What’s hot in the news this week is the new anti-illegal immigrant bill signed into law in Arizona, that requires police to ask for a person’s citizenship status documents if they have a “reasonable suspicion” to believe that they are an illegal immigrant. People are likening this to the Gestapo of Nazi Germany, who could demand “papers” at any time, and saying that this will lead to racial profiling and the transformation of Arizona into a police-state.
People need to stop making this a semantics issue and let’s be real. If you are not here legally, no matter what your country of origin is, you DO NOT DESERVE TO BE HERE. The bill obviously focuses on Mexicans and those of Latino origin crossing the only foreign border in Arizona; Mexico. People like John McCain and Pat Buchanan’s feelings about this issue are more related to the white fears of the “browning of America” and the increase in minority population overall. My feelings are, if you are a legal immigrant from Mexico, El Salvador, Ireland, Somalia, or you chose to become an American Citizen after leaving your home country, you are just as American as I am. It doesn’t matter that your relatives and ancestors have no history in this country, but you do, because you made a choice to become a law-abiding citizen, and not an illegal alien aka a CRIMINAL. Yes, criminal. It is against the law to be here illegally. I’m not saying their illegal status makes it more likely that they will commit crimes. I am saying it’s illegal for them to be here because IT IS. THAT’S THE LAW, no racial element to it. If you’re illegal and Mexican or illegal and a hot blond Russian prostitute, you’re illegal! The racist psyche of the nation will view both people differently, but they are both illegal and need to be deported or fined or SOMETHING… ASAP.
The way to American growth was through jobs that benefitted and uplifted the American middle class, not the under-class of another country. That was the way to the bubble of the 1990s and the burst of the 2000s. Wonder why the US economy has not created ONE net job increase in 10 years? Illegal immigration is part of the problem [See my post from 2008 on this for my detailed opinion http://theoogieboogieman.blogspot.com/2008/12/let-backlash-begin.html ]. Another part of the problem is outsourcing and the creation of pseudo-wealth known as derivates and stock market gambling.
People are beginning to think that this will be the civil rights debate of our time (I wholeheartedly disagree) and since Al Sharpton has made his way down to AZ, the issue of black Americans’ stake in the law has been brought up. **SiDENOTE** why do white people still think that Al Sharpton is the spokesperson for black America? HE’S A GROWN ASS MAN WITH A PERM. Why do people still take him seriously….Le Sigh.
This isn’t going to sound pretty, but I keep it pretty in real life, and keep it real in my writing, no matter how ugly this sounds, I’m putting it out there:
We have no sentimental or logical reason as black people to stand with illegal immigrants in this situation.
It’s not like banning the law will stop racial profiling of blacks. We still get abused by the police regardless of every civil rights bill ever passed (see Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, & the Hurricane Katrina Danzinger Bridge massacre.) Nor should we champion this law and support targeting of Latinos or racial profiling in any form. But should we stand with them in the fight against the bill? I say nay. Mainly because something like 70% of Arizona’s citizens support the bill. They are the ones who deal with the implications of having illegal immigrants in close proximity as Phoenix has become the kidnapping capital of the USA, due to the increased violence of Mexican drug criminals sneaking into the country.
I have read people saying “the civil rights movement didn’t get off the ground just by blacks alone. It took sympathizers who didn’t look like us (read: white people with influence) to help us in the struggle”. Let’s face it. In cities across the USA, especially in lower-income areas, the tensions between blacks and Hispanics run higher than those between all minorities and whites. There is no need to perpetuate hostility among the races, but let’s not imagine some utopian camaraderie that does not exist. See Exhibit A: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/14/fox.jackson/
The big picture really all comes down to the scarcity of resources. In this case, resources being jobs and public services. Jobs are non-existent in many areas of this country and tax revenue has plummeted because of the loss in jobs. Therefore, municipalities are unable to provide the services required to their citizens. It makes no sense to say that an illegal deserves a job and public services as equally as a tax-paying, law abiding citizen. There are legal ways for immigrants to live and work in this country, and they make a CHOICE to come here and ignore those legal inroads.
Now I personally don’t believe that ordinary state police should be the ones in charge of enforcing immigration law. The police force is not usually made up of the most mentally stable, coherent individuals. But the bill is in response to federal inaction on the topic. Which also is not the fault of the Democrats, (although it will undoubtedly be misconstrued to seem that way) good old Dubya tried and failed twice to pass meaningful immigrant legislation and was denied not just by Dems, but by many of his Republican compatriots.
I also find it incredibly unfair that no one ever focuses on the business owners who HIRE illegal workers. They are committing crimes as well. And let’s face it, the majority of those hiring illegals are white **shudder & gasp**, but of course, you see no increase in crackdown on the white folk (have we EVER seen that? Hmmmm…). Illegals wouldn’t come here if there were no opportunities for them to work. This morning, I saw about 6 Mexicans get out of a van with some cleaning service logo on the side, about to wash some windows on a building on GWU’s campus. I wondered, if we were in Arizona, would the police question the Mexicans first, or go to the white man in khakis and the polo shirt with the logo on it?
Hey Tea Party! Here’s one of those "common sense, conservative solutions" that your Princess Sarah Palin loves to rave incoherently about: wanna help with the job creation woes being caused in part by illegal immigration? Why don’t you tell some of your small business owner members to stop hiring illegal immigrants and pony up the cash to pay American citizens decent wages? What’s that? Oh if you hire Americans you’d have to offer your employees actual benefits and have less of a profit for your greedy selves? Darn. I guess it’s hard out here for a pimp….. and a bunch of hypocrites.
To the firing squad of those ready to blast me because I wrote what you are afraid to admit…
**READY, AIM, FIRE**
