and you, I don’t think anyone is trying to say they aren’t.
No one, no one actually believes a little something like legality, or lack of some kind of ID would keep illegals from getting anything.
Common sense.
Please notice the date on this article and recognize that since then many more states have followed suit.
*********************
Exclusive COMING TO AMERICA
15 states license illegals to drive
Immigration-reform group calls
for federal government to step in
Posted: September 17, 2003
1:00 am Eastern
By Jon Dougherty
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com
Amid the outrage over California Gov. Gray Davis’ decision to sign legislation allowing illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses comes the stunning revelation by immigration experts that the Golden State is neither unique nor alone: 14 other states also allow illegal aliens to drive legally on their highways.
____________________________
The open borders lobby routinely lobbies state legislatures to issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens as one of the keys to erasing the distinction between legal citizens and illegal aliens.
In the U.S., the drivers license is our de facto universal identification card. Yet many states do not thoroughly verify applicants’ identities. Many states do not require a valid Social Security number to get a license and many will issue a state ID number for those without a Social Security number.
This makes it very easy for illegal aliens to obtain drivers licenses. These licenses become “breeder documents” which allow the recipient to obtain additional documents, based upon the false premise that he is a U.S. citizen. For example, all of the 9/11 hijackers had driver’s licenses or state-issued non-driver’s identification cards, which they then could use when opening bank accounts, renting housing, and boarding planes.
**********************
Nuff said!
Again, no evidence to back up your allegations, other than anecdotes and snippets of articles published “somewhere.” Loral, if you are going to cite articles, at least post a link where the article can be found and reviewed. Anyone can write up some official-looking header for things they make up.
You are the ones trying to make the case that “illegals” use of welfare is wrong, while I’m trying to make the case that welfare itself is wrong.
You are trying to make the case that “illegals” commit crimes and ignore laws. Show some real evidence (not anecdotes) that population percentage-wise immigrants are more prone to do those things than citizens and you’ll be a lot more credible.
For every immigrant you point out who doesn’t have car insurance, I can probably point out 16 citizens who also don’t have car insurance. You prove nothing except your intellectual laziness by refusing to produce facts to back your statements.
“Illegal” immigrants are only illegal because the immigration laws are both irrational and unjust. If you say that those laws must be obeyed regardless of their justice or lack thereof, you are no more correct or moral than Germans who complied with Nazi laws requiring them to turn in Jews to be gassed and otherwise “disposed of.”
If immigration opponents continue their irrationality, we’ll have the same situation as South Africa has now: immigrants being clubbed to death with shovels, hacked to death with machetes, and “necklaced” with gasoline-filled tires and set afire. Won’t that show the world how great and moral Americans are?
We are a nation of citizens who became citizens after immigrating here and assimilating. Today’s immigrants are no different than the Irish, Germans, Italians, and other Europeans who came here to improve their lives and helped build the greatest nation on the planet. Why shouldn’t others have the same opportunities our ancestors had?
You’re right John, I should have posted the links. Sorry. Here they are now.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=20831
http://www.theamericanresistance.com/issues/drivers_licenses.html
We are concerned for real reasons. I happen to like Mexicans - think they’re friendly, grateful, and hard working people. I have a Spanish brother-in-law and some beautiful nieces and nephews. All are American-born - no illegals in the family.
Illegal means just that and our government shouldn’t be making it into something else. If an American breaks our laws, the go to prison. If an illegal is accepted so easily, we should really be fair and empty out our prisons too.
You had better understand that when someone is inside your house, uninvited,he is at best an imposter, at worst, a criminal.
Until the U.S.A. understands who is inside the gates and what there purpose is we are in grave danger! Think about this!
Since 9/11/01 U.S. flight schools have trained over 6000 pilots from Muslim ruled countries.
Or this!
AMNESTY FOR MILLIONS OF ILLEGALS!, Democraps bringing down America!
What were the compelling interests that led the Senate Appropriations Committee to include major legislation as part of the military spending bill on Thursday?
Amnesty for illegal aliens, and lots of new foreign workers for powerful business interests.
In one afternoon, the Appropriations Committee approved amnesty for 1.35 million illegal alien agricultural workers, and made available an additional 650,000 skilled and unskilled foreign guest workers over the next three years. That’s 2 million new, or newly legalized, foreign workers entering our labor force over the next three years – even as our economy has been losing jobs.
