Vdare.com joins with our friend The Kvetcher in congratulating Stephen Steinlight on his recent Op-Ed in The Jewish Week. As The Kvetcher points out this is the

First Steinlight Op-Ed printed in mainstream Jewish periodical since HIAS Smear Email Campaign

(In other words, this repression attempt, back last spring, was quite effective.)

Steinlight’s Straight Talk About Jews And Immigration February 2 2010 was occasioned by the CIS/Zogby poll Religious Leaders vs. Members: An Examination of Contrasting Views on Immigration

Steinlight argues this poll

reveals an historic shift in American-Jewish opinion on immigration, marking the end of consensus on what seemed an iconic allegiance, absolute and immutable. The ascending trend is support for immigration law enforcement, not illegal immigration. Nostalgia for a mythologized past is being superseded by concern about America’s future.

Complaining about the attempts by the Jewish Establishment and community media to obscure the more striking results

60 percent oppose immigration by foreign workers who take jobs from Americans; 60 percent believe government has never made a serious effort to enforce immigration law… on “attrition” (utilizing tighter border controls and stricter immigration law enforcement to encourage self-deportation by illegal aliens): 80 percent endorse it.

he asserts

It is absurd to argue that the immigration policy good for our grandparents and parents — who migrated to a fundamentally different America, an industrial colossus needing countless unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled workers and with a largely empty continent to fill — still makes sense in a post-industrial knowledge-based economy with a modern welfare state…

Contemporary low-skill immigration (especially illegal immigrants, a large majority of whom don’t have high school diplomas and 30 percent haven’t finished ninth grade) threatens to re-barbarize American capitalism, destroy the social safety net, and create a permanent underclass. Immigration is a zero-sum game in some respects, and low-skill immigration has brutal consequences for the most vulnerable Americans.

He concludes:

…it’s likely a growing majority of American Jews opposes illegal immigration because a confident American identity makes them empathize with fellow Americans first, not immigrants. Jews will forever passionately oppose xenophobia, but American identity has surmounted the immigrant past.

For the sake of America, we must all hope this is true – despite contrary evidence.

One thing is unquestionably true. Stephen Steinlight, The Kvetcher and a small band of others like Norm Matloff and Larry Auster, have chosen a Patriotic path which has been arduous and lonely. VDARE.com salutes them.

It sounded really great:

Don’t let immigrants take US jobs
Short-term positions filled through immigration should be utilized by Americans.
By David R. Francis The Christian Science Monitor February 2, 2010

And it started out so well:

About 15 million Americans are unemployed. Yet Washington allows businesses to bring in about 1 million foreigners a year to take supposedly short-term jobs that many jobless would leap at taking if they could.

The Francis piece is built around work by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) on short term work visas (such as those shamefully exploited by the Publix Supermarket group): the text to a picture of a Jamaican working in a Massachusetts restaurant roundly declares he is

one of 84 Jamaican workers at the inn who come to the United States on H2B visas, or seasonal work visas, that year, a contingent that shouldn’t be back this year as Americans look for jobs.

An MSM article spelling out the need for an Immigration Moratorium!!! Well not quite…in fact the word is never mentioned and the article meanders off to talk about the Haitian Amnesty. On this it usefully quotes Mark Krikorian

as far as his organization can find, no previous refugee group granted TPS has ever been deported. Temporary amnesty is in fact permanent.

but reaches no conclusion. Maybe the CSM editors wouldn’t allow one.

Grade: Incomplete.

Which is a whole lot better than

Temporary Protected Status for Haitians: not an amnesty card for illegal immigrants
By Michel J Wildes The Christian Science Monitor February 3, 2010

This is a clear F.

The author - not just an immigration lawyer but the son of an immigration lawyer - directly states

Let’s be clear: Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is not an amnesty card for those entering the US illegally.

The reality of course, as Mark Krikorian said the previous day, and as Juan Mann documented here years ago, is that it is indeed effective amnesty. As our friend Federale said at the time

No alien ever given TPS has ever left the U.S. We still have Philippinos in the U.S. from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. We still have Hondurans in the U.S. from Hurricane Mitch in 1998. We still have Montserratians in the U.S. because of a volcanic eruption in 1995. No one leaves once they get TPS. There is nothing temporary about TPS. It is nothing more than another way to immigrate to the U.S. permanently

Could it be that Michael J. Wildes assumed from the name of the newspaper he was writing for a bunch of ignorant and stupid peasants?

