posted on January 14, 2004 05:37:07 AM new
I think Bush cooked his own goose with this one. What is he thinking? Now, more jobs will be taken away from Americans. If companies can hire Mexicans at minimum wage, why pay an American $8/hr? Again, our esteemed ruler has forgotten his own people. He wants to help Mexico and its economy. Well, Mr. Bush (because surely you don't deserve the title President), your job in part is to protect the interests of the AMERICAN people and to make life better for the AMERICAN people. You have failed on all counts. You have instead made life better for the Iraqi people and are now working on the Mexicans and other illegals in this country while the very citizens in this country that elected (make that appointed) you President, continue on a path that leads down instead of up. Way to go.
Edited to add: Mr Savage, please don't insult the liberals in this country by calling President Bush one. Even liberals protect the interests of the American people before the interests of other countries. I should know. I'm a liberal and I don't want Bush being thrown in with me. Yuk!
posted on January 14, 2004 08:47:50 AM new
Illegal Immigration - The View
From A Police Officer's Car - Pt 1
Guest Commentary
By Frosty Wooldridge
MICH.com
1-13-4
He's an ex-Marine. He served his country with honor. Now in his late 20s, he serves as an officer of what is known as the 'thin blue' line. He's the difference between you being safe at night in your bed or being mugged on a city street or killed by a speeding drug dealer. He patrols a major city in Connecticut on the graveyard shift. This is his log in three parts concerning stories on America's accelerating crime crisis: illegal immigration.
"What made you get in touch with me?" I asked him.
"Nobody in the media will expose what is happening in every city in America," he said. "I couldn't possibly make any of this up. Of the calls that were dispatched last night, two crashes involved Hispanics that fled the scene. One illegal was arrested. A female from Peru, who did not speak English, was arrested for domestic assault with a weapon. I ticketed yet another unlicensed illegal for motor vehicle violations. As a police officer, I come into contact daily with people who are in this country illegally and who have no respect for the law or American citizens. Even when treated with respect and courtesy and being warned instead of being arrested, they again flaunt the law. The reason for this is that they know there are no federal repercussions after they are arrested even though it is discovered they are here illegally. They don't respect our laws because we don't enforce them. Period!"
Few Americans realize that 29% of criminals filling jails across this country are illegal and legal immigrants. They cost US taxpayers nearly $1 billion annually. The ones that suffer from tuberculosis or hepatitis spread those diseases to other inmates. This causes further medical costs into the millions. This officer proceeded with a few examples:
"I stopped a car for a violation and discovered the operator was an unlicensed illegal immigrant who worked as a busboy in a Spanish bar," he said. "I allowed a licensed friend of his to drive him home and warned him he could not drive. Several days later while I was walking a foot post, I observed him about to enter a car. He looked at me, got in, and started to drive away. This time I towed his car and gave him a ticket. The very next week I again observed him driving and this time placed him under arrest, he posted bail. He was arrested again by another officer for operating without a license. He did not respond to court or pay any of his fines. He was arrested on a warrant, but did not serve any jail time. Every officer I know can relate similar stories. These are just the ones we catch."
What would you say is one of your greatest frustrations as a police officer? Is it the fact that Americans must obey laws but illegal aliens don't?
He sat in his cruiser with a deep look of chagrin on his face, "This summer I observed a group of illegal male Hispanics drinking from beer bottles in one of our parks. I did not take action, but told them to the empty the bottles and then join their friends in the picnic area. Beer is allowed, glass is not. I parked a short distance away, but right in front of me, they returned to the vehicle and removed several beer bottles, drinking them a short distance away. I ended their party and wrote tickets. Why did they do this despite my presence? No respect for our laws."
What are the dangerous aspects you encounter as to identification?
"This one drives me nuts," he said. "Illegal immigrants learn many ways to confuse the police and hinder them in their investigations. The most common way is to pretend that they don't speak English. Another common method is using several different names. If a man's name is Juan Sebastien Lopez-Garcia, he will use several variations of that name and often change his date of birth. He may use Juan Lopez the first time he is arrested. The next time he may use Sebastien Garcia. The intent is to prevent an officer from discovering a past arrest or warrant--and it does work. The reason is that rarely does an illegal immigrant have any true documentation of which they are, so it is much tougher to verify a person's identity. A better way is to make a custodial arrest and require photo ID before allowing release. Unfortunately these offenders are often released after showing dubious photo ID's that are easily obtained for a fee."
What you're saying is a complete lack of law and order or respect for the law. With millions more about to be added with the Bush amnesty, what do police officers think about illegal immigration?