The 2 million figure does not include the dependents of the amnesty recipients or new workers who could be admitted under existing agricultural guest worker programs. Under the agricultural amnesty – written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) at the behest of the California agricultural lobby – the spouses of amnesty recipients will also be authorized to compete with American workers for jobs in any sector of our labor market.
Nor does it include the potentially unlimited number of new guest workers agricultural employers will be able to import under a “streamlined” H-2A program that requires the Department of Labor to issue visas within seven days of an employer’s request.
Just to be extra sure that the agriculture industry will get their workers as cheaply as possible, Sen. Feinstein threw in a provision that freezes wages for these farm workers at 2007 levels. [Most will have ‘Anchor’ babies]
While the Feinstein amendment offers senators a fig leaf to avoid the dreaded “A-Word” (that’s A-M-N-E-S-T-Y) by legalizing these workers for only five years, the sunset provision is sheer kabuki theater. Everyone knows that once we start down that road there is no turning back.
At some point in the next five years, the “temporary” amnesty will be made a permanent one and will likely include many other categories of illegal aliens – just to be fair to everyone who broke our laws.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/IraMehl..._troops_in_iraq
johnny, ‘Ju gotta lotta learnin to do!”
http://www.jihadchat.com/index.php?showforum=7
I have no problem with controlling immigration or our borders. I do have a problem with immigration laws that are based on hysterical, anecdotal, populist pandering and typically “pulled” into existence by labor unions enhancing their power and control. I have no problem with laws based on rational acknowledgment and accommodation of the immigrant’s desire to live in freedom and make a better life for himself and his family and in the process contribute to the generation of wealth in this nation.
The easier you make it to either immigrate or work here temporarily legally, the fewer people will be attempting to come here illegally. They will willingly cooperate with rules and laws that are easy to cooperate with. The reverse is also true as illustrated by the current situation: the harder it is to come here legally, the more people will come here illegally.
By the way, those agricultural laborers do us the favor of planting and harvesting crops cheaply so that we can enjoy fresh, nutritious foods cheaply year round. I have no problem with allowing them to do so legally. Make it easy for them to come and go legally, and they will come, do the work, and go back home when the work is done. I’d be willing to bet most do not want to live here due to how expensive it is to do so.
With the unemployment rates near historic lows (less than 6%), they aren’t taking jobs from Americans who want to work. The competition among farmers for such laborers will only increase their wages (and your food costs) until there are enough of them available and competing to keep their wages reasonable.
If you keep them out of the country, farmers will have to offer higher wages to attract American (or illegal) workers. Farmers will have difficulty getting enough workers in a low unemployment environment, so there will be fewer crops planted and harvested by more expensive labor—a double whammy to your pocketbook.
To Howell Davis: I agree with all you’ve stated.
To John: All I can add to your comments is: LOL
Yes, some states to give DL to illegals - some are changing that.
It is amusing when someone keeps asking for ‘proof’, etc. The proof is right out there in front of you. That’s like saying, ‘I need proof the sun is shining’. Just open your eyes and you will see the proof.
The laws aren’t hysterical, they are sensible. Most countries have recognized one must control who and what comes in - Mexico has some very stringent laws about that - very stringent.
As for it being ‘so hard’ to get into the US and that’s why they stay is laughable. Again, use common sense. Everyday, thousands come across that border. Thousands come and go across that border. As I said, ‘Little children, pregnant women, Grandmothers and Uncle Jose (with a bad heart) cross that border on a daily basis’. Good grief - how hard could it be?????
The fallacy that we get cheap food because of the illegals is just that - a fallacy. The price, which is not cheap by any means at the store, is not reflected in the price the cash register rings up. It is reflected in the increased taxes to pay for their welfare - healthcare, food stamps, WIC, housing, free breakfasts and lunches and free education for their children. You pay it when you pay those increased property taxes. You pay it when you pay those increased healthcare premiums (if you can still afford to do that). You pay for it when you pay that exorbitant auto insurance. In Texas, you pay for it when you pay that increased cost for your professional licenses, register your auto, other fees and fines. That’s the way our state balanced its budget.