The rest of his essay is notable for the total lack of consideration he shows for the costs accommodating these Haitians will inflict on Americans.

Ask Michael J Wildes: how he can justify propagating such a blatant falsehood in a major newspaper?

The Washington Post is determined. After running not one but two Op-Ed pieces calling for increased Haitian immigration, it followed up with its own editorial The U.S. should welcome Haitians in Friday, January 29, 2010

This demanded “at a minimum” America immediately admit

perhaps in monthly airlifts of 5,000 or 10,000

the 64,000 Haitians who have approved or pending visa applications, cheerfully admitting

No doubt, an influx of Haitians would put a burden on schools and other local services, but it is a burden the United States has shouldered in the past in the face of emergency and extreme hardship.

So far this crazy campaign has not gathered much support elsewhere in the MSM. The neighboring Baltimore Sun earlier in the week editorialized U.S. should loosen Haitian immigration quotas by Andy Green January 26 2010 which advanced essentially the same arguments, but livened them up by more aggressively insulting Americans:

Could you imagine a country so cruel and intolerant that it would deport undocumented immigrants from Haiti… What’s needed… is to … temporarily suspend certain restrictions on emigration to the U.S. from Haiti…If the U.S. turns its back on victims at our doorstep, if we reflexively refuse them because immigration is too difficult a subject in an election year, what does that say about us?

(Suggest to Andy Green it would say Americans are not utter fools)

In Britain, The Independent’s Ian Birrell scalped the second Washington Post Op-Ed to produce Throw open our doors to Haitians Thursday, 28 January 2010

…reputable studies have consistently proved the economic and social benefits of limited immigration.
Britain, with a tiny Haitian community, could accept a one-off influx of perhaps 10,000 people, as could Germany and Spain. France, the former colonial power, could welcome a slightly larger figure to join the 80,000 Haitians living there

(VDARE.com’s British readers should suggest to Ian Birrell he study Immigration and Haiti more thoroughly)

Very refreshingly, an MSM voice of sanity has been raised: Our view on compassion and immigration:Help Haitians, but don’t throw open U.S. borders USAToday editorial, January 29 2010

This is a well argued piece which attracted a very crucial comment:

OMG no!!!! I live in South Florida and let me tell you, if EVER there was one group of immigrants (legal or illegal) that represented the WORST overall level of contribution to their self-sustinence, it would the Haitians. I’ve met maybe one or two hard working haitians down here, the rest? Nightmare. I am the son of immigrants but let me tell you, this group is bad news.
Kckn4fun

Possibly this MSM cover attracted the usually timid Roy Beck of NumbersUSA into the controversy: 3 Illogical Arguments for Helping Haiti by Taking More of Its Immigrants Sunday, January 31, 2010

Do the editorialists really believe that removing only about 1% of Haiti’s population would have any measurable effect on the pressures for violence and chaotic departures? If anything, watching 50,000 fellow citizens getting on boats for America might evoke more chaotic unauthorized efforts to follow them.

Wonkish counter arguments have their place, but Kckn4fun got to the central truth which most are too cowardly to express: Haitian immigration needs to be minimized because Haitians are, indeed, bad news.

President Obama wants more Haitians because they are black. Powerful elements supporting his administration want Haitians because they want to abolish America.

The purpose of the superficially quixotic Post campaign is not to achieve explicit public action. As the editorial said

The administration can speed the entry of Haitians — it needs no congressional approval

(VDARE.com emphasis)

The objective is to embolden Inside-the-Beltway bureaucratic chiefs to send out the message: relax enforcement.

I recommend reading the comments posted on these articles. They are heartening. More are needed whenever the chance arises. The other side has an agenda.

They’re at it again…

Immigration Debate Prompts Growing Jewish-Latino Ties By Nathan Guttman The Forward January 27 2010

Hispanics and Jews are moving to the forefront in a burgeoning political alliance… Some advocates view the ethnic backgrounds of the two key lawmakers leading the drive for immigration reform as symbolic of the growing alliance on the issue. In the House, the main immigration reform bill was presented Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, and in the Senate it is expected that New York’s Senator Charles Schumer will soon present his version of immigration reform legislation.

