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Hate Decoded- Series

May 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Hate is one of those social crimes that every society is guilty of, but few people want to be openly associated with. Sometimes it lives in shadows and secrets. Sometimes it is coded and boasted about like a badge of honor. Each flavor of hate, from which there are many, has it’s own special language.

 

There has always been a distrust, or dislike for things that are different than ourselves. Each immigrant population that has come to this country has had to live with the darker side of their new communities, until such a time as a newer, more vile immigrant population takes it’s place as public enemy #1. Our current winner of this auspicious award goes to the latino population.

 

Since there is little room for logic or enlightenment inside someone who’s spirit is full to the brim with hatred, it is the misinformed I hope to speak to, as well as the latino population themselves. We all need to be aware when someone wears a mask of civility, but in reality they harbor no good will.

 

This series offers a list of words or phrases, some of which are used by people who hate our Latino population but wish to be viewed as being compassionate or fair. Some are blatant hate speech that the speaker feels just in delivering. Directly following this term or phrase is an interpretation of what it really means, often revealing their true intentions.

 

This list is by no means exhaustive, but rather ongoing, so if anyone has seen other words or phrases that are being used to disguise their true feelings towards Latino’s, please feel free to add them in the comments below this article. If I can, I’ll add it to this list.

Illegal Aliens- While this term has been the lingua franca for generations it is now a staple in most hate speech you see and hear today, often intended to be an insult towards Mexicans, and all other Latino’s by proxy. As such it is now being frowned upon by the more favored, “Undocumented Immigrant.” Technically when someone comes into this country without inspection (the actual technical term is EWI, or Entered Without Inspection)  they did enter the country illegally. Not being a citizen they are also technically an Alien by definition. It is easily understandable how this term became so standard in our lexicon for years, but with all the negative connotations implied today, people who use Undocumented Immigrant are making a conscious effort to use a more respectful term towards a part of our society that is already dealing with difficult issues on many different fronts. People who refuse to change their language and continue to flaunt the “Illegal” and the “Alien” aspects of a group are in effect continuing to insult a group of people they consider to be inferior to themselves.

 

How to combat this- Whenever you read or hear the term Illegal Alien, stop them right there and let them know that there is a more polite and respectful way of addressing this group of individuals: Undocumented Immigrant. Let them know that using illegal alien is comparable to other disparaging terms that have been used against other minorities in this country and are no longer tolerated. A word of caution: Some people may not be aware that the dialogue has changed and are using the term out of ignorance and habit.  If you Google illegal alien today you will come up with millions of results. Try to educate, not humiliate and infuriate.

Filed Under: Hate, immigrants

An Argument for Amnesty

May 10, 2012 by 1 Comment

 

Although our laws have changed many times over the years, our attitudes towards immigrants have remained the same, even while admitting we are a “melting pot” country and that immigrants made this country all that it is today.

 

We have always had a need / fear relationship with immigrants. Our history of laws tells this story quite eloquently.

 

During the gold rush, California was awash in asian immigrants who came here looking for opportunity. We needed cheap laborers to build the railroads, do our laundry, cook, work in mines, and any other hard unwanted work. We weren’t too pleased with our immigrant workers, but they served a purpose so we put up with them, until gold became scarce and the competition for work made them more undesirable. We really liked to single out our asian immigrants, imposing more rules and limits on them than any other immigrant community. We even specifically banned Chinese in 1892.

 

Currently we are demonizing the Mexican immigrant, and grouping all other latino immigrants in with them by proxy.  As with the Chinese, we liked them when times were good. They did the hard and dirty work and made our lives much easier, but ever since jobs began to get scarce, we needed to blame someone for what ails us and they look like the easiest target. After we get over demonizing Latinos, I am sure we will find another immigrant base to focus our anger and responsibility on. If history does repeat itself, my money is on the Chinese. They seem to be our favorite.

 

If we look at our immigrant forefathers, when they first came to this country, they were persecuted and made scapegoats for any problem that the citizens of this country did not see fit to take responsibility for themselves. Because of this, every successive wave of immigrants has had to endure this treatment, until finally they became accepted and the focus on them decreased. This was almost always because of a newer group of immigrants who appeared to be more of a threat than the previous one.

 

For the past several years there has raged a large debate as to what to do with the millions of undocumented latino workers living in our country. Politicians have see-sawed over this issue countless times, promising improvements in immigration policy and then restating their positions after considerable party pressure. It’s like they want to do the right thing, but when they feel like they may be eaten by their own, they retreat to the comfort and protection of their party.  This may be very much our fault too.

