Sentiment Against Illegals is Powerful and Growing

Townhall.com ^ | May 7 2006 | John Leo

[Mount Athos]

One of the bloggers suggests that 2006 may be the year of the Lou Dobbs voter. The blogger, the Influence Peddler, is no fan. He considers Dobbs a demagogue, but he wonders whether voters are ready for a Dobbsian program of opposing illegal immigration, "throwing the bums out of Washington" and staying wary of international trade.

On immigration, this suggestion may reflect a shift in public opinion after the May 1 marches, away from the belief that the pro-illegals lobby had decisively altered public opinion, toward the realization that the marches may have created a powerful backlash.

Citing Arizona's new anti-smuggling law, the sheriff of Maricopa County (Phoenix) announced that a posse of a hundred deputies and volunteers would begin patrolling the desert. This appears to be an act of official frustration, not one of those cosmetic attempts to placate the right. The Minutemen, denounced as vigilantes by President Bush but greatly respected in the state, are now building a fence on private land along the Mexican border. They are going national too, with chapters popping up in Virginia and elsewhere.

The frustration level in Arizona is so high that a local prosecutor, Andrew Thomas of Maricopa County, organized a national immigration conference and gave a fiery speech on the chaos, crime and cost of the tide of illegals. Last spring, I managed to get lost in one of the rugged canyons of southeast Arizona, and stumbled on two camping areas for illegals, each with about as much debris as you might expect from an airliner crash.

Mercedes Maharis, who lives near that canyon, has just released a documentary on DVD, "Cochise County, USA: Cries From the Border." The eeriest footage is infrared photography of illegals, maybe a hundred or more, swarming across the border at night. The turning point for one woman came when she set up a tepee in her back yard and noticed one morning that a group of illegals was living in it. The withering remarks in the film are not aimed at the illegals, but at Washington for abandoning its constitutional duty to guard the border.

The national news media, which spent most of its energies covering the marches as a heartwarming civil rights effort, is belatedly recognizing that much of America doesn't see it that way. As the Los Angeles Times reports, "Activists who take the toughest stance against illegal immigration have formed too many groups to count, and more seem to crop up every week."

Around 67 percent of Americans have been telling pollsters for years that they want illegal immigration curtailed. Soon the media will notice the populist appeal of this huge constituency facing off against two sets of entrenched elites, the corporate elites of the right, supported by Republican politicians, and the academic elites of the left, supported by Democratic politicians.

Editorialists seem to discuss the illegals mostly in terms of compassion and the impossibility of deporting the 11 million already here. But the core of the problem is that illegal entry is a never-ending process. An amnesty-light compromise in Washington is unlikely to do much more about this than the allegedly tough amnesty-light program of 1986. In a poll last August, about 40 percent of adults surveyed in Mexico said they would like to move to the United States. If so, there would be another 28 million people. Mexico has a high birthrate, a broken political culture and a government determined to dump its poor on the United States. It even publishes a comic book showing illegals how to avoid the U.S. border patrol.

High and continuous immigration is occurring under conditions of bilingualism and multiculturalism, rather than assimilation. In the name of diversity, the academic elites have encouraged immigrants to maintain their birth-country cultures and to adopt a stance of separatism and pugnacious victimization. Political scientist Samuel Huntington argues that this amounts to a deconstruction of American identity that has been "gradually created over three centuries." In his book "Mexifornia," Victor Davis Hanson says California is not quite Mexico, but not quite the United States either.

The political culture of Washington, focused on cheap labor and Latino votes, is nowhere near recognizing what is happening.

[nicmarlo]

As am I. He's been pretty much a lone voice in media.

[nicmarlo]

I hope!!

[danmar]

Does that mean that Wisconsin is really Germania...when all those Germans settled there way back when?

Say...what's the percentage the Germans in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Chicago et all are drawing/sucking welfare (WIC's, emergency care, food stamps, free schools and trimmings etc?)and free loading off the general welfare tits?
Further more those nasty Germans in Wisconsin came on the legal boat if my memory serves me right!

Comparing Germans to Mexicans...uh, can you do that at all?

[La Enchiladita]

Too bad I don't have cable ... are there any audios of his program? ... I've never checked.

