I have repeatedly expressed appreciation for the naïve, almost childlike honesty which keeps the Minneapolis Star-Tribune a wonderful source of stories on the disastrous impact of recent immigration on its formerly highly functional region. News more experienced publications automatically repress keeps surfacing.

Generally, though, the Star Tribune stories are professionally constructed and written. This cannot be said about the latest specimen Bienvendo a Blackduck – by Larry Werner Star Tribune May 30 2005 [ Access requires free registration]

Essentially, this is a formulaic ra-ra immigration cheerleading story about the wonderful deeds of an immigrant Peruvian woman, Doris Ruiz, who is operating Olen Staff, a “Minneapolis staffing agency” currently specializing in locating large quantities of Hispanics from sweatshop industries in their home countries and distributing them to factories deep in rural Minnesota. (In the literature this function is being a “gangmaster” and is the focus of sustained attack in for instance the UK where immigration employer enforcement has not been abandoned)

Werner deploys all the usual clichés about revitalizing the town, bolstering the education tax base, and improving the local cuisine. He showcases the happy local businessman who is the primary beneficiary in Blackduck, Ron Anderson of Anderson Fabrics:

“the workers she’s brought to Blackduck not only make up 10 percent of Anderson Fabrics’ workforce…”She’s quite an entrepreneur,” said Ron Anderson, a Blackduck native who founded the fabric company 25 years ago. Since he heard about Ruiz a little over a year ago, Anderson has been working with her to staff his sewing stations with workers who did similar jobs, for far less money, in Central and South America before they immigrated to the Twin Cities.”

Perhaps it would be demanding too much economic sophistication of Werner to expect him to consider the costs thrown onto the community by a huge influx of low-wage Non-English speakers like this. But one obvious question should have been asked, but isn’t: what is the visa status of these people? How could they have obtained the status to legally immigrate to take these semi-skilled jobs?

The word “visa” is never mentioned in the story.

Unsurprisingly, all Blackduck residents quoted gush with enthusiasm about the invasion. Less than five seconds Googling, however, produces the news that one important element is deeply unhappy: the local Red Lake Indians – 9% of the population, according to Werner.

Some minorities matter more than others, it seems.

Ask Larry Werner about his omissions.

Ask Ron Anderson about the visa status of his new employees.

It must be something in the air. Here is a third blog with a powerful, well documented essay on the US immigration disaster – Confederate Yankee’s Buried Alive by Illegals
(The reference, for those who choose not to register to read the first link, is to a Florida atrocity also noticed by Your Lying Eyes)

As my brother has observed, when the lava is hot, when men volunteer the time to write and post in obscurity pieces long enough to cause most professional journalists to retire to the bar for the rest of the week (Assembling a 600-word essay with 14 relevant links is work).

Unlike the scholarly, even scientific air of the previous cases, however, Confederate Yankee displays the élan of his namesakes and runs the bayonet right home:

The threat to the healthcare of legal American working men and women and legal immigrants became so overwhelming that taxpayers like you and I are paying a one billion dollar bailout of local hospitals nationwide.

This is money taken away from our children; money that could have been used to vaccinate our rural and inner city poor against crippling, potentially fatal childhood diseases, money that could have helped our working and middle class parents find quality affordable childcare so that they can be sure that their kids are in a safe and supportive environment while the parents work hard to give them a better life.

The flooding of the country with large quantities of unskilled labor is a zero-sum game: resources are redistributed away from the native-born working and middle classes to the owners of capital, and the immigrants themselves. But it takes a brave man to put it so bluntly.

Applaud Confederate Yankee

Ooops, it looks like the global marketplace isn’t working out exactly as planned. Seems that those cheapo call-center employees in Bangalore, etc. aren’t being appreciated as a wonderful ambassadors of diversity [ "Indian call staff quit over abuse on the line" - The Guardian, 5/29]. In fact, a number of American and Brit recipients of Indian callers are downright miffed about being poked in the eye with the outsourced jobs, and some are responding with creative rudeness:

Vijay Mukhi, a call centre analyst, said websites have sprung up in the US giving phone numbers of companies which use call centres in India, and listing Hindi swear words to be used to abuse staff. ‘When you move jobs away from a country, there’s going to be a lot of pent-up frustration which gets let out on Indian workers,’ he said.

The loss of civility is regrettable but understandable: multiculturalism is destructive to social cohesion, and the damage to polite conversation is therefore not surprising.

The Honorable Russell K. Pearce of State District 18 in Arizona wrote a marvelous opinion editorial for the Arizona Republic about the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (S.1033).

Amnesty plan puts citizenship up for sale by Russell K. Pearce for
My Turn May. 31, 2005

There were several salient points in Mr. Pearce’s column:

1. He assesses the illegal immigrant population at 23 million. D.A. King isn’t looking so crazy with his earlier estimate of 20 million—well, that is to say his estimate doesn’t seem crazy…

[BB note to DAK: I only tease you because I want to be you when I grow up—but with hair of course.]

2. He focuses on the “America for Sale” element of the bill which I mentioned in my column last week. (Not to appear haughty but I was hoping someone would pick up on this.)

Lastly, Mr. Pearce aggressively attacks the shady dealings of Congressmen Kolbe and Flake as well as Senator John McCain…the pseudo-conservatives behind the madness.

It is important to attack the members of the OBL (Open Border Lobby) but likewise I think we should applaud those willing to fight.

Mr. Pearce deserves a standing ovation.

rpearce@azleg.state.az.us

Today the New York Times takes on a couple of subjects covered earlier, and sometimes better, on VDARE.com. One is the existence of patriotic, anti-illegal immigration, Hispanic activists.

The other the is the possibility of suing the employers of illegal immigrants under the RICO act.

