Yes, yes... I know America needs to wage holy jihad against all of the lettuce pickers and lawn mowers and brush cutters in the country before we are all singing "Amanece, lo veis?" ("Oh say, can you see?") while swinging our Dos Equis to and fro at the local cantina... but to say we are fighting the war on terrorism by sending America's national guard to kick up dust along the Rio Grande is totally disingenuous. News Flash: The terrorists are coming from Canada. Not one terrorist suspect has ever come from Mexico. Send some of the National Guard to the Canadian border, and then I'll believe the government when they say that this program is helping the war on terrorism.
Now, part two: Mexicans have been crossing our border for time immemorial. Mexicans have been working illegally in our country ever since the government decided that "legal" and "illegal" workers existed. So why the War on Wetbacks this week? Simple: President Bush suggested a "congratulations-you-didn't-get-caught-breaking-the-law" amnesty program for illegal immigrants which pissed off The Minutemen (i.e. his base), and he needed to do a quick red meat toss in order to calm down the shoot-on-sight types in his party. (Well, that and the "let's kick Teh Gay" stuff isn't getting quite the mileage it used to.) (Well, that and the White House figured a nice diversion/vacation from the war in Iraq would be helpful.) Therefore, America has been introduced to yet another Two Minutes of Hate opportunity to keep Conservatives happy and the rest of us fretting about how dangerous brown people are.
Ahh... The politics of pandering at its finest. To bad it isn't working.
p.s. (I figured I'd toss this in here before I get comments...) Note that this post has absolutely zero opinion about illegal immigration or immigration reform, and is entirely about political opportunism, election-year legerdemain, and social welfare scapegoating. If you want my opinions on immigration, click here.
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5 comments:
The current quota of Canadian and American authorities already monitoring the border is sufficient to catch terrorists. Unlike Mexican authorities that do nothing to stop illegal immigration (and actually encourage it), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service do their job to stop terrorism from entering the US. And practically, you don't want to alienate your best neighbour on this continent.
Quite true. Quite true.
I wasn't trying to suggest that National Guard troops would actually be useful (or beneficial) in fighting terrorism by being stationed along the Canadian border... only that they would be more useful there than on the Mexican border (if fighting terrorism is their purpose).
Illegal immigrants send billions of dollars to their home countries and spend very little here in the US. This means that very little is collected in sales taxes. Mean while they consume billions of dollars in free services. They get free health care (by law), and free education for their children (by law). They pay no income taxes and act as a subsidy to big business. I know of no other country which gives such privileges to illegal aliens.
England. France. Denmark. Sweden. Germany. Italy. Norway. Netherlands. Belgium.
Thanks I did not know that. I read your Blog regularly. Thanks.
The scope of the problem here drawfs that any place else. Those countries do not share an unprotected border with a third world country. They are much more socialistic and have much higher taxes then the US.
I look at the Illegal Alien problem here as a subsidy to big business and nothing more.
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