Invasion unacknowledged?
By Paul J Cella Posted in Elections — Comments (30) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The brilliant journalist Heather MacDonald has illuminated many things about the near-invasion that we call an immigration policy. Recently she turned her attention to the relentless perfidy of Mexican diplomats in the United States.
Mexican officials here and abroad are involved in a massive and almost daily interference in American sovereignty . . . [Illegal immigrants are here] thanks in part to Mexico’s efforts to get them into the U.S. in violation of American law, and to normalize their status once here in violation of the popular will. Mexican consulates are engineering a backdoor amnesty for their illegal migrants and trying to discredit American immigration enforcement — activities clearly beyond diplomatic bounds.
MacDonald’s revealing article is the kind of thing that ought to provoke fury in any man possessed of even a spark of patriotism. But I forget myself: patriotism in America, as our wise men have taught, is not about a real country, her people, integrity, sovereignty and traditions; it is only about ideas. And since Mexican diplomats are not out there traducing Democracy and Liberty, they are not threatening America the Abstraction. Therefore our noble patriots shall remain quiescent.
Mexico, we learn from MacDonald, has set up a unique arm of its security services — known by the faintly comic-sounding name Grupo Beta — to protect illegals crossing the border. “In April [2005], it worked with Mexican federal and Sonoran state police to help steer illegal aliens away from Arizona border spots patrolled by Minutemen border enforcement volunteers.” The government is also responsible for the notorious “how-to” comic book for illegal entry into the U.S. and the manifest subversion of the matricula consular card. As a former Mexican foreign minister put it upon the announcement of the matricula consular program: “We are already giving instructions to our consulates that they begin propagating militant activities — if you will — in their communities.”
The article details the extensive efforts by Mexican consuls in various cities to undermine virtually every attempt to enforce our laws against illegal immigrants; to contest and enervate new laws; to vilify immigration skeptics; even to deploy international legal sanctions against the U.S. for the mildest of measures.
Moreover,
Mexico’s governing class . . . also tries to ensure that migrants retain allegiance to La Patria, so as to preserve the $16 billion in remittances that they send to Mexico each year. Mexican leaders have thus tasked their nation’s U.S. consulates with spreading Mexican culture into American schools and communities.
100,000 textbooks distributed to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Advocacy and support for bilingual education. Adult-enrichment materials to libraries and community colleges. Study questions for students that ask “what happened to your territory when the U.S. invaded?” A government-sponsored drawing contest promoted in the Orange County schools entitled, “This is My Mexico.” Visits by Mexican teachers (with the collaboration of the U.S. Dept. of Education) that “suggest methods by which American teachers can incorporate Mexican dance, songs, and history, especially the indigenous cultures of the Toltec, Mayas, and Mistecas, into their lessons.” MacDonald notes sardonically, “Immigrants have often tried to hold on to their native traditions, but not until recently did anyone expect American schools to help them do so.”
Such devotion to other countries’ folkways would be unimpeachable if students overflowed with knowledge of America’s history. As survey after survey has found, however, American students know next to nothing about their country’s past. Only one-third of seniors at elite colleges could pick out the general at the battle of Yorktown from among William Sherman, Ulysses Grant, Douglas MacArthur, and George Washington, according to a 2000 American Council of Trustees and Alumni survey.
MacDonald then makes a point that needs to be made more often: “The audacity of Mexico’s interference in U.S. immigration policy stands in sharp contrast to Mexico’s own jealous sense of sovereignty. It is difficult to imagine a country touchier about interference in its domestic affairs or less tolerant of immigrants.” Mexico deports illegals crossing its southern border with admirable dispatch. Mexico knows its identity, likes it, and wants to keep it. She is saner than us on that count.
Is it too much to describe the current situation as an invasion? It may lack systematic coordination (though it surely does not lack sporadic coordination), and its effects, being gradual and cloaked by the miasma of multiculturalism, may be blurred from immediate view; but its consequence will hardly be less grave. Against their will the character of the American people will be transformed. A revolution will be made in the constitution of the nation. Our elites have always been thoroughly impatient with the instinctual conservatism of America on this point of dispute, have always been inexpressibly irritated by that inclination (or prejudice, if you insist) to treasure one’s identity, however elusive that word made be. If the American people will not go along with the dreams of elite, why, then we shall construct us a new people.
