My Quiet Life

Great, just what we need: more people in PRISON:

Middle Tennessee’s top federal prosecutor says he’s stepping up cases against illegal immigrants who are deported and return to the U.S., hoping prison sentences will deter offenders next time.

Beginning in March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement started asking U.S. attorneys around the country to prosecute immigrants who repeatedly enter the country illegally. The charges can carry a prison sentence from two to 20 years.

…

“These are the worst of the worst that we are talking about here and people for whom we can see that deportation will not keep them out,” said Ed Yarborough, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. “It’s probably too early to tell if there’s been a deterrent effect. But we think we might, over time, see fewer … returning to Nashville.”

Yes, the “worst of the worst” — people that like our country so much that they really want to be here. Those bastards. Immigration law and public opinion in this country is so fucked sometimes I wonder if we can ever recover to something sensible.

Okay, I was just gonna let sleeping dogs lie with this whole Tyson food/refugees/immigrants/etc thing, but this is just too hilarious to let pass. Just read this. In short, Brian Mosely is a reporter with the Times-Gazette in Shelbyville, following the uh “Somalian Question”, I guess, in Shelbyville. Brian seems like an astute guy, and a decent reporter, and I even mostly agree with a lot of what he has to say about our refugee/immigration policy. A lot of the situations these people find themselves in do indeed resemble indentured servitude — but in a metaphorical sense, at best. These days, the manacles are economic and structural, but more on that later. The part where he goes off the rails is towards the end:

I also have to say that I do not feel that I am “obsessed” or “fixated” with the topic of Somalis living here, as one blogger believes. The refugees have lived in Shelbyville for the past four years, and no one has even addressed the issue until the T-G published the series in December of last year.

I would also have to suggest that the blogger’s opinion is quite possibly influenced by the fact that she makes her living by working with the Nashville refugee community, as she states on one of her other websites.

Aside from the fact that the second link was a link to Christy’s myspace page (which strikes me as a somewhat unexpected, unprofessional and vindictive swipe at her personal life — especially given the, uh, “eccentricity” of the commenters focusing on this issue), let’s focus on what he’s actually implying here: that Christy has a vested interest in refugees coming to this country because she works in social work. Let that sink in for a minute. Are you done laughing hysterically yet? I’ll wait. Come on, collect yourself. Okay, now read these comments:

So, you are basically stating that Christy works for the Refugee program in Nashville and profits from their plight? Heh, no wonder she defends it.

– Posted by Evil Monkey on Sun, Aug 3, 2008, at 4:01 PM
…

“Only in it for the rain.”

I think she means MONEY!
– Posted by Disgusted on Sun, Aug 3, 2008, at 4:26 PM

You can’t make this shit up. Social work: where all the scum and villainy of this earth goes to make a quick buck. I mean seriously. I have a lot of friends that are working with immigrants and refugees in particular. It’s insanely hard work with shit pay. I’d be offended on their behalf if it wasn’t more hysterical than it is offensive. The idea that anyone take a job like that for the money is so laughably idiotic that it borders on sheer insanity.

The Times-Gazette is doing a fine job of reporting on this issue, but I’d advise Mr. Mosley to lay off the personal redirection and speculation. I get the impression he’s imagining he’s on the cusp of some pulitzer-winning expose of a grand conspiracy of charities to bring refugees into this country. Or something. He’s either doing so out of ignorance to the economic complexity and sheer magnitude of the situation or he’s being willfully naive in order to, as Christy suggested, stir up controversy with the local yokels (which he certainly has).

Stick to calling for reform, avoid insinuating vested interest and conspiracy on behalf of the organizations trying to help these people. Someone might mistake you for an insane person.

THE SOMALIS ARE COMING!! NO ONE IS SAFE!! GUARD YOUR CHICKEN!!

I applaud Christy for bravely, calmly and logically addressing the comments in this news story about a Tyson chicken plant trading Labor day for Eid al-Fitr due to its largely Somali muslim employee base.

It’s worth reading for the amusement value alone.. I have to admire Christy for not resorting to the sheer mockery I’m about to indulge in:

I can’t believe this! I didn’t catch the local news tonight as I was heading to work. However, I clicked on “FreeRepublic.com” where I get most of my news (from a conservative standpoint)

This bit alone was worth the price of admission, and it requires no comment. (Go to freerepublic.com sometime, if you don’t know what I mean.)

I have forwarded this email to Gary Mickelson at Tyson as well… may his mailbox overflow with dissatisfaction!

I like this, too. Very epic.. Is this like the modern equivalent of “MAY THE STREETS OVERFLOW WITH THEIR BLOOD!!!”?

