Posted on 07/03/2007 4:01:40 AM PDT by theothercheek
In a classic application of bottom-up management denizens of small towns let their elected representatives in Washington D.C. know exactly how they expected them to handle the compromised immigration compromise bill that neither secured our borders, nor was any more enforceable than previous legislation it was meant to "fix."
Earlier waves of immigrants – legal and illegal – flocked to CA, , FL, IL, NJ, NY and TX ("gateway" states) but have been dispersing across a wider swath of the U.S. since 2000. The foreign-born, non-English speaking populations of DE, GA, IN, NE, NV and SC have exploded, say demographers, with the "newcomers" (as President Bush is wont to call them) preferentially settling in (some say, overrunning) small towns and sleepy suburbs. And people who live in these places saying, "enough!"
Here’s what Stephanie Usrey, 39, a stay-at-home mother who lives in Gainesville, GA, tells The Washington Post about the "aha" moment she had at a local Wal-Mart about five years ago:
"That was the first time I looked around and said, 'Man, I didn't realize how many Mexicans there were here.' And they don't seem to feel any discomfort when they're, like, six inches from your face and talking to each other in their language, either. I just felt very encroached upon. . . . It was like an instant feeling of 'I'm in the minority, and if we don't get control over this, pretty soon all of America will be outnumbered.'"
Spurred into activism by talk-radio Usrey and tens of thousands others like her in small towns all across the U.S. "bombarded their senators with phone calls and e-mails decrying the bill as an unacceptable amnesty for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants," says the WaPo. And they didn’t let up till they got results:
Nowhere were the bill's opponents more influential than here in Georgia, whose two Republican senators, Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, originally helped craft the legislation. Two days after its unveiling in May, Chambliss was booed at his state's Republican convention. Isakson's office received more than 21,000 calls from opponents of the bill, compared with 6,000 from supporters.
[B]oth Georgia senators voted to kill the bill they once supported.
Another example of bottom-up management: With the federal government unable or unwilling to enforce existing immigration laws, small town governments, like Hazelton, PA, and Framers Branch, TX, took matters into their own hands by enacting local ordinances against businesses that hire illegal labor. And some local enforcement officials have decided to, well, enforce immigration law.
Panama City, FL, Sheriff Frank McKeithen, for one, has been targeting construction sites, and has arrested more than 500 illegal aliens and reported them to immigration officials since November. The Miami Herald reports:
The sheriff's department has developed a remarkably effective - and controversial - way of catching illegal immigrants: Deputies in patrol cars pull up to a construction site in force, and watch and see who runs.
Those who take off are chased down and arrested on charges such as trespassing, for cutting through someone else's property, or loitering, for hiding out in someone's yard, or reckless driving, for speeding off in a car.
U.S. immigration authorities are then given the names of those believed to be in this country illegally.
Immigrant advocates say the technique is repugnant, and the ACLU says its constitutionality is questionable. …
The sheriff said the raids are justified under a long-standing Florida law prohibiting employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
Such local initiatives are not going unnoticed by state legislatures, which are now going even further in attempting to curb illegal immigration, according to The WaPo:
By the time most legislatures adjourned in May, at least 1,100 immigration bills had been submitted by lawmakers, more than double last year's record total, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This year's total is expected to grow as the issue continues to dominate debate in statehouses still in session.
These laws limit illegal immigrants' ability to obtain jobs, find housing, get driver's licenses and receive many government services. They also empower state law enforcement agencies to inquire into an immigrant's legal status and hold for deportation those deemed to be here illegally. The idea is to make life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they will leave the state -- if not the country. …
At least 18 states have enacted laws concerning illegal immigrants. Most of the legislation is seen as punitive, and it reflects legislators' anger at the federal government's inability to seal the southern border and at provisions in the Senate bill that would allow the 12 million illegal immigrants already here a path to citizenship. …
[M]any states are increasingly frustrated at having to provide expensive services for illegal immigrants.
In a repudiation of the "sanctuary city" trend, local police in OK now train with federal authorities to learn how to find and capture illegal immigrants, and AZ is considering allowing officers to ask people they arrest whether they are U.S. citizens and to seize them if they don’t have valid documents to prove it.
