05/01/2010
Under the label "The Immigration Debate-Full Coverage" the May 1, 2010 Washington Post web site does indeed headline the important news that the Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, has signed a bill revising its new immigration law, "changes she says should quell concerns that the measure will lead to racial profiling." [Ariz. gov signs bill revising new immigration law, By Paul Davenport, The Associated Press, May 1, 2010]
Symbolically, it is interesting that this extensive WaPo coverage should come on May Day. In many countries May Day coincides with International Workers Day or Labor Day, which, per Wikipedia, (as of today)is, in many foreign countries marked by "massive street rallies led by workers, their trade unions, anarchists and various communist and socialist parties."
Wikipedia also reminds: "Mayday is an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come (and) help me". Obviously WaPo interprets that to mean helping illegal aliens over American citizens.
And the picture of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer WaPo editors puts up makes this lady of a certain age look like the Wicked Witch of the West — which is of course was the intention.
Naturally this latest action will not stop the myriad of law suits already underway:
"Stephen Montoya, a Phoenix lawyer representing a police officer whose lawsuit was one of three filed Thursday to challenge the law, said the changes wouldn’t derail the lawsuit because the state is still unconstitutionally trying to regulate immigration, a federal responsibility."
Whoa, Pardner, that old excuse that this is a Federal issue is exactly why the Arizona law had to get passed. It was, as a pro immigration pal of mine snorted, "An act of desperation!" I agree, and we must NOT let these equally desperate Open Borders desperadoes win the current shoot out by allowing another amnesty solution under the camouflage of "Comprehensive Immigration Reform".
Next on this WaPo electronic web site list of "Full Coverage": the doleful news story headline that an "Arizona deputy shot; illegal immigrants suspected".
Both the above stories are from the Associated Press, but I could find neither story in my issue of the Post’s first print section.
However, what I did find on A3 of the Post’s May Day coverage two articles which are headlined "Thousands to protest for overhaul bill" and "Ariz faces boycott calls over new law".
I for one welcome these challenges because they will further underline the absurdity of present demands by illegal aliens for their "rights". The more of these protest marches and boycotts the better we will see how false their "rights" are.
The next story in this WaPo immigration May Day parade is dubbed "Immigration becomes an accidental issue" on page A7 of the print edition, but electronically called, "Gaffe by Britain’s Gordon Brown revives immigration as an issue" by Anthony Faiola: It begins:
"In the heat of Britain’s closest election race in decades, a national debate has broken out over the most unlikely of questions: Is Gillian Duffy really a bigot?
The straight-talking Duffy cornered Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his now-infamous visit to her town on Wednesday, openly complaining that political correctness had made it so "you can’t say anything about these immigrants." Moments later, Brown was caught off-camera calling her a "bigoted woman" in a blunder that is suddenly propelling immigration to the forefront of the British campaign.
The incident is underscoring the polarizing power of immigration on both sides of the Atlantic. The focus in Britain largely on the waves of Eastern Europeans who landed here over the past decade. Though the economic crisis has led many to pack their bags and return home, they remain a beacon of blame, especially among the British working class, for overburdened schools and hospital wards.
So the Duffy incident touched a raw nerve. On Twitter and Facebook, in tabloids and on personal blogs, many are seconding Brown’s motion in calling Duffy, 65, a bigot, an act for which he spent 40 minutes apologizing to her. More are hailing her as a working-class hero brave enough to take on a political class too liberal and privileged to see the immigration problem around them."
Thanks, Mr. Faiola, for reporting the fact of appropriate citizen anger and the common reactions of their leaders (shades of many American politicians' stances).
But then the last electronic Post Mayday post (carried on page C1 of its Metro print section, giving it maximum coverage) involving a true dilemma brings an issue about real reform.
Entitled "Trail of Dream students walk 1,500 miles to bring immigration message to Washington" it tells about
"Gaby Pacheco and Felipe Matos, a couple of high-achieving college students from Miami, stand dumbfounded at the corner of 14th and N streets NW.
The plastic side window of their road-weary Ford RV has been slid wide open. It was closed when they parked it at midday a few hours before. Missing from inside: five laptops, a GPS unit, cellphone chargers.
"They disconnected us from the world," Matos says, sounding awed at the surgical daylight work of unknown D.C. smash-and-grabbers this past Tuesday.
It’s not the Washington welcome they imagined on Jan. 1 when they began their four-month, 1,500-mile odyssey to deliver a message to President Obama and fire up the next phase of the immigration reform movement.
Matos, Pacheco and two fellow students on leave from Miami Dade College have walked the entire way. The Trail of Dreams, they call it. The RV is their support vehicle. The computers were how they documented their journey on Facebook and Twitter, gathered 30,000 signatures to bring to the president and marshaled support and shelter along the way.
Pacheco uses her dying cellphone to call the police. The dispatcher asks her name. She hesitates. She can’t help it. She’s reflexively furtive, even after years of training herself to embrace, even proclaim, her identity and peculiar status.
The irony of the moment makes her smile. An illegal immigrant calling the police."
Great story, great irony, great dilemma.
Let me say that if the Open Borders forces really wanted to have real immigration reform, they would not have tried to defer deliberation for decades, which is the reason such sad situations have developed.
I do not know anyone on the side of real immigration reform, including the famous founder of its main advocacy agencies, Dr. John Tanton, who would not be delighted to discuss, debate and define our immigration policies in an atmosphere which is not dominated by mindless abuse.
There is no surprise that some illegal aliens brought with them guiltless, innocent children — some of whom have obviously done well in a country that nurtured them. That some immigrants do well in the greatest nation ever conceived should come as no surprise.
Rectifying such anomalies should certainly be a subject for reasonable discussion>
But that discussion has never been allowed by the Open Border advocates. Instead, they keep evilly, evasively, endlessly trying to ramrod their amnesties down the throats of the American majority.
This plethora of balanced coverage from the Main Stream Media will continue. But evidence that American citizen outrage is getting to some in the MSM and on Capitol Hill is encouraging.
Bring on a real debate. We can only hope and pray, certainly without any help from prior president, for real results that will at last bring a fair reform to this contentious issue.
Both sides now agree that the immigration reform issue must at last be faced. What Mayday or May Day will be embraced?
About the Author: Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC., is Co-Chair of, the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR), National Advisory Board. However, his views are his own.
Donald A. Collins is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.