This is a topic that has bugged me for quite some time. While I was reading the Tancredo thread, I came accross an entry that pretty much asked the same question. Some believe that there is no difference between those of us who want to increase legal immigration while securing our borders and those people who think that America's full-up and has no more room for immigrants. Several weeks ago I posted a comment that another kossack took exception to -
it is unfair and ignorant to malign those of us who advocate border control as racists. Now, Tancredo might indeed be a racist, but you have lumped every anti-illegal immigration advocate into one big basket. I think we desperately need to beef up our immigration department to allow quicker and more accurate processing of immigration paperwork. We need to increase the availablility of education and work visas. We need to be more generous with our allocation of citizenship and we should be grateful that people still want to come here. That doesn't excuse people breaking the law. It's illegal to come here without documentation and I'm damn tired of being called a racist because I want to know which criminals are coming here to work and which ones are coming here to threaten the peace of my country. Be it with crime or terrorism. Everyone who comes here from Mexico (or Canada, for that matter, but XXXXX specifically mentioned Mexico) isn't coming for work. There are real murderers, rapists, theives, conmen and gangsters crossing the border. I can sympathize with the economic reasons that may drive some to come here, but that still doesn't excuse spitting on the laws of the land. In spite of how you want to spin it, there's a reason it's called "ILLEGAL" immigration. You don't like the law....get it changed. Call those of us who want to see the law enforced misguided, ill-informed, or even (gasp!)selfish...but don't assume that we're racist. That just slams the door of debate and offends those of us who want to find an equitable solution that offers safety for the country and opportunity for the migrant.
Which I thought was very open, honest, and fair. I personally admire immigrants who leave the safe and familiar confines of their mother country and embark on the long and often frustrating journey to citizenship in a foreign country. Even when one is forced by circumstance to immigrate, it's got to be a frightening, challenging, and uncertain course of action. I think that making it easier would be good. I think that increasing the availability of visas for employment, education, and familial reunification is right, moral, and imperative but that unless we do something about the border, the value of such documents is diluted. Unfortunately, many people don't see it that way and unless you are for completely open borders, you must be a racist. Even if the racism is unconsious, or "soft". Here's one reply that I got -
It's Called Soft Racism My Friend
Take a good hard look at what you're advocating, and who that puts you in bed with. My post was about the Minutemen "policing" the Arizona border. They call us "thonks" because that's the sound of a flashlight hitting a Mexican's head. I've been fighting these assholes for the past 5 years along the Texas border, and Tancredo's their comrade in arms. And don't give me any shit about Canadians. It's us Mexicans (and Central Americans) getting shafted by those you so gallantly defend. ("I'm not a racist" Tancredo says, "I feel the same way about Canadians sneaking over the border" - as he and his white terrorists set up camp along the Mexican, the Mexican, border). Dutch, German, and other white illegals don't get thonked. Mexicans do. Wal-Mart, Ralph's, and the farming conglomerates don't grt thonked. We do. So stop your fucking liberal dribble and wise-up.
Control the border? give me a fucking break. You can piss away our children's patrimony trying to do that, and you won't even scratch the surface. Talk about a waste of resources. For what? To maybe, maybe, maybe catch a criminal here and there? It's political opportunism and naivete that spews this useless, demeaning, and wasteful horseshit. Open your eyes man. You'll never be able to seal the border. Never. Besides, the criminals and terrorists are here amongst us now. They're not coming from Mexico. Look down your street. They're your neighbors, and almost all of them were born here in the good ole USA. (Remember McVey, Karesh, Nichols). Can you cite one Mexican terrorist - one? Can you cite one terrorist of any stripe who had to sneak across the US-Mexican desert - one? Yet we've been beefing up the border patrol for 20 years now, and pissing away our resources while we stiff the poor, aged and the crippled. a criminal or a terrorist is not very likely to be so inconvenienced. Only a man who has a starving family and no other way out is gonna trek across a deadly desert.
So wake up man. Your fear is delusional. So delusional it borders on being racist. And yeah, if you support Tancredo and his anti-immigrant shits I'll call you a racist. and so will many others (white, yellow, red and black, and certainly most browns). So get used to it my friend. Or drop your favored politician and place your energies into something with merit.
I am ashamed to admit that I was outraged and posted back with some pretty mean comments on the sanctity of victimhood, the number of illegals with rap sheets, and some words about the apparent propensity of Mexican nationals to accept as normal the use of bribery, corruption and disrespect for the rule of law.
I can't prove that I'm not racist. Especially if it's the "unconsious" type of racism. The old standby "some of my best friends are (insert minority group)" seems to be so overused that I hesitate to say it. But I do have friends of color. Brown people, dark brown people, native americans, and even a couple from south asia. I've barbecued with them, invited them into my home, even babysat their kids a time or two (anyone familiar with my posts knows that I think kids are pretty icky) so I'm not sure where one draws the line or makes the distinction between right and race.
I've seen the polls like this one -
The survey found that 70 percent of the public said that reducing illegal immigration should be a "very important" foreign-policy goal of the United States, compared to only 22 percent of elites.
So, are 70% of Americans racist and we just don't know it? I wouldn't think so. I can believe, however, that regular people can see the difference between a legal and illegal immigrants. Most people would greet the former with enthusiasm and interest. The latter...maybe not so much. For those of us who believe strongly in the law as a tool of social justice, illegal immigration is a festering thorn.