Weekly Digest: Subscribe/Unsubscribe 

Home / Letters to Editor / Announcements / Columnists / Past Issues / About Us / Contact Us/VivaBeisbol

HispanicVista Columnists

It’s not about illegal immigration – It’s about “clash of civilizations”

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

  March 19, 2007

 

  

 

It’s not about illegal immigration – It’s about “clash of civilizations”

By Patrick Osio, Jr

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions after President Bush signed the law calling for the construction of 700 miles of border fence stated, “Once the required miles of fencing are in place, we will be on a path toward achieving operational control of our borders, and the American people will see that Congress has finally gotten serious about fixing our broken immigration system.”  In other words, Congress has just found a new way to continue fooling the American people.

To continue the pull the wool over the people’s eyes, he recently traveled to the US-Mexico border to see for himself how border control is working. He then announced that more than ever he was convinced that controlling the border was working and that fencing is the way to go. He prides in repeating, again and again, “good fences, make good neighbors,” to the point he must by now believe he’s the author of the cliché.

What set him off in this latest kick is that at the border he was informed that detentions are way down – to just over 15,000 in that sector.

Well, I hate to bust his bubble – a primary reason why detentions at the border are down is because – they’re already here.

When the borders began to be shut down so they couldn’t come in, those who made it stayed instead of going home as they had year in and year out; and that is why we’ve had a surge on the illegal immigration population over the last 10 years.

But getting back to the building a 700 mile fence will show the American people Congress is NOW serious - that is outright deception because the Senator and the rest of those who voted for the fence allocated $1.2 billion dollars with full knowledge that the amount was far short of the amount needed to do the job. The governments’ administrative office estimates around $7-billion to just build it, and around $3-billion annual amount for maintenance and man-power to cover the area.

We need to start asking, “If they know this, why are they doing this? Why are they so blatantly lying to us? Why?”

At some point we have to come to terms with the real reasons – it’s what a segment of our population calls – “clash of civilizations” a theory championed by Professor Samuel Huntington. This theory warns that “white” America is in danger of losing its identity, its control and control of its destiny as a result of member of other “civilizations” crashing the gates of America.

What I, and others, find disingenuous about the present tactics of skirting around the real issues pressing on the minds of that segment of European-Americans is the failure to debate that issue. Personally, I find Huntington’s thesis wrong, but I respect his coming out and saying what is in the mind of so many of our elected officials.

Since it is politically incorrect in today’s society to directly attack groups based on their ethnic or racial being, the clash-of-civilization theorists are using brown skinned illegal immigrants as the proxies to attack the brown skinned Latinos already here due to their growing numbers along with their social and political development.

Their challenge is “how do we stem the tide?” –

Blinded by this question, they turn to manning the borders in an attempt to seal “the tide.” But because in times past it was politically beneficial to let them in since a great number of their political benefactors needed non-complaining, cheap-wage-no-benefits labor they suddenly woke up to the reality that the tide was in. And in their zest to seal the border, they didn’t allow for the tide to ebb.

The 1986, Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) is now popularly known as the Amnesty law is another disingenuous play on words. The law contains 3 sections – the first one, and most important, for the first time made it a federal crime to hire undocumented workers. When the then INS attempted to enforce this section, Senators and Congressmen were all over them forcing them to stop “raiding” honest businesses.  So the INS all but stopped enforcing this section.

An additional clause was the “guest worker” visas for temporary and seasonal agricultural workers. This called for farms or farming cooperatives that could prove there were not sufficient local workers to apply for visas to contract foreign workers, but had to pay the same wage as they would to local workers. Farmers didn’t obey and Congress protected them from the INS – so the tide came in.

The “amnesty” portion of the 1986-IRCA was not an enforcement issue, it was a granting to those who had been here since 1981 the right to stay on “probation” for five years at which time if they had stayed employed, paid taxes, had no criminal record, not gone on welfare, learned sufficient English to pass a test could then apply for permanent residency.

Somehow that last clause minus the qualifications imposed is the only thing your friendly Senators and Congress representative seem to remember – and now patriotically say “No Amnesty.”  

But, their own greed and lust for power, has given rise to their present dilemma– salsa has replaced ketchup in schools – what next? Tacos instead of burgers? Aaaaaaagh!

___________________________________________________________________________

Patrick Osio, Jr. is the Editor of HispanicVista (www.hispanicvista.com) and columnist with the San Diego Metropolitan Magazine (www.sandiegometro.com).

 

(The opinions expressed by Patrick Osio, Jr. are solely his and do not necessarily reflect those of HispanicVista.com, editorial board of advisors or it’s contributing writers.)

Patrick Osio, Jr. has written a short but intensive manual on the Mexican perspective on numerous issues between our two countries. The manual is an in depth primer on the culture and protocol for better understanding Mexicans that in turn allows establishing personal and business relationships, and how to avoid the most common faux pas that can ruin relationships and business deals.

The manual is available through Electronic delivery for $9.95 making it possible to download the manual for save on your hard drive, printing its entirety or particular sections while reaping considerable savings over printed copies.