 

And that is the point isn’t it? Whose fault is it that they are here illegally to begin with? Should we put the blame for this situation on the people who were just working within the constructs of what they were given, or on the people who created the need but ignored the systems required to satisfy that need? And if it is our fault– if the immigrants had no control over a system that is broken beyond belief and has been for years– then how can we blame and punish them? After all, aren’t we the only ones who can create the policies and institutions necessary to ensure everyone who comes into this country is identified, and we have the labor we need?

 

Lets end the blame game and get on with the solution, which leads me to my original proposition: Isn’t amnesty the honorable way out of this mess?

 

These people have been here for many years and we have never boycotted a single company that made a product for us cheaper because they used immigrant labor. Shouldn’t we give them citizenship should they desire it? At the very least we should make it legal for them to be here and decriminalize a population of hardworking people that aren’t criminals to begin with.

 

This is our mess. We need to take responsibility for it, and fix it, without blaming the pawns in our little blame game.

 

 

Filed Under: Economy, Ethics, immigrants, Immigration's effects on citizens, Laws, Politics

Is Mexican a bad word?

May 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Hate is one of those social crimes that every society is guilty of, but few people want to be openly associated with. Sometimes it lives in shadows behind the scene, sometimes it is coded and boasted about like a badge of honor. Each flavor of hate, from which there are many, has it’s own special language. We all need to be aware when someone wears a mask of civility, but in reality they harbor no good will.

 

I am compiling a list of these terms and phrases along with their meanings and put them together in an ebook. I will also include some suggestions of what to do when you encounter someone using this language in the hopes of guiding our national dialogue into a more constructive direction.

 

Mexican-  This term is used to group all Latino’s into one big group. It’s easier to hate everyone if you just lump them all together. That way it’s not necessary to ask someone if they are from Mexico or any one of the Central or South American countries and then figure out how they feel about each one separately.1 If you Google “immigration” you will find hundreds of articles about there being 11 or 12 million illegal immigrants from Mexico, when really they are only one nation we get immigrants from, and not all of them are undocumented.

 

This is truly unfortunate for the people who are from Mexico, to have their nationality specifically associated with such anger and contempt.  Associating Mexican with illegal alien has become so commonplace that many Mexicans appear surprised and even insulted when the title Mexican is used in their presence. When the nationality of a single race is singled out and associated with condemnation so often that it sounds like the mere mention of the country is an insult, it becomes very difficult to change the dialogue to a more compassionate one, which is what is going to have to happen in order to take the first steps towards any progress in this whole immigration issue.  This needs to be stopped now.

 

 

 

How to combat this-

 

If you are from Mexico, you have every right to be proud of your heritage, just like many Americans who boast of being Italian, or Irish, or Jewish, Polish, Scottish, Welsh, German, French, etc. . . Stand up and take back the name of your country by using it proudly in your speech.  Let the world know that being a Mexican is as good as being from any other country.

 

If you are not from Mexico-  Politely stop them and make it clear what country you are from. Your country is just as good as any other too. Every country has something that their citizens can be proud of. Don’t allow people to lump you together with the ones they think they hate, making it easier to disparage your character, customs or heritage along with somebody else’s.  Letting them know where you come from will make it much tougher for them to do that.

 

A word of caution: Some people may not be aware that they are doing this. When even the news media does this it could have innocently been picked up by people who just don’t know better. Try to educate, not humiliate and infuriate. If they purposely continue to use Mexican when they speak of undocumented immigrants, just walk away and let them swim in the cesspool they fill with hate each and every day.

 

Disagree? Did I forget something? Leave a comment below the post. I will curate the best input from the public and include it in the ebook, as well as give you credit for it.

 

 

1 According to DHS Estimated Illegal Immigrant Population for Top Twenty Countries of Origin

and Top Twenty States of Residence in 2009:

 

2009 %

All countries …….. 10,750,000    100

Mexico …………….   6,650,000      62

El Salvador ……….     530,000       5

Guatemala ……….     480,000        4

Honduras. . . . . . .     320,000        3

Philippines ………..    270,000        2

India ………….. ..        200,000        2

Korea ………….  ..      200,000        2

Ecuador ……………    170,000        2

Brazil …………..  …    150,000         1

China …………………..120,000         1

Other ………. …..     1,650,000       15

Filed Under: Ethics, Hate, immigrants

The United States Immigration Debacle, Part 4: The Immigrants

May 10, 2012 by 2 Comments

 

In keeping with the idea of looking frankly at the United States Immigration debacle we would be remiss if we were to leave out the immigrant’s role in this whole immigration problem.

