Posted on 09/15/2009 10:22:28 PM PDT by ruination
Reporting from Mexico City - He may have soared a gazillion miles in outer space, but back here on Earth, U.S. astronaut Jose Hernandez has stepped knee-deep in controversy.
Hernandez, the California-born son of Mexican immigrants, is a full-fledged media star in Mexico. Fans here followed his every floating, gravity-free move during two weeks recently as he Twittered from the Discovery space shuttle mission and gave live interviews to local TV programs.
After the shuttle returned to this planet last week, Hernandez told Mexican television that he thought the United States should legalize the millions of undocumented immigrants living there so that they can work openly in the U.S. because they are important to the economy.
Officials at NASA flipped. They hastened to announce that Hernandez was speaking for himself and only for himself.
"It all became a big scandal," Hernandez told television viewers Tuesday. "Even the lawyers were speaking to me."
Hernandez was back on Mexican network Televisa's popular morning chat show, where he has seemingly been a fixture, to update host Carlos Loret de Mola on how he was adapting back on Earth.
Loret de Mola asked Hernandez, 47, about the controversy, and the astronaut said he stood by what he had said a day earlier on the same program, advocating comprehensive immigration reform -- a keenly divisive issue in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
It’s not an “FU,” it’s a “take what you can get.”
Should have been left behind on that mission.
Somewhere, Bill Dana is laughing his ass off.
it would be a good idea to send ALL the illegal immigrants into space.
OK, I’ll be the first:
“My name...Jose Jimenez!”
He is an American and his countrymen are Americans. As far as I know, there are no Americans in the US illegally.
It’s not an “FU,” it’s a “take what you can get.”
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That’s right. Next trip up into space, if he could get away with it, he’d wear a Mexican flag patch on his shoulder.
Used to be, most “citizens” wanted to be “Americans”!
Sorry, I guess you beat me with the Bill Dana comment.
I used to cry laughing at his Jose Jimenez routines.
NASA doesn’t like controversy.
This will be his last space flight.
The guy was a real hoot!
I didn’t even know there was another flight in space until this story. Looks like this will be his last mission. Some idiots just couldn;t shut up..
They should arrest and deport his illegal alien parents and maybe he would shut up.
NASA has become the post office of space. A jobs program. NASA ended when Von Bruan and his German engineers retired.
Why doesn’t he stay in corrupt Mexico?
Hernandez has a right to his opinion. I question why:
1. He doesn't take his knowledge to Mexico to help out there?
2. He doesn't petition Mexico to allow non citizens to own property (it would help their economy)
3. He allows "feelings" to overcome law (could be risky in space)
4. Can the immigrants work openly at Mexican wages?
This guy is given the chance to travel to space on an American space craft, built and paid for by American discipline, creativity and hard work, and he returns the favor by using his fame as an astronaut to publically call for legalization of millions of his countrymen illegally the U.S. Strikes me as a big F U to our country.
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My Gawd - now they are invading the ISS ...
I wonder ... how high can we build a border fence - hmmmm ???
This jerk probably spent too much time on space walks with a leak in his hat. Clearly, his brain is toast.
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