OK also bars illegal immigrants from receiving public assistance, VA approved a proposal to withhold state and local funding from any non-profit group that uses the money to provide services to illegal immigrants and MA rejected a proposal that would have allowed illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition.
The Masters Of The Universe and the business community might not like it, but when marshaled, the will of the people is a force to be reckoned with.
I've been saying the same thing for some time, and the number grows by the day.
I had called Saxby Chambliss’ office and one of his aides called me back to discuss my e-mails and messages. Needless to say I let him have it. I then mentioned “anchor babies”. He was silent for a moment and said, “we don’t like to use the term anchor baby”. The people in our government have truly showed their a$$es on this one. It’s appalling.
That is exactly what we need to be doing.
They called you back???? Wow. I wonder if I’ll rate a call back?
Who do these elites think is sneaking across the border 24/7?
They are hardened criminals.......many with rap sheets a mile long.
In one upscale area infiltrated by these thieves, the crime rate has skyrocketed——one gang would enter a realty office pretending to be interested in home-buying.
Then one would ask to use the rest room——he’d go to the back of the office and find the room where realtor’s placed their purses-————yes, he stole all the cash and credit cards, and any other valuables available.
They were finally caught after several forays whan a BOLO was issued from police hdq.
Sounds like you need to make it known to the people who run that Wal-Mart the reason you don't shop there. It's more than a little ironic that businesses see the need to have Spanish-speaking people on hand for their illegal consumers, yet fail to make sure THEY HAVE ENGLISH SPEAKING EMPLOYEES as well. Wow.
No, it's not.
Chertoff needs to be fired for dereliction of duty, along with general incompetence.
My husband thought for sure I was going to be arrested. He thinks I am on a watch list. Believe me, I have been e-mailing and calling for years.
The past 2 years my son has been playing travel baseball. We are literally all over the state on the weekends. The mexicans have invaded just about every pocket of Georgia.
My brother is in law enforcement down here, he is not a beat cop, he works a lot with the feds. Georgia is a MAJOR drug corridor now and one of the biggest meth producing states in the country. Guess who’s doing all the cooking? It ain’t Bubba and his trailer trash friends.
I firmly believe that time is on our side. The more the American public becomes aware of the problem as it metastasizes throughout this country, the more amenable they will become towards an effective enforcement first approach and chainging our current immigration laws. This problem is the elephant in the room and growing larger every day. The people can be galvanized to take back this country from the political elites and interest groups. If they don't, we won't have the same country anymore.
“Even poverty here is not like poverty in Mexico, etc. There is a difference between poverty and squalor.”
Ain’t it the truth. I grew up on the Mexican border and spent a lot of time in Central Mexico.
I saw lots of people living in cardboard boxes and bathing in the Rio Grande.
The poor in America live like kings compared to so many in the world.
Gwinnett has really gone downhill, it feels like little Mexico now in some places.
We have Hispanic gangs in Gwinnet County (Georgia) that are beating up people wearing red shirts...gang color issue. Target and one of the office stores had to change the color shirt their employees wear. These were the people that the Masters of the Universe want to give legal status to-losers.
I am horrified by what has become of my town. Hwy 29 used to be the boundry, now they are pouring over like crazy. I stopped in the Walmart by Pleasant Hill and 29 in Lilburn, they don’t even carry the same brands as other stores. Most of the brands were mexican. It’s amazing, they have decimated school after school, like a plague. I’m going to Walton or Oconee county.
I actually live for the next two weeks in Cherokee County. My husband worked at the Doraville Plant. Doraville is closing by next summer. We are moving to Janesville Wisconsin. Most of the workers from Doraville lived in Gwinnett so I am familiar with the area. We looked 10 years ago and liked it very much, but we fell in love with Town Lake area of Cherokee. Cherokee had a building moratorium for a number of years after we kicked the rascals out of office so our builders were not able to put up cheap housing. However, some of the lake communities have suffered. I think in the end the property is worth so much being close to Alatoona that the little houses will be torn down. We have many illegals and have had problems, but nothing like Gwinnett.
They saved us!!
B U M P
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