Pro-immigration demonstrators at a rally outside City Hall in Los Angeles on Saturday. The majority of immigrants from Mexico and Central America believe that discrimination is rising, a poll says.
AP/Reed Saxon
Posted on 08/19/2007 10:06:46 AM PDT by Dubya
WASHINGTON -- The debate over illegal immigration has ceased in Congress, but almost nowhere else.
Widespread concerns about the impact of illegal immigration on jobs, social services and national security continues to generate intense rhetoric. And some see a dark side emerging, evident in growing discrimination against Hispanics and a surge of xenophobia unseen since the last big wave of immigration in the early 20th century.
"I don't think there's been a time like this in our lifetime," said Doris Meissner of the Migration Policy Institute and former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. "Even though immigration is always unsettling and somewhat controversial, we haven't had this kind of intensity and widespread, deep-seated anger for almost 100 years."
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, said the number of "nativist extremist" organizations fighting illegal immigration has gone from almost zero about five years ago to 144; nine are classified as hate groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan supremacists.
Some senators who participated in the midsummer debate over President Bush's unsuccessful immigration bill said they were barraged with some of the most venomous mail of their congressional careers. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who supported the bill legalizing undocumented immigrants, said he has received death threats.
"It is unbelievable how this has inflamed the American people," McCain said in an speech Thursday at the Aspen Institute in Colorado.
Eighty-three percent of immigrants from Mexico and 79 percent of immigrants from Central America believe that there is growing discrimination against Latin American immigrants in the United States, according to a poll conducted by the Miami-based Bendixen & Associates.
Instead of taking a downturn after the collapse of Bush's immigration overhaul in June, the debate over illegal immigration has seemingly escalated. As prospects for congressional action appeared increasingly in doubt, all 50 states and more than 75 towns and cities considered -- and in many cases enacted -- immigration restrictions, even though the courts thus far have declared such actions unconstitutional intrusions on federal responsibilities.
The slayings of three college students in Newark reignited calls for a clampdown on illegal immigration after the disclosure that one of the suspects, Jose Lachira Carranza, was an illegal immigrant from Peru who was free on bail awaiting trial on assault and child rape charges.
The case revitalized an argument made during the congressional debate that the flow of illegal immigrants, though predominated by job-seekers lured by the prospect of higher wages and better conditions, includes a criminal element.
A coalition of 15 anti-illegal-immigration groups accused Newark's and New Jersey's governments of "negligent complicity" in the deaths through inadequate law enforcement. The protest was organized by Dallas attorney David Marlett.
The Bush administration, in the absence of the sweeping overhaul sought by the president, moved this month to toughen enforcement of existing laws, threatening steeper penalties against employers and more vigorous work-site inspections.
Pro-immigration demonstrators at a rally outside City Hall in Los Angeles on Saturday. The majority of immigrants from Mexico and Central America believe that discrimination is rising, a poll says.
AP/Reed Saxon
I just like to know who I'm dealing with.
In fact, it has nothing to do with race, it's about not breaking the law.
The powers-that-be are licking their wounds from this last loss & they are still determined to advance their agenda. We may have won a battle, but we've still got a whole war to fight.
That people can come to this country illegally and march down our streets shaking their fists at us in a demand for rights is the biggest crime of all.
No matter where you stand on this immigration issue, the public at large is really getting fed up with iilegals killing, raping and committing other serious crimes against Americans when they could have and should have been deprted.
Xenophobia my a$$. 'Illegal alien rights' outrage surge more like it. I don't care if they're from Mars, if they ain't here legally, get the hell out.
Illegal immigrants cross the U.S./Mexico border.
WASHINGTON — Seven weeks after the collapse of legislation in Congress, the outcry against illegal immigration is louder than ever, manifested by proposed clampdowns at the state and local level and an uproar over the arrest of an undocumented immigrant in the execution-style slayings of three New Jersey college students.
Scores of organizations, ranging from mainstream to fringe groups, are marshalling forces in what former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls "a war here at home" against illegal immigration, which he says is as important as America’s conflicts being fought overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.
EXCERPT
Behind this one-sided diatribe and race-baiting yellow journalism is this one fact, and it is a hopeful sign:
"The debate over illegal immigration has ceased in Congress, but almost nowhere else."
People are slowly waking up to this illegal invasion as it spreads into every corner of America. The 40 million illegals (forget the 12-20 million number that has been floated around since the 2000 Census, seven long years ago) are definitely NOT living in the shadows.
The amnesty ploy was an attempt to get this pass the public before they caught on to what was really going on . It failed.
Let's see how many politicians in next year's presidential and congressional races want to campaign on the issue "I support more illegal aliens and amnesty for those already here."
Accused my ass, the negligent complicity of their dingbat prosecutor is a fact.
