Q: How many immigration enthusiasts does it take to write a meaningful contribution to the immigration debate?

A: More than two, apparently.

Facts, not fear, should guide U.S. immigration [Kathleen Moccio and Katherine Fennelly � Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 27 2005- access requires free registration], although only 485 words, was co-authored by two educated women who have made careers in the field.

It would be polite to dismiss it as a tedious collection of the usual long-refuted platitudes. But unfortunately it displays more ominous tendencies.

Starting by snarling with outrage that Republicans in the Third District of Minnesota should have the temerity to have U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo speak to them -

�We were appalled to learn that U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado was invited to make a keynote speech at a Republican fundraising breakfast in Minnesota’s Third Congressional District �His brand of fear-mongering about illegal immigration and his active encouragement of vigilantes should have no place in Minnesota politics�

- M&F go on to make an assertion about The Minuteman project that is totally dishonest:

Among these so-called heroes are white supremacists from the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Members of the Alliance were at the project’s kickoff, and some carried assault weapons in their trucks and boasted that they were scouting “sniper positions.”

Obviously, a Pulitzer Prize was already packaged for any journalist who could have demonstrated any significant involvement in the Minutemen by serious extremists (who, however, remain - so far - entitled to their opinions). The non-award of this prize evidently did not register in Minnesota � or the authors thought it would not be noticed.

Clearly, there is a strong desire here to ban free discussion on immigration altogether.

The ladies then go on to engage in some fear-mongering of their own:

The fact is that the American economy is dependent upon immigrant labor�Our rapidly “graying” nation relies upon immigrant workers to fill the gap.

Get it, Boomers? Your retirement is dependent on flooding the country with Hispanic immigrants!

This, of course, is utter rubbish. Without their competitive situation being destroyed by imported labor (and outsourcing) the next, smaller, generation will command a higher proportion of the National Income pie � which can then be redistributed via taxes. As it is, the current generation�s ability to save is being destroyed by the competitive pressure of immigration depressing wages, and (for the middle class particularly) the explosion of non- reimbursable health care costs caused by the theft of health services by illegals via the ERMs.

The gaping hole in the M & F discussion, of course, is their ignoring of the abandonment of immigration control enforcement on the part of the Federal government.

This is what enabled unscrupulous and irresponsible employers to shatter their local labor markets - and communities - with free-loading illegals.

What animosity caused these apparently liberal women to abandon the normal leftist sympathy for workers? � even given these workers had the poor taste to be born in the U.S.A?

Ask them: Kathleen Moccio; Katherine Fennelly

While Terry Anderson has the Gubernator listed as one “Most Horriblest Clown of the Week” for backing off on his “close the border” comment, historian Clayton Cramer gives him credit for praising the Minutemen, and saying the Los Angeles, CA,, Mexico sign erected by KRCA was not funny.

Check out Cramer’s note on the origin of the modern Reconquista movement:

The term Reconquista originally referred to the reconquest of Moorish Spain by Christian Europe; the term is now used by certain Marxist Hispanics to refer to the recovery of the Southwest by the same techniques Americans used to take Texas and then California from Mexico in the nineteenth century.) From my unpublished paper, “Race And Reporting: The Los Angeles Times in Early 1916″:

In 1915, before the Columbus raid, the United States government became aware of the Plan of San Diego. Carranzista officers hatched the plan with the backing of German and Austrian diplomats at Monterrey in Nuevo León. It proposed a revolution to retake the Southwestern states, and establish a republic controlled by Mexicans, Japanese, blacks, and Indians. All Anglo males over sixteen were to be killed. Once successful, the new republic would attach itself to Mexico. The Plan then called for assistance to blacks to similarly take the Southern states out of the United States.[18] While seemingly ludicrous today, there were at least 73 border raids along the Texas border in 1915, “many in the name of the Plan of San Diego”[19]— and a Mexican Army lieutenant colonel loyal to Carranza led at least one of these raids.[20] In Texas, not surprisingly, popular awareness of this plan led both to vigilantism and murder of Hispanics with no apparent connection to the Plan by state and local police,[21] pushing even more Hispanics into supporting the Plan.[22] At least 35,000 residents of the lower Rio Grande Valley relocated to avoid the raids and the revenge that had taken on a distinctly racial nature.[23]

More on the plan of San Diego here.

