"THAT'S what they want!"
No, we just want justice and American values to be fostered and furthered. Being angry at immigrants is neither a justice nor an American value.
Posted on 07/17/2005 12:05:52 PM PDT by Graybeard58
MORRISTOWN, Tenn. - A volunteer movement that vows to guard America from a wave of illegal immigration has spread from the dusty U.S.-Mexican border to the verdant hollows of Appalachia.
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.
"It's like O'Leary's cow has kicked over the lantern. The fire has just started now," said Carl "Two Feathers" Whitaker, referring to the fabled start of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Whitaker, an American Indian activist and perennial gubernatorial candidate, runs the Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen, aimed at exposing those who employ illegals.
Critics call the movement vigilantism, and some hear in the words of the Minutemen a vitriol similar to what hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan used against Southern blacks in the 1960s.
The Minuteman Project has generated chapters in 18 states - from California to states far from Mexico, like Utah, Minnesota and Maine. The Tennessee group and others like it have no direct affiliation, but share a common goal.
"I struck the mother lode of patriotism or nationalism or whatever you want to call it," said Jim Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran and retired CPA who co-founded the Minuteman Project 10 months ago. "That common nerve that was bothering a lot of people, but due to politically correct paralysis ... everyone was afraid to bring up - the lack of law enforcement."
At the Department of Homeland Security, whose authority includes patrolling borders and enforcing immigration laws, response to Minuteman-type activism is guarded.
"Homeland security is a shared responsibility, and the department believes the American public plays a critical role in helping to defend the homeland," agency spokesman Jarrod Agen said from Washington. "But as far doing an investigation or anything beyond giving us a heads-up, that should be handled by trained law enforcement."
A group leading patrols of the California border raised concerns from the U.S. Border Patrol last week when they urged volunteers to bring baseball bats, mace, pepper spray and machetes to patrol the border. They backed off the recommendation, but insisted on another weapon when they started patrols Saturday: guns.
"The guns are for one reason - to keep my people alive," said Jim Chase, a former Arizona Minuteman volunteer who is leading the effort.
Gilchrist said people from across the country have been sending him dirt on companies that hire illegal immigrants.
"It is a rampant problem. It is happening in Chicago and Portland, Maine. And Milwaukee and Montana and Idaho. And these people want the government to do something," he said.
The Southeast has the nation's fastest-growing Hispanic population. In Tennessee, the Hispanic population nearly tripled in the last decade.
The Tennessee Minutemen, which plans rallies in Memphis and Nashville and reputedly has heard from at least 120 potential members statewide, insist they are not vigilantes or racists.
"We don't want to project it as a hate group. We don't hate anybody or anything. But there are legal immigrants and illegal," Whitaker said.
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."
Members of the Hamblen County Commission recently suggested that Hispanic immigrants were to blame if property taxes have to be raised next year - though commissioners insisted they were talking only about illegal immigrants.
County Commissioner Tom Lowe, who says "we do not want (all) Hispanics stereotyped as illegal," estimates as many as 85 percent of Hamblen's Hispanics are - and he fears they carry drug-resistant disease.
"We could be two or three aliens away from an epidemic that would sweep through our county and state," the retired pharmacist said.
Hamblen County Mayor David Purkey said, like Lowe, he supports immigration laws, but finds such comments disturbing. "I think you have to be careful when you are expressing your opinion on that, that you don't appear as if you are against diversity as a whole," he said.
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 just want justice and American values to be fostered and furthered. Being angry at immigrants is neither a justice nor an American value.
I cannot believe that you really believe there is no distinction! One is a lawbreaker, and one is not. An illegal immigrant is not an American! Giving amnesty is wrong, wrong, wrong! Providing fence-jumpers with amnesty *rewards* these people for criminal behavior! That would be like providing amnesty to anyone breaking into your home. Think about it.
I mean, would you advertise to those breaking into your home that amnesty would be provided to all those doing so? I dare say that you wouldn't even try it; and report back to us just how many people would take advantage of your great deal. The excuse that we should accept this behavior because "they" want to work is a slap in the face to everyone who has come to America legally, and had to wait years to be sworn in. These people are line-cutters, they should be charged with breaking and entering, not to mention littering, endangering our children and elderly b/c of lack of immunization, for stealing hours each week from American school children, etc.
Giving lawbreaking foreigners benefits and bonuses only encourages wrong behavior.
And this doesn't even touch upon the drugs, the terrorists or the sexual offenders coming across.
I imagine a lot of the migrant workers who risk their lives to come here to work to feed their children would be glad to pay for your share with their blood if you would give them the chance. Is that your standard of who's worthy of being here? Last time I checked we were still a democracy.