"I gotta tell you," he said. "Many Americans are fed up with the current trend of our government turning a blind-eye to the massive problem of illegal immigration. We create immigration laws that are ignored and then, when enough people sneak into this country, we pardon them by granting amnesty. This encourages further violations. It makes you sick. It is also unfair to the thousands of people who have followed the proper immigration procedures to obtain citizenship. It also encourages these people to continue breaking laws while they are in the country, especially motor vehicle laws. Municipal and state law enforcement officials, like myself, are fed up with arresting illegal immigrants, only to have them released. We must re-arrest these individuals when they again commit a crime, as they invariably do."
Are you saying that national security is useless? Is Tom Ridge fooling himself and us? How great is our risk each day?
"I can tell you," he said. "If an illegal immigrant wants to legally circumvent our driving laws, he can obtain a license from a state with minimal identification requirements. In Virginia for example, if a person has a Virginia address and a photo ID, like a passport, he can obtain a license. Once an illegal has this document, he can now legally drive in this country and has legitimate identification. I discovered this after I compared notes with several other officers and learned that illegal immigrants would go to Virginia, get a license, and then use it to drive in other states that had stricter laws for obtaining licenses. This way when they were stopped, the only action an officer could take would be to write a ticket for failure to change address. This is what I do. I spoke with a cooperative illegal immigrant who told me that many of his friends would go to Virginia and that they all used the same address of someone they knew in Virginia, on the application. This was very common and most illegal immigrants knew how to do it. This is a tremendous hole in our national security system that needs to be closed, not opened by allowing illegal immigrants to obtain licenses as was recently proposed. Since 9/11, I believe that states have tightened up on this aspect, but I still receive Virginia licenses with regularity."
After writing a ticket to an illegal alien from Guatemala whom had no license, this officer said, "Guess what he is doing? Delivering papers. His job requires him to drive a car, yet he has no license. Unbelievable! But it gets better. I warned this same guy several weeks ago not to drive. I had been heading to a call and told him it was his lucky day because I did not have time to write him a ticket. I told him that if I saw him driving again, the next time I would tow his car. So after writing him over $400 worth of tickets, that is what I did."
This officer's shift was over at daybreak. He looked worn, tired and ready for a hot shower and meal. What would go through one's mind if they were serving their state and country with their lives on the line daily, but their own Leaders Wouldn't Uphold our Nation's Laws? It begs the question across America concerning the rule-of-law. If our laws are routinely disobeyed by illegal aliens at the federal level and then, at the state level-and finally, at the local level with impunity-at what point does a nation move toward lawlessness as the norm? What is the definition of law? How long before it breaks down to the point whereby so many disregard it that a community can't function or functions in fear. With 10 to 13 million illegal aliens operating in the United States, an amnesty will draw millions more just as a green light means 'GO' in traffic. This officer will explore what it means on his night shift: Part II-The loss of law and order.
Frosty Wooldridge (<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]), web site: (<http://www.frostywooldridge.com/>www.frostywooldridge.com) is a teacher and author who has bicycled 100,000 miles on six continents to see overpopulation up close and ugly.
posted on January 14, 2004 02:03:48 PM new
Is the officer unaware of INS? I mean they have the guys place of employment - would it really be so hard to call INS, report him as a repeat offender and have him picked up?
How does he expect the government to enforce the immigration laws if he doesn't inform them of the need.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on January 14, 2004 02:52:45 PM new
This is a true story. My cousin's son came up from Sinaloa to visit a couple of years ago. He's a single kid, about 20, and has about as much common sense as you might expect of someone that age. He brought a friend along, who didn't have papers. This was his first mistake. They crossed at one of our ranch gates that is on the border, and family members on both sides know the unwritten, age old rule that we only use legal crossings to go back and forth.
So anyway, here comes profe, after a hard day herding students, I pull up at the ranch house and see my Primo's pickup in the drive, next to it is a state fish and game ranger's truck, a highway patrol car, and a county sherriff's vehicle. The three guardians of the law are all scratching their heads and thumbing their way thru this really thick three ring notebook.
