Posted on 03/22/2008 12:08:09 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
AUSTIN - A proposed detention facility for suspected illegal immigrants was labeled a "holding pen for wetbacks" on a public meeting agenda written by a rural city council member.Charles Laws, 75, apologized Thursday for using the derogatory term but defied calls from state lawmakers and officials in nearby Austin for him to resign as Mustang Ridge's mayor pro tem and as general manager of a local water supply company.
"If I hadn't been in such a hurry I would have said ‘illegals' or something like that, but that's a term that I grew up with out here and everybody said it," Laws told Austin television station KVUE.
In an another interview Thursday with News 8 Austin, Laws said he shouldn't have used the word before adding, "Illegals, I want them to send back as soon as possible."
The slur was posted on a board meeting agenda Wednesday for the Creedmoor-Maha Water Supply Corp., which has contracts with the city of Austin and supplies water to nearby communities. Among the items was discussion over providing water to the proposed detention facility.
Mustang Ridge is a town of about 900 people, located about 20 miles south of Austin. The area is home to several heavily Hispanic neighborhoods, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
"I think it's my duty, not only as a state representative but a Mexican American, to do whatever I can to get this man to resign," state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez said at a news conference with other public leaders.
Mike Martinez, an Austin city council member, said "having someone become defensive about their use of this language, holding a public office is unacceptable in 2008."
Laws said he had no plans to step down from his positions.
"I'm sorry if I offended anybody. I didn't mean anything by it," Laws told KVUE. "But, no, I'm not resigning. I don't do what Austin tells me to do."
Incredible. What an amazing new strategy, and why not? Groveling only seems to whet your enemy’s appetite. Who’da thunk it?
Depends, is that just "wetback" or the far worse "Typical wetback"?
Regards, a whitey.
Operation Wetback
In 1949 the Border Patrol seized nearly 280,000 illegal immigrants. By 1953, the numbers had grown to more than 865,000, and the U.S. government felt pressured to do something about the onslaught of immigration. What resulted was Operation Wetback, devised in 1954 under the supervision of new commissioner of the Immigration and Nationalization Service, Gen. Joseph Swing.
Swing oversaw the Border patrol, and organized state and local officials along with the police. The object of his intense border enforcement were "illegal aliens," but common practice of Operation Wetback focused on Mexicans in general. The police swarmed through Mexican American barrios throughout the southeastern states. Some Mexicans, fearful of the potential violence of this militarization, fled back south across the border. In 1954, the agents discovered over 1 million illegal immigrants.
In some cases, illegal immigrants were deported along with their American-born children, who were by law U.S. citizens. The agents used a wide brush in their criteria for interrogating potential aliens. They adopted the practice of stopping "Mexican-looking" citizens on the street and asking for identification. This practice incited and angered many U.S. citizens who were of Mexican American descent. Opponents in both the United States and Mexico complained of "police-state" methods, and Operation Wetback was abandoned.
http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/history/timeline/20.html
“crackers”, “rednecks”, “honkies”....
No. But whites are all racists, so they can’t speak, didn’t you know?
That council member shouldn’t resign because he said that, at all.
Where’s Teddy Roosevelt when you need him? He’d buy that man a beer.
Is that because they are "typical?"
***In some cases, illegal immigrants were deported along with their American-born children, who were by law U.S. citizens.***
They’re US citizens by some twisted interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
Obama: “Typical white guy.” < /sarcasm>
Well what is the state of someone who crosses the riogrande without a boat? They certainly aren’t drybacks.
After Ol'Slick stopped the carnage in Rwanda
After Ol' Slick's sec of state solved the N.Korean problem
After Ol' Slick got "Our boys home by Christmas" from
After Ol' Slick's absorption re Osama got Osama killed
Feel free to go add your own revised history....
I am surprised there isn’t rage over the wet foot/dry foot policy in Sout Florida. /s
“But, no, I’m not resigning. I don’t do what Austin tells me to do.”
Um....Silly me. I always thought that elected officials were SUPPOSED to do what the voters wanted.
How naive of me.
Sad, but true for names will break my bones however sticks and stones will never hurt me.
But now, the town is majority Mexican and he hates that.
It makes him feel better to call them wetbacks. It makes him feel even better to use the phrase "holding pen" because holding pens are for animals and wetbacks(and all Mexicans) are animals.
In fact, the cornerstone of the anti-immigration movement is to sub-humanize the immigrants(legal and illegal).
César Chávez, an opponent of the Bracero Program was the first person to use the term ‘wetback’ on national television in reference to illegal aliens who swam across the Rio Grande from Mexico.
He’s in Mustang Ridge, not Austin, Texas.
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