While these two groups confer on how to camouflage the Gutierrez Bill enough to smuggle it through, the rest of us should consider what motivates the allying of these two minorities.

The Hispanics are frank:

“For us, as newcomers to the society, this experience is extraordinary,” said Gutavo Torres, president of Casa Maryland, a Hispanic group active in the metropolitan Washington area. “They know how to work through the system, how to lobby, how to advocate. The Jewish community has a lot of experience and a lot of power.”

Remind Gutavo Torres the American majority matters too.

The Jewish motivation is more subtle. Gideon Aronoff of the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society (“he can’t write a sentence and he can’t speak a sentence. He’s hopeless. He’s an idiot.” – Stephen Steinlight) makes the obvious comment:

If we want to engage with the Latino community on issues that are of concern for us, including Israel, we need to engage on issues that bother their community,

But, while conceptually possible, it simply does not make sense that incremental support on Israel (which is hardly needed) would be worth getting into a controversy which is certain to infuriate a large section of the electorate.

So what is the motive? Because they are very serious. The Forward reports:

The organized Jewish community is more committed than ever to immigration reform. A letter supporting immigration reform, which will be sent out to all Senate offices in early February, was signed by dozens of national Jewish organizations.

As so often we find enlightenment at our friend The Kvetcher’s discussion of this story: Jewish Orgs Shrug Off Zogby Poll by DK January 29 2010 HIAS and Far-Left Remain in Driver’s Seat on Immigration Policy

Jewish bigs are once again deciding they know better than both their community and their countrymen. And they think they are so wonderful for it.

On the comment thread The Kvetcher is asked

What does HIAS have to engage with other ethnic groups about?

and replies

The mutual goal of making the majority population a minority population. We need to all be “The Stranger.”

The Kvetcher is right. What drives this group is animosity towards the founding American people. Everything else is just tactical.

(The Zogby poll to which The Kvetcher refers was the recent CIS study on the contrast between the immigration views of Religious Leaders and their congregations, which he discussed in his blog Jews Reject Jewish Communal Policy on Immigration.)

As I said this morning, they are really serious! Another Haitian-import advocacy piece from The Washington Post this morning, this time masquerading as a news story. (This enables emotionalism.)

Debate grows in aftermath of quake: Should U.S. let more Haitians immigrate? By Amy Goldstein and Peter Whoriskey Monday January 25, 2010

From morning until night, Dieula Celestin’s cellphone rings in Miami’s Little Haiti. It is her younger brother, Roger Paul, calling from Port-au-Prince, where he and their 65-year-old mother live with no food, no job and no money in the street outside the remnants of their house.

The article names Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla) as a sympathizer and adds

Lavinia Limon, president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, said that letting Haitians join U.S. relatives would relieve at least some of the humanitarian burden in Port-au-Prince. The United States, she said, has airlifted foreigners out of other emergencies, such as Albanians from Kosovo and refugees from the Vietnam War…

Among Haitians and their U.S. relatives, Limon predicted, pressure on U.S. immigration policy will escalate in the coming weeks and months. “You need a boat, a captain, money. Nobody has that,” she said. “But in two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, they will.”

I guess that is a threat.

The Post has mobilized its Blog correspondent to disparage the overwhelmingly negative response it has (to its credit) posted in the article’s comment section:

Commenters oppose Haitian immigration dot.comments By Doug Feaver January 25 2010

One subject guaranteed to generate huge numbers of angry and often racist comments from our readers is any suggestion that some foreigners — in this case Haitians — should be permitted legal entry into the United States. We have that situation today…

Almost 300 comments have been filed on that story at the hour this is written, and the vast majority of them are negative to even the suggestion.

More characteristic of the Left is The Huffington Post, which quickly reproduced the Washington Post article and at present shows over 40 comments which are overwhelmingly positive (if crazy):

If it weren’t for the Haitians there would be NO United States of America as we know it and we probably wouldn’t be enjoying the freedoms we have. And the US would probably be still split in two

They earned the right to be here, but fake American history forgot to tell you that in school.

mervr1

This is hardly surprising. As our correspondent found, they don’t allow dissent at The Huffington Post.

