Slog
News & ArtsThursday, February 2, 2012
Politics The Horrors of "Self-Deportation"
Posted by Anthony Hecht on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 11:44 AM
I'm still fuming at our lead developer Jay for suggesting I listen to the most recent episode of This American Life. Titled "Reap What You Sow" the show is mostly devoted to a devastating piece by reporter Jack Hitt on the impact of Alabama's immigration bill, HB56.
It's horrible. Don't listen to it. It nearly had me in tears.
Okay, listen to it. It's important. Hear how hispanic schoolchildren are being heckled into moving to the back of the room during assemblies. Hear how immigrants are literally afraid to go to the grocery store.
The worst part is that this legislation isn't coming about because Alabama has a problem with undocumented immigrants. Alabama actually has a very small population of undocumented immigrants compared to states like Arizona. These ideas are coming from outside the state, from national GOP operatives who draft the legislation while hunting turkeys in Kansas, working out the kinks so these laws will get past the courts, and then advising the Republicans running for president how to push this issue.
The man responsible for the Alabama law is Kris Kobach, currently the Secretary of State of Kansas. Hitt reports that Kris' revelation about the immigration issue came... wait for it... right after 9/11, when he heard that "5 of the 19 hijackers were in the country illegally, and 4 of those 5 had traffic violations while they were illegally in the country."
His shockingly bad logic is that if the police officers who stopped these men had been able to act as immigration agents, PRESTO!, no 9/11. Because, as we all know, the hijackers did no research and had no idea what our law enforcement practices were, and had they been thwarted by the impenetrable shield created by empowering everyone to legally harass immigrants, they would have given up on their plans, decided to love America, and nobody would ever ever die again.
Q.E.D.
Anyway, listen, and be outraged.
2
I remember one time when this guy self-deported himself to Mexico.
He was Mitt's dad.
Yup, Mitt's an anchor baby.
By the way, how do they manage that "never die again" trick?
He was Mitt's dad.
Yup, Mitt's an anchor baby.
By the way, how do they manage that "never die again" trick?
3
PS - the kooks that promote this don't just believe that Al Qaeda and illegal immigrants from Mexico are similar, or related in some way; they think they're the same thing. A standard talking point on the right now is that Mexico is full of jihadists swarming to cross our border. This is, of course, ludicrous. I saw one idiotic story about a guy who was seriously saying that drug cartel members wear tattoos of AK47s not because they're gun-happy dead-enders but because they're Hezbollah. Google "hezbollah in mexico" if you don't believe me. Romney, Santorum, and Rick Perry have all mentioned this Hezbollah garbage on the campaign trail.
http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/12/07/repu…
http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/12/07/repu…
5
I certainly don't approve of Alabama's immigration law. However, I do think that a 9/11 style terrorist attack would be less likely to succede today than in 2001 and that stricter immigration controls are one of the reasons why that is so.
7
@2, great-grandfather, dipshit. Another half-remembered garbled "news" item from the Will in Seattle machine.
9
@ 3, that's true. My Mexican-American best friend lived there in the early 90s and was once called "Iranian." Truly stupid, hateful people, some of them.
10
@5, do you think the "next 9/11" is going to be perpetrated by Mexicans?
Does the fact that only Mexicans and Mexican-Americans are likely to suffer from the racial-profiling laws in AZ and AL, even though most "illegal immigrants" are actually not Mexicans but people who have overstayed their visas, like the 9/11 hijackers, change your mind at all? Or do you think the inability of cracker yahoos in those states to tell the difference between different racial and ethnic groups will cover it, ensuring that all brown people will be harrassed equally? But what then about those white illegal immigrants, visa-overstayers from countries like Ireland, Poland, Russia and the UK? To say nothing of our homegrown killers, of course, whose papers are perfectly in order.
Does the fact that FOURTEEN of the 9/11 hijackers were NOT here illegally give you any pause?
There is no relationship at all between immigration and terrorism.
Does the fact that only Mexicans and Mexican-Americans are likely to suffer from the racial-profiling laws in AZ and AL, even though most "illegal immigrants" are actually not Mexicans but people who have overstayed their visas, like the 9/11 hijackers, change your mind at all? Or do you think the inability of cracker yahoos in those states to tell the difference between different racial and ethnic groups will cover it, ensuring that all brown people will be harrassed equally? But what then about those white illegal immigrants, visa-overstayers from countries like Ireland, Poland, Russia and the UK? To say nothing of our homegrown killers, of course, whose papers are perfectly in order.
Does the fact that FOURTEEN of the 9/11 hijackers were NOT here illegally give you any pause?
There is no relationship at all between immigration and terrorism.
11
So, in order to vanquish the terrorists, we have to let them win by achieving their ultimate goal of turning us into a fear-driven country. Fantastic.
12
for those who say that fascism could never happen in this country, this is fascism, brought to you by the republican party. first they came for the muslims, then they came for the latinos.... it doesn't have to lead to extermination to be fascist.
13
@7 but we should trust the Net ...
You start your anchor baby memes, I'll keep using the ones my rels get in Nevada by email.
You start your anchor baby memes, I'll keep using the ones my rels get in Nevada by email.
14
Even the police think its ridiculous. The one interviewed even pointed out that they have *actual crime* and harassing these people is wasting police time and resources...
