I’m not going to address this story with my usual eloquence, going on and on and shredding the myth that illegal immigration is a “victimless” crime, (Suspect admits he abducted, raped girl, 7,), Indianapolis Star,May 24, 2007).

But you might want to drop a note to reporter Vic Ryckaert (e-mail him) asking why he (or his editor) made readers wait until the seventh paragraph before learning that Jonathan Castillo is here illegally.

Among the very first things I learned as a young reporter was that my first responsibility was to our paper’s readers. Today, sadly, that rule stands in line behind other priorities, e.g., “do nothing to annoy the ‘immigrant community’ ” (especially those who buy ad space).

Forgotten Kenneth Eng already? We featured him hating blacks, in the columns of AsianWeek, hating whites, and hating Christians. We ignored him hating the students at Virginia Tech, but now it appears that he hates dogs, too, allegedly having threatened a neighbor and her dog with a hammer, and been arrested.

Eng allegedly approached the mother and daughter as they stood in their driveway with their pet and said, “If your dog bites me, I will kill you and your family.” He then called the mother fat and lazy and swung a hammer at her and the dog, according to the Queens district attorney’s office.

Eng used to be a regular contributor to San Francisco-based AsianWeek, writing from New York. He was fired in February after public outcry over his racist and discriminatory columns. In his writings, Eng called himself an “Asian supremacist” and listed reasons to hate black people as well as Asians and whites.
['Hate' columnist Eng arrested in N.Y. for alleged harassment]

Remember, Eng didn’t get in trouble until he did a column criticizing blacks, many of whom hate Asians, and target them for robbery and abuse. That article was removed from the AsianWeek site.

His anti-white article, Proof That Whites Inherently Hate Us ,[Nov 24, 2006] with its paean to Chai Vang, the Hmong mass murderer, is still up on AsianWeek.

This is the image he put with his AsianWeek column:

His lawyer has asked for a mental examination.

David Mas Masumoto writes on Common Dreams:

Without passage of immigration reform, I can’t get enough help to harvest my fruits. This work is transient and something most Americans won’t do, even with higher wages.

The reader comments were far from universally supportive:
Kent Shaw replied:

And of course Mr. Matsumoto pays for his workers’ medical care when they are injured on his farms or in his orchards. He also pays for their education, and provides them transportation as needed since the workers don’t have driver licenses. When his workers commit crimes in our country he certainly pays his workers’ legal bills and pays compensation to the crime victims. Mr. Matsumoto in fact pays ALL of the social costs that go with having “undocumented workers” in this country. If only ALL employers of “undocumented workers” were as conscientous as Mr. Matsumoto.

Hounddog wrote:

Why must the only people capable of farm labor be immigrants? Why can’t a citizen of this country be able to make a living in agriculture as a farm laborer? Why do we allow the only industry vital to life to be exploited by agribusiness greed? Organic sustainable agriculture is suposed to provide a living wage to it’s workers.

My own comment:

I grew up on a farm in rural Missouri. I’ve actually done a lot of farm work.

When Masumoto says Without passage of immigration reform, I can’t get enough help to harvest my fruit” He’s saying something like: under existing economic conditions, my farm is only profitable because of the availability of immigrant labor.

The thing is, this is a race to the bottom. The increased availability of immigrant labor only increased profit margins briefly. Once illegal immigrants get their green cards, their interest in jobs like those Mr. Masumoto can offer decrease rapidly. What those folks are really working for isn’t their meager wages-but a shot at a valuable US green card.

Businesses that rely on illegal immigration depend on other tax payers to pay for education, healthcare, infrastructure and the costs of crime associated with the workers they bring into the US.

Even if employers like Masumoto are forced to either pay a living wage or go out of business, the price American consumers pay will increase only a small amount. Less than $.10 of every dollar you pay at the grocery store actually goes to farmers.

If illegal immigration is taken seriously, we’ll see more smaller and owner operated farms. The larger farms will simply have to be sold to pay for things like immigration fines. Those fines will have to be substantial-and enforced-to be effective. If they aren’t, farmers like Masumoto will be forced to use illegal alien labor to stay in business-just like Virginia planters were once forced either use African slaves or get out that business. I think history has shown that slavery was a huge moral and economic mistake in the long term-and history will show recent immigration practices are a similarly horrible mistake.

VDARE.COM readers can feel free to add their own comments–but keep in mind this is a left leaning web log-and consider the audience.

Paul Craig Roberts published on Tuesday Will Republicans Destroy Themselves Before They Destroy America? Judging by our traffic, emails and blog links, it is an exceptionally popular column.

As usual (and somewhat to VDARE.com’s frustration) Craig is totally focused on the effects of the Middle East fiasco. But exactly the same question comes to mind reading a Washington Times story this morning: (Divisive bill stokes GOP anger; base rejects path to citizenship By Ralph Z. Hollow May 24 2007. Access requires free registration)

Arizona Republican Party officials have received “hundreds and hundreds of calls, e-mails and letters from Republicans angry about the bill,” state party Chairman Randy Pullen told The Washington Times. “They were saying, ‘I am going to register independent and not give you any more money’ — and that’s the base of our party saying that,” Mr. Pullen said.

Senator Mel Martinez (R-Cuba) has particularly annoyed local Republican leaders by boasting

…the immigration bill “could be the saving of the Republican Party.”

Chuck Laudner, the Iowa Republican Party executive director, told The Times that Mr. Martinez is “dead wrong because the bill doesn’t save the Republican Party — it drives a wedge right through it.”
“I don’t think the immigration bill is going to save the Republican party,” Cindy Costa, the Republican national committeewoman from South Carolina, told The Times. “If you undermine your base as this bill does, I don’t hardly see how that can save the GOP”…

Mr. Laudner called Mr. Martinez’s assertion “nonsense” and said the Iowa state party has “had nothing but angry phone calls streaming into our office since it was announced last week that [Senate leaders] had cut this deal on a bill — not one happy caller.”

The Republicans are in a nightmare. Demons have seized control of the party, who care nothing for its future - or the Nation’s. Let us hope the Republicans follow the lead of Randy Pullen and his associates and wake up.