And it won’t be allowed in America soon, if massive imports from these alien cultures continue.

Complain to Amy Goldstein and Peter Whoriskey

They are dead serious about this.

On Sunday, hard on the heels of the Elliott Abrams demand that large quantities of Haitians be imported because of the earthquake, The Washington Post did it again.

To help Haiti’s earthquake victims, change U.S. immigration laws By Michael A. Clemens Sunday, January 24, 2010

We must let more Haitians come here. In fact, it’s time to consider an entire new class of immigration — call it a “golden door” visa, to be issued in limited numbers to people from the poorest countries, such as Haiti.

We…know… why many individual Haitians are poor. For a large number, there is a clear reason: Many have been willing and able to leave Haiti for American shores, but armed agents of the U.S. government have forcibly stopped them or deterred them from trying….For this reason, the United States is complicit in the agony many Haitians are now suffering.

(VDARE.com emphasis)

As usual, there is little consideration of - and no sympathy at all about - the impact this would have on the way of life of those selfish brutes who have the temerity to be Americans.

while most economic studies find that such immigration may have lowered the wages of U.S. high school dropouts by a few percentage points, many of those dropouts are immigrants themselves, already earning far more than they would in their country of origin

(This is a very dubious assertion factually.)

Michael Clemens appears to be building a career as a professional open borders apologist. Ask him why he cares so little about the welfare of Americans. (Here is his Georgetown email as well.)

As I noted yesterday, the eerie thing about this campaign is how well co-ordinated it is. After two days doubtless spent grinding his teeth with rage, the redoubtable Larry Auster has published his promised analysis of the Abrams Op-Ed. He could be equally be writing about the Clemens article:

Abrams says that we should admit a “substantial” number of Haitians…His clear suggestion is that we should raise the number of Haitians in the U.S. from the present 500,000 to at least the Salvadoran level of 1.5 million. Meaning that we should immediately bring a million Haitians into this country…

Abrams’s policy has nothing to do with either American well being (even conceived in liberal terms) or American inclusion. It is a policy of pure self-sacrifice for the sake of another country. We let Third-Worlders come here, not because they have ANYTHING to do with us, not because they will ASSIMILATE into our culture, not because they will CONTRIBUTE to our economy, not because they will EXPAND and ENRICH our diversity, but because they will help enrich (or rather marginally raise the abysmal poverty level of) the Third World hell hole from which they come. Indeed, any notion that the immigrants should be loyal to America or be committed to America is excluded from the start, since the whole idea is that the immigrants come her in order to help their home country….

By Abrams’s altruistic reasoning, we should admit, not just a million Haitians into America, but also 1.5 million people from each of those (poorer, African -VDARE.com) eight countries into America. That is, we should immediately allow into America 13 million blacks, increasing America’s black population from the current 35 million to 48 million. We should turn America into a workers’ transit hotel for the poorest countries on earth.

That’s what the neocons–who constantly effuse about how much they “love” America–want to do to America

Unfortunately, it is not just the Neocons we need to fear here – it is the wishes of the Obama Administration with which they are currying favor. The appearance of basically the same article twice in three days in a leftist bastion like The Washington Post means one thing: this crazy piece of treason has powerful backers.

The Rasmussen Poll on importing Haitians found that a stunning

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Americans nationwide say they or someone in their family have contributed money, goods or services to help the earthquake victims,

With this tide of sentiment running, and the MSM helping, no wonder they are hopeful. Remember what followed 9/11?–the invasion of Iraq, completely unrelated but another long-standing neocon goal.

America is in danger.

With eerie precision, barely hours after the “Neocon’s Neocon” Elliot Abrams published a demand that large quantities of Haitians should be allowed to immigrate to America because of the earthquake, an individual named Chris Berg has used his access to the Australian MSM to demand the same thing.

What do Haitians need most? To get away from Haiti Chris Berg The Sydney Morning Herald January 24 2010

…if the developed world really wants to help Haiti, we could let as many Haitians as humanly possible work in the West. We could dramatically expand our guest worker and migration programs.