This has nothing to do with illegal immigration and everything to do with racism, and the assumption that all Latinos are illegal immigrants and all illegal immigrants are Latino.
I'd be willing to bet that an illegal immigrant who is white, & english speaking, probably wouldn't be a victim of this.
This has nothing to do with illegal immigration and everything to do with racism, and the assumption that all Latinos are illegal immigrants and all illegal immigrants are Latino.
I'd be willing to bet that an illegal immigrant who is white, & english speaking, probably wouldn't be a victim of this.
15
@10 I believe you are mistaken about a few things. Lets start with 'most "illegal immigrants" are actually not Mexicans.' According to the Pew Hispanic Center as of early 2010 Mexican nationals made up 58% of the illegal immigrant population. So unless a lot has changed in the last two years the majority of illegal aliens are in fact 'Mexicans'. You can read more about that here:
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/02/01/un…
I agree that Mexican Nationals are unlikely to perpetrate a 9/11 style terrorist attack. However, for various cultural and historical reasons citizens of Mexico are more likely to be involved in certain types of violent crime. The south western United States has been largely untouched by the narco violence tearing apart northern Mexico. I submit to you that tighter border security has something to do with that.
Your right that nowadays most illegal immigrants enter the US legally and then don't depart when they are supposed to. That is why I used the term 'immigration controls' rather than 'border security' in my earlier post.
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/02/01/un…
I agree that Mexican Nationals are unlikely to perpetrate a 9/11 style terrorist attack. However, for various cultural and historical reasons citizens of Mexico are more likely to be involved in certain types of violent crime. The south western United States has been largely untouched by the narco violence tearing apart northern Mexico. I submit to you that tighter border security has something to do with that.
Your right that nowadays most illegal immigrants enter the US legally and then don't depart when they are supposed to. That is why I used the term 'immigration controls' rather than 'border security' in my earlier post.
16
@ 15 - "for various cultural and historical reasons citizens of Mexico are more likely to be involved in certain types of violent crime"
Such as?
If you're talking about drug crime, that has more to do with the economic factors - like the profitability of the drug trade (because of prohibition) and the limited employment opportunities within Mexico.
Such as?
If you're talking about drug crime, that has more to do with the economic factors - like the profitability of the drug trade (because of prohibition) and the limited employment opportunities within Mexico.
17
@16 Narco trafficking is the biggest source of revenue for the various criminal syndicates operating in northern Mexico, but not the only one. They are also involved in kidnapping for ransom, auto theft rings, human trafficking, and smuggling other things such as untaxed cigarettes, rare birds, and cheese. (Yes, that's right, cheese, the stuff that gets melted on top of nachos, smuggling that is big business in south Texas) A large black market inevitably leads to violence for reasons that have been discussed at great length on earlier Slog comment threads.
18
@15, indeed, a lot HAS changed since 2010. The current flow of Mexican nationals into the US may be negative right now. Also, Pew is probably drastically undercounting visa-overstayers, since a lot of people don't think they're really illegal immigrants, and it's kind of hard to tell whether they're just working under the table somewhere for a few months to support their backpacker habit or here to stay.
Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants in fact commit crimes at a much, much lower rate than their demographic cohorts in the ranks of citizens. That is a plain fact:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/a…
Note that that is a CONSERVATIVE site saying so.
You can get all agitated if you want about drug cartels but this is the truth: many of the safest places in the US are along the border. The safest cities in the US are border towns. You should stop listening to Lou Dobbs and Jan Brewer gabbling about heads rolling in the desert and actually pay attention to the culture that is the only thing keeping America alive these days: our immigrant neighbors.
If you're looking for endangered animal smuggling, your best bet is to look East, not South, but you never hear these racist kooks talking about checking the papers of Asians. Only "Mexicans".
Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants in fact commit crimes at a much, much lower rate than their demographic cohorts in the ranks of citizens. That is a plain fact:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/a…
Note that that is a CONSERVATIVE site saying so.
You can get all agitated if you want about drug cartels but this is the truth: many of the safest places in the US are along the border. The safest cities in the US are border towns. You should stop listening to Lou Dobbs and Jan Brewer gabbling about heads rolling in the desert and actually pay attention to the culture that is the only thing keeping America alive these days: our immigrant neighbors.
If you're looking for endangered animal smuggling, your best bet is to look East, not South, but you never hear these racist kooks talking about checking the papers of Asians. Only "Mexicans".
19
@18 "Pew is probably drastically undercounting visa-overstayers," Where are you getting that from? Anything illegal is going to be tricky to measure for obvious reasons, but why would illegal alien day laborers from Latin America be any harder to count than illegal alien baristas from Europe? Michelle Bachmann probably doesn't know that white people can be illegal aliens, but I doubt an institution like the Pew Charitable Trusts is interested in her opinion.
"Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants in fact commit crimes at a much, much lower rate than their demographic cohorts in the ranks of citizens." Um, like duh. If they didn't behave themselves they would all have been rounded up and deported years ago.
"Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants in fact commit crimes at a much, much lower rate than their demographic cohorts in the ranks of citizens." Um, like duh. If they didn't behave themselves they would all have been rounded up and deported years ago.
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