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 Citizen
Reformers Control Immigration Debate
Immigration touches everything in this country...
[Patrick Mallon] 9/6/05
"Truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it and ignorance
may deride it, but, in the end, there it is."
Winston Churchill
Preemptive concurrence that illegal immigration
requires a "state
of emergency," along the Arizona, New Mexico, and California
borders with Mexico has come and gone, waiting to reignite with
the next calamity.
Admitting that the wild-wild west condition along the nation's
southern frontier is more flammable than formerly reported comes
with caution. Based on history, one must be vigilant about recent
comments and actions by Governor's Napolitano and Richardson,
and California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.
Nunez is all over the map, having since jetted
off to Los Pinos, home of Mexico's Vicente Fox, to assure Fox
that the state of
emergency was merely a state of mind. The problem says Nunez,
is that the U.S. "has no confidence (in Mexico) and doesn't
treat it like a modern democracy."
All three are uncompromising Democrats who see
an opportunity with the citizens. They shouldn't waste energy
trying to embarrass
George Bush. The president has that covered with his dim-witted
guest worker program, and the sneering attitude that hasn't changed
since the days when he said as Texas governor: "Hell, if
they'll cross Big Bend, we want 'em."
This brings us to the citizen reformers, an increasingly
well-organized and on-message political force that is tired
of having the facts
and the truth thrown back in their faces by open-borders provocateurs
and "activists" who make a living exploiting lawlessness,
legal loopholes, and American generosity.
The challenge is multiplied by a shadow industry of insatiably
greedy business and trade associations who deliver millions to
corruptible politicians using well-connected lobbyists at all
levels of government.
The citizens understand this connection, and the pretenders
are angry.
Outside of wars and the infamous attacks of 9/11, no issue is
more important than illegal immigration. This single subject
affects all of planet earth because by default, everyone; that's
American citizens, legal aliens, and the estimated 15-20 million
illegal aliens, all want to be here. Millions more are on the
way as our politicians continue to enthrall them with a buffet
of taxpayer-funded freebies that resemble a carte du jour at
a five-star resort.
To conclude that immigration affects everything in America is
an understatement. Legal workers are required to report, file,
and pay state and federal income taxes. Illegal workers are not.
To blame Mexico is to miss the bigger picture. While it is true
that the 4,000-a-day/3 million-a-year tally of unauthorized entrants
(Time Magazine, September 20, 2004) come across the southern
border, thousands more come from China, Central American, and
from numerous terrorist-sponsoring nations who are hostile to
the United States.
To those who don't believe immediate reform is required to protect
our future, consider that in the Texas border town of Nuevo Laredo,
merely reporting the facts about the drug wars, the broken border,
and the killing has been explicitly halted by the press.
According to Susana Hayward of Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau
(08/09/05):
"A drug war is ripping apart northern Mexico,
but you won't find many details about who's behind it in the
local newspapers.
Journalists - after their colleagues have been killed, kidnapped
and threatened with death - have stopped investigating organized
crime.
"It's the new trend of drug gangs: Journalists are warned,
paid off or killed," said Daniel Rosas, the managing editor
of the daily El Manana, the oldest newspaper in this border city
south of Laredo, Texas. "Drug battles have become bloodier,
and gangs have no code of ethics. They don't respect human life;
why should they respect reporters?
Back in January when President Vicente Fox's
Foreign Relations Department distributed 1.5 million copies
of the pocket-size
comic book titled "Guide for the Mexican Immigrant," his
government essentially threw in the towel.
So where is the truth on illegal immigration? If it doesn't
come from presidents and governors and assemblyman and mayors,
maybe the fact is, that it comes from people, average citizens
from both the United States and Mexico.
In the U.S., it may come from Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist
and a majority of Americans who want the border closed and immigration
controlled and legal.
In Mexico, it comes from Braulio Munoz, a man who may represent
half of Mexico's frustrated population of 140 million. An Associated
Press column by Olga R, Rodriguez in January, 2005, reported:
"Braulio Munoz, an artisan from western
Jalisco state, has tried twice in the past 13 days to cross
the U.S. border
illegally with his 18-year-old son. He said he hadn't seen the
guide but doubted anything would discourage them from attempting
a third swim across the Rio Grande.
"In
Jalisco there isn't any work," said Munoz, 42. "God
willing, we'll make it to the United States - even if they kick
us out 15 times."
Widespread panic among immigration apologists
is setting in, and all is not well in the GOP. Nationally,
the Bush administration
fumbles with an open-borders coalition called "Americans
for Border and Economic Security."
In California, Governor Arnold tours the Blue
Cop jeans factory in Vernon. There he absurdly proclaims that
the state will push
to enforce state and labor tax laws. Blue Cop employees are mostly
illegal immigrants. "That's a different issue," says
the governor.
Governor Bill Richardson should be commended
for his August 12 declaration of a state of emergency along
the Mexican border,
and his public revelation that the border region has been "devastated
by the ravage of terror and the terror of human smuggling, drug
smuggling, kidnapping, murder, and destruction of property."
He should also be recognized for matching words with action
when on August 26, he and Chihuahua State Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza
agreed to bulldoze the Mexican village of Las Chepas, a notorious
area for drug and human smuggling.
So, at what time have Americans witnessed our own government
so wrong, and the people so right about an issue? Vietnam? Prohibition?
How will the citizen reformers succeed? Minuteman founder Jim
Gilchrist said it best:
"If one single person steps over the line for their personal
gratification, we are all stained with that irresponsible behavior
and labeled forever as a fringe element that embarrasses all
who are counting on us to make this historic statement," he
said.
That's how the truth will prevail, because ultimately, this
movement has nothing to do with racism.
It has everything to do with survival. CRO
Patrick
Mallon is a political journalist and author of California
Dictatorship: How Liberal Extremism Destroyed Gray Davis.
[read an excerpt]. Patrick
is a regular guest on talk radio programs throughout
the state
and nationally. His website is at PatrickMallon.com and
can be contacted at patrick@patrickmallon.com
copyright
2005 Patrick Mallon
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