In a strange coincidence, Berg advances the same émigré-remittances-as-aid argument as Abrams. Although Australian, his destination of choice seems to be the USA.

even a modest expansion of guest worker programs in the US and other developed nations will have a greater long-term effect than any amount of money… charity… can raise.

Tell Chris Berg American (and hopefully Australian) immigration policy should not be run as 3rd World welfare.

Meantime, over at The Huffington Post the problem of how to use the earthquake to accommodate Obama’s Haitian import lust is being approached on another path.

Cut the Red Tape: Why Haitians Need Humanitarian Parole Now Jeffrey Kahn and Aaron Zelinsky January 23, 2010

suggests that importing the Haitian injured should be the stratagem.

The Department of Homeland Security should send a special team of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service officers to Haiti to grant humanitarian parole to those in need of urgent medical treatment in the United States…DHS should use the humanitarian parole framework and open the door to life-saving treatment for seriously wounded earthquake survivors.

No thought of course is given to the fact that this would involve huge transfers of scarce medical resources away from Americans who have paid for them through insurance and tax deductions.

Berg, Kahn, Zelinsky… Guess you can’t entirely blame men of obviously Haitian heritage putting their people first.

But they do not have to be obeyed.

Interesting factoid from one of the numerous efforts by officials to allay citizen fears of Haitian inundation:

U.S.: No Haitian mass exodus to Florida seen or expected By Mike M. Ahlers and Kim Segal, CNN.com
January 20, 2010

An estimated 25,000 Haitians were among the mass migration of more than 150,000 asylum seekers, primarily Cubans, during the Mariel boatlift in 1980

In this event, Castro exploited leniency towards Cuban illegal immigration by the Carter administration to dump undesirables on America. Clearly, Castro thought the same of his Haitian immigrants then as the Dominicans now.

H/T the invaluable and indefatigable One Old Vet blog for In Arizona, a Stream of Illegal Immigrants From China , By Stephen Ceasar, The New York Times January 22, 2010

The number of Chinese immigrants arrested while illegally crossing the border into Arizona through the busiest smuggling corridor in the United States increased tenfold in the last fiscal year, according to the United States Border Patrol in Tucson.

In fiscal 2009, 332 Chinese immigrants were caught in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, up from 30 the previous year, Border Patrol figures showed. And in what could be a sign of a record-breaking pace for this year, agents in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector arrested 281 Chinese immigrants from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

This of course is a blinding illustration of the criminal fecklessness demonstrated by America’s political class in not building an effective border fence. Like Israel. The gap is such a magnet that it is attracting people from the other side of the world.

And let no one say enforcement does not work:

Chinese smugglers have traditionally used shipping containers to take immigrants through American ports, but that has subsided as container inspections have increased

(VDARE.com emphasis).

Now Chinese immigrants do not pose the same problems as Haitians. They bring their own, for instance slavery:

Chinese immigrants commonly pay smugglers upward of $40,000 each to lead them from their homeland to the United States, Mr. Jimarez said… “The price far exceeds other nationalities, mainly due to the elaborate nature of the trip from China to Mexico…”

Peter Chan, a Tucson businessman who works as an interpreter at the federal courthouse in Tucson, said some immigrants had told him that they had paid a deposit of $5,000 to $10,000 to Chinese smugglers before leaving China.
If the immigrants make it to America, Mr. Chan said, they begin paying the smugglers the remainder of the cost.

(VDARE.com emphasis)

The report notes that many of the immigrants are from Fujian Province, whose inhabitants have acquired an unsavory reputation for cruel exploitation of their own people in this situation.

Thanks very much, John McCain.

Unrelated note: news of ex-Congressman J.D.Hayworth:
Former Ariz. congressman plans run against McCain myway.com Jan 23 2010

Invade-the-World goes Invite-the World…Steve Sailer’s aphorism went live this morning with the publication of What Haiti needs: A Haitian diaspora By Elliot Abrams The Washington Post January 22, 2010.

