Here are a few maps to ponder. This one shows graphically the states that currently have pending laws very similar to Arizona's recent SB1070, as reported by the Wonk Room:
This one shows states that have the highest estimated illegal immigrant populations in the United States (from the Department of Homeland Security [PDF]):
What these maps make clear to me is that nearly all claims that the authors of these bills make about the bills being passed to fill a gap left by the federal government is false. If this noxious bill and its brethren were designed to help states actually facing an influx of illegal immigration, they'd be most useful in Florida, New York, and Illinois. (And California, yes, but they have a history with Prop. 18). Instead, they're being pushed in states like Missouri, Nebraska, and Colorado, where the conservative state legislatures (and, in Missouri and Nebraska, the over 85 percent white populations) are more likely to like the bill. They are being passed as statements, not as real fixes.
It's a disturbing Midwestern pattern, and I'd guess it's driven in part by Kris Kobach, one of the authors of the Arizona bill and a former candidate for Congress in Kansas. Kobach's campaign in 2004 foreshadowed this showdown in every way: he tried to scare the citizens of northeastern Kansas into believing that the immigrant threat was coming, when only about 40,000 illegal immigrants were present.
Kobach was, at the same time, counsel in a case that tried to remove in-state tuition grants to any Kansas residents who were undocumented immigrants. After losing to Dennis Moore in the Congressional race and to a judge in the court case, Kobach worked even harder to defend anti-illegal-immigrant practices like refusing to grant housing to undocumented immigrants, and he's been outed as the author of the recent controversial e-mail about the Arizona bill suggesting it be implemented in some nasty, creative ways:
Wonk Room recently obtained an email written by Kris Kobach, a lawyer at the Immigration Reform Law Institute — the group which credits itself with writing the bill — to Arizona state Sen. Russell Pierce (R), urging him to include language that will allow police to use city ordinance violations such as “cars on blocks in the yard” as an excuse to “initiate queries” in light of the “lawful contact” deletion:
Make no mistake: Kris Kobach's main interest isn't necessarily victory over illegal immigration. It's the spread of a wider conservative philosophy. He's only recently ended his term as the state party chairman of the Republican Party in Kansas. He knows what a "winning" political idea anti-illegals laws are for Republican lawmakers, and he's been doing his part to spread that GOP wealth around the center of the country.
Apparently, running against the made-up threat of illegal immigrants was such a good strategy before that Kobach's doing it again -- he's currently running for Secretary of State in Kansas.
I won't be at all surprised to see my home state fill in the center of that map very shortly.
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Catherine Forsythe
Writer to the Stars
Emily Holleman
Iron Skillet
Leslie Harpole
old new lefty
Salon.com
Comments
I really think the issue in many of these states is broader than just "illegal" immigration. It is cultural. It is a fear, whether justified or not, that the North American white dominance of the past is quickly coming to an end. It is a fear that America may become Balkanized, or at least Canada-ized, where the preponderance of a second language will result in disunity of the nation.
I do not buy this argument, or agree with it, but it is one I understand.
I agree, but I can't figure out how these people believe this makes sense. We just elected a black President, and whites are soon to become a minority. There's no going back. You either drag yourself and your party into the 21st century, or you go the way of the Whigs. I can't figure out how they think this pays off. Maybe they win a midterm or two with it. But this is very shorterm thinking.
I experienced it a few years back when visiting Oceana County, Michigan the county where I was born and for the most part raised. Some of my old friends and relatives were complaining that older businesses that had been in the same location for generations were now hispanic themed. While there is more than one cause to closing and changing businesses, many of the small town residents only see how it affects them.
While I do not condone the type of SS style tactics endorsed by the law enacted here in Arizona, I can understand why some of these Midwestern states feel the need to enact them.
Places like Fremont had for over 100 years been predominantly white. So much so that a non-white family moving in was a notable event until the 1980s and 90s. Seeing a non-white person in a public place raised eyebrows and was cause for gossip.
These people don't know how to handle diversity. And many of them have stayed in places like Fremont to avoid living in a diverse community. Many residents commute 35 miles (or more) to Omaha and would not consider living there where there is a minority population. They don't even know how to react to their communities changing other than to lash out. During the summer that the immigration legislation was being hotly debated in Fremont, I asked a supporter if he'd feel the same if we had an influx of illegal Canadians. Answer: "That's different and you know it!!"
I get the migrant farmworker thing. My brother lives in an agricultural town with a migrant population.
It's funny. We, and by we I mean the dominant white population, want cheap labor. We don't want to pay federal minimum wage plus payroll taxes for migrant workers to pick tomatoes or strawberries, or can beans, or put broccoli in freezer packs. We don't actually want those migrant workers to be people. We want them to do the work, and then disappear. Don't talk, don't have babies, don't love, don't read, don't rent a movie in Spanish, don't eat weird food, don't celebrate in our towns, don't go to our churches, don't start your own churches. Don't play your music anywhere that we can hear it. Don't send your kids to our schools. Don't watch soccer on TV. Don't let your sons date our daughters. Don't let your daughters date our sons. Don't start a business and put anything in Spanish in the window. Don't send money home. Don't get injured and go to the emergency room. Don't get cancer and expect us to pay for it. Don't bring your mother from Mexico. Don't get injured or go to the doctor at all. Don't change one single thing in our towns. We're busy having a Norman Rockwell experience here, and you're screwing it up. Don't actually do anything at all. Be invisible. Sit in your little farm shacks and be seen and not heard.
