LatinaLista — What the immigration debate has lacked thus far is a “poster child” that brings home the issue and exposes how it impacts the most vulnerable.
Well, the wait is finally over.
Two-year-old Martin, a young Guatemalan, was found abandoned in an Frankfort, Indiana Wal-Mart store on Friday, June 13.
In the note found with Martin, his mother states that the young family arrived a year ago from Guatemala. It wasn’t long afterwards that her husband left her. According to the letter written in Spanish, the mother doesn’t have the means to buy her son food or provide a roof over his head.
So, she did what has been done by millions of women around the world since the beginning of time, or at least as far back as Moses, she left him at a place she knew to be relatively safe. Where there were people, fellow mothers, who would find him, protect him and help him.
She was right because that’s exactly what happened — plus more.
Currently, there is a search underway for Martin’s mother. At this point, officials aren’t sure that the situation is as it appears. There have been conjectures that this boy could have been kidnapped from somewhere either in the US or even Guatemala and that the whole story may be fabricated.
But seeing that the boy was in good shape when he was found and, according to one eyewitness, too solemn for a little boy his age, means that so far in his short life, it’s been a traumatic journey.
In fact, that’s one clue that points to the fact that this story may just be true. With so much trauma and stress happening to these undocumented families, children witness it and internalize it. There’s not much for them to be happy about in their young childhoods.
If the case of Martin is true, some will no doubt pat themselves on the back for an immigration enforcement policy that seems to be working.
Yet, it’s a sad testament that there exists such a policy that it forces a mother to abandon her child because it deprives her of the means to care for him — not because she won’t work but because she can’t.
Today, it’s Martin. Tomorrow it could be Argelia. The next day Luis. The day after that Lety. Next week…
Comment(35)
veronica
A few years ago in the suburbs of Chicago a boy was found dead on the side of the road. The best theory to who he was is that his parents were undocumented and he died so they left him there. This lil guy is lucky. I can’t believe we are letting this happen.
Grandma
I have much sympathy for the child in this article and I sincerely hope that they find someone to care for him. The solution to this problem is simple. Don’t migrate to the US illegaly.
“In the note found with Martin, his mother states that the young family arrived a year ago from Guatemala. It wasn’t long afterwards that her husband left her. According to the letter written in Spanish, the mother doesn’t have the means to buy her son food or provide a roof over his head.”
Would the father of this child who left this family be one of the wonderful fathers you refer to in your previous article?
Horace
Again, Latinos politicizing this issue by using children as wedges to gain legal residency. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. One child hardly makes a case for granting citizenship to people who have violated our immigration laws. No doubt he’ll be turned over to the Guatemalan consulate and sent home, where someone more responsible will give him a home. It’s a sad commentary on the Guatemalan government that it can’t provide a socioeconomic environment where its citizens do not have to abandon their beloved country to find work.
El Loco
Yet, it’s a sad testament that there exists such a policy that it forces a mother to abandon her child because it deprives her of the means to care for him — not because she won’t work but because she can’t.
Sorry Marisa, but this is not a story about immigration policy gone bad. This story – which could arguably happen to U.S. citizens as well – is about men not being responsible or accountable for their children and leaving the children and the mother to fend for themselves. The immigration element is a complicating factor, but this is really about a man acting like an a**hole.
Besides, if it was a situation where the mother left the child to come back for him later, or to return to Guatemala, you may have an argument that she was abandoning the child for his own good. But we don’t know that yet.
Heck, we don’t even know if the mother is undocumented.
Frank
Oh, I see so it is the fault of the U.S. that we won’t take in the entire planet’s poor and destitute? It is the fault of the U.S. because we have immigration laws just like every other country on this planet does? It is the fault of the U.S. because this mother decided to violate our immigration laws and bring her son with her? Where is the responsibility of their homelands to prove jobs for these people? Where is the accountability on this mother’s part to not endanger her child knowing full well what the consequences of her actions might be by violating our immigration laws? Where is the responibility of parents who give birth to children they cannot feed and care for? Blame, blame, blame. Seems it is always the fault of the U.S.
Challis
a sad story; yes.
a story about immigration; not so much.
Thomas
Man you should be ashame of yourself for this. My old man left me when I was 4. I didn’t blame anyone but him. Blame the parents. Blame mostly the father. They never should have been in the country the first place. I’m sure the kid will have a good life in Guatemala but not here.
Renee
Oh, I see so it is the fault of the U.S. that we won’t take in the entire planet’s poor and destitute? It is the fault of the U.S. because we have immigration laws just like every other country on this planet does? It is the fault of the U.S. because this mother decided to violate our immigration laws and bring her son with her? Where is the responsibility of their homelands to prove jobs for these people? Where is the accountability on this mother’s part to not endanger her child knowing full well what the consequences of her actions might be by violating our immigration laws? Where is the responsibility of parents who give birth to children they cannot feed and care for? Blame, blame, blame. Seems it is always the fault of the U.S.