The belligerence and arrogance of the pro-illegals/OBLs are working in our favor also. I'm seeing more open hostility from Latinos; a local oaxacan restaurant is now displaying a HUGE mexican flag in their front window which they did not do before. They really think they are all that and are going to get all they demand.

They think they are having a walk on the beach, but you know how that is... if you don't pay attention, suddenly the tide comes up and gets you!

:-)

[buccaneer81]

They LIED!! There is no privacy law protecting identity theft.

Ahh... but there are laws regarding releasing information on tax returns.

[visualops]

High and continuous immigration is occurring under conditions of bilingualism and multiculturalism, rather than assimilation. In the name of diversity, the academic elites have encouraged immigrants to maintain their birth-country cultures and to adopt a stance of separatism and pugnacious victimization. Political scientist Samuel Huntington argues that this amounts to a deconstruction of American identity that has been "gradually created over three centuries."

All part of the Plan.

[nicmarlo]

I don't know if he has audios archived of his program or not. BQ might know; I know on CNN there are transcripts available, but I hadn't checked for video/audio.

[La Enchiladita]

Okay, cool. I'll check it out, thanks!

;^]

[Rick_Michael]

Yes, it is.

The new group You Don't Speak for Me! formed when Col. Al Rodriguez became fed up watching media coverage of the mass protests of April. "Their leaders were saying it was a march for immigrant rights and a Latino/Hispanic movement," says Rodriguez. "I thought to myself, 'Hey, those are illegal aliens, not immigrants!'" Col. Rodriguez began speaking out to others saying, "I'm of Hispanic ancestry and those people are acting like they speak for me. Well, you don't speak for me!"

Col. Rodriguez began asking others to help him reach more people who felt the same way and You Don't Speak for Me! formed from this loose coalition of individuals. It is a group of concerned Americans of Hispanic/Latino heritage, some first or second generation, others recent legal immigrants, who believe illegal immigration harms America and a guest worker amnesty will do the same.

[nicmarlo]

yw. : )

[stephenjohnbanker]

Sheesh!

[brazzaville]

Good evening.
"I am in the anti-hysteria...this has been around for 30 years..."

What is occurring now that has not happened before is a large scale movement demanding rights that don't exist in an effort to conquer the US by changing the demographics in several states.

This is occurring with overt aid from the Communists, the unions and the DemocRATs. Am I being redundant in the last sentence?.

Michael Frazier

[kstewskis]

The PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN AIN'T WORKIN'....BUMP!!

[hispanarepublicana]

HEY! Thanks bunches for the link! It's about time!

But, RDB3, you're right about what might be a small, yet sinister element....it's worrisome when the original threads about this group got a paltry 20 bumps each, while every single thread (many of which I post on, pretty much echoing fellow anti-illegal FReepers' sentiments) get at least a hundred replies each.

[nicmarlo]

lol! Very good. : )

[YankeeReb]

I'm waiting for the day the majority in this country decide it's time to stop filing income taxes. I mean if Washington looks the other way when millions ignore our immigration laws, surely they won't mind if people ignore the tax laws.

[ChildOfThe60s]

I get the sense that something sinister within this country is driving the ire...

You may get flamed for stating that, but I agree with you.

No flame. But think about what you are saying here. American citizens demanding that their elected representatives uphold their oaths to the US Constitution is somehow to be construed as "sinister"?

It is the fault of Washington that we have reached a crisis point in regards to illegal aliens. We have said "pretty please" deal with it for 25 years and been ignored. Frankly, if one would characterize anything about this issue as "sinister", it would be the manner in which the Feds have actually encouraged illegals.

[JeffAtlanta]

it's worrisome when the original threads about this group got a paltry 20 bumps each, while every single thread (many of which I post on, pretty much echoing fellow anti-illegal FReepers' sentiments) get at least a hundred replies each.

What is "worrisome" about that? From what I gathered from a quick glance, the "You Don't Speak For Me" group seems to be the good guys.

[JeffAtlanta]

The more I see the outrage over illegals, the more I get the sense that something sinister within this country is driving the ire...

The Balkanization of America isn't a big deal? There is no bigger issue that endangers this country more - not terrorism, abortion or socialism - than the turning of America into Kosovo.

[onyx]

BUMP that!