Democrat Asks: Which Immigration May Day Do Americans Want?
Under the label
"The Immigration Debate-Full Coverage"
the May 1, 2010
Washington
Post web site does indeed headline the important
news that the Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, has
signed a bill revising its new immigration law,
"changes she says should quell concerns that the
measure will lead to racial profiling." [Ariz.
gov signs bill revising new immigration law,
By Paul Davenport, The Associated Press, May 1,
2010]
Symbolically, it is interesting that this extensive WaPo
coverage should come on May Day. In many countries May
Day coincides with International Workers Day or Labor
Day, which, per
Wikipedia,
(as of today)is, in many foreign countries marked by
"massive street rallies led by workers, their trade unions, anarchists
and various communist and socialist parties."
Wikipedia also reminds:
"Mayday is an
emergency code word
used internationally as a distress signal in voice
procedure radio communications. It derives from the
French venez m'aider, meaning "come (and) help me".
Obviously WaPo interprets that to mean helping illegal
aliens over American citizens.
And the picture of
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
WaPo editors
puts up makes this lady of a certain age look like the
Wicked Witch of the West—which
is of course was the intention.
Naturally this latest action will not stop the myriad of
law suits already underway:
"Stephen
Montoya, a Phoenix lawyer
representing a police officer whose lawsuit was one of
three filed Thursday to challenge the law, said the
changes wouldn't derail the lawsuit because the state is
still unconstitutionally trying to regulate immigration,
a federal responsibility."
Whoa, Pardner, that old excuse that this is a Federal
issue is exactly why the Arizona law had to get passed.
It was, as a pro immigration pal of mine snorted,
"An act of desperation!" I agree, and we must NOT let these equally
desperate Open Borders desperadoes win the current shoot
out by allowing another amnesty solution under the
camouflage of "Comprehensive Immigration Reform".
Next on this WaPo electronic web site list of
"Full Coverage":
the doleful news story headline that an
"Arizona deputy shot; illegal immigrants suspected".
Both the above stories are from the
Associated Press,
but I could find neither story in my issue of the
Post's first print section.
However, what I did find on A3 of the
Post's May Day
coverage two articles which are headlined
"Thousands to protest for overhaul bill"
and
"Ariz faces boycott calls over new law".
I for one welcome these challenges because they will
further underline the absurdity of present demands by
illegal aliens for their "rights". The more of these
protest marches and boycotts the better we will see how
false their "rights" are.
The next story in this WaPo immigration May Day parade
is dubbed
"Immigration becomes an accidental issue" on page A7
of the print edition, but electronically called,
"Gaffe by Britain's Gordon Brown revives immigration as
an issue"
by Anthony Faiola: It begins:
"In the heat of
Britain's closest election race in decades, a national
debate has broken out over the most unlikely of
questions: Is Gillian Duffy really a bigot?
The
straight-talking Duffy cornered Prime Minister Gordon
Brown during his now-infamous visit to her town on
Wednesday, openly complaining that political correctness
had made it so "you can't say anything about these
immigrants." Moments later, Brown was
caught off-camera calling her a "bigoted woman"
in a blunder that is suddenly propelling immigration to
the forefront of the British campaign.
The
incident is underscoring the polarizing power of
immigration on both sides of the Atlantic. The focus in
Britain largely on the waves of
Eastern Europeans
who landed here over the past decade. Though the
economic crisis has led many to pack their bags and
return home, they remain a beacon of blame, especially
among the British working class, for overburdened
schools and hospital wards.
So
the Duffy incident touched a raw nerve. On Twitter and
Facebook, in tabloids and on personal blogs, many are
seconding Brown's motion in calling Duffy, 65, a bigot,
an act for which he spent 40 minutes apologizing to her.
More are hailing her as a working-class hero brave
enough to take on a political class too
liberal and privileged
to see the immigration problem around them."
Thanks, Mr. Faiola, for reporting the fact of
appropriate citizen anger and the common reactions of
their leaders (shades of many American politicians'
stances).
But then the last electronic
Post Mayday
post (carried on page C1 of its Metro print section,
giving it maximum coverage) involving a true dilemma
brings an issue about real reform.
Entitled
"Trail of Dream students walk 1,500 miles to bring
immigration message to Washington"
it tells about
"Gaby
Pacheco and Felipe Matos, a couple of high-achieving
college students from Miami, stand dumbfounded at the
corner of 14th and N streets NW.
The
plastic side window of their road-weary Ford RV has been
slid wide open. It was closed when they parked it at
midday a few hours before. Missing from inside: five
laptops, a GPS unit, cellphone chargers.
"They
disconnected us from the world," Matos says, sounding
awed at the surgical daylight work of unknown D.C.
smash-and-grabbers this past Tuesday.
It's
not the Washington welcome they imagined on Jan. 1 when
they began their four-month, 1,500-mile odyssey to
deliver a message to President Obama and fire up the
next phase of the immigration reform movement.
Matos, Pacheco and two fellow students on leave from
Miami Dade College have walked the entire way. The Trail
of Dreams, they call it. The RV is their support
vehicle. The computers were how they documented their
journey on Facebook and Twitter, gathered 30,000
signatures to bring to the president and marshaled
support and shelter along the way.
Pacheco uses her dying cellphone to call the police. The
dispatcher asks her name. She hesitates. She can't help
it. She's reflexively furtive, even after years of
training herself to embrace, even proclaim, her identity
and peculiar status.
The
irony of the moment makes her smile. An illegal
immigrant calling the police."
Great story, great irony, great dilemma.
Let me say that if the Open Borders forces really wanted
to have real immigration reform, they would not have
tried to defer deliberation for decades, which is the
reason such sad situations have developed.
I do not know anyone on the side of real immigration
reform, including the famous founder of its main
advocacy agencies, Dr. John Tanton, who would not be
delighted to discuss, debate and define our immigration
policies in an atmosphere which is not dominated by
mindless abuse.
There is no surprise that some illegal aliens brought
with them guiltless, innocent children—some of whom have
obviously done well in a country that nurtured them.
That some immigrants do well in the greatest nation ever
conceived should come as no surprise.
Rectifying such anomalies should certainly be a subject
for reasonable discussion>
But that discussion has never been allowed by the Open
Border advocates. Instead, they keep evilly, evasively,
endlessly trying to ramrod their amnesties down the
throats of the American majority.
This plethora of balanced coverage from the Main Stream
Media will continue. But evidence that American citizen
outrage is getting to some in the MSM and on Capitol
Hill is encouraging.
Bring on a real debate. We can only hope and pray,
certainly without any help from prior president, for
real results that will at last bring a fair reform to
this contentious issue.
Both sides now agree that the immigration reform issue
must at last be faced. What Mayday or May Day will be
embraced?
About the Author: Collins, a free lance writer living in
Washington, DC. , is Co-Chair of , the Federation for
American Immigration Reform's (FAIR), National Advisory
Board. However, his views are his own.
Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.