By your arugment only the rich are entitled to reproduce. Let us not forget that US is only in a position of power because it exploits. You cannot blame people when you are the cause of their poverty. Every time you purchase something do you ever stop and think about the real value of that item? Let me tell you a little something if you are paying 59 cents a pound for bananas that means that some worker didn’t pay so that you could get your daily shot of potassium. Learn to own your privilege.
Evelyn
Renee
You are ssssooooo right. The ‘Ignorance Breeds Racism’ crowd has a creed they go by, so they could never admit responsibility.
Ignorance Breeds Racism Creed:
Create Immigration Problem
Lie about it
Deny responsibility
Blame the victim and his supporters
Reward the guilty
Make the innocent pay
Horace
“By your arugment only the rich are entitled to reproduce.”
No, but it’s immoral for people to have children they’re incapable of supporting. It’s unrealistic to expect the world to bail out parents for their irresponsible actions. Animals reproduce themselves to the point of starvation because they do not understand the principles of causality, but mankind has a choice. Maybe you think that 11 year olds should have children too.
Frank
Oh my the exaggerations start! Where did I say that only the rich should reproduce? I just said that people should only have kids they can afford to feed.
Americans are the cause of their poverty? How so?
Your sentence about bananas was incoherent. Not sure what you were trying to say.
Evelyn
Grandma
You say: Don’t migrate to the US illegally.
I say: Help keep our gov. out of the politics of other governments. Like Iraq right now. Next wave of immigrants in a few years will be Iraqis. After the U.S. gov, steals their wealth and sucks that country dry like they have done below our southern border.
Horace
“By your arugment only the rich are entitled to reproduce. Let us not forget that US is only in a position of power because it exploits.”
Oh really? Exploits what? We are a nation of commerce, dependant on raw materials for abroad, materials we pay for, from willing sellers and add value to, because we turn them into finished goods. Even that’s being done on a limited basis due to Chinese labor, which truly can be said to be exploited. We’re not colonialists. Just what exploitation are you talking about? Renee, it is you and your friends that are the exploiters, because it is your kind that insist that we need to exploit the cheap illegal labor from Latin America, employees that serve as a safety valve for the corrupt governments that would otherwise be removed from power if they stayed home.
U.S. is a power because it is a nation of laws, not like Latin America which is corrupt to its very foundations.
Renee, if you feel so strongly anti-American, why don’t you migrate, maybe to Latin America, which you appear to think is morally pure. I don’t dislike illegal immigrants as much as I hate their Marxist defenders like you who spew their propagandist distortions. If theirs a better place than the U.S. to be, migrate there, even if its as an illegal immigrant. Just be ready to be deported, as there’s no country on this planet that doesn’t do the same as the U.S.
Evelyn
Horace said, “Oh really? Exploit’s what? Choose one Horace. Did you think the U.S. was so powerful because it was our manifest destiny?
US Foreign Policy
Code Name “Operation Frankenstein”
by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
At its birth America was a weak nation and would have been stillborn in the absence of British blunders. Washington hardly won any battle except the last one and that victory would not have been possible without the French fleet blockading Cornwallis at Yorktown. The defeated Cornwallis was then inflicted as a successful plague on India. Washington had the wisdom to warn against entangling foreign alliances and Adams steered a prudent middle course between the two hegemons Britain and France, at the cost of losing his reelection to the presidency. Jefferson, initially a rabid supporter of the carnage of the French Revolution stated that the tree of revolution needs the blood of patriots from time to time for its sustenance and renewal, but acquired some wisdom with age and refrained from wars while the nascent United States got its feet. He even more than doubled its size by the Louisiana Purchase by exceeding his constitutional powers. It was the normally calm and reasonable Madison with newly acquired delusions of grandeur and a lust for Canada, who precipitated the war against the British in 1812 with initially disastrous consequences. He was saved by General Andrew Jackson in the battle of New Orleans.
John Quincy Adams, the son of a former president and a president to be, formulated the Monroe Doctrine as a Secretary of State under President Monroe. Its original intention was to bar interference in the Americas by European states which were then monarchies. Like all good intentions they paved the path to hell. By the middle of the nineteenth century, America had deprived Mexico of half its territories, set the Cherokees and other Indians on a “Trail of Tears”, fulfilled its manifest destiny to stretch from sea to shining sea (Atlantic to Pacific) and gone through the aborted catharsis of the Civil War. It began formulating an independent foreign policy instead of one of expediency for survival. Over the next 150 years it morphed from the puny nocturnal mammal in the realm of dinosaurs to the current single dominating superpower to cause enough climate change literally and figuratively to endanger the planet.
