Month: July 2008

According to the Journal Messenger the hearing over the Libery Wall has been postponed until September 5th.

Check out this ground-breaking resolution by the U.S. Conference of Mayors supporting comprehensive immigration reform “which promotes the reunification of families, provides legal status with a path to earned citizenship to the estimated 12 million undocumented workers and designs a plan for current and future immigrant workers.”

I feel the “Whereas” statements in this resolution are compelling as is, but they might also have included, “Whereas Prince William County, VA has made a huge mess of itself by politicizing the immigration issue for Virginia’s 2007 election.” For press coverage click here.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors
76th Annual Meeting
June 20-24, 2008
Miami

Wednesday, I had a great opportunity to go for a “ride along”  with a police officer in the Woodbridge area.  Expecting to see horrific neighborhoods, having been described by Greg and other posters, I WAS shocked.  Shocked, because, for the most part, the only lawns I did not see maintained were the ones with the foreclosure signs on them.  Sure, the homes were older, several had garages that were turned into separate entrances, but they are all in good shape for the most part.  We visited shopping centers, once vibrant, now deserted. 

The police officer pointed out areas with high gang activity, and pointed to some taggings.  Still, having grown up in Fairfax, having lived from  North Arlington to Centreville, having seen first hand the poorer apartments and houses in the Baileys Crossroads area, even these parts of Woodbridge, overall, looked well maintained.   I am not suggesting that the houses all perfect, there were a few that stood out, but this was not a “third world country”, not by any stretch of the imagination.  I asked the police officer “is this as bad as you could show me ?”, and he replied that it was.   

Stopping briefly, we had some conversations with a few day laborers.  They were cordial and friendly, sharing their thoughts, describing their desire to work during these tough times.  Some had families here, some had families in their country of origin.   Although, a few admitted to be undocumented, several said they had visa’s to be here legally. 

Driving home, I recalled the conversations I had with this very kind, considerate, and thoughtful(as in full of thought), police officer.  He can see the totality of immigration impact in Prince William County, we were able to debate our ideas and I certainly came away with a new appreciation of his job and the struggles of these neighborhoods, struggling to absorb such a large influx of new and different faces. 

To me, the glaring elephant in the room, has been the lack of county leadership, dealing pro-actively with the changing face of Prince William County to a more urban environment.   Instead, we have community in fear of the police, and that fear is counter productive to the safety of everyone in Prince William County, including me, you, and the immigrants. 

Being that I believe our focus on illegal immigration takes us away, as a nation, from more serious crisis’, I thought this article was very appropriate. The full article can be found here: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid:356664

Page Two: The Politics of Distraction
In the face of failure at home and abroad, the right turns on immigrants
BY LOUIS BLACK

Imagine a modern Rip Van Winkle, someone who, a year and a half to two years back, had sunk into a deep sleep. Now, months later, RVW awakens and turns on the television news to see what he’s missed. The current, news-dominating debate over illegal immigrants and immigration comes as a surprise.
Certainly, immigration is and has been a major issue. But what about Iraq, al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden (has he been caught?), Social Security reform, national security, tax-cutting budget balancing, AIDS in Africa, spreading democracy, and battling the axis of evil, as well as reactionary political and social reform?

The intensity and sense of urgency around the immigration discussion seems disproportionately overwhelming. Even if you have been awake, but just not paying much attention, this ferocity is disconcerting. What catastrophic incident has caused this issue to be moved to the front burner, with the maximum possible heat?

Have terrorists been caught crossing our southern border? Has the drain of that population bankrupted and shredded our already shrinking, ever more flimsy social safety net? Have illegal immigrants gone on a Days of Rage-style urban rampage, leaving cities aflame? Are their numbers reaching epidemic proportions?

Some would say “yes” to all of those. They claim that illegal immigrants are “invading” the U.S., parasitically devouring public-education and health-service funds with the intent of subverting and destroying Western civilization and the American lifestyle.

Illegal immigration is a complex issue, one for which with any kind of movement is almost impossible because of the intensely concerned constituencies’ radically different agendas. Yet those opposed to open borders offer only easy answers: Implement strict border enforcement and build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico now. Drive those already here home by denying them employment (by outrageously fining any American employer hiring them), education, driver’s licenses, and any public services. Concurrently, round them up to send them back home, with no possibility of returning.

There are any number of logical refutations of the above positions. It is estimated that illegal workers contribute about $10 billion to Social Security that they never collect, though they cost about $2.2 billion a year in government health services. They are crucial to the marketplace’s filling many low-level labor and service jobs Americans won’t. (Note: This is not to argue that there are no Americans who will take these jobs or even that they won’t take them at the same pay. Those are straw-man arguments – there is not a large enough American work force to do the jobs, especially at prevailing wages.) But even this brief discussion dignifies the current immigration debate.

If our Rip Winkle, a mere 18 months earlier, watched the FOX network or listened to talk radio, Iraq was overwhelmingly the predominant topic. In so many ways, it validated all of those attitudes: how right the U.S. was to be in Iraq, and how successful the occupation, as we brought democracy to the Iraqis. At the same time, this country had returned to our rightful place as the sole, dominant national power of the modern world. Democrats (read: leftists/communists/socialists/suicidal pacifists) and other anti-war activists had been proven wrong, exposed as America-haters, racists, cowards, and impractical dreamers who wanted to embrace the terrorists rather than destroy them.

Now, this might seem cheap and too convenient – a neo-leftist, misguided attempt to shift the debate away from the real problem – but, right now, go turn on talk radio. Illegal immigration is the dominant, and almost only, topic. The invasion of the country and corruption of American civilization is lamented. Americans, especially our elected leaders, are chastised for doing nothing. For the part of our population that is dependent on easy answers and needs an identifiable enemy to hate, illegal immigration is the new Iraq.

This issue certainly fits the bill, not only providing an outside “enemy,” but allowing an attack on clueless, apathetic (if not traitorous) citizens (read: liberal Democrat, anti-American, anti-moral-values, communist, socialist, fifth columnists). There are no problems that can’t be solved by attacking other Americans.

Illegal immigration is not a major problem facing the United States, though it is of genuine and contradictory concerns. The reason for its prominence is a need for enemies on the part of those who vow undying love to this country while evidencing not even limited affection for its principles.

This is 1984. Turn on talk radio. You will hear endless gibberish about illegal immigration. Iraq will be hardly mentioned, if at all. Socialist George Orwell saw this coming, as right-wing America still does not. The response to terrorism can’t be terrorism; the response to fascism can’t be fascism; and the response to anti-American rhetoric and values can’t be the destruction of the Constitution.