Our ancestors were immigrants, most of them before the unions and nativists made it almost impossible to legally immigrate here.
By the way, 20% of Marines are Hispanic. They are giving their blood every month in Iraq and Afganistan.
Hey, maybe the bank robbers are just trying to feed their children too. Can't blame a guy for trying to provide for his family, can you?
If you could not provide your wife and children with necessities in your Mexican village would you be willing to risk your life to do what these migrant workers are doing
Maybe...just maybe...he shouldn't be having children he can't afford in the first place. There's nothing sacred about reproducing when you haven't got the means to support your children. (How's THAT for "racist hate speech"?)
If a person comes here legally, I don't care what the person's ethnicity is. Those people demonstrate respect by having waited in line, plus they are scrutinized and investigated before citizenship is granted.
Nope, it's a representative republic...although "representative" of WHAT anymore, I'm not so sure.
Our ancestors were immigrants, most of them before the unions and nativists made it almost impossible to legally immigrate here.
Tell you what - there's enough room in the state of Texas to house every single person on the planet. Lots of poor people from all over could use the same help you want to bestow on the noble Mexican migrant worker. Ready for another six billion or so?
Curious, how many of those 20 percent are illegals? Unless I miss my guess the poster was talking about illegals. Oh, and if you added up all the Marines who faught in defense of this country Hispanics wouldn't even make .01 percent of the total. So your post has absolutely no bearing on the discussion at hand, other then to point out your obvious disdain for the Laws of America.
Incredibly, the Marine Corps had one illegal enlisted in 2003. The Army had 9,055 persons of "unknown" citizenship, Navy 6,531, and the Air Force 444.
WRONG!
The United States of America is a Constitutional Republic, and don't you forget it.
"We've had enough immigration -- legal and illegal. The nation is too crowded. None of the immigrants is assimilating. Not one. Most of them are in the lower classes economically, culturally and politically. They are too expensive -- they get more government services than they pay for. Time to call a halt to all immigration for awhile."
Exactly. Bayourod and Cultural Jihad want to use this nation as a dumping ground for their favored third world nations at the expense of the taxpayers. They are hostile to America and have many of the philisophical earmarks of radical, left-wing, liberal, America-haters. Of course you're free to make your own analysis of them. They are becoming more frenetic lately in their defense of the immivasion because of the rising tide of resentment it's causing all over this nation.
It’s important that people speak the same language in a country, because:
Vi förståelse för varandras synpunkter.
We must be able TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER.
Förstå du?
Every International airport/air traffic controller in the world uses *ENGLISH* as the official language.
Because:
Ha förståelse för varandras synpunkter
Förstå du?
The pilot and the tower must be able to communicate with each other, because:
They must be able TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER.
Förstå du?
There have been deadly accidents because of this:
"Problems of Language Barriers, Fluency and Confusion in Air Traffic Control"
http://www.natcadc.org/legislationcenter/testimonydetail.asp?id=196
In spite of bayourod and Cultuarl Jihad's liberal multi-culturalism facade;
The next time-
Du; Cultural Jihad and bayourod kommer att åka med ett jetflygplan:
Cultural Jihad and bayourod would be secretly praying that their pilot and their aircraft controller understood
( Förstå ) each other. IN ENGLISH.
Förstå du?
You understand?
So your laziness to understand another must be codified into law?
Excellant point. You should suggest to Congress that they include a provision in the Immigration Reform Bill that requires all persons requesting a Guest Worker Visa to be an airport tower controller be required to demonstrate a proficiency in English.
I'm glad to see you are starting to think constructively instead of just being anti everything.
They could care less if we turn into a 3rd world rat hole.
Where do you get all this anti hate speach BS, I hate a lot of people and don't mind telling them so to their face.
If at least half the people don't hate me I take a good look around to see what i'm doing wrong.
In fact I hate you just as much as I hate any illegal!
No. Entry into this country LEGALLY requires basic understanding of OUR language, not theirs.
Current law requires a legal applicant to have two financial sponsors. Illegals don't have that and use all of us taxpaying fools as their financial sponsor. Its just wrong.
Either they come here legally, like in every other country in the world, or they should not be here and sent home.
The issue is who is coming here. The illegal invaders are largely the uneducated low skilled people with no background checks, documentation, skills, or anything to contribute other than low skilled labor that is driving down wages.
For you not to see the problem with this is amazing.
These people largely work for cash to send home without paying the same taxes most workers do.
Another thing, since most of these people have no verifiable identification, would you be for deporting them since their background can not be checked to see if they previously committed any violent crimes?????
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