Guest Column
Just in time for April Fool’s Day…
From National Immigration Forum
- The anti-immigration movement’s hardest-core are exerting themselves to derail any chance of comprehensive immigration reform or real border security this year. As immigration is debated in the U.S. Senate, House Judiciary Chair F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) is becoming a household name in immigrant and Latino communities, thanks to the bill he championed criminalizing immigrants and those who come in contact with them, which passed the House in December.
- Meanwhile, the Frist is hitting the fan…
- On Thursday’s Daily Show, Comedy Central Network’s John Stewart made fun of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-TN) recent claim on FOX News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” program that deporting 11-12 million undocumented immigrants is “workable.” Mr. Stewart went on to poke fun at CNN anchor-turned-anti-immigrant-activist Lou Dobbs, who feels that Italian-American celebrations of Columbus Day and Irish-American celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day are an affront to America and our values (see transcript below).
- In other news: Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) led a presser in the House Radio/TV Gallery Thursday, where, among other things, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) called for prison inmates to serve as our agricultural workforce and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) declared a class war against elitists who “have some kind of right to cheap servants to manicure their nails and their lawns.” (see David Espo’s AP recap below).
- www.americablog.com noted that Sen. Bill Frist apparently missed an immigration-related event on the Hill, but Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), a co-sponsor of the House version of the McCain-Kennedy bill, was all too happy to pinch hit (see americablog post, below).
- Finally, Tucson, Arizona Daily Star columnist Ernesto Portillo, Jr., used his Friday column to discuss the annual arrival of The Minuteman Project to the Arizona border each April Fool’s Day, quoting extensively from Prof. Wayne Cornelius of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California-San Diego (see Portillo’s column below).
- Enjoy your weekend.
- Douglas G. Rivlin
- Director of Communication
- National Immigration Forum
- 50 F Street, NW, #300
- Washington, DC 20001 USA
- http://www.immigrationforum.org/
- rivlin@immigrationforum.org
- COMEDY CENTRAL: The Daily Show with John Stewart
- March 30, 2006 [Transcription by National Immigration Forum.]
- [Excerpt…]
- STEWART: One of the most outspoken advocates for stronger immigration reform isn’t a politician at all, but CNN’s Lou Dobbs, whose guest Monday night was Hispanic rights advocate Janet Murguia [President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)], who defended protesters that were waiving Mexican flags.
- [BEGIN VIDEO FROM CNN]
- MURGUIA: Well there's a sense of pride with anybody. We just had St. Patrick's Day. Are you saying that Irish, because they're holding up their Irish flags, that all of a sudden they're not loyal or they're un-American?
- […EDIT…]
- DOBBS: OK, are you ready to listen to me loud and clear?
- MURGUIA: I'm here.
- DOBBS: I don't think that we should have any flag flying in this country except the flag of the United States…But let's be clear. I don't think there should be a St. Patrick's Day. I don't care who you are.
- [END VIDEO CLIP]
- DAILY SHOW AUDIENCE: Boos.
- STEWART: Huuuuuuh????
- [Mugs for camera, scratches eyes in disbelief.]
- Are you f%$#%@& nuts?? Did I hear you right? We’ve gone from immigration reform to canceling St. Patrick’s Day?
- You know what dude, I gotta call Dobbs. I gotta call him. Gotta call the Dobbs, hold on…
- […]
- STEWART: Hello?
- DOBBS: Hello.
- STEWART: Hey Lou, it’s me Johnny. Listen…
- DOBBS: How are you?
- STEWART: I’m doing great, my friend. Listen, we were just talking and we were just watching TV. We were just watching your show…
- […]
- STEWART: And you mentioned that maybe we shouldn’t have a St. Patrick’s Day parade…
- DOBBS: Well, I said in response to a guest, that I’m not a big fan of celebrating our differences. I’m more of a fan of celebrating our similarities. It wouldn’t bother me a bit if Columbus Day, St. Patrick’s Day, those sorts of ethnocentric holidays went away and we celebrated our commonalities and similarities as Americans.
- STEWART: Lou, I gotta interrupt you. Do you understand that New York is a parade-based economy?
- AUDIENCE: Laughter.
- STEWART: Do you know what that would do to the economy of New York?
- DOBBS: Well, we could get federal aid…
- STEWART: Now, what about flying other flags? Because, I eat at the International House of Pancakes. You’d put them right outta business with this flag thing.
