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There is only one reason the rallies occurred across this country, culminating
in a boycott yesterday. Republicans wanted to felonize 11 million illegal immigrants
and rip their families apart. Now, with the boycott yesterday having been mostly
peaceful, affecting many businesses, especially smaller ones throughout the
country, Republicans
and the wingnuts on the web have ratcheted up the rhetoric. Michelle Malkin
is panic central,
offering picture after picture of the militants
and the smattering of socialists who attend every single march known to man,
including the one yesterday. Socialists at a march, shocking! Powerline has
a revealing video
up, with coverage across the Republican blogsphere hyped
up over illegal immigration.
Democrats have a different approach: We want
illegal immigrants to have a path towards earned citizenship. It's rational,
humane and in keeping with American values over two centuries. Republicans are
freaked that if we win this battle, which we will, they'll never have a majority
again. Malkin continues her panic message with the canard that we should be
afraid of the reconquistas, offering up a snippet of an interview of Ms. Gloria
Ramirez Vargas (via translator on NPR's
“All Things Considered”): Many Mexicans are nourishing the
ground in the U.S., but those lands were once ours. Those same lands, which
now with intelligence, with love and with a lot of work, we are re-conquering
again for our Mexico. With the topper that there might have been random
“violence”
during the marches, with the scare tactic that we should be afraid of Che Guevara.
Ho-boy.
Republicans continue their campaign of fear and their frothing over reconquista,
with Michelle Malkin leading the way. Reconquista? Even Rick Moran brought it
up during our Washington Journal debate on C-SPAN. The Republicans are actually
afraid the illegal immigrants fighting their way to earned citizenship are going
to annex California and parts of the southwest. Their scare tactics are pathological.
They see enemies everywhere. These people don't deserve to run the country.
Besides, they have no one to blame for the massive protests but themselves.
Illegal immigrants were stirred by HR4377, which plainly, simply and understandably
freaked them out. The proposition of being felonized and deported rightly made
individuals come out and protest what the Republican solution is on illegal
immigration. That memory is not going away and it shouldn't. What has also been
brought home after the rallies is that when these illegal immigrants earn their
way to citizenship, for which Democrats are fighting through the Kennedy-McCain
bill, they will not be voting Republican. Why should they? There are only a
few Republicans on the right side of the issue, with Republicans currently
fighting amongst themselves over what they should do.
Many people object to the “illegal” immigrant language I use in post
after post on the subject. I use it in radio interviews as well. But softening
the language won't win the argument. If the millions of people on the street
didn't represent “illegal” individuals in this country we wouldn't
be having this political battle. I've said it many times before, but I'm not
for amnesty, which is what many are suggesting and hoping for, including many
who marched yesterday. Earned citizenship is the only way this will work, while
simultaneously putting thousands of more agents on our borders.
However, there is an issue looming that is still not being addressed. We cannot
handle the immigrants we are processing today. More funding and infrastructure
is needed, especially to implement Kennedy-McCain. We must not kid ourselves
that passing this amendment solves our challenges, because it's only a start.
Congress needs to fund the efforts so that we can actually process the millions
who will flood the system. In addition, we must demand Congress fund the corporate
investigative branch so that employers continuing to break U.S. labor laws will
be punished through their pocketbooks. Where are Republicans on that issue?
They're against holding corporations accountable. I know you're shocked.
No one is talking about the success of yesterday's boycott, but on small businesses,
the meat packing industry, as well as restaurants throughout the country, it
was felt. More importantly, the continuing uproar over the Republican Party's
policy of deporting millions of people, while making felons out of whole families,
continues to resonate with illegal immigrants who are marching for dignity and
the privilege of earning U.S. citizenship. The web wingnuts frothing over it
all today illustrate how threatened Republicans feel.
Republicans see Democratic Party voters being given earned citizenship by the
millions. Some of us, however, see hard working people and families who want
to be legal Americans. Earning citizenship over years and years, paying fines,
learning English, waiting in line, is not amnesty. Earned citizenship is wholly
and completely American. It is the moral and ethical strategy to support.
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