�virtually shut down the Arizona sector as a border-crossing area for illegals from Mexico:

“Since the [Minuteman] volunteers began arriving March 30, the number of illegal immigrant apprehensions along the stretch of border has dropped significantly. ‘It’s worked,’ said Chris Simcox, one of two primary organizers. ‘ The news is going across the border, and we’ve virtually shut down this whole area.’ “(�from the World Net Daily article linked in Bryanna’s new column: )

So, that implies that with only an additional three thousand men�four thousand total�Simcox could virtually shut down California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas as crossing points, virtually solving the entire problem on our southern border (and completely without violence!).

The problem is largely solvable with a total of only four thousand men!
And Bush claims he can’t do it with the entire United States government at his disposal???

James Taranto linked to us again in his WSJ Best of the Web column, and once again demonstrated that he doesn’t have much of a clue.

Doubly Negative
VDare.com, the anti-immigrant Web site of immigrant Peter Brimelow, carries a letter from Michael Monastyrskyj that begins: “A couple of days ago I came across a song that might make a good anthem for the immigration reform movement.” It’s called “America, Red, White and Black” by W.C. Edgar. “Even if honky tonk isn’t your kind of music,” writes Monastyrskyj (hey, what’s with that foreign-sounding name?), “you’ll appreciate lyrics like this”:

Let’s lock these borders down real tight from sea to shining sea,
And make a better tomorrow for you and me

You don’t see no white man swimming the Rio Grande
If I want to hear some damn foreign language I’ll take the first plane for Mexico or Afghanistan

“You don’t see no white man”? The racism is bad enough, but if these nativists refuse to learn proper English, they should go back where they came from.

The double negative (You don’t see no white man swimming the Rio Grande) is not no sin, especially in Nashville, where singer W. C. Edgar hails from, but that ain’t hardly the point, here. Neither is the very old joke about Brimelow being an immigrant. It’s that Edgar’s song is not racist .(I should say that W. C. Edgar is not involved in Vdare.com, any more than Green Day is, we’re just listeners.)

As for going back where he came from, Edgar’s great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War—for the Union.

Listen to the damn song, Taranto. In MP3 format, no charge. I’ve transcribed part of it here, but the whole point, as we put in an editorial note, is not about race. : W. C. Edgar’s title, Red, White, And Black, refers to the unity of Americans like David Yeagley, D. A. King, and Terry Anderson, who all agree: this ain’t Mexico.

Mexico turns out to be, surprise, surprise, not so much a race, as a foreign damn country.

Here’s a transcription of part of the song that Taranto objects to, with our usual links.

Things are changing here in America
Things ain’t what they used to be.
Things are changing here in America
How much longer is it going to be
‘Til we’re not free?

The red man was born here, this is his land.
The black man was brought here against his will
My great great granddaddy Edgar helped settle this country,
And he fought with the Blue in 1862.
So let’s stand up and fight for America
While we still got something worth fighting for
Let’s stand up and fight for America
‘Fore every bit of freedom goes walking out the door.
Cause we can take this country back
If we all stick together, Red, White, and Black

Among the many VDARE.COM readers who participated in the Minuteman Project are Georgia activists Diane and Lawrence Headrick. They have returned home and shared this story with me:

�Many of the people involved were professionals, not rednecks. We both have masters degrees (mine is industrial/organizational psychology, husband’s is secondary education). We met nurses, scientists, pilots, environmental engineers, teachers, and many retired military and law enforcement officers from all over the

USA.

�We were in Arizona for a week. We patrolled our area for five days. We were moved by the many locals who stopped to offer their gratitude. One woman brought me flowers.

�We heard so many horror stories of daily life on the border that I returned to GA empowered, determined never again to be intimidated by businessmen. In fact, we were quite depressed to come home, away from the likeminded, supportive people.

�People here would never endure the atrocities that the border dwellers face daily. We will always cherish the friendships made with other MMP participants and the lessons learned from the locals.�

Tony Blair is talking about reducing immigration, which has been a huge problem in the UK for years, and years, and years. However, he has economic worries:

the Prime Minister said that it was the Bank of England�s view that inward migration had had a positive impact on the economy.

He added that new immigration controls announced yesterday by Home Secretary Charles Clarke had been designed to ensure that the prospects for economic growth would not be damaged.

The idea that immigration is necessary to economic growth is an often-refuted canard. And it’s a lame excuse for not doing something about mass immigration.

