Of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, some 7 million are in the job force. The idea that they can be deported or replaced en masse with jobless U.S. workers is far-fetched. That’s the message that Alabama farmers have been giving their elected leaders, so far to little avail.
The Republicans who voted-in these anti-immigrant bills aren’t going to listen to the farmers. They don’t care what the farmers have to say. The Republicans know they can treat people like dirt, but when it comes election time, as long as they talk about how they are anti-abortion and hate gay people that they will keep getting the majority of the vote.
“There are people calling this a form of ethnic cleansing and I can’t figure out a reason why it isn’t. Sure, not every Hispanic in the state is undocumented, but you could certainly forgive them for feeling that measures this punitive mean they aren’t welcome. If the state is willing to deny someone water because they don’t have proper ID, they really, really don’t want you around.” - digby, on Alabama’s strict immigration law, which went into effect last week.
iyjl:
URGENT: Rodrigo, a bright 16 year old, will have to check in with ICE with a one way ticket back to Mexico in hand on October 4th. Please take immediate action to stop his deportation!
Rodrigo was brought to the United States when he was only 10 years old. Now 16, he is a sophmore at Harding University High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has big dreams of graduating from high school and going to college to study International Relations. He is also an active member of his church. As a Boy Scout, he volunteers to coach soccer to young kids.
Rodrigo was arrested for “larceny” and accused of shoplifting at the mall. The criminal charges were dropped but ICE still wants to deport him. Please take action now to stop his deportation!
Award-winning writer Paul Reyes explores how Alabamians really feel about their state’s draconian immigration law, which makes Arizona’s look tame…and which which was upheld by a judge today.
Either he has some of the poorest intel[ligence] in the history of this country, or he is an abject liar to the American people.
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Not to mention the fact that El Paso is, in fact, the safest city in America (with a population over 500k). (via paxamericana) |
Gov. Nathan Deal has appointed a bigoted, anti-immigrant extremist to an important state board. The appointment should be withdrawn immediately. Phil Kent, named by Deal to the Immigration Enforcement Review Board on Friday, is a former journalist, an author, a national spokesman for American Immigration Control and executive director of the American Immigration Control Foundation. The AIC opposes not just illegal immigration but immigration generally. …
Kent … seems peculiarly concerned about preserving what he calls the “whiteness” of America. In a column last year, he warned that 2010 could be the “tipping point” for America, the year in which minority babies outnumber white babies. …
Putting that kind of power in the hands of a bigot is grossly irresponsible.
Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald says Republicans’ hard line stance on immigration will cost them Latino/Hispanic votes:
Despite the avalanche of bad news for President Barack Obama, he remains the most likely winner of the 2012 elections. That’s the conclusion I reached after watching the top Republican presidential hopefuls in recent weeks, as they started in earnest the race for their party’s nomination. They have taken such a hard line on issues that are dear to Latinos, that I don’t see how any of them can win the 40 percent of the Hispanic vote that pollsters say Republicans will need to win the White House. The last Republican president, George W. Bush, got 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, and the Latino vote has only become more important since. Former Republican candidate Sen. John McCain — who ran as a moderate on immigration — lost the 2008 campaign in part because he got only 31 percent of the Hispanic vote, pollsters say.
