‘Immigration’ lacks reasoned debate as leadership fails again

By Kay B. Day

Protesters on an Arizona street argued with a man filming the crowd, and when police tried to escort the man away for his safety, the protesters began to throw water bottles and other things at both the police and the man. Obviously tempers were not in check. Obviously, judging from the video, this confrontation began with a woman who appears to be a high strung type inciting the crowd.

Arizona’s new law addressing so-called ‘illegal immigrants’ is a response to a long-simmering issue both Republican and Democrat administrations have failed to address. [Article continues below video.]

This failure was not as conspicuous during boom times. As medical care dollars, low income housing units and other subsidies as well as law enforcement resources become stretched, the failure of the federal government to secure the country’s borders has stoked anger, frustration and fear in all quarters.

Border towns are especially concerned, in part because violence in Mexico is epidemic and it is close at hand.

US AND MEXICO LEADERS RESPOND TO LAW
That the borders still remain open as the US fights a war on terrorists is particularly troubling to some.
Mexico’s president, said Reuters, “slammed” Arizona’s new law on Monday. He characterized the law as one “criminalizing immigration.”

President Obama called the law “misguided” and one that would “undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.”

Had Republican president Theodore Roosevelt said that and if we were in the first decade of the 1900s, Obama’s remark might have been appropriate.

And if Mexico weren’t such a quagmire politically and socially, perhaps we could accept President Felipe Calderon’s words. Calderon has not one leg to stand on here. His country has failed her own people.

Mexico has also successfully pushed her own ‘illegal’ immigrants to America. The CIA World Fact Book said, “Mexico must deal with thousands of impoverished Guatemalans and other Central Americans who cross the porous border looking for work in Mexico and the United States.”

WHO BENEFITS, WHO PAYS?
Polls repeatedly reveal that Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, want something done about the open border policy that has enabled at least 12 million, perhaps more, people to enter into and live in this country with no documentation.

Corporate media, with only a few exceptions, have largely ignored the need for debate. Left-leaning media have joined groups like The National Council of La Raza and the Southern Poverty Law Center in doing their very best to stamp out any reasoned debate.  Case in point: the SPLC’s designation of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA as groups that “have profoundly shaped the immigration debate in the United States.” The SPLC calls those organizations “anti-immigrant.”

I’m not as familiar with Numbers USA as I am with FAIR and CIS, but these two organizations are about as racist as my hound dog who will give slobbering affection to anyone of any color who comes through our door.

I read reports from CIS, and they are always carefully researched documents.

And get this: I HAVE DONATED TO CIS. I’ve done that in appreciation for the research they provide. CIS crunches numbers and documents every statement they make and it is presented in a well-written, thoughtful manner. I wish the US government did the same but that is not the case.

If you call me a racist, I will invite you to meet my friends, family and associates. I can produce a long line of character witnesses dating to my childhood.

It’s likely that SPLC is running interference for La Raza which is a Hispanic advocacy group. Both groups rely on the ideology of racism to raise funds, by the way.

THE FAILURE OF US GOVERNMENT LEADERS
Why has the federal government refused to uphold the US Constitution when it comes to the border? Partly because of corporate influence; partly because of votes.

Loosely speaking, those who want what might be called generous amnesty legislation are the US Chamber of Commerce, the Service Employees International Union and La Raza. Obviously, each of these groups stands to benefit financially if a broad amnesty program is passed. An eternally open border will deliver an ongoing supply of new constituents—new union members, cheap labor and a voter sector. Power and money.

On the other hand, Americans—the majority of Americans—have genuine concerns about migration that is a result of our open border. This is a separate issue from immigration.

For one thing, Americans rich and poor, legal immigrant and native born, pay for undocumented workers. Medical care, housing, food stamps and other subsidies are very easy to get especially if you have children and regardless of your country of origin. Now you might say, “But you can’t get those things if you are here illegally.” And of course you would be completely wrong in your assumption. Just ask our president’s aunt.

Until there is reasoned debate, nothing constructive will be accomplished. Obviously corporate media will not tackle the hard problems—they are beguiled by leftist advocacy groups.

WHERE ARE THE BLACK PEOPLE AND WHERE ARE THE WHITE PEOPLE?
The only groups corporate media have demonized are the Tea Party groups. Those same media like to ask of the Tea Partiers, “Where are the black people?”

But the protesters in Arizona aren’t black either—they’re overwhelmingly brown.

Where are the black people? Where are the white people?

Silly questions, those.

Better to ask, “Where is your reasoned debate?” Because that is what is missing from all the rhetoric on the matter of Arizona’s new law, enacted as a measure by a desperate state in the face of a dismal economy and ever-rising social welfare costs.

Just for fun, compare the Arizona law to federal regulations.

Once again, US leadership fails on this issue and leftwing groups refuse to accept any premise of reasoned debate. Politics trump reason and the result may be more of the civil unrest and violence displayed by protesters in Arizona. What happens if those bottles and other objects come from both sides?

Update on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 12:04PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

Related Story

Leo W. Banks, who writes for Tucson Weekly, offers an excellent analysis of the migrant situation in Arizona in an article at American Thinker. Here's an eye-opening excerpt:

"Today, the drug cartels have taken over the people-smuggling business. They own the trails into the country and dominate the land, the same way urban gangs control neighborhoods...Any group wanting in has to deal with them, and the going rate is $2,500 per person. If you don't have the cash, the cartel coyote will offer to bring you in for free if you carry his dope. As Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week, most of the groups coming up how have a gun behind them."