It seems that after crossing, they stopped at another relative's house for a bit, and the other relative said "take this shotgun up to profe, I borrowed it last year and keep forgetting to return it, and give him this box of shells, too.". Then they set off onto a HIGHWAY for part of the way here, because the road had gotten too rough. While on the highway, my cousin's dipstick friend sees a coyote cross the road. What does he do? You guessed it, he rolls down the window, pops 3 shells into the escopeta and blasts away at the coyote, which trots off unharmed. A passing motorist sees this, and reports it to the DPS, which calls fish and game with the truck description. Fish and Game calls the sherriff, who says "If it's a sinaloa truck it's probably one of profe's relatives", and so out they all come to the ranch. When I get there and figure out what happened, I first ask the highway patrolman "well, what are you going to do with this dumbsh$t?"...he says, and I'm not making this up..."We have a gang law in this state you know, firing a gun from a moving vehicle can be prosecuted as a gang crime"....real threatening, like I did it! I say, "so arrest this pendejo, my dinner's getting cold", he says "well, umm...he has no papers, so we'd have to hold him for INS, and we're really not set up for that", so I turn to the fish and game clown, who says "well...It was just a coyote, and he didn't hurt it after all so, umm,umm...", by this time the deputy sherriff is trying not to laugh, and I ask him if HE plans to do anything about all these flagrant violations of the law...he finally realizes that my cousin's son's pickup has a broken brake light, and writes him a ticket...then they all apologized for bothering us and left.
After writing all this I realize there isn't much point, except to illustrate that other law enforcement agencies are not in a hurry to do anything about violations committed by aliens. They could, but they don't....in case you're wondering, I fed those two knuckleheads and let them spend the night, then sent them packing the next day, telling my cousin's kid's friend not to EVER come back without papers, and following up by calling my cousin to chew his backside about his moron of a son....
___________________________________
Mi abuelita me dijo "en boca cerrada no entran moscas".
posted on January 14, 2004 04:36:25 PM new
I knew there was a reason I was glad I have no cousins
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on January 14, 2004 04:52:36 PM new
Very good story prof.
Three tries with a shotgun and he couldn't hit a coyote? I can see why they would worry about him shooting anywhere.
My step-father worked security at an airport with a guy who was as bad although he was in his 40s and still did something stupid at least weekly.
They sent him out to chase away a fox that had caused an airliner to pull up and go around because the pilot was scared of sucking him in.
He got out of his Suburban walked along the edge of the runway a short distance and when he flushed the fox out he blasted off three or four shots from his big Magnum as it tried to run across the runway behind him.
The plane had to divert to Cleveland since he shot the motor in his own vehicle and left it sitting dead in a puddle of oil and antifreeze in the middle of the runway.
But in 20 years or so we can hope your kid wises up a little.
posted on January 14, 2004 07:28:59 PM new he shot the motor in his own vehicle and left it sitting dead in a puddle of oil and antifreeze in the middle of the runway.
that guy and my cousin's kid are good candidates for the Darwin Awards I'd say...
fenix, I have lots of cousins...how many would you like?
___________________________________
Mi abuelita me dijo "en boca cerrada no entran moscas".
posted on January 14, 2004 08:20:37 PM new
ROFL! And I though my family was a little strange - maybe it's just little.
Prof - does someone put the stories of your family hyjinks together in the annual Christmas letter? If so I'll take 1 cousin in order to get on that list.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on January 15, 2004 08:00:24 PM new
This whole immigration business is far more complicated than a nitwit like Micheal Savage can comprehend. I'm sure he enjoys paying 89 cents for a head of fresh romaine, counts on his asparagus to hover around two dollars a pound, and I'd bet you he's got a mow-it-blow-it-pick-it-up Mexican gardener keeping his yard tidy for fifty bucks a month. And maybe a Mexican housekeeper, too, who does everything from his dishes to his laundry for a pittance twice a month. But he won't talk about that. Nor will he delve into the fact that it's Agri-business and wealthy slumlords (surely there are a few of those numbered among George Bush's best friends, heh) who profit most from these people's illegal presence in the United States, paying them next to nothing and gouging them on their rent.
Instead of focussing on the urgent need to get these people documented and PAYING TAXES, idiotic Savage raises the spector of Crime, guaranteed to scare and enflame every similarly-simpleminded listener/reader he's got. I live in California. I've driven up and down the state, through the vast green fields of lettuce and broccoli and almond trees and you-name-it. What I see are people working HARD, in the witheringly hot sun, forced to breathe a stockyard-stench that makes me roll up my car windows and speed out of the valley as quickly as possible. I'm not thrilled with the Bush proposal; it does nothing to address the fact that undocumented workers obviously have no health care and only pay into the "community pot" peripherally when they purchase taxable goods. Local services, like Fire Departments, are stretched to their limits acting as first-response MEDICAL corps in this state, and somehow it got legislated that no hospital could turn away anyone in need so, while a head of romaine is still less than a buck, the cost of LIVING in this state and underwriting its illegal immigrant workers health care alone has sky-rocketed. Micheal Savage won't address this any more comprehensively than Bush will; if we grant full citizenship to illegal immigrants and require them to pay taxes, they're not gonna pick oranges twelve hours a day because they won't be able to afford to do so. If we continue to nod-and-wink at our "border patrol", we encourage an ever-increasing drain on our city and county infrastructures and perpetuate the stigmatization of millions of people who simply want what we all want: a better life, a decent life.