 

The United States receives a majority of it’s immigrants from south of our border with Mexico. Most of us tend to lump all latinos within the same “Mexican” label because it’s less work. We don’t have to ask where they came from, we just assume it’s Mexico. Most of the news, statistics, hate and overall attention is focused on the immigrants from Mexico, but just to set the record straight I found some information on the DHS website.

 

Estimated Illegal Immigrant Population for Top Twenty Countries of Origin

and Top Twenty States of Residence in 2009:

 

2009 %

All countries …….. 10,750,000    100

Mexico …………….   6,650,000      62

El Salvador ……….     530,000       5

Guatemala ……….     480,000        4

Honduras. . . . . . .     320,000        3

Philippines ………..    270,000        2

India ………….. ..        200,000        2

Korea ………….  ..      200,000        2

Ecuador ……………    170,000        2

Brazil …………..  …    150,000         1

China …………………..120,000         1

Other ………. …..     1,650,000       15

 

 

 

Irregardless  which country they come from, they all of them come here to make a better life for themselves and their families, in much the same way we in the United States go to college to do the same.

 

Many would-be immigrants have been told by relatives and friends that there are jobs waiting for them in the United States. Our businesses are hungry for affordable labor to produce an affordable product for the cost-conscious American consumer. Business owners and managers ask the people who work for them if they know of anyone else who wants a job. It’s always nice when someone comes with a referral, otherwise there are plenty of applications that come through the back door every week.

 

Just like all the other segments of our society, if an illegal immigrant has a job now they are fortunate. If they don’t, the chances are slim they will get one any time soon. After a month or two of looking for work and not finding it, they usually go home. Immigration is a function of supply and demand. The economy is at work at all times– good and bad.

 

Many of the immigrants from Mexico used to come and go back and forth with the crop seasons, or if they worked in industries other than agricultural, they would go back to be with family for the holidays. Because going back and forth between our two countries not as easy as just hopping on a plane, they usually stay for a few weeks or months and return to the U.S. when they need the money.

 

Our enhanced border enforcement since 9/11 with our added fences, ground sensors, drones and more, has been more problematic for this type of job migration and we are now seeing a community of undocumented immigrants that are trapped here, separated from their families and fearful that if they go home, they will not be able to return. If they also know that if they are fortunate enough to come back, the job they had will not be waiting for them and finding a new one will take a long time, maybe longer than they can wait.  Fences and security enhancements work both ways; they keep things out, and they keep things in.

 

So why do immigrants come here illegally if it is so difficult and dangerous? Lets look at what is involved in coming here, both legally and illegally.

 

There are two ways you can enter this country:

legally with a visa and passing through any U.S. inspection point.

 

Illegally, without a visa by circumnavigating official entry points.

 

Since there are a myriad of visa types & recipient classifications,

as well as different applicant ceilings for different countries, etc. I will compare the most basic and popular application: a work visa for permanent legal status. (green card)

All information provided here will be as of 2/9/12, and is for information purposes only. If you are looking for information regarding yourself or someone you know I recommend you speak to an attorney who specializes in immigration law.

 

Legally would require:

filling out the paperwork for an immigrant visa and submitting it to a U.S. Consulate in Mexico and pay your $400 fee.  Then you wait for an appointment for an interview in Cuidad Juarez where the data is checked and your status determined. As of this writing the applications submitted through July 15 1987 are being processed for interviews. (1987. That’s not a typo.)  Click Here to see the wait list today. When you receive your interview date you need to have a biomedical scan to check for communicable diseases and assist in identification $226 Dollars covering the medical examination ($178 for minors under age 15) Then you go to your appointment in Cuidad Juarez on your appointed interview date. If your application is approved you can pick up your immigrant visa at a DHL office, and you may enter the U.S. Your non-resident immigration visa will be mailed to your U.S. address usually within 3 months and you will have six months after entering to apply for your status to be changed to permanent legal resident. (green card) There is a lottery where 50,000 people are drawn at random and given the opportunity to apply for a green card. It is random. It may take several years.

 

Illegally would require you to: try to evade border security, which since September 11, has been beefed up quite a bit. There are fences, ground sensors, mobile immigration officers, drones, and more. Often you will pay a Coyote @$3000 or more to help you get across the border, and your success is by no means guaranteed. You may have to jump fences, swim rivers, use a tunnel, travel some pretty deadly country.

 

You may even have to brave the elements as this trip could take you many days and people have been known to die of exposure from extreme heat or cold.

 

You would have to bring enough supplies with you to survive the ordeal, but not so much that it would hamper your progress or make the journey impossible.

 

After you get here you must purchase counterfeit documents to get employment. Most business owners/managers ask for this and many of them check to see if they are valid. Expect to pay $150 – $300 or more depending on who is making them, if they know you or a relative, if they are busy, and who knows what else.

