Shun Juan!
|
Posted on 07/18/2008 10:19:41 AM PDT by John David Powell
Lost amid news about rising fuel costs, falling stock prices, mortgage foreclosures, and one African-American’s nutty surgical wish are stories of push backs by communities fed up with illegal immigration.
Out in Thousand Oaks, Calif., earlier this month, some residence scored a small victory by effectively closing down for a day a city-sponsored day-labor center. Last year Judicial Watch wrote the mayor about the organization’s concerns that the city was violating federal immigration laws by spending more than $133,000 of public funds between 2001 and 2007 to subsidize what amounts to city-sanctioned criminal activity, since mostly illegal aliens hang out at the center.
A small group of residents gathered on the sidewalk to wave placards and US flags at passing motorists. They also used video cameras to tape folks trying to hire illegals, which considerably cut down on business for the day.
Out in Aurora, Colo., city council members this month will take up a proposal to change the definition of a temporary employment agency after citizens and business owners complained about people gathered at an intersection looking for temporary work. Some of the job seekers reportedly jump in front of vehicles or urinate behind the buildings. The proposal would force day laborers to stand 1,500 feet from the newly defined employment agencies.
Lou Barletta, the three-term mayor of Hazelton, Pa., wants businesses there to work with a company that uses a federal data base to check on employees’ immigration status. Illegal immigration is the cornerstone of his campaign to oust a 12-term member of Congress. He also convinced the city council in 2006 to approve an ordinance denying business permits to companies that employ illegals. The ordinance also allowed for fines against landlords who rent to illegals, and it required tenants to register and pay for a rental permit. A federal judge said “No, no, no.”
Federal courts around the nation struck down other attempts by cities to staunch the flow of illegals into their communities. Up in Farmers Branch, Texas, a federal judge this month quashed the city’s ban on renting apartments to illegals. Now, the city is thinking about following Hazelton’s plan.
The Fremont, Neb., city council is considering a proposal to ban the harboring or hiring of illegals or renting to them. And, officials in Escondido, Calif., want to enact ordinances that outlaw picking up day laborers from along some streets. They also want to discourage multiple families from sharing houses by requiring a permit for overnight parking.
Opponents of the Fremont and Escondido plans say the cities’ attempts are unconstitutional. And, they’re probably right. Cities and states can’t enact laws governing immigration. That’s the job of the federal government. Plenty of laws exist to control immigration; they just need to be enforced.
We’re starting to see some that enforcement. A few days ago, feds in Rhode Island raided six courthouses and arrested 31 illegals from Mexico, Guatamala, Honduras, and Brazil hired by contractors for the state court system. Then there’s Mack Associates, Inc., owner of eleven McDonald’s restaurants in Nevada, fined $1 million this past week after admitting to hiring 58 illegal immigrants. In Morgan City, La., Lenny Dartez, a former member of the state’s Democratic Party central committee and husband of former state representative Carla Dartez, faces up to five years in the pokey and up to $250,000 in fines for employing illegals from Trinidad at one of his companies. Citizen tips led to the arrests in all three of these cases.
And, there is the answer. The illegal immigration issue may be a national concern, but it’s really an issue that can be addressed only on the individual level.
Here’s what I mean. A couple of years ago, my mother-in-law nearly died after an illegal immigrant made an unlawful u-turn and rammed into her vehicle. My mother-in-law wanted to talk with her city council member and write letters to her state representatives about passing stricter immigration legislation until I pointed out that neither the city nor the state has jurisdiction.
It’s up to you and your friends to do something about it, and that something is simply shunning those who purposely hire illegal workers, I said. Folks concerned about crime in their neighborhood establish neighborhood watches to keep out miscreants. Residents fed up with prostitution chase away the customers from the street corners. Citizens tired of drugs run off the dealers. They don’t wait for the government to enforce laws already on the books.
Her preacher frequented the Mexican restaurant that hired the woman who hit her, so I suggested she tell the preacher to either stop going there or else they’d find a new minister. She didn’t like the idea.
Shunning is not easy. She lives in a small Arkansas town. Shunning business owners and neighbors she’s known for decades would make it uncomfortable for her whenever she went to the country club or attended a Kiwanis meeting, she admitted.
Some places encourage illegals to settle in their communities. But folks living in other cities, like the one’s mentioned earlier, want the illegals to go away. They can’t pass city ordinances, but they can take individual action.
One person becomes two, who become four, which then becomes a movement. When the government won’t enforce its laws, the individual must turn his or her back on those who hire and harbor illegals. Non-violent community pressure in the form of economic and social shunning, also known as boycotts, may be the only solution.
John David Powell is an award-winning Internet columnist and writer. His email address is johndavidpowell@yahoo.com.
