Latino Fear and Loathing [This is gonna make you mad]

Yahoo ^ | May 25, 2007 | Linda Chavez

[Sleeping Beauty]

Some people just don't like Mexicans — or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans.

What is said today of the Mexicans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans and others was once said of Germans, Swedes, the Irish, Italians, Poles, Jews and others. The only difference is that in the past, the xenophobes could speak freely, unconstrained by a veneer of political correctness. Today, they speak more cautiously, so they talk about the rule of law, national security, amnesty, whatever else they think might make their arguments less racially charged.

Where once the xenophobes could advocate forced sterilization and eugenics coupled with virtually shutting off legal immigration from "undesirable" countries, now they must be content with building walls, putting troops on the border, rounding up illegal aliens on the job and deporting them, passing local ordinances to signal their distaste for immigrants' multi-family living arrangements, and doing whatever else they can to drive these people back where they came from.

There is no chance this small group of xenophobes will succeed. The victories of their predecessors have been short-lived and so obviously wrong-headed we've always finally abandoned them, from modifying and then repealing the Asian exclusion acts to scrapping the nationalities quotas. But we need to quit pretending that the "No Amnesty" crowd is anything other than what it is: a tiny group of angry, frightened and prejudiced loudmouths backed by political opportunists who exploit them.

[muawiyah]

McConnell's wife is Asian-American. She's in the category of those whose efforts to immigrate into America will become exceedingly limited.

The bill is simply the old national origins quotas system but with fewer "national origins" in it.

[calex59]

Deportation would consume about 2% of our annual domestic air lift capacity and could be done for about $137 per head per average trip to Mexico City. It's peanuts.

I concur.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Bless you. Politics is the art of the possible, and what really needs doing besides a border fence, is not possible.

Please do not put words in my mouth, FRiend.

I didn’t say the things I suggested weren’t possible; I said we don’t have the WILL to do them.

There’s a big difference.

[rollo tomasi]

Hey Chavez or any pro-illegal immigration government stooge that is lurking, I am just going by on what the Feds. promised in 1965.

As a reminder of what was said in 1965 ""Out of deference to the critics, I want to comment on … what the bill will not do. First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same …

Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset … Contrary to the charges in some quarters, S.500 will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and economically deprived nations of Africa and Asia. In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think.

Thirdly, the bill will not permit the entry of subversive persons, criminals, illiterates, or those with contagious disease or serious mental illness. As I noted a moment ago, no immigrant visa will be issued to a person who is likely to become a public charge … the charges I have mentioned are highly emotional, irrational, and with little foundation in fact. They are out of line with the obligations of responsible citizenship. They breed hate of our heritage."Edward Kennedy, Senator for life because of an ignorant electorate.

If the government is to be believed there are too many Hispanics and Mexicans that immigrated illegally here. In other words, your attempt to paint anti-illegal immigration Americans as racist is crass to say the least. Don't blame the "xenophobes" blame the 1965 Immigration Act proponents.

[rollo tomasi]

Hey Chavez or any pro-illegal immigration government stooge that is lurking, I am just going by on what the Feds. promised in 1965.

As a reminder of what was said in 1965 ""Out of deference to the critics, I want to comment on … what the bill will not do. First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same …

Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset … Contrary to the charges in some quarters, S.500 will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and economically deprived nations of Africa and Asia. In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think.

Thirdly, the bill will not permit the entry of subversive persons, criminals, illiterates, or those with contagious disease or serious mental illness. As I noted a moment ago, no immigrant visa will be issued to a person who is likely to become a public charge … the charges I have mentioned are highly emotional, irrational, and with little foundation in fact. They are out of line with the obligations of responsible citizenship. They breed hate of our heritage."Edward Kennedy, Senator for life because of an ignorant electorate.

If the government is to be believed there are too many Hispanics and Mexicans that immigrated illegally here. In other words, your attempt to paint anti-illegal immigration Americans as racist is crass to say the least. Don't blame the "xenophobes" blame the 1965 Immigration Act proponents.

[rollo tomasi]

Apologies for the double post.

[kcar]

Liberals always ignore the great big elephant sitting on the sofa. To assume equivalence for the current Mexicans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans and others versus what was once the Germans, Swedes, the Irish, Italians, Poles, Jews, is to ignore the critical question of legality. These new immigrants aren't opposed on racial or ethnic grounds, but because they broke our laws by coming here. Also, the numbers from Mexico in particular resemble an invasion more than a wave.

They're ILLEGAL and have shown their unworthiness as potential citizens by the violation of our laws. What's more many are socialists that expect to be taken care of at our hospitals, schools, and soon will want retirement services. I swore I'd never consider moving to a socialist country. Dang sure I don't want one moving here.

[Misterioso]

Mexico is a disaster.

http://newmediajournal.us/staff/fsalvato/usa/05252007.htm

[Inspectorette]

Mitch McConnell’s wife is Elaine Chao, current Secretary of Labor in the GWB administration.

[rottndog]

People who engage in race baiting are the worst racists of all.

Ms. Chavez, you racist, I hardly knew yee...(thank God)...

[ruination]

Two more differences between earlier generations of immigrants and modern Hispanic immigrants are that the latter are coming mostly from a country that

a) is contiguous with the U.S.

and

b) has a historical claim to our territory

[abercrombie_guy_38]

I helped with a yard sale yesterday and I was amazed by the differences in the Hispanics that stopped to take a look around and the eastern Europeans. One group spoke good English, were respectful and were obviously trying to assimilate into American society.

Guess who?

[BfloGuy]

Et tu, Linda?

[tarheelswamprat]

Linda Chavez is one of the White House’s designated ‘marginalizers’.

Correct. Chavez is neither ignorant nor stupid. This article is deliberate, calculated demagoguery.

[Joe Marine 76]

You’re exactly right!

My grandfather (Ma’s Pa)came to the US from County Cork, Ireland in 1905. He had to (1) have a sponsor, (2) have a job lined-up, and (3) give up his Irish-Gaelic language!

SEND ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS BACK FROM WHERE THEY CAME. ALL: IRISH, MEXICANS, COLUMBIANS, ENGLISH, CANADIANS...ALL!

I’m tired of being generous with MY TAX DOLLARS SUPPORTING ILLEGALS.... IT’S NOTHING BUT “ECONOMIC TERRORISM” IN MY HUMBLE OPINION.

[Niteflyr]

NO DEBATE MECESSARY!!

[Marauder]

I wonder how she explains all the Americans of Mexican descent who are against illegal immigration?

She was too busy playing the race card that she probably forgot about that small detail.

She placed herself down to Paul Krugman's level with this column, and I'm tired of being called a xenophobe when my concern - along, I'm sure with most everyone else, is national security.

I live in the southern tip of a border state, and I guarantee you if I had a problem with the Hispanic community, I'd realize that I was definitely in the wrong area for an attitude like that.

[Niteflyr]

oops....necessary! (damn fingers!)

[JasonC]

There's a strraaaawwww maaan, waiting in the sky...