Saturday, August 18, 2007

Elvira Arellano

Interesting how immigration's disappeared as a story after those huge rallies.

I'm pro-immigrant. Always have been. When the salesman from the 12th Street Store would stop by my Dad's Dime Store, my Dad would ask him to tell me the story of how his parents told him it was time to leave Russia because they couldn't feed all the kids. So at age 13 he walked accross Poland and Germany for Hamburg to get the boat for America.

But It's hard to get around the illegal in illegal-immigration. It's just hard to argue a case for over-looking the law.

Yet I think most Americans would. We're a generous people with an innate sense of social justice.

It's just the activists take the attitude America owes them,

"Elvira is on a mission to bring the news that this issue is not dead," Lozano said. "We need to mobilize and make sure this issue is not just empty campaign promises."
It's hard to warm up to an illegal on a mission to tell us what to do.

Americans will sit their kids down to hear the story of an immigrant, legal or illegal (my Dad never asked), who as a kid walked across Europe for the promise of America. But it's awfully hard to hear a lecture from an illegal immigrant about empty promises.

10 comments:

Anonymous,  9:40 AM  

It's not unrealistic for Americans to fear illegal immigration from the Middle East where apparently large numbers of individuals support Islamic extremism and jihad. This is not an rationale for the Iraq war. We need to get out of there. But in doing so, we should not pretend that Islamic extremism does not exist nor should we elieve that holding out a friendly hand via giving the Islamic world billions of dollars in sort of bribes or having a lot of intercultural touchy feely initiatives. A lot of those folks really wish us ill. They want to kill us. And we don't want them here.

However, it is also true that the vast majority of illegal immigrants are Mexicans and and, increasingly, Central Americans. If we are going to let them come in here illegally and then become legal, we need some concessions from the Mexican government, such as increased US
access to Mexican markets and real estate, a kind of favored nation status. More collaborative ventures such as projected under the projected Mexico-Canda-US strategic partnership. Right now, Mexico sends us little but drugs and illegals. And the US cannot endlessly absorb their illiterate pesants--illiterate because public services in Mexico are grossly inadequate. All the money goes to the oligarchy. By supporting illegal immigration, we are supporting that oligarchy as well.

Anonymous,  11:05 AM  

I could probably feel a bit more tolerant toward immigrants who come to and stay in the U.S. illegally were it not for those and their activist counterparts who make it seem like they are entitled to be here. I have a knee-jerk negative reaction to such expressions of entitlement. My wife, who is from Russia, did it the right way --- came to the U.S. legally. This encompassed traipsing all over Russia to procure police clearances in the various cities that she had lived, standing in long lines to procure needed documents, filling the documents out with the help of and at the considerable cost of Russian to English translators, interviewing at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, etc. Additionally, it was a costly process and continues to be costly as she attempts to procure her permanent green card.

If you look at the Sun Times poll giving responders a choice as to how Arellano should be dealt with, the overwhelming majority want her dealt with harshly and according to the law. Others, in increasing numbers and with increasing intensity I suspect, feel as I do --- that individuals such as Arellano have nothing coming and should be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.

Anonymous,  12:21 PM  

Let me see if I have this correct. There is a signed deportation order for this illegal alien. ICE knows where she is, knows her travel plans.

Boy, do ICE, DHS and the whole USG look like inept idiots. Why should anany illegal alien do anything other than moon the ICE?

Anonymous,  1:06 PM  

The question you have to ask is this:

Why is it ILLEGAL?

Why do the Russians get to come here so easily? Or the other Europeans?

But those from Mexico, the Carribean, and Central America can't get a visa to come to the United States if their life depended on it.

If we weren't racist in the first place about who we let in "legally", this wouldn't be an issue.

Anonymous,  1:54 PM  

To Anonymous (1:06 pm):

After my description of the travails my wife had to go through to come to the U.S., you refer to it as "easy"? I don't know hard it is for aliens from Mexico, etc., to come here legally, but, if it is difficult, could it have anything to do with the fact that a large number of people illegally here from Mexico, etc. flaunt our laws?

The laws were not written and codified to be pissed on by people who, through their actions, have no respect for the laws or the legislators who passed them or the people who the legislators represent. You can try to turn the argument around but the fact is this --- people illegally here have broken the laws, regardless of the rationales for the laws, and, as such, should be sent packing when discovered.

Anonymous,  2:53 PM  

What is hard to understand about "ILLEGAL". Is a Bank robber partialy Illegal, or a Rapest or murder, lets see where do we draw the line on "What Illegal means" seems we had a president that did not know what sex was.

Anonymous,  3:52 PM  

Yeah, I'd support an immigration system that lets anyone with passing English skills who's not a terrorist come into the country, but what Elvira's doing isn't making an argument about anything, but rather mocking the government.

Anonymous,  6:49 PM  

My point is this:

Why do people come here illegally from Mexico or other Central American countries?

Because we don't let them come here legally. We create caps on the number of immigrants from particular countries that can come in.

Thus, the only reason it is illegal is because our lawmakers in Washington decided that they didn't want as many brown people coming in.

Why don't we just raise the caps on the number of brown people we let come here legally? Then they will actually be able to go through the process legally.

I guarantee you - if we limited the number of, say, Irish people coming into this country to many times fewer than want to come here, we would all be talking about the illegal Irish problem.

Oh wait - that DID happen already in this country.

Anonymous,  8:09 PM  

"Thus, the only reason it is illegal is because our lawmakers in Washington decided that they didn't want as many brown people coming in".

Yeah, right --- they didn't want as many brown people coming in. The only reason that you state --- that it is illegal --- is the most compelling reason to a true American for not allowing them in and not allowing the to stay. For some reason, people cannot get it through their heads that it's the law. And, although you and others may not respect it, you should obey it and not flaunt or disregard it.

Further, it's attitudes such as yours that are, in part, causing and will continue to cause an overwhelming backlash against illegal immigration. You're only seeing the tip of the iceberg right now with towns enacting ordinances and laws against, for example, providing governmental services to people here illegally.
Despite all of the rallies, all of the hype, and Arellano's ostensible message, things are just going to get tighter and tighter for people here illegally. Don't you see it coming?

Anonymous,  6:28 PM  

I just love the "Brown" description for Mexicans and central americans, soon we will call I don't know....Pink to the Eastern European.....Green to...I guess people from Northerm Europe, people from North of South America would be called Beige? the truth is that she has crossed the border illegally (Nobody forced her to), I come from the same background and have been here for 10 year doing the right things to become first a resident and later a citizen, without crossing illegally nor stealing anybody's identity. To much attention given to someone who doesn't deserve it....by te way isn't illegal to abandon a child by leaving him behind? How many years and no English spoken here???

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