And let us have no illusions: this surely has a military component. Earlier this week we learned that, according to a Dept. of Homeland Security memo, “Mexican alien smugglers plan to pay violent gang members and smuggle them into the United States to murder Border Patrol agents.” Last month on the House floor, Rep. John Culberson of Texas presented photographs of stockpiles of weapons captured after a firefight on the Texas-Mexico border: automatic rifles, pistols, a dozen grenade launchers and ammunition. Now I don’t know anything about grenade launchers, but the things sure looked like the standard RPGs we are accustomed to seeing elsewhere in the world. As Culberson explained to the House, “this is just another week at the office for our law enforcement officers on the Texas border.” Another week trying to check the invasion we will not acknowledge.
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Besides the billions of dollars that get sent back to Mexico every year and lower population burden in Mexico itself?
Mexican textbooks apparently teach that the US 'stole' part of Mexico and there is a desire of many to 'reconquer' the territory.
At a few million a year they are doing a pretty good job of it.
From SFGATE: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/10/state/n015522S03... "> Smugglers planning to kill U.S. border agents
"Unidentified Mexican alien smugglers are angry about the increased security along the U.S./Mexico border and have agreed that the best way to deal with U.S. Border Patrol agents is to hire a group of contract killers," the Department of Homeland Security said in a Dec. 21 Officer Safety Alert.
The alert states that the smugglers intend to bring members of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang -- known as MS-13 -- into the country to perform the killings, The Sun reported Tuesday.
Federal officials consider MS-13, with an estimated 30,000 members in 33 states, to be one of the most dangerous gangs in the country. It was formed in Los Angeles by immigrants from El Salvador.
From WorldNet Dailey Smugglers planning to kill U.S. border agents
Aliens from El Salvador began MS-13 in Los Angeles but also has a presence in Central America. The gang has been linked to al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations. Members have been known to behead victims and attack with grenades and machetes.
Federal officials estimate between 8,000 and 10,000 MS-13 members live in 31 states - the majority of them in the country illegally. Some 103 suspected members of the gang were rounded up during a seven-city operation in March.
If they manage to have any success with their plan, even the Democrats will support the fortification of the border.
Just google "azteca". Here, I'll make it easy for you http://www.limitstogrowth.org/WEB-text/aztlan.html
Since we're on the subject, I'd like to take the opportunity to address a common myth. People who are out of touch with the working class commonly believe that "the poor Mexicans are taking jobs that Americans won't do" (as if we're just a bunch of lazy white trash). The fact of the matter is that poor illegal workers can't afford to work for pennies either. They do so only because that's all they can get. No one can pay rent nowadays on even the current minimum wage. So just how do the illegals send all that money home to Mexico and still pay the bills?
Many do it by living with multiple families to a household. It's a very common practice in Mexico. In fact, you'll often find 3 generations under one roof. The single guys here in the US often shack up with 3-10 (or more) guys to an apartment. So yes, it is possible to live on next-to-nothing, if you lower your standard of living. For the folks from Mexico, this is actually a step up. For the working class in the US that has to compete with the illegal labor, they too must lower their standard of living. Hence the outrage.
Now consider this - how in the world did we ever get our houses built, our food cooked, or our motel rooms cleaned before the influx of 12 mil. illegals?
Nothing will change until we get tough with Mexico (by cutting off the gravy train). The country is run by a small group of elite (no matter who they "elect"). The corruption is just as bad now as it has ever been. The question is, do we have the BACKBONE in the US to twist Mexico's arm into cleaning up their act and instituting meaningful economic and government reforms? Only then will Mexico realize it's great potential.
defiantly have the open-borders crowd think twice.
but if MS-13 wants to go to war we could kill two birds with one stone!
There are some steps the US could take now to put an end of at least some of this nonsense. First, BAN the consular cards from being recognized for anything, anywhere in the US. I work near the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco, and every morning there is a line at least three blocks long of people waiting to get in for their cards. With the consular cards, they can open bank accounts, which enable them to deposit money here and let family in Mexico withdraw it with an ATM card in Mexico. No bank account means no ATM cards. Mexicans here illegally would then have to go back to the old way of sending money home - by wire. To make that unpleasant, impose a 25-50% tax on money being sent to Mexico. Get rid of the textbooks from the consulates. For that matter, limit Mexican consulates to two or three. If you really want to make it rough on them, make it clear that anybody caught here illegally will never be able to immigrate here legally. Perhaps limiting legal Mexican immigration for 10 years might make a difference as well. Require proof of legal residency for all non-emergency services. There are ways if we want to be tough enough.
