I don't believe it's a coincidence that this legislation came up now. It'scertainly knocked the war in Iraq off the front pages. It's no coincidencethat the party of big business presided over the last large scale amnesty and wants to do it again. Not just for big business but to bolster attemptsto increase political support for the Republican Party among Hispanics.
Maybe Mexico and the other Latin countries would have been able to build more viable economies years sooner if the various dictators hadn't been ableto play the "but we're anti-communists" card for so many years. They certainly have the resources. Perhaps if legally elected governments hadn't had to defend themselves from terrorist, yes terrorist, attacks supported by the CIA and certain graduates of the School of the Americas (located right here at good ol’ Fort Benning) there would be decent jobs at home for more of their people. The role call of Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador certainly springs to mind. You want to stop the use of undocumented workers in the fields, construction or the meat packinghouses? Send the CEO's to jail and levy fines big enough to get theirattention.
Yes, I realize that most of the undocumented workers are from Mexico. Heck, most of the southwest including Texas used to be Mexico. If I can recommend an excellent documentary; it's The West. Ken Burns didn't make it but he was involved in the production. I got lucky and got a copy used. It can be spendy. If you're lucky your library might have a copy. I learned a lot that I didn't know. We not only forced Mexico to cede the territory that became California, Arizona, New Mexico and part of some other states, (I knew that) we proceeded to turn the people who were all ready there into second class citizens in their own country. (I hadn't really realized that) You get the impression in high school history classes that there wasn't anybody else here when the Americans started to move in. There's plenty of blame to go around and plenty of owning up to the past for all of us.
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If you can, find this mockumentary: "A Day Without a Mexican"
My spouse is a legal Mexican as is his father (the mom is questionable). They are grateful to be here and do work that I sure as shit wouldn't do. These new brothers and sisters make us stronger as a nation. Aren't there other issues we need to address?? War? Iran? N. Korea? AIDS?
R
I don't know that the efforts of the GOP, especially in the House, were directed toward wooing the Latino vote. I think they were more directed at the far right-wing bigots who want to put razor wire all along the border and ship all the Mexicans back to Mexico. The damage control effort in the Senate has been to appease the Latino vote, to be sure...but probably wouldn't have happened at all if the demonstrations hadn't proven that the Latino vote is a force to be reckoned with.
This may all blow up in their faces, though. I've heard speculation that the immigration issue might fuse with the anti-war effort, as civil rights and anti-war did in the sixties. And that will NOT be a very good situation for the party in power. We can only hope... Lisa :-]
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