Something's gotta give, though; either we pony-up and pay a whole lot more for food and yardwork/domestic services so that undocumented workers can join us as citizens and taxpayers, or we let instigators like Micheal Savage incite us to reactionary (but ineffectual) views that alter nothing -- least of all the direction in which we're blindly being led...
posted on January 15, 2004 08:20:27 PM new
Oh Smith - that was too complicated. It gave me a headache. Could you kinda compress it into a 15 or 20 second bite I can ignore while running in and making a sandwich?
Something about lettuce going up - that's ok you can hold the lettuce. Special orders don't upset us - da da da da de de de de dum de da da.
posted on January 15, 2004 08:40:25 PM new
Very well said smith, savage is a simpleton, and hateful to boot. Bush's measures will change nothing and are a cheap, transparent appeal to the latino vote. I am quite sure Fox supports them only because they will improve his standing somewhat, and because he sees it as a tiny step in the right direction.
___________________________________
Mi abuelita me dijo "en boca cerrada no entran moscas".
posted on January 15, 2004 08:48:54 PM new
Hi Profe!
I dunno what to make of Fox. I think he's what one might term an "international" politician as opposed to the leader of Mexico, for he often DOESN'T seem to have Mexico's best interests at heart. Hey, wait a minute! I think maybe George Bush is an "international" politician, too!
The people of the town of Tlalnepantla, predominantly indigenous of the Nahuatl ethnicity, and a short distance outside of Mexico City, declared their town an Autonomous Municipality last year. And life went on.
But now, three days after Mexican President Vicente Fox stood side by side with George W. Bush in Monterrey, the Fox government, and the Morelos state government of Fox's PAN party, return to the former ruling PRI party's tactics of brutal repression. Yesterday, hundreds of armed forces stormed the town: One citizen dead already, a dozen wounded, many more detained, and many, many, more have fled to the hills outside of town.
Marcos Matํas Alonso of the United Nations Development Fund for Indigenous Peoples is on the scene. He reports: (in spanish)
"It is necessary that this be resolved by the (predominantly Nahuatl) community, because municipal political instability could be created... Morelos has been a state at peace, but it already has five towns with problems in distinct conflicts, and we can't forget that this is the cradle of Zapatismo. We don't want to awaken the insurrection."
posted on January 16, 2004 10:09:32 AM new
This statement:
"The people of the town of Tlalnepantla, predominantly indigenous of the Nahuatl ethnicity, and a short distance outside of Mexico City, declared their town an Autonomous Municipality last year."
Doesn't jibe at all with this statement from the AP story:
"Earlier in the week, dissidents aided by leftist supporters had seized the town hall in Tlalnepantla, Morelos and declared the hamlet an "autonomous municipality."
And the timing of this episode has more to do with this (than Bush's presence):
"Tlalnepantla had been deadlocked for months, with dissidents refusing to recognize the mayor since November. A deadline for resolving the conflict -- or scheduling new elections -- was to have run out Wednesday."
The Mexican government did next to nothing when a similar event occurred in 2002 (Atenco declared itself an autonomous municipality); perhaps this show of force is meant to warn neighboring (and unsettled) towns that dissent will no longer be tolerated in that democracy.
Interesting story, Helenoid.
So far, my favorite quote from the Summit of the Americas is this bit of cluck from George Bush:
"Today, I signed a proclamation denying corrupt officials entry into my country. I urge other countries to take similar actions."
Then he invited Fox to come stay at his Texas ranch in March, hahaha!