Madison and Hamilton had used their high proclamations to create a nation in which the majority was sidelined and bamboozled to establish a tyranny of the minority. They understood the greed of human beings and the fickleness and intellectual limitations of the masses and believed in the oligarchy of the elite and had enshrined the rights of property above those of human beings. Thus it was inevitable that the desire for wealth of Americans would stifle the freedoms of the rest of the American continent and the Monroe Doctrine would serve as the linchpin for this exploitation. Repeated military interference and colonization by proxy in the Central and South American countries with support for collaborating kleptocrats and brutal oppression of the masses was the outcome in Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. Hawaii, Guam, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and Afghanistan under Soviet occupation are the second phase of this Operation Frankenstein and the third phase of this catastrophic strategy involves Afghanistan once again, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Algeria.
Communism is inconsistent with human nature though utopian in some of its ideals. Capitalism though congruent with human nature suffers from the curse of business cycles with its booms and busts. The inevitable asynchronous time lag of feedback controls leads to a phase of increased production with insufficient markets. This led to conquest and colonization to extract cheap raw materials and forced trade of expensive, sometimes unnecessary and occasionally harmful finished products to large populations. Its less malignant form was Commodore Perry’s forceful opening of Japanese trade and more malignant form was the colonization of Africa and Asia by European powers. The most malignant form was the forced sale of British opium from its colony India to the weak and helpless China. Many so called rich Boston Brahmin families acquired their wealth by piracy and forcibly selling opium to the Chinese.
American rich elite lobbied the government to overthrow weak governments in Central and South America to retain their plantations and mines and enrich themselves. The US government which was conceived as a plutocracy of the landed gentry, merchants, bankers and traders naturally went along. The annexation of Hawaii is a classic example. The enshrinement of the corporation in its temples of justice led to the Dred Scott, Lochner and other decisions by the US Supreme Court with the use of the Pinkertons, National Guard and the military to violently intimidate labor. The irony is that the Communist and Socialist parties were the ones who fought to bring basic benefits and eight hour workdays for the oppressed American workers. The vast natural resources of America and its captive backyard for cheap raw materials and export of finished goods with the inventive genius of its inhabitants and immigrants, eventually led to rapidly rising living standards for the American proletariat and thus falsified Marx’s prediction of the inevitable demise and self-destruction of capitalism. The Schumpeterian view of creative destruction with capitalism rising from its ashes like a Phoenix became the new mantra.
What was forgotten and has become the first Frankenstein is that the tyrannical, ruthless and cruel treatment of the majority of the peoples of Central and South America would grow slowly but inexorably in the minds of the masses and eventually metastatize from country to country in Central and South America. Despite the killing of Guevara, the inevitable exploitation and its newest avatar of neo-liberal globalization known as the Washington Consensus led to increased poverty and greater disparity of wealth in Central and South America. It was Lenin who first realized the failure of Marxist predictions was due to the exploitation shifting from labor in developed countries to labor in colonies. Belgian Congo was the classic example as documented in the book “Scramble for Africa”. Thus the Soviet Union despite its imperial history of Czarist Russia and its continuation of holding those conquered nations, became a friendlier role model for colonies yearning for independence.
The stage was now set for the second act for this drama. Wilson at the Paris peace conference had made grand statements about self-government for all nationalities without meaning them and had gone on to betray the Arabs, Indians, Vietnamese and Kurds, to name a few. The seeds of nationalism and the desire for independence had begun to take root in Asia and Africa. The imperial colonizers stifled the growth of right and center right political parties leaving the opposition to gravitate towards the left who got verbal support from the Soviets. They had already been antagonized by the West which had sent its armies to oppose the Bolsheviks. The other nidus of resistance in much of the Middle East and North Africa coalesced around the Islamic religion and thus mosques became a refuge for natives desirous of independence and opposed to their colonial masters or their collaborating puppets.
Frank
It never ceases to amaze me how those who claim to “love” their country, but never seem to be able to post anything positive about it! If I claim to love someone, but never seem to be able to find anything good to say abou them, that claim would ring hollow, wouldn’t it?
One seems to have access to an unlimited number of anti-American articles posted by America haters. Yet, they claim to “love” this country?
Yes, several generations of brainwashing by Socialist teachers and community activists seem to have taken a toll on our country.
What disgusts me beyond all words about leftists/Socialists is that this country has offered more people more opportunity than any other country in the world. More people want to come in here than any other place in the world. And yet they can only find fault. Well, that’s to be expected. Socialist/Marxists hate Capitalism and the U.S. is (so far) a Capitalistic society.