You are right. It has NOTHING (zilch, nada, zero) to do with race. I don’t care if they’re Mexican, Honduran, British, Irish, or Martian. It has EVERYTHING to do with LAW. What part of “illegal” don’t they understand?
Illegal is not a race. Repeat as needed.
I agree. Sort of.
Never have we had 80% of our immigrants, legal or not, come from one culture/race.
Never have we had immigrants, legal or not, march in our streets waving flags from their home countries demanding capitulation from our social structure and institutions.
Never have we had a group of immigrants, legal or not, demand that our government cater to them in their own language.
Never have we had so many groups of people bent on using these immigrants, legal or not, to usurp the laws of our country.
Never have we had millions of illegal aliens invade our country en masse.
Never have we had our vote diluted by the presence of illegals used in counting population and determining representation in D.C.
Never have we had our social services, hospitals and schools systems stretched to the breaking point by illegals who see no need to learn English.
Never have we had our elected officials, so intent on remaining in power, that they have chosen to ignore the needs of the many for the needs of the very few.
Never before have we been told that our patriotism and love for our country is actually a negative to our national psyche.
She is right. Never before has the melting pot been, instead, a smelting pot used to divide us so as to weaken our national spirit in the name of politics.
KEERIST, what next?
Good analysis.
Sanctuary cities: getting what they deserve!
even if some of the victims didn’t have any clue that voting for Democrats
...or some bad Republicans...that supported santuary city-status was
just the same as signing their own death warrants.
I thought that was a musical instrument lol
Mexican immigrant Margarito Rodriguez hasn’t needed his white, cowboy-shaped hard hat much this summer.
After five weeks without a construction job, he finally found one in mid-July.
“There was not a lot of work,” said Rodriguez, who blamed some of the slowdown on the soggy summer but most of it on a drop in home construction.
Construction has slowed because it has gotten harder for home buyers to get credit in the wake of the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market.
Illegal immigrants, in particular, are bearing the brunt of that slowdown, losing their jobs painting, laying tile and building roofs for new homes, economists said. And with less cash in their pockets, some immigrants such as Rodriguez — who is working on his legal status — are cutting back on the amount they send to relatives in Latin America. That, in turn, has contributed to the first year-over-year monthly declines in remittances to Mexico in 12 years, according to Banco de Mexico.
EXCERPT
Eighty-three percent of immigrants from Mexico and 79 percent of immigrants from Central America believe that there is growing discrimination against Latin American immigrants in the United States
They forgot the word ILLEGAL......again, and if they feel that discriminated against they should go home. They weren’t invited to our party anyway.
As an Anti-Illegal Alien supporter I have been called every
name in the book, that is, every name except one, American!
Yes, I am a proud American who resents the wholesale invasion of my country by unwashed, illiterate aliens who take and take our hard-earned tax dollars in free services and give me the middle finger when we speak up against them.
God, how I dream of the day when a real leader emerges, takes charge and kicks every last one of them out!
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, said the number of "nativist extremist" organizations fighting illegal immigration ALIENS has gone from almost zero.....
Always read "illegal aliens" when reading on this subject. Immigrants are legal. Aliens are not. "Illegal Immigrants" ("immigration") is an oxymoron.
LLS
Whine, bitch and moan, MSM. "Discrimination"??? You ain't seen nothin' yet.
Precisely. A "surge of xenophobia unseen since the last big wave of immigration"; "hate groups"; "'nativist extremist' organizations fighting illegal immigration"...and on and on.
Translation: Everyone who opposes illegal--repeat, illegal--immigration is motivated by evil sentiments.
The author of this Star-Telegram article, Dave Montgomery, is pulling out all the big guns here. The usual ones.
....and in other news......a few of the dead Americans lost THIS week (either killed or being tried) to illegal aliens .....
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2007/08/update-list-of-victims-of-illegal.html
(List here, please add to it if you know of others)
Kernal Rehobson
Dani “D.J.” Countryman, 16
Dashon Harvey, 20
Terrance Aeriel, 18
Iofemi Hightower, 20
Tenesha Williams
S.J. Williams
Xavier Brown, 2
Ben Leonard, 16
Megan Hughes, 22
Jennifer Carter
Martin Ruffin
James Cronin
Paul Watry, 17
Steve Tocco
alicewonders wrote: “In fact, it has nothing to do with race, it’s about not breaking the law.”
Although law is an important aspect, I believe culture is another factor.
See, I don’t want America to turn into Mexico or some other Latin American country. I also wouldn’t want it to turn into Germany, or China, or any other foreign country.
Legal immigration is great, but if the law is the only reason why you don’t want foreigners to immigrate here, the law is easily changed.
In my opinion, legal immigration is great only so long as those who come here adopt the majority culture and do not try to change it to match their home country.
When large numbers of immigrants, legal or otherwise, come here from a single or few countries without assimilating, we are threatening the very culture that made America great and provided the opportunities the immigrants themselves seek.