But please pick the strawberries.
No citizen should be required to fear that if a headlight is out on their car, they will risk going to jail if they cannot produce proof of citizenship. And, no, I do not believe that there are any stormtroopers in the streets now or on their way. But I do know that it is not uncommon to get pulled over for having a headlight out or failing to signal a turn. Do that while driving as a Hispanic person in Arizona now, and you'd better have a passport and/or birth certificate on your person. And that's not right.
And FYI, the Social Security Administration and anyone who knows how to prevent ID theft strongly urges people to not carry around their Social Security cards.
On Sunday, I had an opportunity to eat lunch with eight men of Hispanic descent. Six were legal, having been granted amnesty many years ago, the other two were sporting false papers. We discussed immigration in general terms and per Arizona. The men who were legal said they were hesitant to express support for the Arizona law because of their one time illegal status, but they understood why residents were for it. Now that they were Americans paying taxes, they sometimes resented their illegal brothers whose salaries were paid in cash. They had each on occasion been denied a job because the employer did not want to pay U.S. taxes. So you see, there are no simple answers.
And, yes, I am aware that no one should carry their ss card, but if think that information is not readily available at a cost of about $25 over the internet, you are naive as to all the avenues people can pursue with little effort to get to know you personally. Every time you apply for credit in any form, open a utilities account, take your dog to the vet, etc., your ss information is front and center. Carrying my card is the least of my worries.
It's always about the evils of the others, isn't it, instead of looking within to where the real fault lies. The only way to end the use of illegal immigrants is to severely punish those who hire illegal immigrants. Some states have entertained this idea, but those opposed to it are the dairy/agro industries. Much easier for the politicians to blame the victims than to go after the real culprits.
So, history lesson for our tan-challenged friends- THE VERY SECOND RECONSTRUCTION ENDED AND THE "UNION" ARMY PULLED OUT THE WHITE LEAGUE STARTED KILLING BLACKS IMMEDIATELY- Jim Crow laws were enacted and the voting rolls of blacks, say in LA, went from over 100K to 1 thousand overnight- a 99% decrease- DO YOU GET IT YET! These people are idiot racists, simpleton credulous imbeciles of dark ages temperment, always ready to immediately demonize the "other"- no matter if the other is black, brown, muslim- they just don't care, if you don't look like a relative of Glen Beck they "suspect" you might be one of the "others". Deniers are self-hating white guilt racist deniers- it is the "racism of the anti-racists" the white guilt freaks born without the spine to acknowledge truth, how hard is Manifest Destiny to understand, after all? The fact that they, the inheritors of the WHITE LEAGUE and its white guilt- demonizing blacks for the war the lost, demonizing mexicans for the war they won- and what a war that was- read up on it as many who were there at the time felt it was the reason for the Civil War and it is quite obvious it remains the reason for anti-latino sentiment. BTW, how f'ing hilarious to hear someone quote the ultimate hypocrite- the former illegal now with Reagan papers who turns on those just like him.
I am no MJ fan per se, but its time to start looking at the MAN IN THE MIRROR.
White guilt is for candy asses! Google or pick up a book you ridicules haters!
AUWE
http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/ssa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=78
You nailed it! If I could rate a comment, I'd rate yours.
And "nasty" is a completely appropriate word to use.
it's tough to be from Kansas these days...
and the funny thing is: None of my family is this kind of racist; all of my family thinks this goes too far.
(well, one or two are unhappy with NAFTA, 'cause it cost them their jobs)
This Kris Kobach character, I can't believe he's a LAW professor. No constitutional scholar there, boy.
Canada's looking More and More attractive.
Under the AZ law a state issued ID or drivers license is proof that you are here legally. So why spread misinformation?
The problem isn't that those who are here illegally or who are permanent residents will have to show proof that they are allowed to be here.
The problem is that citizens -- who do not need to carry any papers that show they are such -- will get asked for them.
If I am ever asked for proof of citizenship, I will say I don't have any, and I'm not required to carry any. If that means you will arrest me, then do what you have to do.
And when I am let out of jail after I call my brother who is an attorney and he faxes a copy of my passport to the cops, know what I'm doing the next morning?
I'm filing a multi-million dollar lawsuit for false arrest, and I'm naming the cop in the lawsuit.
Perhaps if the message spreads the madness ends.
cat- you v. nash
um, again, I go with Steve and the Suns- Google it and let the truth shine through your third eye, it wont hurt.
And don't spread credulous idiocy equating this law with closing our borders, red herrings are for kindie-gardner cats. To be mocking and mean, the Gov. of Arizona reminds me EXACTLY of the chain smokin bartendress we used to frequent in Phoenix, the raspy voice, desert rat look, and drunk in the sun grouch is her splitting image in look, voice, and, amazingly, attitude.
We all know about the border, duh! This law is about the WHITE LEAGUE.
I live in a neighborhood with lots of Latino and East African Immigrants. Some legit, some not. I agree that we need reform of our immigration laws and enforcement, but I'm not all that fearful of my neighbors. Why are people so afraid of "the Other"?
agriturismo
Hotel Roma