I'm here to speak for my grandparents.
Last week I was in the part of Manhattan called the Lower East Side, the first American home of my grandparents and parents. That they settled in the Lower East Side was no surprise -- it's been the first home of a whole lot of new Americans including Italians, Irish, Jews from Poland and Germany, Latinos from Central America and a whole lot of folks from the Caribbean. I imagined what the neighborhood would have sounded like when my parents lived there, as people yelled out open windows across narrow streets in a frenzy of languages as rich and diverse as the smells of the food cooking; Polish, German, Italian, Yiddish, Spanish. The Lower East Side in the 1920's was crowded, smelly, poor, and brimming with the optimism of a new beginning.
Then I pictured the effect on that multicultural neighborhood of SB 1070, Arizona's Immigration Law.
Cops required to stop anyone who might be illegal based on 'reasonable suspicion?' In the Lower East Side of the 1920's that would have been everybody. Imagine a cop walking along East Fifth Street; in front of him's a pushcart owner speaking Italian while his customers speak Yiddish and around them little kids shout in German. How could he tell who was legal? Would he demand papers from everyone? 'Show me your papers.' Imagine the panic and despair rising in my grandparents, hearing those four words spoken by authorities of their new home as it had been in the place they left. My Grandpa and Grandma were legal citizens of the United States but I guarantee they would have ended up in jail; if confronted by a cop saying 'show me your papers' what little confidence they had in their ability to speak English would have deserted them. Imagine the fear of their neighbors, knowing their English was no better and they could be next.
There were a lot of Americans in the 1920's who didn't think much of the polyglot of ethnicity that sat smack in the middle of America's biggest city, any more than Russell Pearce thinks positive thoughts about the number of Mexicans in Arizona today. In 1916 a lawyer named Madison Grant wrote a book called The Passing of a Great Race, in which he expressed concern that America was being overrun with undesirables, certain immigrants from certain places -- specifically, Eastern and Southern Europe. His solution for undesirables already here was the creation of ghettos. His solution to prevent more undesirables from coming to the United States became law in 1924. The Immigration Act of 1924 was a quota which limited the number of new immigrants solely by race and origin. Those most affected were Eastern Europeans and Southern Europeans; Asian immigrants were shut out completely, thanks to an accompanying act with the shockingly truthful name of the Asian Exclusion Act. This was racial profiling to the umpteenth degree; the 1924 law rated the desirability of immigrants purely on their country of origin. In defense of the Immigration Act of 1924, Senator Ellison DuRant Smith said this on the floor of the United States Senate:
I would like for the Members of the Senate to read that book just recently published by Madison Grant, The Passing of a Great Race. Thank God we have in America perhaps the largest percentage of any country in the world of the pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock; certainly the greatest of any nation in the Nordic breed. It is for the preservation of that splendid stock that has characterized us that I would make this not an asylum for the oppressed of all countries, but a country to assimilate and perfect that splendid type of manhood that has made America the foremost Nation in her progress and in her power, and yet the youngest of all the nations. The time has come when we should shut the door and keep what we have.
An America made up of "pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock" was not the America my grandparents believed in. They believed the words of Emma Lazarus, who said America welcomed the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free regardless of where they were born. They thought America was a place of refuge, a country that said, "send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me."
I know what my grandparents thought of the Immigration Act of 1924, that it was punitive and unfair, that it excluded people based on race and ethnicity. Most of all my grandparents felt the Immigration Act of 1924 was un-American, and when they said something was un-American, when they said it ran counter to all that was good and worthy and inspirational about their new home, that was as profound an insult as they could deliver.
That's what my grandparents would have said about any law based in fear and grounded in hate.
Arizona's new Immigration Law is deeply and disturbingly un-American. My grandparents aren't here to say it. But I am.
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This Lecture was done in 1999. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM1YU-Ni_84
Looking at the chart when he gets there,
What they estimated in 1999 for 2010 is spot on what actually happened.
[Estimated in 1999 it would be just over 300 million in 2010.]
When he gets to the gumball demonstration keep in mind the large jar represents the people in the world that are WORSE OFF than Mexicans.
Because of illegal immigration from 1999 to present we've had to:
Build TWICE as many schools.
Build TWICE as many roads.
Build TWICE as many sewer plants.
Build TWICE as many power plants.
Build TWICE as much about anything else.
Had to add twice as many cops and firemen and teachers. [Or leave areas under serviced.]
And use TWICE as many trees and other natural resources.
Anyone that thinks illegal immigration isn't a significant load on our economy and natural resources is a moron.
If you don't want every city in the US to become a giant LA Slum within our or our children's lifetimes then it has to STOP NOW!
~
Link to just the chart. [Sorry about the quality.]
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/files/imagecache/fpage/files/cck_images/population.jpg..
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I was raised by a Republican father, who in the 50's and 60's would have found these tea-klanner Republicans every bit as heinous and disturbing as his progressive son does today. Then Republicans might not have supported issues I did, but there wasn't any anti-semetic, or racist, or gay slurs being spewed.
I think Governor Brewer and her Republican legislators have underestimated the FURY they have unleashed towards Arizona, and towards Republicans. Not only from outside AZ refusing to be tourists, or purchase AZ products, but aproximately 1/4th of Arizona is Latin@. Imagine 1/4th of the state either fearful or furious and wanting nothing else but to cause the state financial PAIN. There must be a half dozen small ways each day every one of those residents can GUM UP the smooth running of that state. Say a huge convention has to have 300 tables set up for the next night and a dozen workers call in sick, or package by overnight courier that HAS DATE CERTAIN contracts or perishable contents....doesn't arrive.