These Socialists are chasing an unattainable goal of complete equality. And in doing so, they will ruin the best chance for equality that any country in the world has thus far provided. And even after they have completely ruined this country, they will never admit what they did and why it happened.
Don’t get me wrong: we are not a perfect country and we have made mistakes like all countries do. But, overall, I think we are a force for good in the world.
Stace
“The solution to this problem is simple. Don’t migrate to the US illegaly.”
Yeah and watch your kids starve to death instead. Why do you think they come here? We treat them like shit but they keep coming because no one with an ounce of decency will allow their child to strave to death if there was a way to feed them.
Evelyn
I am willing to give my life so you have the freedom to call me any name you wish.
I am willing to give my life so you can be treated equally.
I am also willing to die so you can have justice.
I am willing to do this because I love my country and what she has had to offer immigrants (including your ancestors) who come here.
However I am not willing to turn a blind eye to the injustices our gov. has comitted upon other countries and their people. If that makes me an ‘America hater’ in your eyes than so be it.
That is the difference between you and me. I believe people in other countries should also be able to enjoy freedom, justice and equality in their own country. I dont believe they should have to migrate to enjoy those rights or their wealth.
You believe only you are entitled to these rights. That is racism.
Evelyn
Tell it like it is Stace. You rock!
Frank
Where did any anti-illegal EVER say that people in other countries shouldn’t be able to enjoy freedom, justice, and equality in their OWN country!! ON THE CONTRARY we are saying that THEIR OWN COUNTRIES are where they should be marching in the streets and demanding their “rights!” It is only because THEIR OWN COUNTRIES are so corrupt and inept that they cannot provide for themselves THERE!
One is PROJECTING their own bias and racism onto others, there own hatred for their own country which they feel is inherently racist and injust due to its Capitalistic system and creating it where it does not exist! Nobody feels that only Americans are entitled to live in dignity, freedom, and prosperity. We just differ that they do not have a right to crash into our sovereign nation illegally to live that life. They have EVERY RIGHT to live it in their own sovereign nations. Nobody ever said otherwise! Nice try, though.
It is oh-so-much easier to deflect all blame from the ones responsible in THOSE governments and shove the blame and responsibility onto U.S. citizens. Just like kids who want to blame their parents or teachers for their own failure in school. I mean, if you accept the blame, then that means you actually have to modify YOUR OWN behavior. And who wants to do that when they can merely point the finger at an outside scapegoat, right?
Grandma
Evelyn said:
Grandma
You say: Don’t migrate to the US illegally.
I say: Help keep our gov. out of the politics of other governments.
Evelyn, I think that’s a wonderful idea. Think Mexico would consider that idea, staying out of our politics?
Evelyn
Where did any anti-illegal EVER say that people in other countries shouldn’t be able to enjoy freedom, justice, and equality in their OWN country!! ON THE CONTRARY we are saying that THEIR OWN COUNTRIES are where they should be marching in the streets and demanding their “rights!” It is only because THEIR OWN COUNTRIES are so corrupt and inept that they cannot provide for themselves THERE!
Because you are blinded by hate for Mexicans, you are unable to accept that any of their reasons for migrating may be justified.
Why that would blow a big hole in the lies you have spewed about them. It is easier to turn a blind eye to the crimes and exploitation that our gov, has unleashed on other countries and attack Mexicans instead of admitting you are wrong.
You would have to accept that this gov, is to blame for the migration of these people and that they are justified in what they are forced to do. You would have to admit that you would do the same thing if put in their place.
It is easier for you to accuse those who refuse to be your accomplices in hate and instead expose these dirty little secrets that blow your lies to pieces as American haters.
~~~~
One is PROJECTING their own bias and racism onto others, there own hatred for their own country which they feel is inherently racist and injust due to its Capitalistic system and creating it where it does not exist! Nobody feels that only Americans are entitled to live in dignity, freedom, and prosperity. We just differ that they do not have a right to crash into our sovereign nation illegally to live that life. They have EVERY RIGHT to live it in their own sovereign nations. Nobody ever said otherwise! Nice try, though.
No one has crashed into your sovereign nation illegally. Mexicans were here way before your ancestors stole their land and built borders. Nice Try!
~~~~
It is oh-so-much easier to deflect all blame from the ones responsible in THOSE governments and shove the blame and responsibility onto U.S. citizens. Just like kids who want to blame their parents or teachers for their own failure in school.
One only has to look at all the meddling the U.S. gov. does in other countries to know where the blame lies.
~~~~
I mean, if you accept the blame, then that means you actually have to modify YOUR OWN behavior.