They could count on the Defeatocrats forgetting all about it in a month or two anyway.
and all not going to happen. The sixty-five remaining people who actually care more about this country that their own objectives are not enough to get it back on track. Take my advice, get yourself down to Bertitz soon before the crowd.
</not entirely tongue in cheek>
I already speak Spanish, but that's neither here nor there. I agree with you that it's going to have to build to a critical mass before anyone really gets serious about all this. I am an Anglo, but my family has lived in the Southwest since 1825. I love Mexico and its people. I have nothing but respect for legal Mexican immigrants. My family is intermarried with them. I have cousins whose families have been in New Mexico since the 17th century. But modern Mexico is the problem. The white 10% that run the country don't want to let the poor have a share, so they are willing to export them here. It's got to stop. No matter what we do, Mexico is going to get mad. But I think they need us a lot more than we need them. All those maquiladores on the border can be relocated to China or Vietnam, and they know it. At some point, we're going to have to be mean about it.
There are some steps the US could take now to put an end of at least some of this nonsense. First, BAN the consular cards from being recognized for anything, anywhere in the US. I work near the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco, and every morning there is a line at least three blocks long of people waiting to get in for their cards.
I agree with this. What I don't get is how they monitor banking transactions of these people. So if I open bank accounts with my Mexican card(s) wouldn't that hinder their ability to monitor my high $ transactions?
To make that unpleasant, impose a 25-50% tax on money being sent to Mexico.
This is a very bad idea... for both economic and diplomatic reasons. There are many ways around this kind of tax. The only way to effectively shut off this flow of money would be to end all commerce with Mexico. On the diplomatic side, this would be disasterous. Mexico is not our enemy, as annoying as they may be at times. Many of our allies are annoying. Even our best allies.
Get rid of the textbooks from the consulates.
I agree with that, though the kind of stuff in the Mexican textbooks isn't any worse than the kind of stuff they put into American textbooks. In any case, this is up to the individual (and usually completely moronic) school boards. Explains why they are being used in LA.
If you really want to make it rough on them, make it clear that anybody caught here illegally will never be able to immigrate here legally.
All that would do is ensure that they are always an illegal. If they were deported, it would not stop them from attempting reentry (illegally).
Perhaps limiting legal Mexican immigration for 10 years might make a difference as well.
Our legal immigration with Mexico is already much too low... to the point where it might as well not even exist. This wouldn't have any effect one way or another on illegal immigration.
break out that the Border Patrol isn't charged with brutality, or insensitivity, or collateral casualities and damage. That if prisoners are taken you won't read about mistreatment, abuse, torture; that civil liberties are being violated, due process ignored, and the Nation under the iron heel. I am half kidding but only half kidding. Skip the initial reaction in America, it hardly means a thing, wait a few weeks for the worms to get into the woodwork, wait for the first NY Times editorial to see which direction the perversion will take. Pause to consider where and what we've come to in the past thirty years and then repeat "9/11". It's speculation on my part but given what I, and I hope others know, not beyond the realm of possibility. Maybe we should throw in UN approval to the above witches brew.
Maybe we should throw in UN approval to the above witches brew.
Maybe we can get blue helmets to patrol the border?
I live in Phoenix. I'm guessing in our metro area of 3 million there are probably at least 15 or 20 "undocumented workers".
Depending on the neighborhood, there are zillions of "payday loan" and "check cashing" stores. Every one of them features two things.
1. Calling cards for long distance phone calls to Mexico.
2. Western Union money wire service to wire cash to Mexico.
I don't know how much hard currency goes from here to there, but it's gotta be billions.
Personally, I think that you could really put a dent in the illegal traffic over the border by requiring proof if US citizenship or legal residency to wire money out of the country.