posted on January 16, 2004 02:43:40 PM new
Fox is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. There have been so many years of repression of the indian people in Mexico that the resistors don't know any path other than violence. The indians are often misled and used by foreign agitators, like "Sub-Commandante Marcos", the leader of the Zapatistas. I support the Zapatista movement, but not him. I was watching the news in Sonora a couple of years ago, and they had a feature about him. Sitting cleaning a rifle, smoking his pipe, as he rubs the barrel of the gun his cuff pulls back from his wrist, the camera zooms in on his watch. It's a real nice, and real expensive Piaget!! The military has so many entrenched big shots who are used to responding in kind that it is difficult to get them to look at any other response. When Fox made all his big promises, he forgot to tell the people that it would be a long, difficult road to rid the country of it's corruption, machismo, and bigotry...and so, many are dissatisfied that results have not been seen quickly. The indians of Mexico are in about the same shape as the indians of the US were back in the 1960's in terms of the general population's recognition of and sympathy for their problems. Although "La Raza" as we call it, the mixed blood race to which most of the Mexican population belongs, owes a great deal of it's cultural heritage to the indian people who were here to greet the europeans, the average Mexican does not know from what cultural group his indian ancestors came, and doesn't care. He may know that he had french, irish, austrian or spanish ancestors, but will often deny any knowlege of indian roots. Those of essentially pure european blood (I know this from personal experience) often look down on those who aren't. All you have to do is look at the top executives of Mexican companies, or pick up a copy of a Mexican newspaper and turn to the society pages and look at the pretty people going to their fancy parties, and you'll notice that there is a distinct difference in the appearance of those folks. They don't look anything like the typical American ideal of someone who is "Mexican", they're mostly white!! The problems of race in Mexico are likely to get a whole lot uglier before real change begins to happen. No President can do it by himself. Just like the US, there has to be a sea change in the popluation's attitudes.
___________________________________
Mi abuelita me dijo "en boca cerrada no entran moscas".
posted on January 16, 2004 04:07:45 PM new
"Those of essentially pure european blood (I know this from personal experience) often look down on those who aren't. All you have to do is look at the top executives of Mexican companies, or pick up a copy of a Mexican newspaper and turn to the society pages and look at the pretty people going to their fancy parties, and you'll notice that there is a distinct difference in the appearance of those folks. They don't look anything like the typical American ideal of someone who is "Mexican", they're mostly white!! "
I visited several cities in Mexico in the late 1980's, Profe. Quite honestly, I was startled by the light-skinned, fluent-in-English shopkeepers, restaurateurs and businesspeople I encountered, for they did not at all resemble the Mexicans I had met in the States.
I don't doubt that there's a "class system" operating in Mexico, one which seems to hinge upon ancestry. Do you suppose there's been a concerted effort to "export" Mexico's indigenous people in favor of retaining and cultivating a more "homogenous" populace?
posted on January 19, 2004 07:40:59 PM new Do you suppose there's been a concerted effort to "export" Mexico's indigenous people in favor of retaining and cultivating a more "homogenous" populace?
An interesting question, but no, I don't think so. It just so happens that in Mexico, the browner you are, the more likely you are to go looking for a better deal eleswhere...like to the north. Mexico would have to export 80% of it's population, which is mixed blood, and another 10%, which is basically pure blooded indian. That wouldn't leave anyone to serve in the military, work the farms and factories, and hold all the menial jobs. By the numbers, the mestizo (mixed) peoples are the homogeneous populace of Mexico.
___________________________________
Mi abuelita me dijo "en boca cerrada no entran moscas".
posted on January 25, 2004 06:20:52 AM new
This is an interesting topic to me - when I was in high school back in the 70's I worked in the fields and then in the produce plant right along side of Mexican migrant workers. I knew that some of them were illegal. These people worked hard and were some of the nicest, friendliest, accepting people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. The company I worked for was run by 'white' people and some of them treated these people like dirt. Their living spaces where run down mobile home trailers. This was in Michigan.
Why bring this up? Well, I don't know much about Bush's immigration ideals, but I do know that these people deserved a heck of a lot more respect than they got. There weren't any white adults working on the lines, just the Mexicans and some of us high school kids and we were in the minority.
As far as INS goes, they don't have the manpower or space to arrest 'casual' offenders of the law, i.e. traffic offenses.
How do I know? I worked in law enforcement most of the 1990's in the suburbs of Chicago and the department I worked for would house illegal immigrants in our jail cells. None of these illegals were small time, all had committed major offenses and were waiting to be deported.
The INS system, from my talking to their officers is broken. Or just ask anyone who is trying to become a citizen or get a green card how bad it is.
So Bush can have his immigration plan, but as long as INS stays broken and is run as poorly as I think it is, it will just add to the chaos that is this government & INS.
posted on January 25, 2004 06:54:27 AM new
I can understand how you came to your understanding of the problem. When I was a kid, I used to help black people, including children, pick peppers on my grandfather's farm in Mississippi. Like the Mexican workers that you describe, they were equally good people, mistreated by a racist society.
Now, forty years later, they still don't have the respect that they deserve.
It's a tough problem and not one that the Bush administration will really consider except perhaps as a self serving opportunity for a campaign photo op.
Helen
A significant snow storm is on the way so I've got to head to the grocery store.
