Posted on 11/14/2003 6:38:40 PM PST by VU4G10
As I looked out my window at the promise of some rain, I kept looking back and forth to two major events that occurred in Phoenix this week.
Both were front page news in Phoenix and hold enormous implications for each one of us individually and for the state and nation.
Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, met with state leaders and with large numbers of his countrymen while in Phoenix. Some of the of those from Mexico were actually in Arizona legally. I suspect some had become United States citizens.
Yet, Fox talked to them like they were citizens of Mexico. He even referred to having them eligible to vote in both countries with dual citizenship.
That should not surprise you. A Middle Eastern country set up polling places across this country, including Arizona, this year so their former and current citizens who were living in the USA could vote in an election being held "back home."
Naturalized citizens take a pledge of loyalty to this country that specifically requires them to disavow primary loyalty to the country they left.
The USA has often been described as a melting pot. That implies that we take them in expecting them to become Americans. Have we changed the policy so we no longer expect immigrants to become an integral part of this country?
Mexico seems to be promoting a dual citizen status that would be an earth shaking change in the unstated policy we have lived with since 1776.
Fox wants us to be the economic development program for Mexico. Already, immigrants from his country send more than $13 billion back home to support family and relatives. That number is with a B. Only oil exports bring more dollars to Mexico It is one of the world's top oil and gas producers.
Yet, they restrict investment by our companies and individuals who are citizens of the USA. I looked at buying a timeshare in Mexico. I found that I could not own property in Mexico. I was to get a long-term lease rather than ownership.
I said no.
The other view from my window was a running gunfight down along 30 miles of I-10 in Phoenix that ended south of Chandler. Two gangs of Mexican smugglers, fondly referred to as coyotes, were shooting each other, evidently to gain better control of a share of the lucrative trade in human life.
Murders are up in Phoenix this year, the Phoenix papers report. They attribute much of the increase to violence in West Phoenix among smugglers. The smugglers kidnap people off the street or from other smugglers and hold them for ransom. Killing one now and then adds to the urgency of paying the ransom.
These illegal immigrants provide a cheap source of labor to build homes in the Phoenix area. Homebuilders can sell houses at more competitive prices. Americans buying the homes appreciate the good buys and never connect that lower price with taking advantage of the immigrants.
Nor do they connect the unemployment rate or the lower wages paid by contractors to US citizens to the illegal labor from Mexico.
We call that exploitation when American companies pay low wages overseas to bring cheaper merchandise from other countries. We even criticize Wal-Mart when we think they do it.
The reason the gunfight on the freeway attracted so much attention was the location. Had the smugglers had the good sense to shoot each other in West Phoenix, they would not have made front page.
It is disgusting that human smuggling has become so profitable that it attracts people who had been in the drug trade. Will we ever demand something be done?
As one citizen said to me, why should we care when the problem does not touch us directly? The "government" should do something.
Do you and I have any responsibility? Would these people quit risking their lives to come to Arizona if no one would hire illegals? What responsibility does each employer have? Is the attitude "Competitors do it so I will too so I can compete" acceptable?
I am sure that no one in Kingman would hire an illegal worker even though I have stumbled on some local workers who spoke no English. U.S. 93 and I-40 are high traffic corridors that carry some of these people to jobs in all directions. Can we assume none ever stop here?
Read Michelle Malkin's book 'Invasion." It could broaden your view of the problems created by our current immigration policies. She is the daughter of legal immigrants from the Philippines who came here for the right reasons and did it by the rules.
Immigration policy is broken. It killed people on Sept. 11. It kills our neighbors from Mexico nearly every day.
I want it fixed, now.
Freepmail me if you wish to be removed from or added to this list!
Threads related to non-citizens in our Country can be found using the keyword "ALIENS":
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/k-aliens/browse
I am not sure that we could save this nation now, even if they started today, and sadly they won't start today, or even five years from now.
I weep for our nation, and long for the one that I lived in, where children could walk the street alone, even at night. Doors were never locked and keys were left in cars. Every boy carried a pocket knife and most had rifles and shotguns, that they could use unsupervised.
Amen, brother. I truly believe that there will be a serious separatist movement in this country when my grandchildren come of age. I hope it will happen peacefully, and that those who still cherish freedom and order will find a homeland in some part of the old United States.
Who is going to lead this battle? Poor Tom Tancredo is the only politician that seems to be able to voice any leadership on this issue.
As long as the "fix" isn't amnesty and a massive guest worker program. This writer doesn't say what his idea of a fix is, but that's where most editorials are going these days.
Amazing. This is money lost to our economy, propping up a foreign government that is actively undermining our nation.
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