I somehow doubt your grandparents would agree with your status quo boarder security support of rape, murder, sex trafficking, kidnapping, drug smuggling, and a host of other violent crime commited by illegal aliens. But you know that don't you?
"Authorities say the boy called 911 early Tuesday saying his 44-year-old mother had fainted and might be dead. The teen and his mother were illegal border crossers and the boy says Mexican smugglers had kicked them out of a vehicle because she was sick."
"A 17-year-old charged with raping an 8-year-old girl and leaving her for dead at an abandoned landfill is in the United States illegally. "
You could fill a library with the horror of violence committed by illegals against Latinos.
If the boarder was secure thousands of people, PEOPLE, would be alive, with whole families. But it is okay with you that people die and lives are shattered because the people who suffer are brown skinned. As to your claim about crime % being the same you need to check the stats with ICE or FBI.
As far as the 1924 immigration act the overwhelmingly majority of the people were for this great law. I know you don't like it either, but this is a democracy and the majority of the people wanted a timeout on immigration. That is what this country is really all about. The will of the people. Not the imposed will of the elite who think they know what is best for us.
in contrast, when the 1965 immigration reform bill was shoved down our throat in 1965 there was no popular support for this law. The government lied to the people and literally promised that they would not change the ethnic balnce of the country. The attitude was if it ain't broken don't fox it. The America of 1965 was doing fine by me also.
Well they lied to us. Now in 2010 the overwhelming amount of people 70% want the immigration flood stopped. Both illegal and legal. With 21% real unemployment and a population of 330,000,000 is enough. However we are told by the same elites that no matter what the people think, it ain't gonna happen. Now that is unAmerican
Anyone who pretends that it is not about Race, is a liar and a hypocrite.
And there are many, many "illegal" immigrants in the US that come form other countries. I see your frustration, Arizona, but that does not give you the right to demominze an entire people just to make yourself feel safe.
I just had to wonder, when these were all people from Poland who were white and blond haired, were people so concerned with how 'legal' they were? Somehow, I doubt it.
This land was once part of the Spanish Empire, and has since been taken over by Europeans. Illegal-Europeans get a free pass and can stay under the radar because they visually assimilate.
I will bet your grandparents were in our country legally.
Everyone is so afraid of Racially Profiling and I really don't see the problem.
I Travel and Surf in Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatamala, Panama and Nicaragua and get profiled everytime I cross the Border.
Every one of our Southern neighbors have thier military checking for papers.
In that situation I do exactly as everyone should do here and show them that I am in thier Country Legally.
Why are we the only Country that is not allowed to enforce our immigration laws?
I live in San Diego, and I know that most of the people protesting and boycotting Arizona have never been anywhere near the border.
The Us should adopt the same immigration laws that every other country in the World has.
Come in legally and I will welcome you with open arms.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform needs to start with Boder Enforcement.
Then I will be more than happy to listen to you on why we should'nt arrest people that break our laws.
So, of course we have to have paper checking too? I don't want my sister and my daughter (both adopted mexicans) to have to prove they are citizens. They are citizens becauswe they were born in this country. Let the central americans keep their jackbooted thugs to themselves.
If a Latino breaks the law, arrest that person.
If a White breaks the law, arrest that person.
If a Black breaks the law, arrest that person.
If a Native American breaks the law, arrest that person.
If an Asian breaks the law, arrest that person.
If a German breaks the law, arrest that person.
If a Lithuanian breaks the law, arrest that person.
If a anyone breaks the law, arrest that person.
Perhaps in your zeal to keep outsiders out, you should come up with better points. You may find people who share your concern. Bottom line is that we do enforce immigration laws -- especially post-9/11.
And I read nothing in there about about what to do with businesses that hire them.
If you cross the North Korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labor.
If you cross the Iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely.
If you cross the Afghan border illegally, you get shot.
If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally you will be jailed.
If you cross the Chinese border illegally you may never be heard from again.
If you cross the Venezuelan border illegally you will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed.
If you enter Cuban territory illegally you will be thrown into political prison to rot.
If you cross the U.S. border illegally you get
1 - A job,
2 - A driver’s license,
3 - Social security card,
4 - Welfare payments,
5 - Food stamps,
6 - Credit cards,
7 - Subsidized rent or a loan to buy a house,
8 - Free education,
9 - Free health care,
10 - Lobbyist representation in Washington
11 - Billions of dollars’ worth of public documents printed in "your" language
12 - The right to carry your country's flag while you protest that you don't get enough respect.
- Is there anything in the AZ law that is more strict than current federal law?
- If 95% of illegals in AZ are hispanic, how can immigration laws be enforced without offending hispanics?
- When an AZ policeman was shot by hispanic illegals, was it profiling to only go after hispanics for the perpetrator?
- When there is a call for "immigration reform", will activists be satisfied with anything less than full amnesty?
- If illegals are made legal, will that not increase the burden on govt. entitlements considering that 50% of the current US population pays no income taxes and most illegals will also not pay any?
Whether the AZ is stricter is beside the point for this reason.
The Hispanic's that shot the deputy were drug mules, drug cartel, they were not immigrants in the usual meaning of the term nor even the usual meaning of the illegal immigrant since most of them come here for work. So why do you insist on conflating criminal, beyond the illegal border crossing, with all illegals if not to target Mexicans and smear them because of their race?
amnesty in of itself will not work and we should not be giving amnesty to illegals who are really illegals as a byproduct of US illegal drug demand.
where do you get your stats on your last point, made up or provided by racist groups?