 

Then you have to find a place to live until you can save up enough money until you are able to share the rent.

 

Don’t forget about clothes, deodorant, etc. You wouldn’t have brought very much with you.

 

Finding a job for anyone is not easy right now, and this goes for immigrants as well. Many employers have had to cut back their employees as the demand for their products or services has shrunk. Add that to many employers who have always feared the repercussions of not following Federal hiring guidelines only hired people who are legally authorized to work here. Your fake documents may work for a few weeks, but when your employer receives a letter from the government stating that your documentation doesn’t match what they have on record, you are on the road again and looking for work. You will do this until you find an employer who doesn’t check or who doesn’t even ask, and that is if they are hiring at all. It used to be that agricultural industries would hire anyone willing to work, but with the added efforts by several anti-immigrant states, you won’t dare show up for work their because it could mean a quick trip home.

 

We should not have had to compare the two different methods in the first place, but as you see when you do look closely at the realities of life for an undocumented immigrant, with a twenty-five year waiting period just for an interview to get into the country, and who knows how many years longer to be a green card application lottery winner, it is understandable many people choose the illegal way. With our immigration system set up the way it is, we are actually making the the choice to enter the United States legally an impossible luxury they can not afford.  A sensible, intelligent person can be expected to stand in line and wait your turn for a few weeks, or months, and perhaps even a few years, but at some point the wait gets a past little inconvenient, then past really inconvenient, and for the past twenty years it has been beyond laughable.  From their perspective, this is what they are up against.

 

So now the legal way is not a real way, and the illegal way becomes the necessary way.

And if you would add into all this the eleven million people who are here illegally already, if they were to go home today and apply for a visa and get in line, like the other poor souls, taking our quota system in place right now the wait gets 18 years longer. 43 years is a long time to ask someone to wait to come here to earn a better life for yourself and your family. A 15 year old waiting 43 years will be 58 years old by the time he gets here legally. Five more years and he may have become a Green Card lottery winner, just in time for retirement. Do we really want that?

 

To wrap up the experience for an undocumented immigrant it would be safe to say it’s not something you would take lightly, or want to bring your family along either. This explains why the vast majority of undocumented immigrants are single males between the ages of 15 – 34. It is best to start your family when you are already in the U.S.

Once here you can start your new life. but the risk is still not over; it never will be. You will be looking over your shoulder for flashing red lights and have nightmares of being separated from your family, which is a distinct possibility at any time, every day.

 

That really is the whole agreement in a nutshell. They have to get here any way they can, be fortunate to land a low paying entry level job, then If they got caught, they will get sent back to their home country. If they are lucky, they could get back quickly enough to keep their job, which would allow them to keep their apartment, and if they had a family, to keep their family from being homeless, hungry and unsure of their future. If they can’t get back across, they would either be separated from their family indefinitely, or be forced to move the whole family back home where the kids might not even know the language, or anyone there. That’s a pretty high price to pay for trying to make a better life, but this was implied before they ever reach our border. This is the compact we made, each of us understanding the role we play.

 

This agreement has worked in lieu of a legal fix to the situation, which year after year after year, has become more difficult to repair. They were happy they had a better life. We were happy we had a better life. Everyone was happy, until they get caught, and then they were very unhappy. We are completely oblivious to their problems because there was always someone waiting in the wings for their job and we were never really inconvenienced all that much. That part of the agreement never affected us consumers. We just complain about how lazy they are, or how much free medical and free social services and free education they are taking advantage of while they are here illegally. I can’t really blame them myself. If I were to have the short end of the stick on this arrangement, I’d be trying to make it a little more even myself. While I’m not condoning fraud, I’m just saying you work with the hand you’re dealt in the best way you can. We all do.

 

Next week we’ll wrap this whole mess up into a nice and tidy little package so we will have a fair and balanced look at our situation, and hopefully we’ll be able to come up with some solutions that will give us the security we need, the lifestyle we desire, and an economy that will grow stronger, supply more jobs, and maybe even give the poor people from south of the border a little more to look forward to, and less to be afraid of, like not having to live under the radar and outside the law.

Filed Under: Economy, immigrants, Laws, The US Immigration Debacle

Entering the United States without Inspection is a crime- kinda.

May 5, 2012 by 2 Comments

Whenever an article having anything to do with immigration is written in the I find there are always thousands of people commenting below the article about how bad a crime it is and we are a nation of laws and we cannot let criminals be rewarded, and on and on. Many claim that it is a heinous crime. Some claim it is a felony. Many make the comparison to murder and rape and bemoan how our country will be ruined if we allow even this little change, proposed by the Obama administration, designed with U.S. Citizens in mind, to take place.