Robert Vasquez is a Republican county commissioner in Canyon County, Idaho, who has hired Howard Foster to sue the employers of illegal aliens in Canyon County.

Mr. Vasquez says the newcomers overwhelm public services, bring gang violence and drugs, spread diseases like tuberculosis and insist on rights that should not be granted to noncitizens.

His latest salvo, a plan to sue employers who hire illegal immigrants, has angered the solidly Republican business community and many of the senior political leaders in this heavily Republican state. The plan would make Canyon County the only local government in the country to use federal racketeering statutes against people who employ illegal immigrants, said Howard Foster, a Chicago lawyer advising the county.

As a result, Mr. Vasquez has forced a sharp fight on an issue that poses difficulties for Republicans, pitting people and business owners who rely on illegal immigrants for labor against people who see them as a threat to jobs and security.A Battle Against Illegal Workers, With an Unlikely Driving Force, By Timothy Egan, May 30, 2005

Howard Foster writes:

The New York Times has recognized that illegal immigration is dividing the Republican party. I hope my lawsuits will finally force the GOP to realize that illegal immigration hurts people. It is not a victimless crime. There are more Republicans on our side than there are business owners who favor illegal immigration because it lines their pockets.

By the way, Canyon County doesn’t have to be “the only local government in the country ” suing employers over their budget-busting criminal activities. If you’re in local government, and you have big businesses in your area bringing in illegals, to their profit, and the county’s loss, try calling Howard Foster!

Memorial Day 2005 is especially annoying for me and, I hope, other veterans.

It’s bad enough I’ve had to endure the traditional lip service given to remembering those Americans who died in the service of our country from politicians who curry favor with illegal aliens, including presidents who lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery, I’ve also had to put up with a highly disrespectful TV commercial from Ford Motor Co.

With the opening strains of “America the Beautiful” in the background, this commercial, which has been airing non-stop during the past two weeks, Ford pummels its viewers with this simple message: “Exercise your freedom to run down to your local Ford dealer and buy a new car.”

Oh, I know what you’re going to say. American holidays that were created for entirely different reasons decades ago have become excuses to run multi-day sales to encourage lemming-like consumers to buy just about everything, most of which these days is made in China. So why can’t I just get over it?

Because I can’t, and I won’t.

As I mentioned the other day discussing an excellent immigration post byThe Dow Blog,possibly the clearest sign that the Treason Lobby will lose is the willingness of non-journalists to spend long hours writing high quality substantial essays on the topic, despite the needs of family and children, knowing that their work will only be posted on obscure blogs. This kind of passion amongst the citizenry will ultimately be unstoppable.

Here is another example, posted earlier this month by the Raving of a Mad Tech blogger

(“The day to day ravings of a Help Desk Technician forced to speak to stupid end users and compete for his job with out-sourcing. In other words, living in denial and supressing rage.”)

The Hidden Cost Of Illegal Immigration is a thorough and well-documented exposition of this fairly subtle subject, and will serve a useful antidote to the loony-libertarian wing of the pro-immigration forces. Evaluating costs is a matter which sometimes takes market forces a little time.

Ruefully I note it is no mean feat to write a serious piece on immigration with 13 links and not use VDARE, especially as on some aspects Mad Tech has correctly featured, such as Anchor Babies and the Madeleine Cosman Emergency Room discussion, we have the definitive postings. I conclude Mad Tech is still hoping that this debate can be confined to a civilized arena, so that he can avoid associating with meanies like us. Fond Hope: no prisoners will be taken in this war. But we are prepared to accept triangulation : VDARE.com intends to go on leading from the front. Those following can do useful work, until they become intimidated - or toughen up.

Applaud Mad Tech - he deserves it.

Hat tip Michael Williams .

A recent article, Violence against border agents at record pace, contains some rather disturbing details tucked away in a latter paragraph:

“If anyone runs from us, we don’t chase them,” said one California-based border patrol agent who requested anonymity. “We could have information that there is a nuke in the back of a van but we don’t have authority to chase them,” the agent said. “We’ve had radiation pagers go off and we’re still not allowed [by our supervisors] to give chase,” he said. “They are scared to death something will go wrong and there will be a huge liability.”

What? Wouldn’t the explosion of a nuke or bio-weapon in an American city be considered a rather serious “liability”? A hamstrung Border Patrol unable to chase down bad guys makes our porous perimeter even more of a security threat.

From a reader:
Re Multiculturalism And Medicine: A Deadly Combination, by Dr. Ken Dombey

New Jersey recently became the first state to require physicians to take cultural competency training. Senate Bill S144

“Physicians who want to obtain a medical license or be relicensed in New Jersey must take cultural competency training under a new law intended to help reduce health care disparities among racial and ethnic minorities.” [From the AMA website. ]

Via Patterico, I learn that Dr. Rice, last seen here issuing a fatwa in defence of the Koran, is now attacking the Minutemen.

Most of the audience questions selected by club CEO Gloria Duffy centered on war and global diplomatic efforts, but Rice was asked for her opinion about the role of armed volunteers guarding the border with Mexico.

“As to enforcement, that is a role for the United States government and the United States government alone,” she said bluntly.

Rice calls for patience on Iraq, By Mary Ann Ostrom, San Jose Mercury News

Ah, but what if the United States Government, (Executive Branch) refuses to enforce the laws made by the United States Government (Legislative Branch)?

While at the same time, the United States Government, (Judicial Branch) is acting on the maxim that “it’s not over until the alien wins.”

That would be be the kind of corruption and abandonment of the rule of law that has traditionally led to vigilantism.

It’s not dissimilar to the kind of situation that led to the Civil Rights protests of the Sixties. Would Dr. Rice insist that the activities of the “Freedom Summer” should have been left up to the government, and the government alone?