Category: Immigration

by Dave Mindeman

When it comes to immigration, the Republican "facts" are spewed forth like venom from a snake. They want us to fear illegal immigration...to think that it is a big part of our economic problem.

Except that when these statements are examined, they don't hold up under scrutiny and I am disappointed in the media that does not call the GOP for this shameful characterization.

First, let's take Senator John Kyl of Arizona and this statement on Face the Nation:

When pressed by guest anchor Harry Smith on CBS’ Face the Nation, SB-1070 supporter Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) called the reports a “gross generalization”:

SMITH: One of the things that’s come to light over the past last couple weeks is that in some of these border towns that were thought to be susceptible to lawbreaking of illegal immigrants. Crime is actually down. Crime in Phoenix for instance is down significantly over the past couple of years.

KYL: Well, that’s a gross generalization. Property crimes are up, certain violent crimes on certain parts of the citizenry are up. Phoenix is a very large source of kidnapping. It’s called the kidnapping capital of the United States…So there’s a great deal of violence and crime associated with illegal immigrants.

First the statement about property and violent crimes. Take a look at these statistics from Arizona:

Violent Crimes:



Property Crimes



Next, let's talk about Phoenix and kidnapping. Senators Kyl and McCain, both perpetuate this....to quote McCain:

"Phoenix, Arizona, is the No. 2 kidnapping capital of the world."

John McCain on Sunday, June 27th, 2010 in comments on 'Meet the Press'

Well, Politifact tried to examine this statement and their conclusion?



Politifact tried to find hard evidence and mostly found that there is questionable statistics on this;

Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical intelligence for Stratfor, an Austin-based global intelligence company, separately chimed in: "According to our analysts, there is no way that Phoenix is the No. 2 city in the world for kidnapping and there are significantly more kidnappings in many other cities throughout Latin America," he said. "San Salvador, Guatemala City, Bogota as well as several cities in Mexico certainly have higher kidnapping rates than Phoenix."

But even if you examine Phoenix itself, you find that the problem is real but exaggerated for political effect:

He (Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a public information officer at the Phoenix Police Department) said Phoenix has been dealing with the issue for several years now, and the number of reported kidnappings have actually decreased since this story broke in 2009. There were 358 reported kidnappings in 2008 (10 fewer than reported by the LA Times, due to later reclassification of the crimes), 318 in 2009 and there were 105 from January through May 2010, he said, putting the city on track to sustain less than 300 this year.

If we are going to discuss this issue, let's debate it honestly. We can fix this but not with fearmongering.

And to the media: How about some fact checking?

Category: Immigration

by Dave Mindeman

The immigration debate gets heated and contentious, but I often feel that we are just dancing around the issue and never focus on the core problem.

Conservatives laser in on the illegal part. While liberals tend to focus on the discrimination part. The problem is you have to deal with both... and you have to deal with them equally.

Argue with a conservative and the ultimate comeback will be "what part of illegal don't you understand?". Yes, there are illegal immigrants in this country and more trying to get here, but lumping entire ethnic goups under a problematic umbrella is just as wrong as ignoring illegal status.

Liberals probably tend to minimize illegal status. There are laws involved -- bad laws -- but laws never the less. Unless we deal with enforcing the law or fixing it, liberals will never gain the high ground either.

The main problem is that we have to do something....about all of it.

One portion of this that conservatives need to think about it is that minority entrepeneurs can help our economy. According to Census and labor statistics, minority owned businesses are growing at a remarkable rate in numbers and dollars.

The number of minority-owned businesses increased by 45.6 percent to 5.8 million between 2002 and 2007, more than twice the national rate of all U.S. businesses, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, the number of women-owned businesses increased 20.1 percent during the same period. The total number of U.S. businesses increased between 2002 and 2007 by 18.0 percent to 27.1 million.

This has been broken down by ethnic groups as well:

Hispanic-owned businesses increased by 43.6 percent.....Over the same period, receipts of Hispanic-owned.... increased by 55.5 percent.

Now, with the US in a deep recession, shouldn't we be giving all the encouragement we can to such ventures? It should be pretty obvious that Hispanic-owned businesses are not going to be operated by illegal immigrants. There is too much paperwork and regulation for that to happen. But how many of these entrepeneurs are we turning away at the border? How much growth are we saying "no" to?

