Immigration

By Dave Lindorff

Reading the latest AP report
on how American citizens are being snatched up, detained and deported
(sic) by the Immigration and Naturalization Service has reminded me
just what a screwed up place this country has become.

Ever since September 11, 2001, the country has simply lost it.

` Remember back then, no sooner had the dust settled over Lower
Manhattan, than the INS and other police agencies began rounding up
thousands of people with Muslam sounding names, or even with non-Muslim
sounding names but Muslim-looking faces, and locking them away in
federal and county detention centers, with no access to lawyers. People
who were here on grants of asylum because of political persecution in
their home countries were being shipped home to likely torture and
death, without any hearings.

Then please read the indictment of Dick Cheney posted here:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/37794

He is charged with influencing ICE to contract with for-profit prison corporations in which he himself has millions invested, and with assaults on inmates and detainees. Alberto Gonzales is charged with blocking investigations of those assaults.

Arraignment is Friday.

By David Swanson

Congressman Virgil Goode recently responded to a statement I'd blogged about him. Here's what I wrote and his response:

"The Unitary Executive is scheduled to disgrace the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va., making a speech on the morning of July 4, 2008. The event is open to the public, and is Monticello's annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. Numerous immigrants will become citizens in an event besmirched by the presence of a war criminal, and held in the district of Congressman Virgil Goode, whose entire reelection campaign platform consists of hatred for immigrants."

Goode replied:

This is very nice to see.

And of course Joe Klein is being corrected from all sides for the most recent of his many many lies.

And an NIE now stands in the way of Cheney's Iran lies.

Anybody else want to say something true, maybe this is the moment.

The problem of illegal immigration is a difficult one and so are the solutions, which is why I don't write about it often. 

Just like my own great-grandparents, today's immigrants are coming here to find a job that pays enough to raise a family on, because they can't find such jobs in the countries they are leaving.

But of course they drive down wages for workers who were born here or went through the nightmare of legal immigration.

George Bush and the Republicans have done nothing to control illegal immigration for the past seven years. But that didn't stop them from running vicious anti-immigrant ads to beat Democrats in this week's elections.

Election results show those immigration ads did not kill Democrats, and some bloggers think Democrats can safely ignore the issue, or deflect it by focusing on trade.

Now, this is encouraging: Texas activists, politicians and local law enforcement are uniting to oppose Bush's plans for a border fence in their backyard. Here's the story.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune that he has a "gut feeling" that the US has entered into a new period of increased risk of terrorism.

Let me get this straight - Chertoff has a "gut feeling" that the US is on the verge of another terrorism attack.

I'm getting a gut feeling that this is a impending Wag the Dog operation as Bush continues to feel the increasing public scorn for his commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence, the mounting public opinion against the war, the plummeting Bush-Cheney public approval ratings, the defection of Republican senators from the "all war, all the time" Bush war agenda, the backlash from claiming executive privilege for the RNC emails originating in the White House, the White House refusal to allow aides to testify before congress, the burgeoning congressional investigations...those are just a few of the high points from which it's important to distract the public's attention.

But there's more, and even more reason to be concerned about the Bush administration's handling of national security. ABCNews is reporting that an alQaeda cell is either in or en route to the US.

A while ago I suggested that the pro-impeachment coalition join with the anti-illegal immigration forces because of Bush's treason in not securing our country's borders and not enforcing our existing immigration laws. Non-enforcement of existing laws has made this a complex issue, but the complexities can be simplified by enforcing the existing laws.

If we sincerely believe that impeachment is a patriotic imperative, then we also must take a honest look at why we would not join with conservatives to insist that our national sovereignty be protected by enforcing existing immigration laws before any new laws are contemplated, much less enacted. For the government to simply say: "Whoops, we let this get out of control, so now we want to fix by repeating the mistakes of twenty years ago" is unacceptable - and will result in even bigger future problems.

Of course, from the standpoint of political ideology, it's understandable that suggestion would receive a lukewarm reception. So, here are a few actual postings that lead me to conclude that the pro-impeachment coalition should team up with the anti-illegal immigrant forces. Can you imagine yourself agreeing with any of the sentiments?