July 18, 2005
At least 40 anti-immigration groups have popped up nationally, inspired by the Minuteman Project that rallied hundreds this year to patrol the Mexican border in Arizona.
Sorry, folks, these groups are not "anti-immigration", any more than folks who oppose prostitutes working their neighborhood street corners are "anti-sex". These groups are anti-crime, pro-law, pro-border, and pro-sovereignty groups. Most members are all for LEGAL immigration on terms set by the United States. They simply oppose those who are jumping the border without following the requirements of American law.
And then there is stuff like this.
In Morristown, a Southern industrial town of 25,000 with a small but burgeoning population of Latinos, some see the Volunteer Minutemen's spiel as race baiting."The same sort of dogmatism that racists used against blacks in lower Alabama and across the South, I am seeing the same patterns here," said Thom Robinson, who heads the area's Chamber of Commerce. "They are using it as a racially divisive thing."
Santos Aguilar, executive director with Alianza del Pueblo, a regional Hispanic support group in Knoxville, said he fears the volunteers are "spreading a lot of misinformation and are terrorizing the ethnic community in the area."
What sort of dogmatism? A dogmatism that says that law-breaking is a bad thing? A dogmatism that shows a connection between illegal immigration and increased crime, increased taxes, and other social problems, based on government statistics? And would Mr. Agilar care to give some examples of the "terrorizing" that he is talking about? Are there aremed assaults and lychings, or is it just a generalized fear that some of the immigration criminals may be caught and sent back to their countries of origin? Frankly, I WANT these people to have to live with the latter sort of terror -- just as I want every other criminal to live with the teror that htey will be arrested and punished for their crimes. Of course, the only dogamtism that is really seen here is found in the accusations of racism put forth by Aguilar and Robinson, who are spewing open-border dogma.
And then there is this sort of dogma as well.
Guatemala native Noel Montepeque, who owns a company that provides a variety of blue-collar jobs to Hispanics, said the tone has changed since the first migrant farm workers passed through the area in the 1990s."Now they are getting afraid of the many Hispanic folks coming in," Montepeque said. "And we are coming to stay."
No, we are not afraid that you are coming to stay. We welcome you, and we have no objection to you becoming a part of our community. But we do want you to come here legally, and to follow our laws once you get here. And we would appreciate it if you would assimilate into our society like the generations of immigrants before you, contributing to the mosaic of culture that is American culture, rather than demanding that we cater to your culture.
Like I said -- we don't oppose immigration. But we do want it to happen the right way.
Posted by: Greg at
02:55 AM
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