There is also the increased strain on our infrastructure, our sewer systems, our water systems, of providing interpreters, of printing documents in primarily Spanish, of having to take a course in Spanish in order to keep your job, etc.
No, that head of lettuce is very expensive when you add all the hidden costs. When someone tries to feed you the line about how illegals keep the price of our food down, remember the check you just wrote for auto insurance - for property taxes. Remember the fact that you might not even be able to afford healthcare for your children. If not you, you surely know someone in that shape.
That’s the ‘whammy’ to the pocketbook. There is also the price we can’t put a figure on - the loss of sovereignty in this country.
The fact is, they do live here and yes, it is expensive to live here. That’s one of the things to keep in mind when someone tells you they don’t get welfare. They could not live here, feed, house, medicate their families, and send millions back to Mexico unless they were getting a lot of help from the welfare system.
Labor unions are ‘international’ unions. The hotel workers is a strong union in this country, many, many hotel workers are illegals, and members. So, no, can’t blame the unions - they are helping the illegals. A lot of people don’t like unions, so those supporting illegals, try to make them a scapegoat. But if you put any thought into it, you realize that just isn’t the case.
Just a couple of generations ago, children worked in the cotton fields around this country - chopping and picking the cotton. If you had told that cotton farmer he couldn’t work children, he would have wrung his hands and whined that ‘no one would be able to buy clothes without that cheap labor’. Guess what, they figured out cottom could be harvested by machinery. The same will happen with many other crops.
Remember, this country was drinking milk, eating veggies (they could afford them then), eating chicken before the illegals came. When someone tells you we couldn’t eat without them, remember that.
Common sense.
The Clinton-Bush boys have been cavalier and unresponsive about the influx of aliens of all stripes.
It seems that all we see are quick news bites and the stories are gone. Think of this.
Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, “until the nation’s survival is in peril” no military draft.
McCaffrey, the most highly decorated four-star general in the Army — holder of two awards of the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars and three Purple Hearts earned during four combat deployments in his career — said, however, that securing the nation’s borders is absolutely necessary to insuring internal security, and conscription into the U.S. Border Patrol or the National Guard might solve the problem.
“If we can’t control our borders, we can’t protect domestic security,” he said, noting that there are 2.5 million men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces but only 42,000 in the Transportation Security Administration and 11,000 in the Border Patrol, up from about 3,000 a few years ago.
“The right answer” to staffing the Border Patrol, McCaffrey said, “is 42,000. We’ve got to fence the borders. Homeland security is a disaster. If I were in charge of al-Qaida, we’d be in trouble.”
He also said some sort of tamper-proof national identification system is needed.
http://origin1.montereyherald.com/news/ci_9167442
I agree with some of what the general says, but I’m not sure about the fence. Maybe later, but right now Homeland Security is talking like the fence is all they are going to do (if they do that) - which amounts to absolutely a lot of expensive nothing.
Yes, we need more border security, but interior enforcment - against employers who hire illegals, traffic laws that allow them to drive with fake ID, cut out the welfare, etc. They could catch many if they would simply demand legal documentation of those wiring money out of the country. Of course, I’m all for taxing money siphoned off our economy, but that’s another story.
It bothers me when anyone thinks an ID will fix anything. Any ID the government can create, someone can copy. I’m thinking there would be copies on the streets before citizens received their legal ones.
It amazes me that few, who have access to the media, even suggests that we try enforcing the laws already on our books. WE have very good laws that will fix a large part of the problem, yet it they are always touting new laws and regulations, rather than giving existing ones a chance.
Yes, the Border Patrol needs more men, and they need to be able to do their work without fear of being imprisonsed.
As for domestic welfare - smokescreen again. Only if one is discussing the fact that it enables illegals to remain in this country, it has no bearing on the problem.
We have plenty of homegrown problems, and homegrown miscreants - we do not need to import more.
The general is right, just my opinion, that we are not paying attention to our border. I’m thinking they want to pretend we do not have a border, especially with Mexico. That way we will accept the SPP, North American Union, etc., and the new money, more readily
I am just as liberal as they come. Most of you’d probably hate me with a passion (I couldn’t care less though). I used to think George Bush was despicable and evil until I saw the proof of hiim being involved in 9-11, now I think he’s the devil incanate. I believe we should tax the rich and subsidize the poor and middle class. I think gay marriage should not only be legal in all 50 states, but should be encouraged too. I believe gay acceptance should be taught in all grades in all schools, public and private. And blah blah blah… I don’t think any of you reading this really want to hear any more about how liberal I am and how proud I am of it.
