To paraphrase a personal email I recieved, the question has been asked, "How far does the sympathy of this campaign go? Does it include the undocumented immigrant who commits a violent crime?" This type of question seems to way a lot on peoples minds as they contemplate how to come down on this issue. Is illegal immigration the same thing as say, as driving while drunk?
What are your thoughts on this issue?
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3 comments:
I think your email corespondent was trying to trap you with a "gotcha!" question that was meant to illicit a negative reply which could then be used as against you. The question is false on its face. I don't think you can prove a positive with a negative with any certainty on a subject as complex as immigration. A black and white answer just doesn't fit when there are so many shades of gray in between. If you failed to take the bait, I congratulate you. These questions are a dumbed-down version of what the queries should be in a truly enlightened and intelligent discussion.
I was asked if I supported the undocumented group who murdered the college students in NJ earlier this year. I asked if they support the American-born kids and young people who attack their classmates, i.e. Jonesboro, AR, Columbine or Virginia Tech? Do they support these kids? After all, they were born here. They need to clean their own houses (and check on what the hell little Bobby is building in the basement or the collection of guns under his bunkbed while you're at it, will you?) before they point at the immigrant population
In my opinion, these are the same people who try to paint all Black women as "welfare queens" and all young Black men as "gang bangers". One has to ask, why the rush to label every member of an ethnic minority with the same stamp as its least respectable members?
What ever happened to the dream of being judged by the content of your character?
For me the purpose of this campaign is to not decide who is a "good" or "bad" undocumented immigrant but to draw attention to "our own house", citizens and law inforcement who are acting more and more like racists and thugs. These community based rulings like the one in Wake County and Alamance smell an aweful much like the old "No Blacks in Town after Sundown" signs that used to be so prevalent across the country. I thought we had risen above this.
I would ask the correspondent if his kinder, gentler conservatism has any room for Manuel Jesus Cordova Soberanas, the illegal immigrant who stopped to help a 9 year-old American boy, Christopher Buztheitner, he found in the desert. The child's mother had been killed in the same single-car accident that left him stranded about 50 miles from Tucson. Even though he had been walking for almost two days, spoke no English and was close to crossing the border, he chose to stay with this little boy until further help arrived. The boy has been reunited with his family. I guess you can say the same for Cordova Sobranes -- he was sent back to Magdelana de Kino, Mexico.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The argument will be "Well, he's one of the "good ones" -- as if being Hispanic and altruistic are polar opposites. I might be swayed by this argument if it wasn't the same one used by racists during the struggle for Black civil rights. My grandmother would come home steaming from her job as a domestic in the homes of White doctors and factory owners because she had overhead them discussing Black people in disparaging terms. When they looked up and saw she was in earshot, they would say, "Oh Maxine! We weren't talking about you! You're one of the "good ones" -- like that was supposed to be a compliment. They didn't realize what statements like those meant: Stay close to your "familiar" White people so they can vouch for you and keep you out of the danger that stalks and captures your more dangerous brethren.
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