Posted on 02/18/2005 3:08:33 PM PST by South40
I don't consider myself a "racist" or a "bigot." But Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee apparently does.
Because I happen to see the merit of a measure, proposed by two Arkansas state lawmakers, that would require anyone registering to vote in the Razorback State to prove citizenship and anyone applying for state services to prove legal residency.
To Huckabee's mind, anyone who supports such a law has succumbed to "race-baiting and demagoguery." That would include yours truly. It also would include a majority of my fellow California residents.
Indeed, in 1994, nearly 60 percent of voters in the Golden State approved a ballot measure that denied state benefits to illegal aliens. Proposition 187 even mustered a third of the state's Latino vote.
Meanwhile, Arizona voters approved a similar measure by a comparable margin of victory last November. And Proposition 200 won the support of roughly 40 percent of the Grand Canyon State's Mexican-American voters.
The passage of Propositions 187 and 200 doesn't mean that 60 percent of California and Arizona residents are racists or bigots or xenophobes, as critics of the measures disparage. It means that they believe in the rule of law.
They believe that taxpayer-funded benefits should be reserved for American citizens and for legal residents, and not for those who steal into the country, who thumb their noses at this nation's immigration laws.
The irony is that those, like Huckabee, who argue against denying benefits to illegals, are the same folks who argue that illegals come here simply to work, to earn a living here in the Land of Opportunity.
Well, if that is so, why do they need government benefits?
Indeed, it's bad enough that government officials, like Huckabee, knowingly and willingly countenance illegal immigration. It's worse that they also want to reward those who have stolen into the country.
They want to give them driver's licenses. They want to give them taxpayer-subsidized college tuition. Heck, in San Francisco, they want to give illegals the right to vote.
Illegal immigrant apologists argue that they are law-abiding folk but for violating this nation's borders, but for breaking this nation's immigration laws.
But that's not entirely the case, as Heather McDonald documented a year ago in an article published in City Journal.
In Los Angeles, she found, 95 percent of all outstanding murder warrants involved suspected illegal aliens. And up to two-thirds of all felony warrants were for undocumented illegals.
But illegals do the jobs "Americans won't do," claim their defenders, including Gov. Huckabee and President Bush, both of whom happen to be Republicans.
That's just a myth, as I've noted in previous writings.
The fact is, before the two great waves of illegal immigration in the 1980s and 1990s, there were more than enough Americans performing the low-skilled and semi-skilled work needed by farms and orchards, factories and construction sites, restaurants and hotels, car washes and dry cleaners.
And there still are many lower-skilled Americans available to work for such employers, including the 10 million native-born Americans lacking high school diplomas.
And if that's still not enough low-skilled labor to meet the needs of the nation's industries, they can recruit workers from the legal immigrant population. That includes the more than 5 million legal Mexican immigrants without high school diplomas.
Finally, defenders of illegal immigration say that illegals contribute more in taxes than they receive in benefits.
That's yet another myth.
A study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., concluded that, when all taxes are paid and all costs are considered, illegal households cost the federal government a net $10 billion in 2002.
And when the federal outlay is combined with that of California, Arizona, Arkansas and other states, the total net cost of illegal immigration is more than $20 billion a year.
What really irritates in the debate over illegal immigration is the dishonesty of those who oppose measures like California's Proposition 187, Arizona's Proposition 200 and Arkansas' Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act.
They suggest that those who support such measures are anti-immigrant; that they simply do not like people who are brown-skinned (or black or yellow).
Well, I, for one, am not anti-immigrant. I say come one, come all. Just come legally.
"Outstanding warrants" is a meaningless category. Ask instead in how many solved murder cases was the actor an illegal immigrant.
How many suspects were legal when the act was committed, ran to Mexico, their visa revoked and thus are now classified as illegal.
How many years are outstanding warrants considered active? We could be talking about murders committed a hundred years ago that continue to mount up.
A meaningful statistic would be how many murders last year were committed by people who were illegal at the time.
He's a well-established columinst and has been for many years. And you are what...besides an ILLEGAL alien/ law-breaker sympathyzer?
His point, one that apparently flew well over your head, was that one can be opposed to ILLEGAL immigration and not be a racist, hence the referrence to the 40% of Arizonans who voted in favor of Proposition 200.
Buy a clue.
Please explain why 40% of Arizonans voted for Prop 200. Are they racist too?
My but you are desperate.
No amount of desperation or sycophantic rambling on your part can or will excuse the lawlessness that pervades ILLEGAL immigration.
But it is fun watching you try! ;-)
You're assuming that I think anyone who voted for Prop 200 is a racist. I don't. I'm surprised more didn't vote for it. I was shocked to learn that in Chocise County, the front line of the illegal war, that 2% more people voted for President Bush than prop 200.
Compared to the 97%+ yes vote for an English First resolution I was responsible for getting placed on the primary ballot of my state twenty years ago, prop 200 was not impressive at all.
Absolutely true. I'm opposed to illegal immigration and I'm not a racist. (Well I try not to be).
But the opposite is also true. One can be opposed to illegal immigration because one is a racist. Evidence all of the racist organizations such as StormFront that are in the forefront of the anti (illegal) immigrant movement.
People who say such things as "they are ruining our neighborhoods, destroying our culture, threatening our sovereignty, etc..." are highly suspect in my opinion.
Tin foil hat time?
'Pandering' politicians better start paying attention to what American VOTERS want....All colors, and BOTH parties.
BTT
Well, I am a novice Freepie; haven't even figured out the lingo or acronyms yet. But the magic unfolds before my eyes. While I was wondering why you two would waste your time and logic on the refutable claims made by "bayourod," it dawned on me that I am the true beneficiary of your statements. WooHoo! It works!
Well, bayourod *knows all*...... put up an *official* link to illegal immigrant crime stats in TX. (or any other state)
Yes you can learn a lot on FR, & you will many knowledgeable posters. (and of course a 'few' who think they know everything)
Welcome to FR..........;o)
Dear TEX - Thank you for the welcome. What a great world to come into. Have noticed your postings on different subjects, and enjoy them all. And, will continue to look for you. Especially enjoy your quick-witted retorts to other posters, as I guess from the time span on the postings.
Are you really from Texas, and do you really remember Carol Doda? hee hee. Thanks again!
Can you prove this ? Or is it that anyone who disagrees with your immigration vies "has lost their mind".
I say Huckabee is friends with Jim Robinson and all the dcchapter. And you are substituting name calling for rational discourse.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
But Huckabee would almost certainly say the same regarding your views on this issue.
I will say that a few people, and definitely not all people are anti immigrant, do in fact simply do not like people who are brown-skinned (or black or yellow).
Anyone who says that not a single person who is anti immigrant is racist in thinking is wrong. Also, anyone who says 100% is racist is wrong also.
But some freepers on the anti immigrant side love to play the victim. They like to say, the bad moderates are race baiting again. Your efforts to "play the victim" just are not very becoming. Just make your arguments, forget the "the race baiters are calling me names again" stuff. People who read this forum are smart. I would not underestimate their intelligence.
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