Well of course we wouldn’t want to accept blame it is so much easier to fool ourselves and go on lying.
~~~~
And who wants to do that when they can merely point the finger at an outside scapegoat, right?
Well yeah, why accept blame where blame is due. Just Blame the Mexicans???
martha
So sad that and shame on all of you to not think of the child first and instead you trash other countries. Just like Guatemala there are many other countries and not necessarily of latin origin. I work at a pediatric hospital and see so many abused children. So it makes me happy to atleast know this kid will have a chance to live. And don’t worry about where the child is going, most cases like this one brought up to the medias attention will have a good outcoming because I am sure there is already a list of people waiting to adopt this boy, U.S. Citizen or not. So shame on most of you.
Frank
I don’t know WHAT it will take to get it through someone’s skull in here that Mexica Indios NEVER INHABITED the U.S. Southwest!! The Aztecs were limited to a 35-mile radius around what is now Mexico City. The U.S. Southwest area was inhabited by North American tribes, Spanish landowners, and Catholic missions! It was very sparsely populated.
And if one really wants to talk about who drew the boundaries, the SPANISH were here FIRST. They colonized what is now Mexico, Central and South America. They drew the boundaries FIRST.
Here is the homeland of the “Mexica tribe” – 1000 miles SOUTH of the existing US/Mex border.
http://www.crystalinks.com/aztecs.html
Frank
FYI, for the hundredth time, I don’t hate Mexicans. I have a distaste for those who violate our soveriegn borders illegally no matter who they are. No, there is no justification for doing it either! We citizens shouldn’t have to accept millions of foreigners into our country without permission because of any so-called sins of our government and no I wouldn’t violate another country’s borders FOR ANY REASON! And yes, they have crashed our borders illegally. See the map that I provided in the above post. Mexicans weren’t here first and what land that the Mexican government held at one time was purchased by the U.S. government.
I am well aware of the sins of our government but that doesn’t negate the fact that we still have the right to have immigration laws and that our citizens have a right to see that they are enforced.
There is plenty of blame to go around in this illegal immigration mess, our government, greedy employers and the illegal themselves (they aren’t all Mexicans either) but we American citizens are not going to pay for the sins of the above three guilty parties.
Evelyn
Grandma
Mexicos ruling elite and the U.S. gov are almost the same entity. They have the same goals. Get richer and to hell with the people.
Evelyn
I don’t know WHAT it will take to get it through someone’s skull in here that Mexica Indios NEVER INHABITED the U.S. Southwest!!
This Native American disagrees with you.
The Return of Native Americans as Immigrants
New America Media, Commentary, Louis E.V. Nevaer, Posted: Oct 24, 2007
The United States is seeing a resurgence of Native Americans in the form of immigrants who are descendents of North America’s indigenous populations. As Native Americans, they are terrifying precisely because they have a moral claim to cross the borders imposed on their lands, writes NAM contributor Louis E.V. Nevaer.
As the immigration debate rages throughout the nation, the lingering, but unspoken, fear is that illegal immigration from Mexico heralds the return of the Native American.
“The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages,†Samuel Huntington famously argued in Foreign Affairs magazine in March 2004, unleashing a firestorm of protests among U.S. Hispanics and Latinos. “Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves — from Los Angeles to Miami — and rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream.â€
In fact, almost all Mexican immigrants are descendents of North America’s indigenous peoples. As Native Americans, they are terrifying precisely because they have a moral claim to migrate throughout the nation-states imposed on their lands.
This vilification of immigrants differs from the same sentiment of earlier generations. Previously, Americans debated and settled immigration issues through legislation: the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to keep French and Irish Catholics out, the anti-Papist sentiment that fueled Nativism in the 19th century aimed at Italian, Irish and German immigrants, the xenophobia that culminated in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the “Gentlemen’s Agreement†of 1907 aimed at the Japanese.
In “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order,†Huntington argued that the Mexican state was complementary to the American one, both heirs of Europe and the Enlightenment. This suggests that the cultural conflict he fears is between Western versus Native American.
He is correct. Native Americans are indifferent to the Western values used to obliterate them, and he recognizes the moral authority with which they challenge the very concept of the nation-state.
To refuse entry to immigrants from across the oceans, from Europe or Asia, is one thing; to stand against the internal movements of Native American people, Americans find unsettling. They can’t forget that efforts to transplant and expand European civilization in the New World have been the driving force behind the settling of the West in the 19th century and the exclusion of Native Americans from the mainstream of society in the 20th.
It almost worked: There are no Manhattans on the island of Manhattan, no Coast Miwok in San Francisco.
