American Born and Bred
Like a segment of the population, I trace my ancestry back to before the Revolutionary War - the oldest verified record we have is of a birth in North Carolina in 1750. After that, my ancestors moved west - first to Iowa, then to Utah in 1847. On my mother’s side, it’s a bit sketchier, but we know the family has been in the US for generations - we even have a bit of Cherokee ancestry.
My paternal grandparents were both born and raised, raised their family and died in Salt Lake City. If I so desired, I could join the Sons of Utah Pioneers. I am as authentically American as anyone can claim to be. These stories about immigration make me angry.
From Americablog:
Hispanic immigrants are being targeted, often in gratuitously violent attacks by non-Hispanics, because they are thought to carry cash rather than use banks and to be reluctant to report crimes to police, the officials said.
The attacks are occurring with such frequency that police in Prince William County have created a task force, and Montgomery police have assigned a specialized unit to tackle the problem. The crimes are having profound effects in the neighborhoods where they occur, causing some residents to alter their routines . . .
Authorities say the teenage assailants in that case targeted Serafin “Pedro” Alvarez Negrete after agreeing to “get an amigo.” They attacked Negrete, 32, as he walked home from a shopping center.
“Like alligators waiting for the gazelle to cross the river,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John B. Arledge said as one of the men was sentenced last week.
Police say recent immigrants, particularly laborers who return home on foot at night, are most vulnerable. Assailants have been known to lurk between shopping centers, even sometimes outside of cash-checking businesses on payday, police say.
Next time some immigrant bashing pol starts spewing on your TV, remember he or she is giving permission for this kind of thing.
And from Hugo:
“Tammy†was my student in my women’s studies and humanities classes. She was the best student in the class each time; she was accepted to UCLA, planning to major in Women’s Studies and History. Her family had come to this country from the Philippines illegally, when Tammy was two. Tammy didn’t find out until her junior year of high school that she and her parents had no immigration documents. She found out her citizenship status when, returning home from her school’s “college dayâ€, she told her parents that they would need to fill out the FAFSA (the standard federal student aid form.) Her parents sat her down and gently told her that that wouldn’t be possible. Tammy felt doubly betrayed: by her parents for never telling her that she had no legal status, and by the only society she has ever known. (Tammy speaks halting Tagolog, and flawless English. Because of passport issues, she has never been back to the land of her birth. Her home is Silverlake and Echo Park, not Manila.)
She was accepted to UCLA straight out of high school, but without financial aid, came to PCC.
Somehow, by borrowing money from family and friends, working two jobs, Tammy is making it happen at UCLA, and will graduate more or less on time. She’s got the raw talent and determination to succeed in the face of any obstacle. Others lack her extraordinary resolve, and slip through the cracks, moving into permanent lives in the shadow economy. I’ve seen it happen.
It ought to be a basic moral principle that children shouldn’t be punished for their parents’ crimes. I’m not sure I regard illicit immigration as a crime, but if I could be convinced that it was, it’s a crime for which the punishment ought only to come to bear on those who were adults at the time it was originally committed. The Dream Act, with its insistence on scholarship or service as conditions for naturalization, was a thoughtful, reasonable, and humane step in the right direction. And it’s been blocked.
It’s not so dramatic, but when my family first moved to Kamas, we were treated like interlopers, outsiders who could not be trusted. Many Kamas residents openly expressed the desire to build a wall around town, to tear up the road so nobody else could drive into town, to pass laws so nobody else could ever move into their cousin raping hillbilly town - they wanted to keep Kamas for themselves, as it had always been (they can have it, in case you wondered my opinion on the subject). They didn’t ever want anything to change. But change it has and the “old timers” have grown angrier and angrier about it, year after after. Their anger fuels nothing but itself, solves no problems, creates no solutions and builds no communities. Those things are left to the newcomers - whose solutions the old timers bitterly resent.
Like nativists on a national scale, the oldtimers blame the newcomers for all the problems in their world. If only these “newcomers” weren’t here, then everything would go back to being the way it was then. In Kamas, the difference is only one of scale not content. The “newcomers” and their new houses and ideas and services and stores are white people from Salt Lake, not brown people from Latin America, but they still mean change. And the old timers hate change of any sort. They really look back and think that times were better back then. Things were good. There were no problems.
FWIW, when we first moved to Kamas, my sister told me, in all seriousness, it was easier to buy drugs in the South Summit High School hallway than it had been at Bingham in Salt Lake, that alcohol was easier to get at South Summit than at Bingham, that more people were having sex at South Summit than Bingham. Maybe by the good times, the “old timers” don’t mean things were good, they mean they could ignore the things that were bad.
October 30th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Nobody said life was fair. My own wife was given 72 hours to leave the country, though our son was born on American soil, when she was laid off from her H-1b visa job. I could not yet sponsor her, as I was not yet a citizen, though legally going through the process.
