listening to too much talk radio especially Neil Bortz hollering
about the undocumented immigrants being law breakers. I excepted that
from Savage and Limbaugh but I fiqure with Bortz's libertarian
leanings he would have more
sense.
He did bring up a good point today if it is true that Fox and
the Mexican government don't want to reform their very corrupt
government and are trying to invade the US for economic and possible
political gain. Bortz said Mexican troops will actually drive
immigrants over the border in miltary trucks. if this is true it
needs to come out and Congress needs to warn the Mexican government
against such action if they are tresspassing on private property and
that Congress could sue and possibly declare war on
Mexico.
Jon Roland is right about the constitution a lot ( but I think
he is wrong sometimes) and he runs a great website constitution.org.
I really doubt if he would lie to us when he says the laws of
nations covers tresspassing over the border. That would give Congress
some constitutional standing on immigration but I doubt if most of
the present federal laws and INS regulations would qulify as
constitutional because of the Laws of Nations Clause in Article 1
section 8 of the US
constitution.
Still there are other more specific parts of the
constitution that would lean away from federal power and more towards
state government authority and private property
rights.
So unless there is evidence of a clear and present danger of
an invasion by the government of Mexico, immigration should be left
to the states, counties, local governments, neighborhoods and the
private property owners, in the reverse order of importance. Even if
there is an invasion the local, county and state governments have
first dibs on protecting their area and the federal government should
butt out unless ask or the inasion presents a clear and present
danger to other states and the other states ask. If Congress declares
war on Mexico then the federal government can act first but the
state still have a say in the matter.--- In
[email protected], "Victor Bozzo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hello All,
>
> I am not sure how I overlooked such a good piece but for what it's
worth here it is.
>
> Yet another great piece showing where the REAL problem is, The
State and the people who support it.
>
> Vic
>
> "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace
alarmed - and hence clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it
with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - H.L.
Mencken
>
>
> "Illegal" Immigration Is a Phantom Problem
>
> by Marcel VotluckaI
>
> Exclusive to STR
>
> Last year I attended a sociology lecture which began with the
professor citing attacks upon minorities in the context of their
struggle for equal dignity in our society. He cited Native
Americans, Blacks, women, gays and lesbians, and Arabs and Muslims as
examples. Seizing the moment, I raised my hand and suggested that
immigrants would be the next group targeted.
>
> Oh, how prophetic my statement was!
>
> Not five minutes before I began writing this essay, I watched
a news vignette about recently thwarted Congressional proposals to
prosecute "illegal aliens" as felons, as well as the people who
provide them with services. The vignette also looked at activists
who aim to embarrass people who hire undocumented immigrants, going
as far as to post their names and photos on their website.
>
> Recent campaigns and vigilante movements against immigrants,
such as the Minuteman Project, reveal much about Americans' attitudes
toward the State and the theology behind it. Most people really do
want to live in freedom, but at the same time many people also have a
deep need to be taken care of, coupled with a fear of "outsiders," as
it were. Human nature is a mix of these conflicting individualist
and collectivist tendencies. The latter is where absurdities such as
nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, socialism, and
any number of "isms" emerge. Politicians, being the savvy bastards
they are, don't hesitate to take advantage of this psychological
quirk and turn it into yet another marketing strategy to sucker more
people into statism.
>
> Indeed, immigration is only a "problem" for politicians eager
to win votes, not you and I. The miracle of America 's success as a
(relatively) free country is due to the contributions of immigrants
who came here because they sought a better life through (gasp!) the
free market.
>
> I can think of no better example than New York City 's
Chinatown . Somehow I end up wandering there whenever I visit the
city. I've often wondered why I am so drawn to that place. Could it
be the food? The low prices? The exotic yet familiar urban
atmosphere? No, it's the glory of the democratic market on display
that draws me there. The hustle and bustle of shoppers looking for
the best deal, the competing fruit stalls on Canal Street, the
bargaining, the efficient, no-nonsense service in restaurants and
stores, the availability of goods the likes of which you'll be hard-
pressed to find in an insular suburban community . . . the list goes
on and on. All I need to do is learn Mandarin and I'll be set for
life! Never mind what you hear about "Red China"; these immigrants
are hard-core entrepreneurial capitalists, and are willing to work
from the bottom up to make a living and get ahead.