“The only good Injun is a dead Injun,†is a line in a Hollywood Western that sums up the nation’s attitude during the 19th century, and it is true that Native Americans were massacred, subjected to forced migrations and deliberately infected with contagious diseases so as to reduce their numbers. It is also true that during the last century, the establishment of reservations created marginalized communities where alcoholism, substance abuse and unemployment demoralized Native Americans into early graves.
Now, peoples rendered almost irrelevant to American society are thriving in such large numbers that they are once again on the move across the continent.
The return of the Native American began in earnest in the 1980s, during the Sanctuary Movement in California. Suddenly, people apprehended at the borders spoke neither English nor Spanish. Isa Gucciardi, who managed a translation company in San Francisco, reported getting calls from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), as it was called then, with requests for interpreters who spoke “Indian†languages from southern Mexico and Central America. “We had to double the rate, since it was so difficult to find anyone who spoke English and Tzotzil Maya,†she said.
Despite their best efforts to wipe them out, at the start of the 21st century, Zapotec, Mixtec, Maya and scores of other indigenous peoples have returned.
They are working in our restaurants, stocking shelves in our stores, building houses and doing our landscaping. They are taking care of our kids while we’re at the office, and giving birth to more Native Americans in our hospitals. They are fueling the economic expansion, contributing to a society that looks upon them with disdain.
Yet in the second half of 20th century, it was Europeans who looked on Americans with disdain. Walt Whitman celebrated America being one people out of many – “Of every hue and caste am I†– but to the Europeans, hyphenated Americans are mongrels and half-breeds: Irish-Americans, African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Anglo-Americans.
The realization that Native Americans are crossing the borders that crossed them is alarming even Jesse Jackson. Interviewed on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,†he complained that the workers streaming into New Orleans were “outside workers,†since he could not bring himself to say “Native Americans from Latin America.â€
My office in New York is in the Citigroup Center where the only Native American used to be the “Manna-Hata†Indian on the seal stenciled on the flag of the City of New York, standing next to an early Dutch colonist.
Not anymore. Now when I go to the lobby and downstairs into the subway concourse that connects the Uptown Number 6 train with the E and V subways, there are Maya women, wearing their traditional textiles. Their babies strapped on their backs in shawls, with a blanket made of blue basket, they lay out before them for sale probably the last thing that is actually made in New York City: pirated DVDs of Hollywood movies.
Having rid ourselves of the Manna-Hata people, we import Native Americans from Mexico.
Evelyn
FYI, for the hundredth time, I don’t hate Mexicans.
Then why do you blame only Mexicans for all this countries ills? There are also Irish unauthorized immigrants and Asian and Russian and African unauthorized immigrants but it is only the Mexican or Central Americans you blame and demonize and lie about.
~~~~~~~
I have a distaste for those who violate our soveriegn borders illegally no matter who they are.
So do I, but I dont make up lies to blame
only Hispanic immigrants for all Americas ills.
If I had to walk 2 steps in immigrants shoes I would do the same thing they do. What kind of mother or Father is going to sit and listen to their children cry because they are hungry.
~~~~~~~~
No, there is no justification for doing it either! We citizens shouldn’t have to accept millions of foreigners into our country without permission because of any so-called sins of our government
We the people are responsible for electing our leaders. We are the gov. If we elect idiot officials we get rid of and dont make the same mistake again.
~~~~~~~~~~
and no I wouldn’t violate another country’s borders FOR ANY REASON!
So then you WOULD let your children die of starvation? Think again.
~~~~~~~~
And yes, they have crashed our borders illegally.
We crashed theirs first and still are. NAFTA, The Mexican American War, The massacre at Tlatelolco, and others.
~~~~~~~~~~
See the map that I provided in the above post. Mexicans weren’t here first and what land that the Mexican government held at one time was purchased by the U.S. government.
Yeah, we waged an illegal war because they refused to sell it to us so we bought it anyway…. by force LOL!
We paid a Spaniard that was hiding in Cuba for land he didnt have a right to sell. YOU CANT BE SERIOUS, but if you are, get out of your house because I just bought it from the pawn shop guy in your city.
~~~~~~~
I am well aware of the sins of our government but that doesn’t negate the fact that we still have the right to have immigration laws and that our citizens have a right to see that they are enforced.
I agree with you, so lets pass some laws that have teeth in them and can be inforced. No one should be given a job without a ID card. Put employers who hire people with Illegal status in Jail. No warning Jail. 6 months for first offence. Give immigrants here now a chance to fix their illegal status.
~~~~~~~~
There is plenty of blame to go around in this illegal immigration mess, our government, greedy employers and the illegal themselves (they aren’t all Mexicans either) but we American citizens are not going to pay for the sins of the above three guilty
parties
We Americans are the Government We elect them. They represent us. If they make a mistake we pay.