YOU SHALL SUFFER MY MIGHTY WRATH!! FEEL THE PAIN OF YOUR SLIGHTLY MORE FULL TRASH OR SPAM FOLDER!!!

The only thing that is probably worth adding to Christy’s analysis is how in their hysteria these people are also making a few very classic mistakes with regards to immigrants/refugees and basic economics.

First, you get the standard “they are stealing our jobs” thing, which is bunk. There will be turbulence and adjustment from the dynamics of a large influx of population, of course, but from a basic economic standpoint, new people become contributing members of an economy just by virtue of existing. Immigrants need to buy stuff to stay alive, too. They actually don’t just work 24/7, believe it or not. There’s a traditional counter-argument to this — that many immigrants from Mexico disburse a lot of the money they earn back home, and thus it’s not actually contributing to the economy here — but even this argument is probably not appliable to the Somali refugees in question, since (I am assuming here) most of them don’t exactly have anyone back home to send money to.

Second, there’s the “my tax dollars!!” thing. Christy did a great job pointing out all the ways in which they’re not exactly given a free ride, but it’s probably also worth pointing out that, you know, these immigrants are working. And getting paid. And thus, paying income tax. They pay taxes too.

I finally got around to reading Briley’s immigration platform.

Quick analysis: politically, it’s a good platform for his campaign. Immigration is a hot topic, so he has to say something about it. It comes across as pro-active, if a bit toothless. It’s a far cry better than anything else I’ve seen so far.

Others have already pointed it out, but I think the inclusion of the bit about drunk driving was unnecessary. Granted, it only says that “as a city we will not respond in a racist way”, and then details a plan for curbing drunk driving in general. It’s clear it was included to address the public concern that “the illegals” are somehow a driving force (no pun intended) for drunk driving fatalities, and that this is somehow an immigration problem. But, if you ask me, the best way to address utter nonsense is by ignoring it. But anyways.

I was disappointed to see him endorse the 287(g) legislation. My introduction via Claudia Nunez’s case and the subsequent horror stories I’ve heard about the abuse of 287(g) have been enough for me to maintain rigid opposition to this legislation. Briley’s contention is that since the federal government is unable to do anything, 287(g) is basically the only way we can fight the “problem”. What’s lacking in his platform here is an analysis of what exactly the problem is that he thinks 287(g) will solve. It also ignores the fact that the past years have demonstrated the potential of 287(g) to flood the courts with contentious or worthless cases, rampant racist abuse, and general failure.

In his introduction, Briley states that when he’s mayor, “we will go the way of community and
diverse leadership, not the divisive way of Washington.” If that’s true, his endorsement of 287(g) constitutes a dangerous failure in that respect.

Aside from this, his immigration platform is okay, if a little toothless. Briley’s main contention is that since the feds are tied up in partison gridlock, we have to act to solve the problem. I disagree.. Immigration is a problem that needs to be fixed on two levels: 1) federal, and 2) cultural. Our borders and minds both need to be opened up before any meaningful change will come. Local attempts to fix the problem basically amount to handing over the reigns to increasing federal government control (i.e. 287g) to prosecute and persecute, which is not something that will foster community — it’s divisive by its very nature. An ideal mayoral platform on immigration should be committed to:

• Embracing and assimilating new members of our community
• Prosecuting abuse of immigration status
• Prosecuting racist/xenophobic practices

Anything else is a waste of time and money. Our illegal immigrant situation is a federal problem. Let them fix it. We have bigger fish to fry here in Nashville.

This past weekend I borrowed my dad’s van to haul some shit, and as usual, his radio was pegged to WTN. And, as usual, it was seconds before my blood was boiling with anger. I am a pretty laidback guy, but it was only a small amount of time before I felt like punching something. And the sad part is, most of it was actually an ABC segment, not even on WTN itself.

The story (on ABC) was about the increasing “backlash” against anti-illegal immigration — the myriad farms and industries that are realizing how dependent they are on illegal immigration. The story focused on dairy farms in Wisconsin, and how local law enforcement is even tolerating illegal immigrants — with some local sheriffs going as far as to counsel new immigrants on how to avoid being picked up.

Why is this infuriating? It’s infuriating because it’s evidence that both sides of this debate on immigration are hopelessly wrong. There’s the obviously wrongheaded, reactionary and xenophobic anti-immigrant sentiment, of course. But this piece was representative of the “other” side of the debate, which is equally stupid. The gist of the argument, including how it was presented in the ABC piece, is that we actually need illegal immigrants, because they are the backbone of so many industries. They are hard-working, “honest”, and they do jobs that “regular Americans” just don’t want to do. The piece even had a quote from some sheriff or farmer: “I used to think of Mexicans as lazy, but now I know that they are hard-working, honest people who just want to do jobs we don’t want to.” Well, shit, aren’t you just the most enlightened motherfucker in the world?

