Juan Crow

[Nbadan]

Illegals are dying in immigration detention camps at much higher rates than in terra camps....is everyone OK with this?

Meet 'Juan Crow'
By J. Richard Cohen, President (SPLC)



The final days of Boubacar Bah's life read like an account of a political prisoner in a gulag.

Bah, 52, was shackled to the floor of the prison's medical unit where he was left to moan and vomit until prison officials moved him to a "disciplinary cell."

He would stay there for more than 13 hours - alone, unresponsive and foaming at the mouth, the apparent result of a head injury. He would later die in a coma at a hospital.

But as The New York Times account of his death explains, Bah wasn't a political prisoner.

He wasn't a terrorist held at Guantanamo Bay. And he wasn't the kingpin of an international crime syndicate.

Bah was a tailor from Guinea who overstayed his tourist visa in the United States. He was an "illegal."

And he's a casualty of America's new war on immigrants.

In the South, Latinos call it "Juan Crow." Just as Jim Crow laws in the South once ensured that blacks remained "in their place," the hysterical over-reaction to illegal immigration is turning immigrants in second-class citizens.

In a Juan Crow world, human rights are trampled, communities terrorized and families torn apart all in the name of getting tough on "illegals." Anyone who looks or sounds "foreign" is a suspect. Just ask Justeen Mancha (http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=298 ). She was getting ready for school one day at her south Georgia home when armed immigration agents barged in, shouting, "Police! Illegals!"

Justeen, who was 15 when this happened, is a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent. She was terrified by the ordeal.

A March 2008 report to the United Nations Human Rights Council stated the obvious when it found that "xenophobia and racism towards migrants in the United States has worsened since 9/11."

Loudmouth bigots on the airwaves are fanning the flames of hate, spreading propaganda and conspiracy theories that often originate in white supremacist organizations and blaming immigrants for everything from leprosy to invasion plans. The number of hate groups in the country is rising rapidly. And pandering politicians across the country have flooded state legislatures with bills designed to isolate, demean, humiliate and impoverish immigrants. No fewer than 18 state Houses of Representatives have passed resolutions opposing the "North American Union," a plan to merge the United States with Mexico and Canada, even though no such plan exists.

It's no wonder nearly two-thirds of Hispanics surveyed by the Pew Hispanic Center last year believe Congress' failure to enact immigration reform has made life more difficult for all Latinos.

America's war on immigrants is claiming victims, and the human toll is rising. Bah's family still has questions about their loved one's death. Justeen Mancha worries that agents might storm her home again. And we, as a nation, are in danger of losing sight of our most fundamental beliefs about human dignity.

Link (http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=315)

[Extra Stout]

Brown people!

[Extra Stout]

Houston is looking into building a soccer stadium for its MLS team south of downtown. The soccer crowds here are mostly middle-class families. The loft condo owners nearby there are virulently opposed to the stadium. Why?

"Crowds and traffic!" Um, you live five blocks from Minute Maid Park.

"Noise!" Um, you live five blocks from Minute Maid Park.

"Crime! Disorder!" Um, the people who go to Dynamo games are middle-class folks who bring their kids.

"But they're wetbacks!" Oh, now I understand.

[Extra Stout]

The cruelty being exacted against "illegals" is more because people in places like Georgia are freaking out over the Latinization of their communities. We can't have sane immigration reform because to too many people want immigration reform to be "don't let any nonwhites in."

[Extra Stout]

It's funny how 1800 years ago the Latins were freaking out over the waves of blue-eyed, blond-haired people settling in their lands.

[RandomGuy]

The cruelty being exacted against "illegals" is more because people in places like Georgia are freaking out over the Latinization of their communities. We can't have sane immigration reform because to too many people want immigration reform to be "don't let any nonwhites in."

Pretty much.

It is not politically correct point this out though. The people who generally make the most noise about "illegals" are the ones who would never admit in public that they held such racist views. Get them to let their gaurd down in private, and the nasty spectre of good old-fashioned racism almost invariably rears its ugly head.

[101A]

Agree; here in rural, western PA - 95% anglo; there is MUCH more aggressive posturing against illegal immigrants than anything I saw in Tx. It's silly. (It's unions)

[boutons_]

"1800 years"

More relevant and instructive is how the East Coast/NY capitalists/upper class won the Ellis Island chapter of the class war by effectively shutting down Ellis Island in the bubble-ly Roaring 20s, 1924. Too many filthy foreigners, although the capitalists were very happy to exploit them.

http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island_timeline.asp

There's nothing new under the sun.

[Geezerballer]

We can't have sane immigration reform because to too many people want immigration reform to be "don't let any nonwhites in."

Sane immigration reform should begin with the question: How many uneducated, illiterate people do we need to import? I'm not aware that we have a shortage.

[Ignignokt]

Yeah, there are xenophobic reasons to stop illegal immigration, but there were also xenophopbic reasons to promote abortion. That factor does not weigh in on the validity of the law.

The law is more complex than, Person A is racist and supports Law X . Therefore Law X is racist.