>
> How many of them came to this country illegally? Plenty, I'm
sure. That doesn't lessen their contributions one whit. We live in
an ever-shrinking world thanks to technology; there's no logical
reason why oceans and mountains or even different languages and
cultures need to hinder trade and commerce. Likewise, there's no
logical reason someone from another geographical region should be
prevented from emigrating to another. What's the difference between
a Chinese emigrating to New York and my moving to Brooklyn from Long
Island ? Essentially, there is no difference. And who the hell has
the right to prevent me (or a Chinese or anyone else) from moving to
where the grass is greener? What arrogance!
>
> After all, borders are just lines on a piece of paper called
a map, to be obsessed over by presidents, dictators, and military men
eager to protect what they seem to think to be their own personal
property. In order to maintain their power, they have to stoke the
collectivist fires of racism and xenophobia:
>
> They invent stories of "outsiders" and "aliens" coming in to
steal our jobs (as if anybody has a natural right to a job).
>
> They come up with tales of how they leech off our tax dollars
(even as they shower corporate welfare queens with handouts,
opportunities for war profiteering, and favorable legislation that
acts much like Robin Hood in reverse).
>
> They spin yarns comparing immigrants crossing the Mexican
border to an invading army of potential terrorists and criminals
(even though said job-seekers are generally not aiming to blow up
buildings--nay, that's a sport for, uh, red-blooded Americans like
Tim McVeigh).
>
> They give shrill sermons condemning immigrants who do not
give up their cultural identity, who do not assimilate or at least
learn English (as if the immigrants' linguistic abilities had any
bearing on their right to settle down where they please).
>
> Worst of all, they tell you to "buy American" (lest you hurt
the poor auto manufacturers who lack the cojones to adapt to the
global economy and earn American business, not take it for
granted).
>
> Yet, if individual rights mean anything, they include your
right to go wherever you want in order to seek better opportunities.
They include your right to buy or sell stuff with whoever will trade
with you. They include your right to seek and earn work. They
include your right to make free choices in the market. Indeed, we
all make such choices, big or small, significant or trivial, every
day. The market is made up of the aggregate whole of all these
choices, all this bargaining and trading and exchange of ideas,
products, services, and information. This is not a magical process;
it's simply how society operates.
>
> This is in spite of efforts by economically ignorant
politicians and interest groups to set up barriers to commerce and
free immigration. This is in spite of their efforts to control the
market so they can make it work for their own ends. This is in spite
of their efforts to protecting and enriching themselves by robbing
others of their freedom. This is in spite of their efforts to lock
out foreigners out of paranoia that American culture will somehow
disappear. That whole "borders, language, culture" nonsense, for
instance.
>
> Attacks on immigration, legal or otherwise, are attacks on
individual rights, not to mention attacks on the market and a free
society. The only "aliens" we should be concerned about are those
unsavory, ignorant, and politically-connected folks to whom freedom
is an alien concept.
>
> In short, "illegal aliens" arouse their ire because they
represent a force the politicos cannot control--a force that
undermines their own ill-gotten power and replaces it with the power
of the truly democratic free market.
>
>
> March 29, 2006
>
>
> discuss this column in the forum
>
> Marcel Votlucka is a writer and freelance journalist from
Queens, NY. He is a graduate of Stony Brook University, and is a
frequent contributor to the Stony Brook Press and the Stony Brook
Independent. He is currently finishing work a novella, Neverland:
Voices From the Muslim Holocaust.
>
> Marcel Votlucka Archive
>
>
>
>
>
> Reprint Rights
>
> back to Strike The Root
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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