The problem is US border enforcement against poor people just trying to better their lives. Their representatives, the coyotes, are simply expressing their exasperation with US policy in the only way available to them. Think of it as retaliation for all the poor unfortunates who've died crossing the border.
If the US would simply initiate a rational border crossing policy none of this would be necessary.
</sarcasm>
I have lived in Mexico and travelled extensively in Mexico. I have owned low income property in Houston and still live in Houston. I know a bit about Mexican lifestyle, at home and abroad.
Anyone who does not beleive this demographic movement is not rapidly gaining political overtones and is evoloving rapidly into a movement to reconfigure the US map is kidding themselves.
We are in teh midst of one of the great demographic shifts in history, as great as any Germanic invasion of Rome ever was.
Then where's the outrage about Kris Eggle, who was "shot and killed in the line of duty at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on August 9, 2002, while pursuing members of a drug cartel hit squad who fled into the United States after committing a string of murders in Mexico."
Or, just try googling: "Border Patrol fired upon" gets a ton of links describing bandits shooting at our guys (not the other way around, although I hope the BP Agents defended themselves, er, vigorously).
I'm waiting for that Democratic support...cue the crickets...
"Harry Ried in an attempt to please everybody says: Ok; America, Mexico, lets switch!!!"
to what extent would the illegals want Mexico to actually take over the Southwest. After all, these people are coming to the US to get away from Mexico-- not that they hate their homeland, but obviously their homeland has a screwed up economy and political system while the US offers them opportunity. Seems to me the last thing they'd be interested in would be putting Mexico's in charge of El Norte, thsu killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
Re: First, BAN the consular cards from being recognized for anything, anywhere in the US.
Legally our government does not recognize them. I don't think there's any way, legally or practically, to force anyone else not to recognize them. Besidse which, isn't it better (for law enforcement puroposes, etc.) that thes people have some form of ID than nothing at all.
Re: Get rid of the textbooks from the consulates.
We have no legal authority over consulates and embassies.
Did the Tamils destroy Sri Lanka? Why did the Albanians wreck Kosovo?
A leader will emerge sooner than we think in the illegal community that will radicalize the situation, and it will grow from that.
It is about demographics, not rational decisions.
We could certainly threaten to withhold federal funding and aid from any state, city, muncipality, county, etc., that openly accepts them. Federal dollars can be effective when withdrawn.
Yugoslavia and Sri Lanka were pretty screwed up places to start with. Unless the US tutrns into a banana republic any radicals that emerge from the Mexican community witll be nothing but one more loony-tune radical, maybe good for filler on the 6 pm news, but with no power and no prospects for gaining such.
that we can "influence" state and local governments in the matter and maybe even should, but I don't see any legitimate way to do so with private businesses and individuals. In fact I would regard that as a quite illegitimate interference in private business decisions.
Principles do matter. There are some threads up here where people are waxing indignant over Maryland requiring WalMart to spend more on employee health care. They are calling that "socialism". While I don't agree with the label, there is a valid principle here that government (especially not the Feds!) ought not to be micromanaging private enterprises.
I dont see regulating the acceptance a consular card to open a bank account as illegitimate interference. Especially if it isnt recognized by the US government. You already have to fill out extra paperwork to open account due to Homeland Security regulations. Now you and I may even agree that there might be some heavy handedness in this regard, but since I was a child you needed to show some kind of proof of identity to open an account and some were valid, others werent.
As for comparing this to the government intrusion of Wal-Mart's business practices, I find that to be a stretch only because maryland mandating health care expenditures is trying to create a law where there is none. Disallowing consular cards is effectually trying to stop ongoing felonious activity.
You could also argue a national security component that the wal-mart issue does not have. I dont think its necessary, but you could.
From this: The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to support a Bush administration plan to allow the use of Mexican identification cards to open U.S. bank accounts.
I also saw part of a very scary ABA panel on CSPAN. It featured MALDEF, NCLR, ACLU, etc.
And, there at the end of the panel was Grover Norquist, threatening to "ex-communicate" those who support things like HR4437.
See also my new post about Rep. Joe Baca Sr.
Some people don't seem to get it:
mattwelch.com/archives/003054.html
The same goes for the loony libertarians at Reason Magazine.
16 billion according to the article. Of course, that's nationally.
What exactly is the purpose of this invasion that you speak of?