However, I will say this: Why each of us aren’t able to go down to our border and defend it when the demon and Mexican-lover George Bush hasn’t done a damn thing other than lay out a big red welcome mat with a blinking red neon sign that says “Welcome Mexicans… Please invade our country and take whatever you want”, is beyond me. We should be able to use whatever arms we choose… whether it be shotguns, high-powered rifles with night scopes, crossbows, landmines, AK47s with exploding bullets, small thermonuclear devices, whatever…
Personally I wouldn’t be opposed to placing crucified bodies of caught Mexicans along the border to warn future invading hoardes of what could happen to them should they not turn back.
Heck we don’t even need to go through the trouble of going down there ourselves if the federal government would stop their needless corporate welfare giveaways and subsidies and tax breaks for the wealthy and the ridiculous spending in Iraq and tax breaks for shipping jobs to China. All we’d have to do is simply build a two-layer electrified fence topped with razor wire and then built and retrofitted some of those nifty devices the East German government used to use in between the areas with double fences between East and West Germany back in the day. Just how expensive would it be to build automatic submachine guns mounted on tripods with solar-powered motion detectors? Place them every couple hundred feet and voila! Problem solved.
If we really wanted to be creative, we could build a third fence layer and between it and the other fence, build a moat and stock it full of gators (would they live alongside pirhanas?). Or fill it with abortion-inducing chemicals so that the pregnant Mexicans would then #### out their little brown cockroaches, away from hospitals where we’d have to pay for another anchor baby, and they’d thus become coyote food.
Like I said, I’m about as leftist and liberal as they come (oh, forgot to mention, I’m also an ex-conservative and recovering Repugnican too… what can I say? We all learn from our mistakes and grow as we get older and the more we learn), but the fact that we as a country are ignoring what is nothing less than a foreign invasion hell-bent on turning America into an extension of Mexico is absolutely appalling.
Don’t people realize that these Mexicans are being spurred to emigrate to the US illegally by the Mexican government? Don’t people realize that they intend to take what is basically the western third of the U.S. under what they call their “reconquista” (reconquest)? They call the western part of the U.S. “Aztlan”. Don’t people care that cities like Miami, San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Cruces, Albuquerque, El Paso, Brownsville and others are already lost? Don’t people care that these Mexicans are shitting out “anchor babies” and being encouraged to do so by pro-Mexican/anti-White pro-Aztlan websites and radical groups like Mecha so that it will be virtually impossible to send the illegals back and will most likely be granted citizenship eventually under any future amnesty bill, just like how millions of these illegals were granted amnesty in 1986, which was supposed to be the end of the catastrophe of uncontrolled immigration? Don’t people care that we have to support these invaders as they send whatever money they make back to Mexico? (they live together like rats and pack single-bedroom apartments with 10-15 people and drive down property values as they clog all available parking spots with their dirty, rusty broken-down jalopies and their innumerable filthy grease-covered spiclet kids spill out into the streets). Don’t people care that many other cities are already at the tipping point? Just visit Santa Ana, CA if you want to see what awaits the rest of America if we don’t do something to arrest and reverse this invasion.
You may say that the Democrats are loathe to invest any money in squelching this horrific problem, but if you think the Repugnicans would do any better, just look at what that drunken idiot and pathological chronic liar George Dumbya Bush has done. He’s done nothing but allow more of them to come across the border. An average of 3,000 or 1,000,000 illegal immigrants invade the country EVERY SINGLE DAY and that Mexican-lover sitting in the White House seems to just love the fact that our country is being invaded by criminals who want to destroy our culture, our language, economy, hospitals, social welfare system, drive down property values, take jobs away from Americans and even interbreed with white people and pollute our racial heritage.