"It is unbelievable how this has inflamed the American people," McCain saidNo. What's unbelievable is that McStain, coming from Arizona, finds our anger unbelievable.
Ever wonder why your campaign crashed and burned, Juan?
Using the phrase “undocumented” is Orwellian speak for government’s failure to provide the legal document, while “illegal” places guilt on the individual.
“Of all states that is the worst whose rulers no longer enjoy an authority sufficiently extensive for everyone to obey them with good grace, but in which their authority over a part of their subjects is sufficiently large to enable them to constrain others.” ~~Bertrand de Jouvenal, “Sovereignty”
I think some of Americas xenophobia and paranoia of non-Americans has abated some. My daily commute this past week yielded a tally of fewer than 50 Mexicans hanging from oaks large and small.
The cross burnings have plummeted to near zero, and the nightly gunplay no longer sounds like Baghdad.
People hare have become jaded and bored with goring or bayonetting practice of illegals, very few are ever disembowled, and I have not seen a head on a pike in at least a month.
So all in all, I think La Raza and other racist anti-American and communist organizations should be quite pleased with the charity most citizens extend to their despicable and anticonstitutional assaults on our freedom.
Always read "illegal aliens" when reading on this subject. Immigrants are legal. Aliens are not. "Illegal Immigrants" is an oxymoron.
I'm not picking on you. I'm picking on the expression "illegal immigration". I'd love to wipe it from our heads and replace it with the real issue of "illegal aliens". Thanks for letting me use your comment as a correcting tool.
I get the first three letters. Help this dummy out and fill in the rest so I can adopt this obvious “slam” too. It’s so pretty and I know I will like all of it. : )
He works for the Fort Worth Star Telegram which I am ashamed to say is my hometown newspaper. I don’t know if they are part of the McLatchy group.
He is just trying to stir the pot. Part of the propaganda of the left.
The truth is the illegals are illegals. They are criminals while here in the US. They have no rights as American citizens. They need to go back to their own countries and prove they are worthy citizens there. Why they are not proud of their own countries is beyond me? Why they degrade themselves with pity and shame is also beyond me.
Target practice, Dubya
Sounds like it, huh. :)
And government funded to boot.
Insanity.
My response to Ms. Doris Meissner; "This isn't immigration. It's invasion. Immigration is a legal process regulated by a sovereign nation. No matter what you call them, the people you refer to are not immigrants, they are illegal alien invaders not participating in any legal process."
"We, The People", are furious because our country is being invaded by illegal aliens and our government is aiding and abetting the invasion! Ms. Meissner, your comments not only identify you as part of the problem but also quite possibly a traitor aiding the invasion of your country.
Many are involved in fighting against gay marriage, but they uniformly attack the tactics of Fred Phelps and his group of wackos.
Those who attach themselves to the illegal immigration issue and use it as a means to spread a message of hatred of hispanics or other groups should also be denounced. None of these people are friends of the conservative cause.
Ditto!!!!
Response: A symptom of the underlying sickness, "debate," "Discussion," etc.
I don’t think you are entirely wrong but you are not entirely correct either. I had a Canadian pastor friend who came here on a vise and then obtained a green card. He was here legally and classfied as a “resident alien.”
Why is it divisive?
I think that our legal immigration needs a good looking at.
I agree that McCain’s campaign deserved to tank, but conservatives should uniformly denounce whenever death threats are made against a candidate. Anger is understandable, death threats are not.
This is surely correct. The progressives' faith in "multiculturalism" only masks their deep hatred for American culture: It is said to be "oppressive" and unduly "parochial" to try to "impose our values" upon other cultures.
I am very much in favor of legal immigration--but, as you indicated, with the important stipulation that immigrants should assimilate, rather than declare themselves hyphenated-Americans.
“Never have we had 80% of our immigrants, legal or not, come from one culture/race.
Never have we had immigrants, legal or not, march in our streets waving flags from their home countries demanding capitulation from our social structure and institutions.
Never have we had a group of immigrants, legal or not, demand that our government cater to them in their own language.
Never have we had so many groups of people bent on using these immigrants, legal or not, to usurp the laws of our country.
Never have we had millions of illegal aliens invade our country en masse.
Never have we had our vote diluted by the presence of illegals used in counting population and determining representation in D.C.
Never have we had our social services, hospitals and schools systems stretched to the breaking point by illegals who see no need to learn English.
Never have we had our elected officials, so intent on remaining in power, that they have chosen to ignore the needs of the many for the needs of the very few.
Never before have we been told that our patriotism and love for our country is actually a negative to our national psyche.
She is right. Never before has the melting pot been, instead, a smelting pot used to divide us so as to weaken our national spirit in the name of politics.
You nailed it, but it won’t end up in the paper or television.
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