Ping
I’ve shunned, ignored, ostracized and flat-out act rude, but they just wont go away fast enough.
If I’m in a good mood, I like to hand them a penny or so to help them make ends meet......
ping
Shun Juan!
|
I live near Reno, and when ICE raided those McDonald’s locations, they only caught workers on one shift. Reno is a 24 hour town, and I am convinced that other workers on other shifts got missed.
Luther Mack, the owner of most of the McDonald’s franchises in Reno is a very successful black man. Whenever the local do-gooders wanted to highlight the wonderful “advancements” a black person can make, they would trot out Luther Mack as their poster boy.
When the raids came down, Mack was very indignant about having these persons working for him, and loudly and endlessly declared himself innocent.
Now, it turns out that he had to know something, even another high up executive of the company is taking the heat.
IMO, a million dollar fine just isn’t enough.
How did this get exposed?
A woman in Truckee got a notice from the IRS that she hadn’t declared all of her income a couple of years back. Seems the hallmark of this group of illegals working for Mack was that real persons names and social securith numbers were used in identity theft manner, and the workers for Mack were working under real names and numbers that wouldn’t raise a flag at Social Security. This woman had worked for the same employer for a number of years and had NEVER worked at a McDonald’s.
If she hadn’t pressed the issue, Mack might never have been found out.
Except for the current news about the fines, etc, there has been no “trotting out of Mack” be the local do-gooders as their poster boy.
As I tell my wife many times:
I am ready to help the homeless if know where they live.
Shunning is a hate crime. Punishment is that the shunner’s house is coopted and reassigned to the shunnee.
Opponents of the Fremont and Escondido plans say the cities’ attempts are unconstitutional. And, they’re probably right. Cities and states can’t enact laws governing immigration. That’s the job of the federal government.Okaaaay. Then why does the local police department respond to a Bank Robbery? "That’s the job of the federal government." (FBI)
Annnnd if a Local Cop does catch run accross a Bank Robber by happenstance shouldn't he let him go - just as if he was an Illegal? After all, its the job of the federal government.
/s
Just stop the biggest Gov’t free-handouts. That is more than enough.
Cheap, fraudulent, no-paperwork mortgages were a big point of attraction for illegals, and that spigot being shut-off is already showing positive results (except for the houses that they abandon).
thanks for the ping.
The shunning of illegals is only the first step. Groups of local taxpayer and voters should take time to do some community betterment protests to bring more community attention to this severe social problem. It’s happening around the country and hopefully gaining momentum. I’ve done my part and others should do theirs.
If a residence in Thousand Oaks can do this, just imagine what the residents could do!
“Opponents of the Fremont and Escondido plans say the cities’ attempts are unconstitutional. And, they’re probably right. Cities and states can’t enact laws governing immigration.”
What do these laws and statutes have to do with actual immigration? They might have some effect on illegals, but they’re not immigration laws.
The government is not refusing to enforce its (the government's) laws, it is refusing to enforce our (the people's) laws. In a self-governing republic, all legislative authority is vested in the people which we exercise through our elected representatives. While shunning those who employ or assist illegal immigrants is fine, it is not a solution to the problem of the people's representatives refusing to enforce our duly enacted laws. This constitutes a direct assault on the entire American project of republican self-government and can only be addressed by throwing out of office all the elected officials (including the President) who neither believe in nor support the people's right to make their own laws and to have them enforced by government.
The problem, which most of us have long realized, is that neither major party has restoring the fundamental legislative authority of the people on its agenda and our campaigns and elections in which a citizens' choice is between the lesser of two evils, neither of whom believes in this fundamental principle of republican self-government, are essentially meaningless.
It is not in the interest of the ruling political class of either party to restore the legislative sovereignty of the people and they are happy to exchange political power from time to time knowing full well that their ultimate agenda of gathering and retaining political power within their ruling elite class is achieved no matter who wins individual elections. The people will have to organize and put forward their own candidates who are not beholden to the media, business or political elites and who will make their priority the restoration of republican self-governance as they promise to do in their oaths of office and as they are required to do by the US constitution which guarantees a "republican" form of governance. The question is: do "we the people" care enough to make this happen?
You’re right. Need to fire my editor!
It's only the politicians (who do not have to see or interact with illegals) who pander to them in order to get votes. Votes from people who are not allowed by the Constitution to vote.
This article indicates that keeping up the pressure on illegals and those who hire them is beginning to yield some results.
Let's keep going.
Trash. Just trash. Illegals treat my country like sh!t. Get them out of here.
****Shunning is not easy. She lives in a small Arkansas town. ***
So after fifty years parts of Arkansas is still in the dark ages!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