Frank
I have never blamed just Mexicans or other Hispanics here illegally for all of our ills. That is a flat out lie! Show me a post where I did that! Illegal immigation from anywhere is bad for our country.
Try telling the Comanche, Apache Indians, etc. that the Indeginous tribes of Mexico have any right to be in U.S. territory. As I said, they were never this far north! They have no claim to the entire North American continent!
These mothers and fathers who had children they couldn’t feed in the first place should be taking their so-called starvation up with THEIR OWN HOMELANDS, not the U.S. They aren’t our citizens! This is exactly what I would do in their situation! This starvation argument is all BS anyway. It is not rampant in Mexico like it is in India, etc.
Again, we citizens are not going to take the heat for the mistakes of our government. We elect politicians who make promises they don’t keep afterwards. We shall throw these bums out of office but under no circumstances should the American people be held responsible for their stupidity and be force to take in million and millions of foreigners and commit national suicide.
Illegal war? Are there “legal” wars? That was over 200 years ago. What has that to do with us today? The lands were bought, deal with it! The land was bought from the Mexican government! Besides, these illegals are not just returning to the southwest where Mexico had claim of some territory at one time, they are invading the enter U.S. and their ancestors were never here in the first place!
Our immigration laws have always been forceable, they just weren’t! I agree that we should have a national I.D. card and hold the employers accountable by the e-verify system and those who still hire illegal aliens should have their business shut down, fined, imprisoned and throw away the key but I draw the line at giving the illegals a pass by rewarding them with legalization or citizenship. They are just as guilty as the employers. They need to return to their homeland and apply to come back legally.
No, we citizens are not our government regardless that we elected some traitorous politicians not knowing they were going to be that way. We will not pay for their lies and their mistakes!!!!!!!! They lie to us during their campaigns and then do an about face after being elected. This country belongs to it’s citizens, not our government and not it’s sleezy politicians. We are taking our country back from these treasounous bas@ards!
Evelyn
All these issues you bring up again have been answered on this same thread. The answers are not going to change because they are based on fact. Repeating the same misinformation over and over will not make it true.
Frank
Issues answered by mere biased opinion doesn’t mean squat! What facts? I haven’t posted any misinformation in here.
Evelyn
If you could open your eyes instead of letting yourself be blinded by racism, you could see the facts in all the evidence from all the credible studies done by people who are unbiased and professional at what they do.
Instead you choose to be just another puppet of Tantons circus of lies and deceit. UGH!
Tamara
Hello Evelyn,
You stated “Native Americans are crossing the borders that crossed them.” That is an odd statement to make. What does it mean exactly?
Frank
What racism? To state the fact that some illegal aliens commit crimes other than violating our borders is racism? To want our immigration laws enforced is racism? I have told you I hold my own views and it is based on the rule of law, common sense and logic and nothing else! No one influences me. Not Tanton nor anyone else. You are however influenced by your so-called credible sources and I haven’t seen a credible one posted by you in here yet! Liquid posted a Calif. government source about the how negatively illegal immigration has impacted that state and you don’t call that credible?
I don’t care about any of the statistics negative, positive or otherwise anyway, I argue from the rule of law and that is what kills you. You can’t dispute that or call that racism with a straight face! But you do anyway, because you have no viable arguments for your own white-hating, ethnocentric agenda.
Liquidmicro
Today, indigenous nations divided by the U.S.-Mexico border include the Kumeyaay of California, the Tohono O’odham, Pascua Yaqui, Gila River Indian Community (Akimel O’odham), Cocopah, and Yavapai Apache of Arizona, and the Kickapoo of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. These are the only Native Americans who can actually say that the border crossed them, that they didn’t cross the border. These are Tribes that were living in the regions that were separated with the southern border of the USA. There are other tribes on the Northern border as well, such as the Blackfeet who’s territory was divided due to the lines drawn.
How long must one be living in an area to be called “indigenous” to that area? These people migrated to an area of their choosing, set down roots and called it theirs. They only traveled through what is now the USA, they may have stopped, but only for a short period of time before moving further south. Now you and Navear are trying to justify there migration north? What if there was no work here, would they still be coming? Nevaer is only going back to the time and point that benefits a certain group of people. What of the white skinned, red-haired mummy’s found in Utah, the old stories of these people dating back 10’s of thousands of years. They date back to almost the time of the bearing straight as well. What of we are all descended from Adam and Eve. I agree about NAFTA, it should be reworked to really be fair. We should remove all sub-sidies from our farmers which would regulate the cost of corn and other impacted staples continentally.
Evelyn Chavez
Tamara :
Hello Evelyn,
You stated “Native Americans are crossing the borders that crossed them.” That is an odd statement to make. What does it mean exactly?