I looked it up, just to see what kind of a penalty it was because I would feel very badly if I were to be lobbying for a cause as evil as rape or murder, but I wasn’t about to just go and believe everything these angry voices so emphatically proclaimed.  I had to look it up and see for myself.

Here is what I found.

According to Findlaw.com it is not called illegal immigration either.  The correct term is Entering Without Inspection or EWI for short.  Their definition is as follows:

 

8 U.S.C. § 1325 : US Code – Section 1325: Improper entry by alien

(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection;

misrepresentation and concealment of facts

Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States

at any time or place other than as designated by immigration

officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration

officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United

States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the

willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first

commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or

imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent

commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or

imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.

(b) Improper time or place; civil penalties

Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to

enter) the United States at a time or place other than as

designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil

penalty of –

(1) at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or

attempted entry); or

(2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case of

an alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty under

this subsection.

Civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and not

in lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may be

imposed.

(c) Marriage fraud

Any individual who knowingly enters into a marriage for the

purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws shall be

imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or fined not more than

$250,000, or both.

(d) Immigration-related entrepreneurship fraud

Any individual who knowingly establishes a commercial enterprise

for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws

shall be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, fined in accordance

with title 18, or both.

 

It was pretty hard to find this, but that was because I was using the same terminology as all those angry protesters. I never heard the correct term until recently, and that helped me find this article. Funny how simple things are when you relax and call things by their correct names and use the correct definitions.

 

This is a civil crime, NOT a felony– think traffic ticket.

 

Hopefully this clears things up a bit and allows some people to calm down a bit and examine this problem with a little clarity and compassion, because I have to assume that most people have gotten a traffic ticket or two in their lives and I don’t think anyone thinks they are a bad person because of it.  Not only that, but if we go the next step and think about how many times a day we break the law or do immoral things, it is hardly for any one of us to condemn another for any of these petty grievences. We all pick and choose which laws we obey and which ones we decide don’t pertain to us at that particular moment. We all drive ocer the speed limit just about every day and roll through stop signs and fail to use turn signals when changing lanes. We may get away with it most times, but that does not mean we did not break the law. Are people who entered this country without inspection ruining the moral fabric of this country? I think not. We are just as guilty as they are every day of the week.

And one last thing. People are calling the latest proposal by the Obama administration as amnesty, and some people are even calling for the American Citizens to be deported along with their spouses. This wasn’t my first clue that I needed to take some of their arguments with a pound or two of salt.

It so happens that before 1997, spouses and parents could file the paperwork, pay a thousand dollar fee and the documents for their family member would be in the mail. All President Obama is trying to do is repeal this last little amendment to the immigration policies because it turns out that it doesn’t just punish the immigrant, it punishes the American citizens that our laws are designed to protect.

There is no law against marrying anyone we choose, so we should not go around breaking families up because one of them committed a civil infraction. We would be a nation of single people if we did.

If we all just take a breath and relax a moment, we will see that the sky is not falling and America will not go “down the toilet” if we allow our fellow citizens who found themselves in love with someone who entered without inspection to keep their families together, just like they had so easily done before 1997.

 

The Civil Code by Findlaw.com can be found here

 

http://bit.ly/xSiYCd

Filed Under: immigrants, Laws

Marrying a foreign citizen is not a crime

May 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It so happens that before 1997, spouses and parents could file the paperwork, pay a thousand dollar fee and the documents for their family member would be in the mail. All President Obama is trying to do is repeal this last little amendment to the immigration policies. The current immigration policy doesn’t just punish the immigrant, it punishes the American citizens that our laws are designed to protect as well.

There is no law against marrying anyone we choose, so we should not go around breaking families up because one of them committed a civil infraction. We would be a nation of single people if we did. Imagine not being able to marry someone because they got a parking ticket a few years ago. Sounds ridiculous right? Not for some of us. We now need to check the immigration status of our potential mates, because if they are here without proper paperwork, our family could get broken up and lives destroyed. Sounds romantic doesn’t it?

If we all just take a breath and relax a moment, we will see that the sky is not falling and America will not go “down the toilet” if we allow our fellow citizens who found themselves in love with someone who entered without inspection to keep their families together, just like they had so easily done before 1997. President Obama isn’t trying to destroy our country, he’s trying to protect our families.

The Civil Code by Findlaw.com can be found here

 

http://bit.ly/xSiYCd

Filed Under: Ethics, immigrants, Immigration's effects on citizens, Laws
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