Cry me a river. As a white woman from Canada with education, our son was no anchor for her to stay here. Undocumented wage slaves on the other hand…. the truth of this reality is abomination. Any comments Cliff?
Get legal, get a bank account, or get robbed. This is what criminals do, target the weak and unprepared. Look at the current admin with regard to dems.
Let’s see, you don’t need SS# to open an account at B of A. I have closed my account there due to this. This is common knowledge in the illegal community, the fact is, they do not want to known, as avenues for legitimacy exist. They do not want to lose largess or pay taxes. I can’t blamer them, but we can’t avoid these things as Americans, and if they want security and status, neither should they.
I imagine no one gives a rats ass when we are robbed and scammed in mexico, it works both ways, tit for tat. Want legitimacy, then operate from that center. Otherwise, brave the crocs.
October 30th, 2007 at 6:58 am
The laws as they enforce them from our useless neighbors’ government South of the Border.
MEXICO’S IMMIGRATION LAWS & ILLEGAL ALIENS
John W. Slagle
October 28, 2007
NewsWithViews.com
Recently Mexican President Calderon has been very outspoken, critical
on U.S. Immigration law enforcement efforts and supports Amnesty for all
illegal aliens from Mexico residing, working in this nation.
Contrary to popular belief, Mexico has very strict immigration laws
which are enforced by every police agency in the country. The Bureau of
Immigration can call upon any law enforcement officer to assist in their
mission. Citizens from the United States traveling in Mexico without proper
documents, work permits or non immigrant visas are subject to arrest as
illegal aliens.
The laws regarding foreign national visitors, immigrants, non-citizens
are as clear and concise in Mexico as are our own U.S. laws which are
considered unenforceable by many politicians in Washington, D.C.
* Reglamento de la Ley General de Poblacion (General Law on
Population) in Spanish dated Abril 14 de 2000 Capitulo Quinto –Migracion
Seccion 1
Mexico welcomes only foreigners who will be useful to Mexican society:
Foreigners are admitted into Mexico “according to their
possibilities of contributing to national progress.”
Immigration officials must “ensure” that “immigrants will be useful
elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their
sustenance” and for their dependents.
Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence upsets
“the equilibrium of the national demographics,” when foreigners are deemed
detrimental to “economic or national interests,” when they do not behave
like good citizens in their own country, when they have broken Mexican laws,
and when “they are not found to be physically or mentally healthy.”
The Secretary of Governance may “suspend or prohibit the admission
of foreigners when he determines it to be in the national interest.”
Mexican authorities must keep track of every single person in the
country:
Federal, local and municipal police must cooperate with federal
immigration authorities upon request to assist in the arrests of illegal
immigrants.
A National Population Registry keeps track of “every single
individual who comprises the population of the country,” and verifies each
individual’s identity.
A national Catalog of Foreigners tracks foreign tourists and
immigrants and assigns each individual with a unique tracking number.
Foreigners with fake papers, or who enter the country under false
pretenses, may be Imprisoned. Foreigners with fake immigration papers may be
fined or imprisoned.
Foreigners who sign government documents “with a signature that is
false or different is subject to fine and imprisonment.
Foreigners who fail to obey the rules will be fined, deported, and/or
imprisoned as Felons. Foreigners who fail to obey a deportation order are to
be punished.
Foreigners who are deported from Mexico and attempt to re-enter the
country without authorization can be imprisoned for up to 10 years.
Foreigners who violate the terms of their visa may be sentenced to up
to six years in prison . Foreigners who misrepresent the terms of their visa
while in Mexico — such as working with out a permit — can also be
imprisoned.
Under Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony. The General Law on
Population States…
“A penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of three hundred
to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the
country illegally.”
Foreigners with legal immigration problems may be deported from
Mexico instead of being imprisoned. Foreigners who have contempt against
national sovereignty or security” will be deported.
Mexicans who help illegal aliens enter the country are themselves
considered criminals .Under the law, A Mexican who marries a foreigner with
the sole objective of helping the foreigner live in the country is subject
to up to five years in prison.
Shipping and airline companies that bring undocumented foreigners into
Mexico will be fined. The general immigration laws of Mexico are very
similar to 8 U.S. Codes of the I&N Act. The review of basic Immigration laws
of various nations including Mexico have been researched by various authors
including Professor Michael Waller and Reports for U.S. Congress. Open
border advocates, special interest groups in the United States do not
appreciate this information made public although the facts have been readily
available and widely distributed. Condemning U.S. Laws as cruel and inhumane
lacks any measure of common sense when the majority of nations in the world
including Mexico have very strict immigration policies.
Sources*
1, J. Michael Waller
Walter and Leonore Annenberg Professor of International Communication
The Institute of World Politics
1521 16th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
http://www.iwp.edu