Illegal: Growing Up Unwanted in America

Education for All?

How is this even a question that needs debating: should the children of illegal immigrants be allowed access to college education?  Martin Lancaster, state community college system president of North Carolina, was forced to issue a statement defending his state's policy of allowing children of illegal immigrants to enroll in community colleges.

People, are we thinking this through?  So besides poor (the overwhelming odds are that children of illegal immigrants are living below the poverty level), we want to keep them uneducated?  I believe people who repeat the mantra "they are illegal, they should go home," when confronted with this issue have no concept of the realities of life.  Many of these children have either been born here or have lived for years and are assimilated into the culture, as evidenced by the fact that they are seeking out a higher education.  So after an entire childhood and adolescence here we should say, "Sorry, time to go home."

This gem is worth reading just for the comments posted after the article.

The Untold Story - Children of Illegal Immigrants

Federal raids rounding up illegal immigrants are up in workplaces across the country, from 500 in 2002 to 3,600 in 2006.  But what effect does the wholesale deportation of people whose only crime it is to want to work at a better wage than they could get in their impoverished home nations (or at any wage at all) have on their children, sometimes also illegal (but certainly not through their own choice) but often U.S. born?

Adolescents left to fend for themselves after their parents are plucked up and sent away without warning - is this the nation we really want to be?  Click here to learn more.

Here's a Person We Want to Get Out of the Country

Mexican migrant Jesus Manual Cordova found a boy whose mother lay dying after a camping accident in Arizona, protected him and built a bonfire to keep him warm overnight.

His reward?  Arrest for illegal entry. 

Clergy Speaks Out on Illegal Immigration

For a bunch who touts their piousness at the drop of a boom mike, the religious right has been remarkable quiet on the Christ-like issues of compassion and charity when discussing immigration.  Would Jesus have started laying down electrified fence?  Did He need to get a visa before traveling around the land?  Hmmm, we'll talk about that later.

But here, finally, some brave clergy who dare speak out and remind us that, ahem, the Bible says we should love our neighbor as ourselves and that maybe, just maybe, calling them typhus-carrying baby killers isn't the most neighborly thing we can do to move this discussion forward.  Kudos to the clergy who dared to speak out.

The Rhetoric of Hate

Reasonable, good, honest people can disagree about our current policy on immigration, as well as on what to do about it.  Too often, though, a "tough stance on immigration" is merely a flimsy mask for one of the last remaining prejudices: that against illegal immigrants (read: light brown, low-skilled, Spanish-speaking immigrants).

A perfect example of this is the rant of author Daniel Sheehy.  The first quote from him in an article from The Standard Speaker reads simply, "America is being erased."  The article is peppered with quotes about the non-whiteness of Los Angeles and, my personal favorite, "You think what types of people are crossing over, too. There are murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, and lots of other predators."

So there you have it, a bit more crassly put (but not much) than by the more polished national news pundits.  The big fear is that America as we know it is being erased.  Read between the lines: the lily-white, status-quo, apple pie America is being erased.  Because America as a nation will not be erased any time soon.  It is simply the Donna Reed/Father Knows Best America that is being erased.

And the truth is America is being erased all the time.  When slaves were freed, the America that then existed was erased a bit.  When women got the vote, that erased a part of America.  When the Civil Rights Act passed, there went another part of America, erased.  When the internet came and altered how we get our information, a bit of America was erased.  Change happens all the time.

The question is: why is a changing America a bad thing?  Isn't that what this great experiment all about?  Rather than live in a homogenous society, our forefathers and mothers had the great vision to believe that the best of everyone could come here and build a great land.  Could letting in hard-working, family-loving people be such a bad move?

When you read rants like this, make no mistake about it: you are hearing the plantation owner talking about the laziness of slaves, the segregationist talking about why blacks are too uneducated to run their own businesses, or early 20th century men talk about why women are too hysterical to get the vote.  It's the same kind of bigotry, with the fancy new 21st century hook of security and terrorism to enthrall the masses.

Illegal Immigrants Speak

In the debates about immigration, politicians, pundits and the people on the street all have plenty to say about what's right, what's wrong, and what should be done.

One large group goes unrepresented: immigrants themselves. 

Many claims are made about these people: that they take our jobs, that they are unlike previous generations of immigrants in that they don't want to become Americanized or learn English, that they are criminals against whom tall and impenetrable walls should be built. 

But what do they say?

In these pages, you'll read narratives of immigrants' stories and commentaries on the news of the day.  And you'll learn about the one missing element in this heated debate: the human element.

Add This To The Ironic Titles File

Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney and right wing darling, is hawking a new book.

The title?  Blue Skies, No Fences.  Hmmm... that is unless you live along the Mexican border.