Replies

Thank God for a reasonable post here.

No, I'm no Mexican. I just wanted to see what that would provoke. Folks 'round here are too easily moved. I was hoping for something like this, which you finally gave.

Living at the border, you ought to know, as much as I do, in Montgomery County, MD, well along the front lines of immigration. As a joke, we used to sneak into the kitchen of local restaurants and yell, "MIGRA!" They'd bust out the back door leaving my filet mignon on the burner... Damn.

You live on the real front lines of this issue. I hate to tell you, but that aint' gonna change until you move to Maine. Then again, you might end up in a fight with the African immigrants in Lewiston...

People here have been trying mighty hard to reject that anti-immigration is not anti-non-white. They object to this characterization, saying that they object to Mexicanization, or to a loss of their own culture (they don't say this). They try too hard. My problem with all this is that the anti-immigrants reject their own -- my own -- culture by saying that immigrants are not welcome here. I'm sorry, but you can't swing a cat in my town, or cut a lawn, without a latin immigrant. Try getting a cab. The fact is that America needs, depends upon and requires immigrant labor. Look at the post above about labor unions trying to incorporate illegals. That can only mean that illegals are encroaching upon them. I don't give a damn for unions any more than for immigrants. They can all fight it out for themselves in the great American marketplace and culture.

My problem is with people who reject that America is too small. That's a fallacy and a pessimism and defeatism I do not accept. I reject it. I loathe it.

I'm sorry for your personal pain in all this. We must keep the pressure on the border. But we mustn't lose sight that it won't succeed. At the same time, if we don't keep up the pressure, we lose completely. I think you understand this.

Ironically, I like this voice of the anti-immigrants. It keeps the "anything goes" crowd in line. I'd like to see a bit more enlightenment around here. We can play both sides of the game, or I'm in the wrong place.

Thank you, JacklopeBreeder, for your post. It was the most thoughtful here yet.

I'm sorry, but you can't swing a cat in my town, or cut a lawn, without a latin immigrant. Try getting a cab.

Amazing, we keep getting this same argument from the "bring in the world" crowd, legally or otherwise.

This question has been asked a million times to the Wall St. Journal types, and the closest to an answer I've gotten so far is an "I don't know". Perhaps you can tell us: where I live there is very little illegal immigration as of yet, in fact our population is actually declining, but guess what? The toilets are getting cleaned, hotels are staffed, fast food places have plenty of teenagers working in them, and yes, I have no problem getting a cab, how about that? Canada has hardly any illegal immigrants up there, but someone is doing the work... hmmm, I wonder who?

Could you tell us please? Maybe these areas are on the verge of collapsing because of have all those jobs "no one wants to do" but, we just don't know it yet.

"People here have been trying mighty hard to reject that anti-immigration is not anti-non-white. They object to this characterization, saying that they object to Mexicanization, or to a loss of their own culture (they don't say this)."

I guess because you do live so far from the front lines you really don't see the issue. It's not all race as you claim, but much is the loss of the American culture that makes this country quite different from Mexico in the first place. I live in a hispanic area and I can tell you it's not just blond Americans who are affected by the extremely high taxes and falling wages brought on by high immigration.

Over 80% of "latinos" have faced discrimination from other "latinos" ----of course so many people are so intent on racist explanations, the conclusion in this article is so absurd that it suggests that the latinos who thought other latinos discriminated against them just didn't get to meet whites and see what discrimination really is.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5202-2002Dec18.html

An overwhelming majority of Hispanics considered Latino-against-Latino discrimination to be a problem, although views varied according to people's backgrounds. For instance, Colombians and Dominicans were more likely to consider such discrimination a problem than Puerto Ricans.

Among Hispanics, Colombians and Dominicans are relatively newer groups in the United States and may tend more toward living and working in primarily Latino neighborhoods, suggested Mollyann Brodie, director of public opinion and media research at the Kaiser Family Foundation. As a result, their experiences with discrimination may be limited to occurrences involving other Hispanics.