Um...yeah

I noticed I get a number of visitors from what seem to be borderline racist-type and/or classist websites. Yeah, um, that's not me, okay? To the classists: Poverty is not a sin. I have read that to be truly middle class, one must have at least six-months worth of their salary saved in case of emergency. Well, that's not me; is that you? Many people are a paycheck or two away from ruin. There but for the grace of God go I. So many of the referring websites are all, "I couldn't get a scholarship to school 'cause they gave all the money to illegals" and "I can't get healthcare but illegals waltz right into clinics and receive the best care." Yeah, well, that's crazy talk. If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at the business-industrial complex. Who do you think has the money to be hiring illegal nannies, yardmen (yardmen!) and such? Come on. You're going to tell me that they can build satellites so powerful that they can read license plates from outer space, but they can't keep some folks from running across "the border" (as if there is just one border)? Don't be so naive. To the racists: The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR), who estimates there are 50,000 undocumented Irish, would probably agree that Latinos don't corner the market on this issue. All this "Mexicans! Mexicans!" focus is missing the point.

Comments

[caligirl]

Hmmmm...It gets interesting sometimes...how people discuss all that and judge other people...legal...illegal...This country was built by immigrants. They came here with sword and killed to get lands and treasure of those lands, its gold, its silver, its mineral resources...everything...Millions and millions of people were coming here hoping to find a better life, a better home, a better job, almost anything was better here...I do not say 'hey guys you have to let in everyone!!!' That would be very stupid. The country can't have all of them who wants to come here, but, at least don't make it impossible...
I'm not a racist, I came here twice - legally. I never broke any law. I liked it in here and I had my employers petitioning me, but, you may never think that immigration actually cam mislead you and an officer can just give you a wrong information to make it hard on you from the very beginning because he knows you are the next one in the line for a Green Card...So why not tell me something that doesn't even has to be that way he is telling me...
Me, after four years of college, speaking two languages ( the third one is on the way ), trying to fix my papers here in the United States for three years with no visible results - me, illegal alien by now...All my efforts went down the drawn because of the immigration officer who lied to me...well...let's put it this way...someone who didn't want to try at all to at least tell me what forms to fill out and what to do and by what time, me and my employer's representative in the local immigration office...How sad, but that's true...They also make mistakes, but they will never get what they should for that...
I'm ILLEGAL here, but I have a job, not just a low wage job, I have decent job. I speak English. I am computer literate and have a degree...At least I try to do my best to learn things and improve myself...

[candice]

my husband is an illegal alien, we have been married for 5 years and have a 2 year old, and another on the way. He is the money maker of the family. he works 6 days a week, sometimes 7 to make sure we have what we need. Recently he was pulled over, taken to jail, and put on an immigration hold. they are transporting him later this week to a holding facilty for illegal aliens. i have no idea what to do now, if anyone eles has gone through this and has any advise it whould be appreciated. pleaseemail me candice1028@excite.com
thank you

[Leslie Martinez]

I know some people who are married to illegal immigrants. I have a friend who made a website for suport group for men and women who are married to illegals and have children. We are looking for people that are in this position. If you know of any, e-mail me.

I don't see where we are in disagreement.

The illegal immigrant has been romaticized. I think people see immigration through the lens of schmaltzy movies of the week. Illegal aliens are the 21st century equivalents of the "noble savage". Plus, helping illegal immigrants makes one progressive, inclusionary and an all-around nice person. Helping the unemployed factory worker who lives on the wrong side of the tracks is "enabling". It doesn't pack that same righteous oomph.

There is so much spin surrounding the immigration debate, chiefly when it comes to the old "jobs American won't do" schtick. That way, we can feel that poor people are poor by choice, because they think they're too good for certain jobs. Anyway, why focus on Joe Blow down the street, when you can focus on the exotic, the mysterious, the new? Foreigners are interesting; interesting is sexy. Sexy gets airtime and advertising. Working class people are only interesting in sitcoms. ;)

[JPerry]

I don't care whether it's Irish, Mexican or Swedish, I am against illegal immigration because it is at the behest of the corporate elite and those who wish to subvert and destroy an American wage standard and workplace protections and laws. It's the reason the US Chamber of Commerce is funding La Raza, LULAC and the ACLU's coffers to help push amnesty through.

The US worker is being dragged down by a corporate elite that on one hand wants US workers to compete with Chinese and third world sweatshops, and now with illegal alien labor in our own country. It is an attempt to rationalize viewing those who are not affluent enough to survive in this brave new world order, as a slave class.. both right wing and left wing extremes believe in the exploitation of those they refer to as the mob or the masses, so don't expect either extreme to care.. we need to demand that the moderate representatives and senators actually remember the oath of office they swore to uphold.

Our jobs started being outsourced in the '80s. Of course back then it was just blue collar jobs, so not so many middle class people cared. Now it's theirs, and their children's jobs that are slipping away as well.

You cite an article about the Michael Bianco factory, well, what neither that article nor any of the many others written about it mention is that New Bedford does not have a citizen worker shortage, especially not a shortage of leather stitchers. New Bedford used to have many, many factories and mills prior to the '80s. When those jobs went to Mexico and China in the '80s, the former workers didn't disappear. They have faced homelessness, hunger, they have been deprived of health care, and now they have been discriminated against because, they would be entitled to a prevailing wage and protections like OSHA and other workplace laws.

They always have been hard working, strong people. They also are black, brown and white Americans, many of them are naturalized citizens, whose family members have served the US, in time of war. They paid taxes and only want their children to have a future.. are they less deserving of human rights? Are their tears and worries less heartbreaking? Why haven't the media, including the Boston Globe not sent photographers and journalists to interiew them, as they have been struggling and suffering for more than twenty years. Why hasn't Senator Ted Kennedy not taken the forty minute drive down to visit with them in a town meeting to hear what they have to say, instead of repeating the lie about "jobs Americans won't do"?

He flew down to Texas to visit with the illegal aliens who were rounded up and transported there before deportation. Why didn't Senator Kennedy find a problem with the comments of Irish P.M. Bertie Ahern who made a joke about trading unskilled Irish citizens for American tech workers? Is it amusing to banter about treating human beings as mere chattel to be bartered and traded, like slaves?

Not to me, not to any decent human being who believes in the freedoms and liberties promised by the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

It isn't racist to demand that our congress not rationalize what is little more than a legalization of something that leads to slavery and exploitation.