Anti Immigration Sentiment up 50 percent in Houston, Texas with video

A recent Houston poll by Rice University showed that the overall angst directed at Mexican immigration has risen by 50% since 2004. In almost perfect correlation to the economic crisis caused by the Republican Bush Administration. The same historic scapegoating that has been going for eons, placing the blame upon the least of us who are also the least responsible rather than where it belongs, upon those in charge. It would seem that those in charge are the ones who get it all going. Rice University Immigration Survey


This is a local town meeting held for PBS here in Houston on May 26th, 2008. For the full hour go to Houston PBS Have Your Say

Play this while you read
This issue has been much discussed here by the Houston Chronicle and the Houston PBS station. Both of which show that most all the angst directed at Hispanics is driven by the same old crowd, what Arianna Huffington in her new book calls the Lunatic Fringe but is really just The Republican Base. It is primarily made up of Right-wing radio talk show hosts, conservative preachers, and racist organizations like the Minutemen and other vigilante border patrol groups. With the Klan politically incorrect of late, old members have found new groups to join under a the more conservatively correct banner of Nativist rather than the old unfair word Racist. If you have been watching cable news of late, you know that there are no white racists in America anymore, all the racists are African American now.

In the video you will see recently elected State Senator Dan Patrick who is Houston's loudest voice on the matter. Patrick is a hardcore evangelical fundamentalist Christian who for many years was the owner of Houston's premier Right Wing talk radio station and the lead in host before Rush Limbaugh. Patrick is so far out on the lunatic fringe that he once called for the executions of both President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton over some crazyass conspiracy theory. He contended that the first couple had started wild fires in New Mexico to cover up sending hard drives full of nuclear bomb information to the Chinese Communists. Treason! Execution! No lie! Patrick is an example of what drives this kind of low ball xenophobic crap which is at the core of the anti-immigration fervor at play these days.

"Many of the problems we are dealing with tonight wouldn't exist if we didn't have so many illegals coming into the country. We are in a downward spiral economically in this country, is it just coincidence it is occurring now that we had the large rush of illegals trying to get into this country? Any immigrants that want to come into this country legally I give my support. Many of us are products of parents, grandparents, great grandparents that came here many years ago as legal immigrants. What was the first thing they did when the came here they learned to speak English if that wasn't their native language, the reason was that was the only way they could succeed in this country by speaking the lauguage of this country." Ed Henderson VP Texas Border Volunteers

In that little speech taken from the video above lies the ignorance and endemic bigotry that is not only what drives this anti-immigration issue, but is at the very heart of what is most wrong with this country. It is what needs to be changed. AND GOOD LUCK WITH THAT BARACK!

Bigots can't spell either

The five fallacies of Illegal immigration:

Terrorist are going to come across the border and nuke Chicago (from the Tom Clancey book)! Islamic Jihadists are not going to wade across the Rio Grande with a 35% chance of getting caught. They are going to fly into O'Hare with impeccable papers or they are already here.

They don't learn English like historic immigrants of the past! Hispanics learn English much faster than any other historic immigrant group.

They don't pay taxes! They pay in about $10 billion a year in Social Security which they never reclaim for fear of deportation. Most pay federal withholding taxes which again they do not reclaim for the same reason. They pay sales taxes, property taxes, licensing, fees and stimulate the economy with their presence.

They are a criminal element! Illegal Immigrants are no more criminal than documented immigrants and less so than African Americans.

They depress wages! The only wages they depress are close to minimum wage and nationally it is about a nickel an hour.

The five reasons why the anti-immigration movement wants to deport 12 million illegal aliens which has nothing at all to do with paperwork.

They are foreigners!
They are not Protestants!
They are not white!
They don't speak English properly!
They have funny names like Wan and Jesus!

The five reasons to give them green cards.

When this same issue came up in 1986 Ronald Reagan used the bully pulpit to help pass legislation to give green cards to 4 million illegal aliens. Ronald Reagan, Lord of Conservatives, is never wrong.

They do the jobs the rest of us REALLY refuse to do and are needed for our economy to work. As soon as Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Tom Trancedo - in their three piece suits with flag lapel pins glittering in the noonday Sun - become lettuce pickers in the San Joaquin Valley we can discard this one.

They are especially good workers who always show up, show up on time, work harder than we do and do what they are told without lip or lawsuits.

Their reasonable religious beliefs and moral foundations, along with their superior work ethic and family values make this country a better place for the rest of us to live. After all, if it were not for the influx of hispanics here over the past 150 years, Texas would probably still be a slave state.

It is what Jesus would do. After all, if there had been a fence around Bethlehem, God only knows what may have happened to Mary and Joesph.

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