Donald Douglas - On Immigration

MONDAY, JULY 03, 2006, 8:34 AM

It turns out that a local Minuteman member used obscure state property maps to show that a Laguna Beach day laborer hiring area was in violation of state law, as this Los Angeles Times article details: (link has since expired)

Caltrans ordered a longtime Laguna Beach day labor center to close Friday, saying it was illegally operating on state property, land that the state didn't even know it owned.

This story brilliantly illustrates Tip O'Neill's famous quote that "all politics is local." As Congress remains stymied on the passage of comprehensive immigration reform, groups at the state and local level around the country are having an impact. - Donald Douglas, Burkean Reflections: Vigilante Victory: The Minutemen Shut Down Illegal Alien Day Labor Center

Yay!! Anti-immigration activist successfully exploits legal technicality stop city from offering hiring services to immigrants!! (And yes, it's anti-immigrant, not anti-illegal immigrant. Day laboror hiring halls provide services to all immigrants (and sometimes, citizens, as well), not just undocumented workers.

I'm not saying the place didn't have to shut down--it was in violation of state law, after all--but I don't believe this was something to celebrate as a "vigilante victory," the way Donalde obviously did.

***

FRIDAY, MAY 05, 2006, 6:39 PM

My previous post on the immigration crisis included a link, from Lou Dobbs at CNN, to Teddy Roosevelt's 1919 statement on the importance of assimilation in maintaining America's national identity during the country's periodic great waves of immigration. As noted previously, Dobbs has been reporting consistently on the immigration crisis, and his coverage of the recent pro-amnesty, open-borders movement represents a continuation his longstanding journalistic reporting on the American political economy from a "sovereigntist" perspective. For example, over the last couple of years, Dobbs has showcased his "Exporting America" broadcasts, a long-running series on the effects of trade globalization on the American working class.

In this recent commentary piece, Dobbs targets the growing influence of the radical left among the variety of interest group advocates found in the illegal immigration movement. Dobbs argues that the mainstream press has been "coopted" by pro-illegal immigration activists, seen particularly in the neutral nominalism of their reporting on the protests. According to Dobbs: "USA Today headlined today's demonstrations and boycott 'On Immigration's Front Lines.' The New York Times headlines its story 'With Calls for Boycott by Immigrants, Employers Gird for Unknown.' The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times are both calling their coverage 'The Immigration Debate.'"

Dobbs indicates that the front group International ANSWER, a Marxist-Leninist vanguard organization, emerged as a major proponent of a national boycott, and he notes that it was no surprise that the activists had scheduled the protests for May 1st, as that day is the world's recognized annual day of international worker solidarity. Here's a longer passage from the article:

Some illegal immigration and open borders activists in the Hispanic community are deeply concerned about the involvement of the left-wing radical group. But others, like Juan Jose Gutierrez, whom I've interviewed a number of times over the past several months, manages to be both director of Latino Movement USA and a representative of ANSWER.

As Gutierrez told us on my show, "The time has come...where we need to stand up and make a statement. We need to do what the American people did when they pulled away from the British crown. And I am sure that back in those days many people were concerned that was radical action."

Just how significant is the impact of leftists within the illegal immigration movement? It is no accident that they chose May 1 as their day of demonstration and boycott. It is the worldwide day of commemorative demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and even anarchic organizations.

Supporters of the boycott have made no secret of their determination to try to shut down schools, businesses and entire cities. Much of Los Angeles' Seventh Street produce market, which supplies thousands of local restaurants and markets, is closed today. Many meat-packing companies like Cargill and Tyson are also closing many of their plants.

Anyone who has spent any time around a college campus recently knows that the contemporary left is marked by a wide array of radical groups and front coalitions -- from animal rights groups, anti-globalization protesters, environmental activists, and antiwar organizations. The strident anti-Americanism at the heart of the recent illegal imimigration protests was evident early on, and such sentiment is only partially disguised by the more recent attempts to hoist the American flag above the crowded streets of America this past May 1. It's unfortunate that the anti-American message of the radical groups will likely overshadow the more moderate views of some immigration reform advocates, and thereby hinder efforts toward compromise on border security, guest workers, and legalization. - Burkean Reflections: Lou Dobbs on How Leftist Radicals Have Taken Over the Illegal Immigration Movement

For the record, I often agree with Dobbs (and Douglas, assuming he's agreeing with Dobbs, which is hard to tell, sometimes) where immigration is concerned. Where I part company with both of them however, is believing that those who take another view on immigration are radicals.

Yes, there are a few communists involved in the open borders movement. And yes, the Aztlan, reconquista movement folks are nuts--like it or don't, wars have consequences and, while it's fine to claim that many of the border states once were a part of your homeland, it's quite another to insist that you get them back. While I cannot claim to know the entire history of every nationalized "state" the world over, there are relatively very few people living on land that has always belonged to one's own ethnic group or nationality. History is replete with the conquerers and the conquered, both in peoples and lands. While I think it's important to show some respect to a place's indigenous people when they can be identified--which for much of the US is what's left of the Native American population (as their name implies, I guess)--possession carries the vast majority of the weight. (The relative weight of "former residents" to "current residents" shifts from one to the other the longer a nation has political and physical possession of the land. While I'm already willing to accept that Israel is largely here to stay, I'm willing to give the Palestinian people--especially the one's who can actually remember having political and physical possession of land that now belongs to Israel in their own lifetimes--a whole lotta weight, as well.)

But for the most part, those who believe in open borders and amnesty for everyone are just wrong, not radical.

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THURSDAY, MAY 04, 2006, 3:56 PM

Recent protesters waving the Mexican flag simply make it easier for Congress to argue that illegals have no plans on assimilating to the U.S. Finally, research shows that illegal aliens, mostly uneducated laborers, cost the U.S. more in welfare, education, housing, and health care than they contribute through taxes, and children of illegals lag behind native-born Americans in educational attainment and income. -- Burkean Reflections: Takin' Another Swing at the Immigration Crisis

I'm not sure illegal immigrants and their children are as uneducated/uneducatable as Donald claims.