Yes, this is the Elliott Abrams who is Norman Podhoretz’s son-in law, who almost went to jail over Iran Contra after the Reagan Administration, and who is considered to have been very instrumental in engineering American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sometimes described a NeoCon’s Neocon, he has been reported active lately “Neocon-ning Obama” with a series of Op-Eds in prestigious journals demanding more pro Israel policy. His last Washington Post article was a condemnation of any inhibitions on Israeli colonization of the West bank (The Settlement Freeze Fallacy The Washington Post April 8 2009).

So what insight does Elliot Abrams bring to the Haitian issue?

America should import more Haitians!

one of the best ways to help Haiti is to allow some Haitians to move abroad…President Obama …should be asking Congress not only to provide aid funds but also to allow a significant increase in the number of Haitians legally admitted to the United States — to several times the roughly 25,000 per year in the past decade

Abrams’ main argument is that Haiti would benefit from the émigré’s remittances. No consideration is given to the fact that that these revenues, when not actually welfare, would equally much be siphoned out of the pockets of working Americans by underbidding them in the workplace for employment. The resultant skill impoverishment in Haiti which Ed Rubenstein discussed last night is unmentioned. Neither is the cultural problem well described by the comment to the article posted by Sero1

Is this writer joking or is he, indeed, crazy to suggest this? These are the last people we want or need coming into our country. We have way too many here already. I’ve witnessed them in South Florida and, believe me, you do not want Haitians in your community. They will turn it into another Port-au-Prince in no time. You’ll need bars on your windows, install police locks on doors and get a vicious guard dog to protect yourself and property. Sorry, but that’s the way it is. I’d like to see Mr. Abrams accept them into his gated neighborhood.

Of course, this is exactly what Abram’s friend Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meant when declaring himself determined to crack down on African immigration into Israel:

““Anyone walking around Arad, Eilat, or even south Tel Aviv today, can see this wave, and the change it is creating, with their own eyes. They are causing socio-economic and cultural damage and threaten to take us back down to the level of the Third World…”

Abrams does not care about this in America.

Plenty of counter arguments will be offered to this essay, which does indeed seem to validate Steve Steinlight’s remark to Luke Ford.

I am going to consider the matter of motive.

• Why did the Washington Post want to publish this? Was it to make a prominent Neoconservative discredit himself by looking foolish?

Or was it that they and their friends are indeed attempting coalition-building to facilitate Haitian importation?

• Why did Abrams want to stray so far from his recent beat? Was it a chance to express the murderous hatred towards the old American nation which seems to be so close to the surface with these people?

Or was it that by supporting something the Obama crowd clearly wants (as demonstrated by their opportunistic and entirely unnecessary amnestying of the existing Haitian illegals) Abrams hopes to gain traction for something which really matters to him: Israel.

Either way, the outlook for America is: Bad.

Ask Elliot Abrams why he does not care about Americans (please be polite).

On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Manufacturers Association of Israel in terms long overdue from an American President to the Cheap Labor Lobby:

You will not like this, but we plan to legislate strict laws and enforce them with a firm hand against the illegal employment of infiltrators and foreign workers.…

We are flooded with surge of refugees who threaten to wash away our achievements and damage our existence…

He went on to say, “Anyone walking around Arad, Eilat, or even south Tel Aviv today, can see this wave, and the change it is creating, with their own eyes. They are causing socio-economic and cultural damage and threaten to take us back down to the level of the Third World. They take the jobs of the weakest Israelis.”

PM: Infiltrators pull us towards Third World Tani Goldstein Ynetnews.com 01.21.10

Netanyahu was refreshingly candid about who and why:

The prime minister explained that this is evident to all who visit southern Tel Aviv or Arad today, seeing the growing number of African workers.

Compounding the problem is the fact that there are many willing to employ the illegals, taking advantage of their status, paying them Third World wages, driving down the labor market and ultimately, hurting the national economy

Illegals, Primarily from Africa, Hurting the Israeli Economy Yechiel Spira Yeshiva World News January 21, 2010

And today, Netanyahu went down to Israel’s southern border to further his case.

Of course, the question is if this analysis and response is legitimate for Israel, why not for America?

It will be a pleasure to see the few friends who challenge the American Jewish bigotry on Immigration asking this.

PS Please hold the emails asserting an Israeli Prime Minister is already de facto President of the United States. I am aware of this view!