Illegal immigration cannot be sustained because of the leftward tilt in this country towards social services. WIth the Baby boomers about to hit entitlements and the ever growing illegal population, Us citizens brown, black, yellow, and ballijuana jerkers will have to work twice as hard to pay taxes to support these two groups, Geezers, and Illegals and their anchor children.

[boutons_]

"How many uneducated, illiterate people do we need to import?"

For whatever jobs uneducated, illiterate US citizens refuse to do.

Uneducated, illiterate people everywhere should be proud of the uneducated, illiterate person who got appointed US President in 2000.

[Extra Stout]

Sane immigration reform should begin with the question: How many uneducated, illiterate people do we need to import? I'm not aware that we have a shortage.
Because everybody in Mexico is uneducated and illiterate, right? I mean, they must be. They have brown skin. They're mud people who will pollute your white genes.

Houston has something like 500,000 illegals living here. They aren't just a bunch of farm hands, maids, or landscapers. There are a ton of craftsmen: carpenters, roofers, tile-layers, plumbers, electricians, painters, pipefitters, millwrights, and welders. They make up the blue-collar skilled labor that the American system no longer develops and trains, and they're getting paid handsomely to do it.

On the one hand, they're breaking the law by being here. On the other hand, were we to ship them all out, go ahead and sell your car for scrap metal because I'm out of ideas on how else to do maintenance in the refineries here. One Mexican is the equal of six rednecks. They have the work ethic Americans haven't had since the WW2 generation retired.

A sane policy would recognize that the demand for labor from Mexico far exceeds the supply allotted by ICE quotas, and that the quota needs to be raised by an order of magnitude to something more realistic. However, you're a prime example of why that can never happen.

[Extra Stout]

Illegal immigration cannot be sustained because of the leftward tilt in this country towards social services. WIth the Baby boomers about to hit entitlements and the ever growing illegal population, Us citizens brown, black, yellow, and ballijuana jerkers will have to work twice as hard to pay taxes to support these two groups, Geezers, and Illegals and their anchor children.
What percentage of the illegal immigrants are unproductive? In McAllen, TX, it's very high. Nationwide?

[boutons_]

"In McAllen, TX, it's very high"

got any numbers?

[Extra Stout]

"In McAllen, TX, it's very high"

got any numbers?
That was an example from what I assume to be common experience. The people who come to America to get on the welfare rolls don't go very far across the border. The illegals in Georgia or Colorado are there to find work.

Few people, if looking for good-paying work, are going to settle in the RGV anyway, since the per-capita income there is lower than much of northern Mexico. The jobs are better south of the border than they are in McAllen. The draw is U.S. social benefits.

[Geezerballer]

"How many uneducated, illiterate people do we need to import?"

For whatever jobs uneducated, illiterate US citizens refuse to do.

Uneducated, illiterate people everywhere should be proud of the uneducated, illiterate person who got appointed US President in 2000.


No, a US citizen won't do those jobs for the low wages an illegal is paid, but if the employer couldn't fill the job, he'd have to raise his pay scale.

Turning a blind eye to illegal immigration hurts low skilled Americans by keeping wages artificially lower than they should be according to the laws of supply and demand.

[scott]

No, a US citizen won't do those jobs for the low wages an illegal is paid, but if the employer couldn't fill the job, he'd have to raise his pay scale.

Turning a blind eye to illegal immigration hurts low skilled Americans by keeping wages artificially lower than they should be according to the laws of supply and demand.

Restricting the free trade of labor artificially inflates wages higher than they otherwise would be according to the laws of supply and demand. Allowing the unrestricted movement of labor would result in the true market equilibrium.

[T Park]

No, a US citizen won't do those jobs for the low wages an illegal is paid, but if the employer couldn't fill the job, he'd have to raise his pay scale.

Turning a blind eye to illegal immigration hurts low skilled Americans by keeping wages artificially lower than they should be according to the laws of supply and demand.


No, the US Citizen won't do the job for ANY pay.

Period.

[Geezerballer]

Because everybody in Mexico is uneducated and illiterate, right? I mean, they must be. They have brown skin. They're mud people who will pollute your white genes.

No, the educated, literate people are doing just fine where they are. Mexico's a great place to live if you're rich. It’s the uneducated and illiterate ones who are coming here because their own government is too backward and corrupt to create a vibrant economy. I don’t blame them at all, in fact I respect them for having the balls to make the trip.

I am simply opposed to having my country flooded with people who are likely to:
• go on welfare.
• produce a lot of underperforming children to be educated at my expense.
• receive medical care without paying for it.
• and vote against my interest.

I would like to see the penalty for hiring illegals made punitive enough that employers would raise their pay scale enough to attract legal labor. Do you really think that Americans wouldn’t work construction if the pay was sufficient?

[Extra Stout]

I would like to see the penalty for hiring illegals made punitive enough that employers would raise their pay scale enough to attract legal labor. Do you really think that Americans wouldn’t work construction if the pay was sufficient?
The going rate here is $16 an hour. The rednecks that don't already work are content to sit in their welfare trailers instead.