Yeah, its amazing its got alot of Louisiana folks conflicted. Many are to the right of me on this issue but this blogger shares some sentiments that at the same time are in their minds at the same time. Ah Katrina and Rita changed everything here in certain areas. This guy in part shows the divided nature of the debate. Of course there is a whole sub issue about the people he is comparing to them too thats interesting, troublesome, too generalized, racially sensative , etc ,etc but you get the point. There are alot of sub issues going on here in different areas of the country.
http://mostlycajun.com/wordpress/?p=1762
You folks don’t make it easy…
I know, deep down inside, that the illegal immigration problem is not going to go away. It’s not going to get better. It’s going to have to be addressed, and the current bunch of politicians in Washington seem bent on whitewashing and ignoring the problem.
But I have trouble. Seems like the only Mexicans I see are working. Note this article. Yep, Louisiana had its own version of the same marches that took place all over the country
Thousands of Hispanics rally in New Orleans
5/1/2006, 4:25 p.m. CT
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Thousands of Hispanics carrying signs that said “Nobody is illegal” and “Proud to rebuild” took Monday off to join a national day of protest and boycotts to show their importance to the country and to the area devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
It makes me really want to scream. You see, this ain’t like the “Million Man March” of a few years back. In this march, people actually left work to march.
Many placards, spray-painted through stencils over discarded campaign signs from a recent election, referred to the many Hispanics who have gutted and rebuilt flooded buildings in southeast Louisiana. One read, “We are not the problem. We are the solution.” The same slogans appeared in both English and Spanish: “Proud to rebuild” and “Orguilloso de Reconstruir.”
Yep! While a sizeable contingent of New Orleans residents languish on the government dole in cities around the country, we got THESE people in New Orleans doing the work.
While we have healthy, able-bodied young men fro New Orleans out on the streets of Houston selling drugs, we have the men and women of Mexico and Central and South America in New Orleans making the city work again.
Oscar Tejeda Sr., owner of Oscar’s Lawn Service, said he and his 12-man crew all were at the march.
“I gave them the day off to come here, not to stay home,” said Tejeda, 32.
He said his mother sacrificed to bring him illegally to the United States from Honduras when he was 11. He is now a citizen. He said about half of his work crew has green cards and he got a required tax number to pay taxes for the rest.
At least that’s a LEGAL living. Here’s some more…
At the Staybridge Suites, assistant manager Corey Roy said 10 to 15 of his 35 employees didn’t show up at the 182-room long-term residence hotel Monday morning. They had notified him of the rally beforehand, he said.
“We just shuffled some people around and got them in early to get the guests taken care of,” Roy said.
Victoria Ramon, a housekeeper at the Staybridge, said, “We want justice for Latin people. I’m a resident here, but many don’t have it. We need it, one and all.”
Those willing to speak about immigration status to a reporter, whether in English or through an interpreter, said they had green cards or were U.S. citizens
It’s hard, folks, damn hard, for me to get mad at people who want to WORK.
Yes, I know there are the normal leftist mooonbats among them, the MechA, the Aztlan bunch, the normal “hate America” hangers-on, but I still want to believe that the brown-skinned guys I see on worksites are a damn site better than a lot of full-blooded American trash that my tax dollars are freely spent to support.
I’m not saying that I want open borders. And I’m not saying that illegal immigrants don’t need to go back home and come back the right way. But I am saying that an awful lot of these people will make a fine addition to America… We just need to figure out how to make it happen…
When are the Criminal Aliens going home?
I have to admit, that's a great point.
Having said that, I just can't abide people who come here illegally, for many reasons that can't just be overlooked.
I do think Bush is realistic about the situation, though a little too soft in some areas for me. Many people aren't realistic about it at all; they are running on pure emotion, which is something I just can't stand.
Of course most came here to work, for a better life, etc.. What they left behind is the result of their inability to change conditions in their own countries. Is this their fault? Yes. How many millions of unhappy people is the US prepared to take in...because the rest of the hemisphere is headed our way. Mexico is being depopulated and this same dynamic will be repeated in every other country below the border. That this has enabled Mexico to speed up ethnic cleansing, that US employers have created a new slave class is almost beside the point. The true nature of the debate is whether the US will control its borders, sovereignty, character, laws, culture and mores. If not, then no amount of terrorist bombs will matter. We're done.
Yes, I know there are the normal leftist mooonbats among them, the MechA, the Aztlan bunch, the normal “hate America” hangers-on, but I still want to believe that the brown-skinned guys I see on worksites are a damn site better than a lot of full-blooded American trash that my tax dollars are freely spent to support.
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You and I and President Bush are at least three people who see the issue the same way. There are a lot more of us, but the screamers are at the microphones and keyboards trying to vilify these "wannabe" [US] Americans.
Nobody's arguing that. I, too, like Mexicans. I like Mexican folk culture, Mexican entertainment, and of course Mexican food. I even like the Spanish language. By and large the Mexicans that come here are great people, people who would be a great addition to any country. They are hardworking, religious, and family-oriented people, and I say God bless them.
The problem is not with Mexicans. The problem is that OUR government refuses to defend our borders and enforce our laws. The problem is that the leadership in both parties have discarded the nationalist viewpoint in favor of internationalism. The problem is that our leaders want to see a borderless world, a world where "human resources" and capital are free to flow to whatever location is most advantageous to the multinational corporate bottom line. The problam is that our country is being turned from a nation -- a group of people united by language, borders, and a unique culture -- into just another administrative district of the amalgamated, deracinated universal conglomerate.
The problem is not the Mexicans. The Mexicans are merely a symptom. The problem is that Christendom has been replaced by the Global Village.
Texas and Mexico are not enemies. We are brothers, born of the same mother, the great and Catholic empire of Spain, and the same father, the Spirit of the Alamo. If we remember that heritage, we will survive and thrive together. If we forget, and allow our culture, borders, and languages to be dissolved in a sea of laisser-faire globalism, we lose everything that makes us what we are.
Shall the United States be a nation, or merely a province of the global superstate? Our leaders -- in both parties -- choose the latter. THAT is the problem.
It's not an accident that the leftist moonbats support what is, in effect, open borders. Those who wax eloquent about their new "awareness" should ask themselves why...
This writer says, in effect, that the people he's seeing marching are a lot more worthy than the former residents of New Orleans. While that's great for NO, it doesn't do a lot for the rest of us.
They're are not all like that. For every upstanding potential citizen, you have a mugger or rapist. Just like the Irish immigrants. Lots of good folks, and then there was Tammany Hall and the mugs that Jimmy Cagney modeled his screen persona on.