Dallas illegal immigrants protest

Today was the day of the big immigration reform protest here in Dallas. The official estimates are that the crowd numbered between 350,000 and 400,000. The protest was against proposed immigration restrictions being proposed in Washington and to support legalizing what the New York Times calls "undocumented workers." Anytime we read a story in any newspaper now, we have to wonder whether a reporter was paid to make the subject look good or bad.

I watched some of the protests on television at my parents' house, and then watched a bit more here at home on the internet. It was obvious that the organizers took great pains to make it a peaceful rally. The rule was no Mexican flags, only American flags, and people pretty much held to that rule. The only problems were caused by a handful of counter-protesters who threw some water bottles at the protesters. One of the water bottles hit a female police officer in the face, but it was not a serious injury.

I have mixed feelings on the illegal immigrants issue, which is actually several issues. First, I want our border secured. Build a double fence from San Diego to the mouth of the Rio Grande and patrol it night and day with armed soldiers, vehicles, helicopters, and unmanned spy planes. No compromises on that issue.

Second, I have a lot of sympathy for so many of the illegal immigrants. I worked with a church ESL program for quite a while and most of the people that I dealt with were illegal immigrants. I became good friends with some of them. They fled a corrupt country, Mexico, where no matter how hard they worked, they could never get ahead.

They lived in grinding poverty -- I've seen the poverty in Juarez and have smelled the smoke of people burning tires to keep warm wafting across the border to El Paso. Click on the picture to see an enlarged view. My wife spent a week at an orphanage for handicapped children in Oaxaca several years ago and it broke her heart to see them playing in sewage ditches and not having adequate medical care. A church here in Dallas is still helping the orphanage but there are only so many churches and there is much poverty in Mexico.

If you lived in shacks like the ones shown in the picture from Juarez and you had a country just a few miles away from you as rich as the United States, wouldn't you try to escape, too? It's easy to be a tough conservative and say "send them all back" but one's heart changes when seeing how bad Mexico really is. It's almost like Jews trying to flee Germany in the 1930s. The Jews weren't being killed yet, but the German system held them in poverty. I have a brother-in-law who grew up in Ciudad Juarez and was supporting his mother and brothers and sisters by age 10 (he's a master woodcarver inspired by God). He taught himself English within 3 months and within a few years became an American citizen. I'm very proud of what he's done and of being his brother-in-law.

Most illegals work hard and most stay out of trouble. I do have a problem however with the Hispanic culture because it does not try to blend into the "melting pot" of the United States and because it doesn't value education, especially education for women. There are third-generation descendants of Mexican immigrants who are still not fluent in English -- or don't know English at all -- because their families never made it a priority. They've brought the bondage of Mexico with them and kept it here.

I'm against blanket amnesty. Once our borders are sealed, we can begin to deal with the problem of illegal immigrants. Those with criminal records (serious offenses, not just a speeding ticket) should be sent back to Mexico. Others can go through guest worker programs that will make sure that they learn English as an incentive to becoming a US citizen.

This is a tough subject. People of good will can disagree with one another on what to do with illegal immigrants. But focusing on illegal aliens takes our focus off the main priority of securing our border with Mexico so that no one can cross.

This is what is so sad - these people, who come here to get away from the poverty and corruption of Mexico, are being held captive in that same poverty and corruption here. They don't know how good it could be to come here the right way, in the open. They are being paid less, in the shadows, because their coyotes and overseers in industry want them to remain as they are - illegal, impoverished, oppressed by businesses wanting only to make a buck off their hard labor.

It could be so much better. They could be so much more - and yet, they wave the Mexican flag because the Patrons of Mexico have told them that they are first and always Mexican.

They could be Americans, if they truly want. But they have to want to be Americans - not just want to live here.

Time for the DoJ to use R.I.C.O. statutes to shut down and arrest these organized criminal conspiracies to incite riots.

The FCC needs to immediately yank the licenses for any radio or TV station that they can show that used public air waves to incite riots or other illegal actions. Suspected stations should have their recent broadcast archive tapes impounded and reviewed by FCC auditors to determine if they violated FCC policy and/or Federal/State/Local laws.

Media coverage and security camera tapes should also be impounded to be used to identify individuals committing illegal acts, with a priority on those leading the illegal activities (especially known criminals.)

If any ambulances arrived to any hospital in a 5 mile radius of these illegal assemblies with a patient that died in route to the hospital, then those who lead and/or organized these illegal assemblies should be prosecuted for murder.

Come down hard on these people now or we will end up like France writ large.

The more pressure we keep on Mexico, immigration-wise, the more reformers
inside of Mexico can be emboldened and empowered to scale back monopolists'
abuses down there which keep our own country flooded with economic refugees.
Here's an interesting new thread on new legal reform progress that finally
emerged in Mexico I think as a result of immigration reform's failure:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1611677/posts

We can make a difference for our sake, and their's as well. Isn't it the
neighborly thing to do?

Go to this URL:

It contains a transcript of the Lou Dobbs show. The illegal immigrants and their activists are planning to boycott all businesses, schools on May 1, 2006 to show American how much economic power they have. Remember to do your Christmas shopping on May 1 2006 or just half of your Christmas shopping on that day. I know I am. I would like to see the look on their faces when they see how well we do without them.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/10/ldt.01.html

Good idea. But what's particularly unfair is that high taxes will nevertheless keep sales down on May 1st, and illegals prop those taxes higher and higher.

Incidentally, McCain thinks his plan will get approved, according to one of Mexico's leading newspapers online:

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/342378.html

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