E
This is what it means.
The Return of Native Americans as Immigrants
New America Media, Commentary, Louis E.V. Nevaer, Posted: Oct 24, 2007
The United States is seeing a resurgence of Native Americans in the form of immigrants who are descendents of North America’s indigenous populations. As Native Americans, they are terrifying precisely because they have a moral claim to cross the borders imposed on their lands, writes NAM contributor Louis E.V. Nevaer.
As the immigration debate rages throughout the nation, the lingering, but unspoken, fear is that illegal immigration from Mexico heralds the return of the Native American.
“The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages,†Samuel Huntington famously argued in Foreign Affairs magazine in March 2004, unleashing a firestorm of protests among U.S. Hispanics and Latinos. “Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves — from Los Angeles to Miami — and rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream.â€
In fact, almost all Mexican immigrants are descendents of North America’s indigenous peoples. As Native Americans, they are terrifying precisely because they have a moral claim to migrate throughout the nation-states imposed on their lands.
This vilification of immigrants differs from the same sentiment of earlier generations. Previously, Americans debated and settled immigration issues through legislation: the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to keep French and Irish Catholics out, the anti-Papist sentiment that fueled Nativism in the 19th century aimed at Italian, Irish and German immigrants, the xenophobia that culminated in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the “Gentlemen’s Agreement†of 1907 aimed at the Japanese.
In “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order,†Huntington argued that the Mexican state was complementary to the American one, both heirs of Europe and the Enlightenment. This suggests that the cultural conflict he fears is between Western versus Native American.
He is correct. Native Americans are indifferent to the Western values used to obliterate them, and he recognizes the moral authority with which they challenge the very concept of the nation-state.
To refuse entry to immigrants from across the oceans, from Europe or Asia, is one thing; to stand against the internal movements of Native American people, Americans find unsettling. They can’t forget that efforts to transplant and expand European civilization in the New World have been the driving force behind the settling of the West in the 19th century and the exclusion of Native Americans from the mainstream of society in the 20th.
It almost worked: There are no Manhattans on the island of Manhattan, no Coast Miwok in San Francisco.
“The only good Injun is a dead Injun,†is a line in a Hollywood Western that sums up the nation’s attitude during the 19th century, and it is true that Native Americans were massacred, subjected to forced migrations and deliberately infected with contagious diseases so as to reduce their numbers. It is also true that during the last century, the establishment of reservations created marginalized communities where alcoholism, substance abuse and unemployment demoralized Native Americans into early graves.
Now, peoples rendered almost irrelevant to American society are thriving in such large numbers that they are once again on the move across the continent.
The return of the Native American began in earnest in the 1980s, during the Sanctuary Movement in California. Suddenly, people apprehended at the borders spoke neither English nor Spanish. Isa Gucciardi, who managed a translation company in San Francisco, reported getting calls from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), as it was called then, with requests for interpreters who spoke “Indian†languages from southern Mexico and Central America. “We had to double the rate, since it was so difficult to find anyone who spoke English and Tzotzil Maya,†she said.
Despite their best efforts to wipe them out, at the start of the 21st century, Zapotec, Mixtec, Maya and scores of other indigenous peoples have returned.
They are working in our restaurants, stocking shelves in our stores, building houses and doing our landscaping. They are taking care of our kids while we’re at the office, and giving birth to more Native Americans in our hospitals. They are fueling the economic expansion, contributing to a society that looks upon them with disdain.
Yet in the second half of 20th century, it was Europeans who looked on Americans with disdain. Walt Whitman celebrated America being one people out of many – “Of every hue and caste am I†– but to the Europeans, hyphenated Americans are mongrels and half-breeds: Irish-Americans, African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Anglo-Americans.
The realization that Native Americans are crossing the borders that crossed them is alarming even Jesse Jackson. Interviewed on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,†he complained that the workers streaming into New Orleans were “outside workers,†since he could not bring himself to say “Native Americans from Latin America.â€
My office in New York is in the Citigroup Center where the only Native American used to be the “Manna-Hata†Indian on the seal stenciled on the flag of the City of New York, standing next to an early Dutch colonist.
Not anymore. Now when I go to the lobby and downstairs into the subway concourse that connects the Uptown Number 6 train with the E and V subways, there are Maya women, wearing their traditional textiles. Their babies strapped on their backs in shawls, with a blanket made of blue basket, they lay out before them for sale probably the last thing that is actually made in New York City: pirated DVDs of Hollywood movies.
Having rid ourselves of the Manna-Hata people, we import Native Americans from Mexico.
Given this demographic trend, it’s only a matter of time before we hear, “Press three to continue in Zapotec.â€
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