Immigration - what's the real issue?
The other night I was answering an e-mail from my friend and fellow observer of our society, Dean Esmay, when I started to hear some sirens. Where I live, when you hear even one siren you run outside to see what’s going on.
One siren followed another, until it came clear that something serious was happening on the border, about a mile from my house. It wasn’t just Border Patrol down there; it was the county sheriff’s department and ambulances. As I remarked to Dean, there weren’t any shots fired, or I would’ve heard that.
There really wasn’t any way to find out what was going on, short of going down the road and waking up my neighbor, who has a police scanner, or getting in the car and going right to the scene. I didn’t want to put myself in the way of the authorities doing their jobs or in a potentially dangerous situation, so I finished writing the e-mail and went to bed.
As it turned out, the next evening when I saw the local news, I found what happened. A pickup truck carrying 17 illegals got stuck while the driver attempted to jump the canal that goes parallel to the river. Night-vision cameras placed at the border caught the action.
This was one of those dumb-and-dumber situations, but it could’ve been something worse. We’ve had a number of incidents and skirmishes along the border lately. A couple of times they’ve involved (or alleged to have involved) Mexican federales. In one case, it was determined that a Mexican government helicopter invaded US airspace.
To those who are at a comfortable distance – hundreds or even thousands of miles from this border, these kinds of things may seem insignificant or even comical. Living in Arizona, right in the thick if it, it’s neither of those things, and has become downright unsettling.
I haven’t written anything much about the immigration issue, because the way it’s drawn as far as the proposed law goes is so complex. At the same time so many conflicting opinions don’t really seem to address even part of the real issue. I’ve hardly known what to say. Seeing the reports of the high school kids marching in protest gave me a lot more things to wonder about, because it didn’t seem that even our local news guys had a handle on the issue. It was like they were, either unwittingly or deliberately leaving some things out.
Earlier tonight I saw this commentary by Danah Boyd, which more than anything else, demonstrates how far removed most people are from the actual issue. So far removed, in my opinion, that they’re not talking about the real issue anymore. Whether kids should be allowed to skip school and go out demonstrating is neither here nor there.
Did anybody but me pay attention (or get to hear) to what individual kids were saying? The several quotes I heard from kids at local demonstrations were disturbing and worrisome. The only message I got was some sort of vague notion that anybody should be allowed to come into the United States and ignore any laws they chose. That, and an equally vague notion that Mexican nationals were somehow being “oppressed” by being expected to behave in any kind of proscribed manner. In short, because they are Mexicans, they don’t want American laws to apply to them.
I haven’t seen one quote from a demonstrator that clearly articulated even a grasp of what that law is about. Even more disturbing was the fact that at least two local demonstrators were known to be on probation. These kids weren’t from the Student Council and the Science Club, to be sure.
People can go on and on about freedom of speech and the courage to speak out, etcetera, but these demonstrations are not about the effect a new immigration law would have on the country. If anyone involved had been serious about expressing an honest desire to protest the law, they would not have used Mexican flags to express their disagreement. They would also have taken the time to learn the details.
No new law is going to affect those who choose to ignore it, in any case. Illegal aliens ignore the law by the thousands every day; why would that change?
No, what’s happening is something else entirely. I saw the word at Michelle Malkin’s blog the other day. That word is reconquista. She also mentions “radical ethnic separatism,” which has been going on for years here in Arizona.
Here’s the way it is:
There’s a clear rift between Mexican nationals living here, and naturalized Americans of Mexican heritage. There have been gang wars in the larger cities in border states based on nothing more than that.
In some fields, such as social services and those dealing with a broad segment of the public, it is impossible for anyone who is not bilingual to get a job. In other fields such as retail and agriculture, English is optional. Almost everyone I know has a story of going into a store and not being able to communicate with Spanish-speaking staff. In one small town on the border, I hear the mayor herself speaks no English.
In some places, if you didn’t know better, you’d swear you were already in Mexico, since all the signs on stores are in Spanish, and everyone speaks Spanish.
I can see just from living here, there is a growing number of people who have an actual hatred for Americans and things American. They don’t want to become citizens, and certainly will never try to assimilate into American culture. These are the people I worry about.
I wonder what’s going to happen this summer, as those kids who are having so much fun demonstrating now, are finding themselves with time on their hands. It doesn’t take much for a peaceful demonstration to turn into an angry mob. I remember the ‘60s.
I also remember the Detroit riots, the Watts riots, and how little it took to set them off. I am very much concerned that we may be in for another “long hot summer” as they used to say.
Yuma has been relatively peaceful, but there are other areas along the border that have been dangerous places to be. Even Tucson is seeing an upturn in the number of home burglaries, as it’s a straight shot from Nogales along I-19.
The issue isn’t about immigration at all. It’s about a culture war turning vicious.
Update: more from michelle malkin here
Update II: Rand Simberg points out news of a Mexican flag burning near Tucson. Even more at GatewayPundit, euphoricreality, and Shot in the dark. Don't miss their comments sections!