Oh and it’s easy to get fake IDs and any documents you want so you can apply for government benefits. There’s a section in L.A. where they sell these things out in the open. It’s no secret at all about what’s going on. They have banners out advertising what they sell. Furthermore, the welfare offices where they distribute food stamps, welfare, AFDC, etc., employs Hispaniels in huge numbers (they have to because they are bilingual and such huge numbers of the applicants only speak Spanish they have to have bilingual employees). The Hispaniel employees discriminate against white applicants and give favorable treatment to other Hispaniels, bending the rules for them but throwing up roadblock after roadblock for the white applicants. In central Orange County, CA, many of the applicants are Vietnamese, so the employees in the offices there have to speak Vietnamese. Again, they give favorable treatment to them (because of the language and cultural connection). While I don’t know that the Vietnamese discriminate against white applicants, I do know for an absolute fact that the Hispanics discriminate against white applicants in both Orange County, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties.
Go ahead and call me a racist all you want. I couldn’t care less. I’m damn proud of my race and it makes me ill to see it being destroyed right in front of my eyes, overrun, and trashed by lawless criminal foreign invaders. But what is unforgivable are our very own countrymen who not only do not see the destruction happening right in front of us, but are acting as their apologists as well. These individuals are simply known as race traitors.
Corrections:
That should have read: “An average of 3,000 illegal immigrants invade the country EVERY SINGLE DAY or 1,000,000 per year”
And “...Hispanics discriminate against white applicants in (at the very minimum) Orange County, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties”.
Wyatt, boy you are worked up there.
Those that say it’s the Dem aren’t remembering that this was one of the first stated goals of this President when he came into office. He has been in charged of the people who could fix it and hasn’t.
We could fix it, though, and it won’t take a fence, or any of the things you mentioned.
We need to withhold our monies from the companies that are employing the illegals - one industry at a time.
If we, all those who know how destructive this is, would simply keep our money when it came to buying their products - one industry at a time, in a coordinated way, we could fix this. But sadly, this kind of things needs a tough person to coordinate it. We need to quit making excuses for these companies and suggest, ‘well, they are trying’, etc.
I once asked a person who was running a website against illegal immigration if I could post something trying to get this started and he said, ‘we don’t want to hurt American business’. He didn’t answer when I told him American business was hurting us.
We could do it - we really could.
It has nothing whatsoever to do with race, we have US citizens of all colors, ancestry, etc. It’s about right and wrong and about preserving the union.
Of course, the Mexican government is helping them. They get to get rid of their people, many poor and criminals, and they send back an amount that is the second income for the country - just behind their oil income.
This isn’t a Democratic or Republican failure...it’s both! And it’s upheld by the President and Congress too.
Our government seems unable to care, or do anything to prevent this. I’m not sure why. Perhaps the Mexican government is holding something over our heads? Does it have something to do with the drug cartels that come through the Mexican borders from South America?
We have given money to Mexico’s corrupt government for years - until now, I think they are loaning it to us.
Our government knows the citizens don’t want this amnesty or invasion, and yet continues to allow it, even planning to grant them drivers licenses and amnesty.
Of course strengthening our borders would prevent it. It isn’t about the costs of fencing or guards - we spend money like it is endless, and it seems to be.
So, what major factor are we all overlooking that our government would proceed against all our wills??
Loral, you are so right. I cringe when I hear people talking about illegal immigration and then say it’s the Democrats. Those haven’t been paying attention to what this President has plainly stated he intended to do, and what he has done.
My thinking -
In order to bring the US into the global/corporate government, it will have to be weakened. We have to be brought down from within.
That can be done by diluting the US citizenry with people who have no allegiance to this country, but rather will vote as dictated by their home country, or corporations. That is the push for keeping them here, giving them amnesty and the vote, and perhaps getting them elected to decision making positions in this country.
This President’s father, in an interview I saw, said that his son’s goal was a Western Hemisphere Union, from Canada to the tip of South America. He said it would be (not verbatim), an area with no borders with people and commerce moving freely within. I haven’t heard anything else about it - but this was before the war. They had to keep the desire for amnesty, etc., on the back burner for a while because of the war.
After a meeting of the Organization of American States in Mexico, and they didn’t announce anything like that, I was surprised. Then the lambasting of Chavez began. I am not talking about whether he (Chavez) is a communist, a socialist, or generally a bad person, but there has been a concerted effort to single him out as a bad, and he certainly plays into that idea with his antics and rhetoric.
I began to think maybe Chavez was the one that threw a monkey wrench into this President’s plan for a large union. It was pretty much confirmed when I saw Fox on a news program talking about Chavez and he was saying that Chavez was being obstinate about trade and was not working with the others on trade.