Blair is a Labour Prime Minister, and as such, should be willing to preside over the total destruction of the British economy, as his predecessors did.

Amitabh Pal, Managing Editor of The Progressive, has just explained to National Review�s Jay Nordlinger why Indian immigrants, despite repeated neocon predictions and regardless of their prosperity, won�t become Republicans: (1) they don�t like Bush�s foreign policy; (2) �the Republicans, in spite of protestations to the contrary, have been a party often representing white Christian interests��

Of course, the GOP does represent white Christian interests because its base is white and Christian. (And so, as a matter of fact, is the historic American nation).

Immigrants from very different racial and cultural backgrounds naturally have more trouble assimilating to this base.

That is why encouraging such immigration is suicide for the GOP�and for the American nation.

Mexicans want to live in the United States. They want to work in America. And they want to bear children and educate their American citizen off spring right here in the USA.

But when they are dead, they want to be buried in Mexico.

According to a January 2, 2004 Sacramento Bee story titled, “At Life�s End Many Immigrants Make the Final Journey Home,” in 2004 more than 1,500 bodies were shipped from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento back to Mexico for interment. [VDARE.COM NOTE: See Sam Francis's comments on same phenomenon in New York.]

Mexican consulate offices provided financial assistance.

According to Sacramento Consul Luis Enrique Castresana, “For Mexicans, to go back to their country - alive or dead - is the most important thing.”

Well�.maybe Mexicans prefer to be home when they�re dead. But judging by the looks of things here in Calfornia, when Mexicans are alive, they�d rather be in the United States.

A constant theme of Ed Rubenstein has been that the payroll and unemployment data directly demonstrate that immigrants are displacing and undercutting native-born Americans. In January, the Investment Bank Bear Stearns published a paper on this topic. And now The Christian Science Monitor has published Why the new jobs go to immigrants �by David R. Francis March 10 2005. This is probably the first notice of the issue in the major establishment media.

��the US Labor Department announced last Friday that employers had expanded their payrolls by 262,000 positions in February.�

�But�The statisticians also indicated that the share of the adult population holding jobs had slipped slightly from January to 62.3 percent. That’s now two full percentage points below the level in the brief recession that began in March 2001.�

�Why the apparent contradiction?…one factor that gets little attention is immigration.�

�In the past four years, the number of immigrants into the US, legal and illegal, has closely matched the number of new jobs. That suggests newcomers have, in effect, snapped up all of the new jobs.�

�There has been no net job gain for natives,” says Andrew Sum, an economist at Northeastern University�

Francis goes on to note a similar phenomenon is occurring in Western Europe, and that

�the Bush administration makes barely any effort to enforce current law. In 2003, a total of 13 employers were fined for hiring undocumented employees� the people they�displace often have little political clout� What employers really want in many cases by hiring immigrants is to hold down wage costs, experts say.�

How long will we have to wait for a similarly elegant and accurate discussion in the Wall Street Journal?

Hat Tip, Modern Tribalist

WGN Radio’s Steve Cochran is a relative newcomer to the 50,000-watt station in Chicago, and I truly enjoy listening to him because of his razor-sharp wit and genuine concern for certain social issues. He also is a stand-up comedian who takes his talents “on the road” in this area, many times performing pro bono for one of this favorite causes or charities.

But I didn’t find him very funny the morning of April 23 during his “Kid of the Week” segment that recognizes children of all ages for their academic achievements or contributions to their communities.

That day he was speaking on the air with a 10-year-old boy who had been honored by a local police department for helping them communicate with a small Hispanic girl who was lost and spoke no English. The boy, who has been studying Spanish as a second language since age 5, acted as her interpreter as she related her problem to the police.

Cochran, who said he had forgotten much of the Spanish he studied while in college, asked the boy to give quiz him with a few phrases in Spanish and was genuinely impressed with the boy’s command of the language.

Cochran [e-mail him�When the link opens, click on “Weekday Shows” and select Cochran’s name) then told the boy:

“Statistics show that all of us are going to have to learn Spanish because it will one day be a predominate language in this country. So you’re ahead in the game, aren’t you?”

Why does Cochran presume that people born in this English-speaking country HAVE TO learn the language of a foreign culture that has taken root in large part because our lame federal government refuses to enforce its own immigration laws?