- DOBBS: John, I think that once again, you have revealed something about the American economy and our society and we’re gonna follow that up…
- STEWART: Lou, I very much appreciate you taking the time, and I’m going down to Little Italy tonight…I’m sorry…Little America featuring some Italian flavor…and I’m gonna celebrate your kind words…
- Lou Dobbs is in Cancún, and by the way, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Lou Dobbs in Cancún in a wet T-shirt contest…
- ASSOCIATED PRESS: 'Let the prisoners pick the fruits'
- House members condemn immigration bill
- Thursday, March 30, 2006; Posted: 11:55 p.m. EST (04:55 GMT)
- WASHINGTON (AP) -- House conservatives criticized President Bush, accused the Senate of fouling the air, said prisoners rather than illegal farm workers should pick America's crops and denounced the use of Mexican flags by protesters Thursday in a vehement attack on legislation to liberalize U.S. immigration laws.
- "I say let the prisoners pick the fruits," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, one of more than a dozen Republicans who took turns condemning a Senate bill that offers an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants an opportunity for citizenship.
- "Anybody that votes for an amnesty bill deserves to be branded with a scarlet letter 'A,'" said Rep. Steve King of Iowa, referring to a guest worker provision in the Senate measure.
- Their news conference took place across the Capitol from the Senate, where supporters and critics of the legislation seemed determined to heed admonitions from both Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to conduct a dignified, civilized debate.
- The House has passed legislation to tighten border security, while the Senate approach also includes provisions to regulate the flow of temporary workers into the country and control the legal fate of millions of illegal immigrants already here. Bush has broadly endorsed the Senate approach, saying he wants a comprehensive bill.
- It was the second day in a row that congressional Republicans aired their differences on an issue that directly affects the fastest-growing segment of the electorate. Under Bush's leadership, the Republicans have made dramatic inroads among Hispanic voters, and party strategists fret that the immigration debate could jeopardize their gains.
- On Wednesday, leading GOP senators disagreed whether the legislation amounted to amnesty.
- There was no such debate at the news conference in the House, where not a word was spoken in defense of the Senate bill and even Bush was not spared criticism.
- "I don't think he's concerned about alienating voters, he's not running for re-election," said Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado. He said Republicans could lose the House and Senate over the immigration issue, and he said of the president: "I wish he'd think about the party and of course I also wish he'd think about the country."
- Referring to a wave of demonstrations in recent weeks, Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia said, "I say if you are here illegally and want to fly the Mexican flag, go to Mexico and wave the American flag."
- King analyzed the issue in class terms.
- "The elite class in America is becoming a ruling class and they've made enough money by hiring cheap illegal labor that they think they also have some kind of a right to cheap servants to manicure their nails and their lawn, for example.
- "So this ruling class, this new ruling class of America, is expanding a servant class in America at the expense of the middle class of America, the blue collar of America that used to be able to punch a time clock, buy a modest house and raise their families. ... Those young people are cut out of this process."
- Rep. J.D. Hayworth of Arizona and others said Republicans would pay a price in the midterm elections if they vote for anything like the Senate legislation. "Many of those who have stood for the Republican Party for the last decade are not only angry. They will be absent in November," he said.
- Rohrabacher said Americans should be able to "smell the foul odor that's coming out of the U.S. Senate."
- Asked a few moments later whether the same odor was emanating from the president, he said, "I have no comment."
- Rohrabacher, King and others stood at a podium decorated with a bumper sticker reading "Say No to Amnesty," as the Senate slogged through a second suspenseless day of debate.
- The only vote of the day came on a proposal by Frist for a study of the number and causes of deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border. It passed 94-0.
- The more difficult choices lie ahead next week, when critics of the bill are expected to try to strip out the guest worker provision and roll back the provisions relating to 11 million illegal immigrants already here.
- Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has said repeatedly he hopes to find a compromise that is more broadly acceptable than the legislation that cleared his committee over the objections of six Republicans.
- "There's a movement afoot to find consensus," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who voted for the bill that cleared committee.
- He said the president's statements "have been hugely helpful."
- WWW.AMERICABLOG.COM: Frist Busted at Immigration Event by Congressman Joe Crowley
- by Joe in DC - 3/30/2006 02:07:00 PM [Excerpt]
- From http://www.americablog.com/. . .
- It's not easy being Bill Frist these days. He wants to be President but that pesky role he has as Senate Majority Leader is making it hard for him:
- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says his high-profile job is a "terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible" post for seeking the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
- Oh, poor Bill Frist. Do any GOP elected officials actually like their jobs? Of course, it's an even worse when they do a terrible job.