These fledgling minority owned companies are built on hard work and ultimate risk taking. They are not Fortune 500 companies. A lot of them are family owned and financed by mortgages on their homes and property. They put everything they have into these businesses. Isn't that what America is about?

Many of them have families and realtives on the other side of the border. Our laws continue to hamper efforts to reunite them. We desperately need immigration reform.

Studies have been done that point to the benefits of this reform. A study by Dr. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda from the University of California can be summed up this way:

Researchers point to data that suggests legalizing undocumented workers would be a boon to the U.S. economy. Comprehensive immigration reform would yield $1.5 trillion to the U.S. GDP over a 10-year period, generate billions in additional tax revenue and consumer spending, as well as create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

We can talk endlessly about building walls and detection technology and adding law enforcement presence, but that is the side of the coin that builds animosity and tears us apart.

Let's bring the entrepeneurial engine in this to the forefront. Let's let their hard work, work for America.

It is time for immigration reform. It will benefit everyone.

Category: Immigration

by Dave Mindeman

Tonight I went to the Apple Valley Zoo for a concert in the park with Joan Baez. It has been a long time since I had heard her music. She still has a bit of the protester in her and she couldn't resist one tribute to a current controversy.

She dedicated a song to the "remaining sane people in Arizona".

PLANE WRECK AT LOS GATOS

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are packed in the creosote dumps
They're flying you back to the Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees.

This song was written in 1948 by Woody Guthrie detailing the January 28, 1948 crash of a plane near Los Gatos Canyon. The lyrics are over 60 years old but could have been written today as well. The crash resulted in the deaths of 32 people, 4 Americans and 28 migrant farm workers who were being deported from California back to Mexico.

My father's own father, he waded that river
They took all the money he made in his life
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees
They rode the big trucks till they lay down and die
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees.

The genesis of the song reportedly occurred when Guthrie was struck by the fact that radio and newspaper coverage of the event did not give the victims' names, but instead referred to them merely as "deportees." For example, none of the deportees' names were printed in the January 29, 1948 New York Times report, only those of the flight crew and the security guard. They are numbers and statistics even today. We don't call them by their names, they are "just illegals". They have families. They have hardship. They are people. They are lives.

The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon
A fireball of lightning, and it shook all the hills
Who are these comrades that died like the dry leaves
The radio tells me they're just deportees
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees.

Only 12 of the "deportees" were ever identified. Guthrie assigned symbolic names to the dead: "Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita; adiós, mis amigos, Jesús y María..." The Mexican victims of the accident were placed in a mass grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno, California..... 27 men and one woman.

We died in your hills and we died in your deserts
We died in your valleys we died on your plains
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes
Both sides of the river we died just the same
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees.

As we struggle with the idea of securing our borders, I think we tend to forget the determination and risk that surrounds these attempts at an American dream. America gives them hope and yet so many die. Left to rot in deserts and valleys. Another statistic. Another number. We lump them all with the people who use them...the drug smugglers, the exploitive businesses, or the fast money transportation makers. We are satisfied with our archaic immigration system. Laws that favor the few. Making criminals of people whose only crime is wanting a better life for their children.

Some of us are illegal, and others not wanted
Our work contract's out and we have to move on
But it's six hundred miles to that Mexican border
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees.

Temporary worker programs. Temporary visas. Businesses that promise safe passage. Or just relatives that they want to join. It is complicated to manage a bureaucratic system and they often choose living in fear rather than going back to poverty.

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit
To fall like dry leaves and rot on the top soil
and be called by no name except deportee
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees.

We send so many mixed messages. Our businesses want the cheap labor. Some sectors DEPEND on the cheap labor. It can be back breaking work and the pay does not sustain a normal life. But still they come. And the number of legal and illegal immigrants continues to grow. And we continue to ignore tangible solutions. And instead we want tougher laws. Tougher restrictions. More dead in the desert. More roundups in the streets. And more isolation of ethnic groups.

If solutions are really what we want, then call them by name....not deportees.