So, we then get CAFTA and the idea of a North American Union. It is going to be put in place, a little at a time.
Chavez is getting his own little ‘union’ going. It may not be a question of ‘if’ we will get this union - but who is going to be top dog. That may be the problem.
I’m pretty sure that is the reason for the importing of illegals and the absolute determination to NOT enforce our laws. It has had destructive effects on so many segments of this country - and worst of all - it has created an atmosphere of lawlessness. When laws get ignored, when everyone sees they are being broken, then people began to lose respect for all laws.
If our laws were enforced, as written, many of the illegals would return home. They do come to make money, if they can’t work, can’t get freebies, they will go home. If the employers will get fined, big time, they will find US workers.
But again, we can fix it. It is just that the people of this country can’t really seem to get together. The fix will not come from the government - 30 years of their protecting, supporting and encouraging this should tell us something. Anything the government does will be to protect the situation, not make fix it.
In a much darker vein, drugs may very well be the reason the borders are open. There is more money in the commerce of drugs than anything. Lots of people get a cut along the way before this poison makes it into the bodies and minds of people.
Well Wyatt’s obviously insane, but the rest of you aren’t far behind with your irrationality.
Enjoy your little echo chamber here. It’s obviously impossible to reason with the irrational on this issue.
My bad and my apologies for not accepting that fact earlier.
If this were just a Dem thingy, then the Prez would grant a release the border agents held prisoners for wounding a drug dealer. Truth is both parties want this North American Union. NAFTA has done so much for us already.
Razz, I’m agreeing with you.
John, face it, there are no facts, no truths to support illegal immigration.
It’s wrong, it’s illegal, it’s destructive.
No amount of emotional mantra, or denials of what is happening will make it so.
The cat is out of the bag now, thanks to the internet, people who once felt entirely alone, are getting together and speaking to each other. Despite the media, the politicians and other organizations trying to hide this travesty - it’s been ‘outed’.
Whether we go the other mile and get together to counteract it or not, we shall see.
Here’s a guy that wants to open the doors so that our young lib-buddy understands more clearly.
He’ll be paying the “Poor Tax” IF he has a job.
“Operation Wetback, No!Operation Go Back, Yes!”
I am a female who in 1973 joined the United States Army National Guards in my state of Louisiana. And I along with millions of Americans am appalled at what our elected-sell-out-officials are doing to this blessed nation. And as a citizen you wonder what can you do to help take our country back.
I’ve created “Operation Go Back” At, http://www.OperationGoBack.com, site. I got the idea from Pres. Eisenhower Operation Wetback program he carried out in 1954. And Go Back, is what Americans want all illegal aliens to do.
This website will give Americans ideas on what they can do in their areas, sorta like a how to site. T-Shirts expressing how we feel as Americans are at http://www.cafepress.com/OperationGoBack , click the link and to see them, and I would like to know what you think of them.
We’ll be giving ideas on how to get ALL illegal aliens to Go Back to their own countries. Presently ICE is promoting a voluntary self repatriation program that has little success. Maybe they just need a little help. I think these shirts silently but, specifically say GO BACK, in a respectful way.
I would like to ask for your help in getting the word out about “Operation Go Back”? Two of our former presidents sent back millions of illegal aliens and so can we. Pres. Eisenhower took a page from Pres. Hoover playbook and did,
“Operation Wetback” and we can do “Operation Go Back”!
Telling all illegal aliens they must Go Back to their countries and do it right. Thank you for all you do for this country too!
http://www.operationgoback.com/
Wonderful work Ritchie
Please join and post!
http://www.jihadchat.com/index.php?showforum=7
The American construction industry scrambled for illegals. $8/ hour no habla English.
$10. habla English.
About 70,000 skilled trades Americans are OUT OF WORK. Many in foreclosure.
American Victims of Illegals!
May 27 at 2:45 pm | #1 | Link
Sorry, I couldn’t read the entire story - I’ve heard it all before -
So, ‘Journalist Sympathizes With Illegal Aliens’ - what’s new there.
The journalists, the entire media has been making sure the facts don’t get out for 30 years now. They have pretended it didn’t exist - except for touchy-feely stories about illegals.
Again, What’s new????