- Yesterday, Frist tried to pull off an event for an immigration group and the press to make himself appear more balanced on the immigration issue. In fact, he's been one of the anti-immigrant leaders in Congress. But we heard a great story about how a funny thing happened on the way to Frist's event: Congressman Joe Crowley showed up and took it over.
- Even though Frist's office arranged the event in the Capitol yesterday, Frist didn't show. He sent a staffer to brief the group and the press that showed up (including Telemundo, Univision, and Telivisa, and the newspaper Hoy.)
- Crowley was actually the only lawmaker who showed up. His view on immigration is the polar opposite of where Bill Frist stands. Crowley spoke in favor of legislation that includes a guest worker program and a clear path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented living in America. He blasted the GOP enforcement-only legislation passed in the House, and then talked about how Frist's proposed bill is similar to that House legislation.
- Heard that the crowd loved it.
They even started chanting which you can imagine left the Frist staffers
shifting uncomfortably and smiling nervously to each other. So, the Frist
sponsored event, which was supposed to be a way for him to misrepresent
his position on the issue, didn't turn out that way thanks to Crowley.
We love hearing these stories. Joe Crowley shows that Democrats can play hard ball politics while standing up for their values. - […]
- ARIZONA DAILY STAR (Column): April Fool's, Minutemen will arrive tomorrow
- Ernesto Portillo Jr.
- ARIZONA DAILY STAR
- March 31, 2006
- Tomorrow is April Fool's Day. Tomorrow the Minutemen return to the border.
- You make the connection.
- It's been a year since the Minutemen made their big splash in Tombstone.
- The national and international media, especially television, loved the group. The television news cameras couldn't get enough of the Minutemen, mainly angry guys wrapped in U.S. flags and packing heat on their hips.
- Off its members went to play border watchmen, sitting in lawn chairs and pickup trucks along small portions of the 2,000-mile, U.S.-Mexican border.
- The Minutemen proclaimed their work a success in deterring illegal immigration.
- However, as we say on the border, "no es la verdad," which is Spanish for "it's not the truth."
- "There is simply no credible evidence that the Minutemen have deterred any Mexicans from leaving home, coming to the border and trying to gain entry until they succeed," said Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California-San Diego.
- "At most, would-be migrants and the people-smugglers who assist them find these groups to be a fleeting obstacle that they can easily detour around," said Cornelius, who has studied Mexican immigration for 36 years.
- But that doesn't deter the Minutemen from making more truth-challenged assertions. One of the most creative claims is that the Minutemen forced the nation to focus its attention on illegal immigration.
- The truth is, the nation had long been talking and arguing about immigration before the Minutemen appeared.
- About 15 years ago, as a reporter in San Diego, I reported on border demonstrations by activists who wanted the federal government to enforce border laws. They were led by a nice woman, Muriel Watson, a widow of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. She and others lined their cars facing south into Tijuana with the headlights on. It made for good television news.
- The Minutemen are a Johnny-come-lately to border sideshows.
- "Immigration would have been a big issue whether or not the Minutemen had ever existed, because numerous Republican politicians have chosen it to be the wedge issue of this election year," Cornelius said.
- Ironically, it's the Minutemen who have made illegal immigration a wedge issue within the Republican Party.
- Republicans thought they could use illegal immigration against the Democrats. But the issue has pitted Republicans against Republicans.
- Many in the party are bitterly split with President Bush, some Republican leaders and the party's historical business base, all of whom support a guest-worker program. The Minutemen and their supporters want to seal the border, make felons out of undocumented immigrants and not allow a guest-worker program.
- In the past year, the Minutemen claim they have grown to more than 6,500 members. They have spawned copycat groups across the country. Minutemen have been hailed by some state governors and federal lawmakers.
- But the group's role in a reasonable debate on immigration reform is questionable.
- At best, they brought more television cameras to the border. At worst, they escalated the ugly rhetoric used to demonize undocumented immigrants.
- "Vigilante groups are bit players in the current immigration debate," Cornelius said.
- Last April when the Minutemen launched their first border watch, they were nearly outnumbered by the media. Don't expect as many reporters Saturday.
- The media knows it's April Fool's Day.
- Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr: Ernesto Portillo Jr.'s column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach him at 573-4242 or at eportillo@azstarnet.com.
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