Do you see how disturbing the racism lurking under the surface here is? Aside from the fact that we’re apparently comfortable dismissing an entire class of immigrants from south of the border as some sort of subhuman slave species, there’s the elephant in the room: illegal immigrants don’t do jobs we “don’t want to do” because they’re just really happy to do it. They do them because they are being exploited voraciously by industries taking advantage of the fact that they are here illegally. They have no labor rights or recourse to the law. They have no protection from minimum wage legislation. They may not be a subhuman slave species, but they are certainly a lower, “cheaper” class of labor.

So, of course the local law enforcement is willing to cooperate to tolerate illegal immigration. It’s a massive cashcow that subsists on the exploitation of a lower class of people. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s why we aren’t going to see any meaningful legislation on illegal immigration any time soon. And it’s also why local law enforcement will never organize to actually put a dent in it. Do things like this 287(g) act actually threaten to stem the tide of illegal immigration? Of course not. It serves only to maintain an acceptable level of fear to terrorize that population, lest they become comfortable and secure. If they become comfortable and secure, they stop being cheap.

So anyways, after that piece ended, a car-talk show came on, AMURICA’S CAR TALK — I guess to differentiate them from those commie lattie-sipping liberals Click & Clack up in Taxachusetts — which consisted of like maybe 3 actual calls and then a 15 minute commercial for Mack tools. The commercials in between this commercial, though, were equally infuriating — one promo spot for WTN itself was one of those “when NEWS STRIKES, we’re there!!” with random clips of “news”, including this gem: “… intercepted 50 million mexicans, attempting to cross the border…”

I’m sorry, what? 50 million? Where do they get this? Was it just a clip they snipped completely ouf of context? Or did they just have some guy in a booth record that for the hell of it? With this sort of bizarre propaganda, is it any wonder this entire area is whipped into a frenzy about the ‘cans tryin to steal our jobs? Fucked up.

I didn’t think much of Buck Dozier in the debate, as I mentioned, but one thing I neglected to give him credit for was his firm, forceful and eloquently stated opposition to the “english first” bill.

I have a lot more to say on some of the debate in the blogosphere surrounding Claudia Nunez, but I’m pretty swamped today, and we can pontificate forever. Right now, what we can’t do forever is sign this.

We have until the end of the day to fill this petition with signatures before it’s delivered tomorrow. If you’ve read my blog and made a mental bookmark to sign it but never got around to it, now is the time. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies.

Tell everyone at the voting polls! If you need convincing, however, let me know. Bring it on.

Quick update: we’ve launched a website to contain information and updates on the situation with Claudia Nunez.

If you’d like to link to it on your website/blog (please do!), feel free to use this handy little button:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.saveclaudia.com/button.js">
</script>

It will give you a nice button that looks like this:

Don’t forget to sign the petition.

A quick update, here:

It’s our understanding that the authority to defer deportation for Claudia Nunez lies with Stella Jarina, the district director of the New Orleans field office of the USCIS.

We have created a petition, addressed to Stella Jarina, imploring her to reconsider the case. Please give it a look, and hopefully, your signature!

UPDATE: There is now a website.

When Sarcastro, Aunt B, and I all agree on something, you know it’s something you can really get behind.

Meet Claudia Nunez and her family. Claudia is in the process of deportation from Nashville back to El Salvador. Despite residing in the country for years. Despite her 3 year old daughter and her 4 year old daughter — both U.S. citizens by birth. Despite her husband, also a legal resident. Despite all this, she’s being sent back to El Salvador, where, beyond being stripped of her family, she’ll have to deal with these guys. What family of four did she murder, you ask? Well, actually, she just overstayed her visa (which, incidentally, is not a crime).

I am not going to re-hash the whole story, since Sarcastro and Aunt B have already done a good job on that. But I will be talking about it. A lot. I’ll probably use a graph. You know how I do. But you’ll be hearing a lot about this case from others, as well. This is a test case for a lot of things: our tolerance for inflexible bureaucracy; our tolerance for counterproductive, exploitive immigration law; our, well, intolerance and xenophobic hysteria. It’s a test case for how far we’ve strayed from the inscription at the base of the statue of liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

At least, I think that’s what it says. Maybe it’s “Don’t let the golden door hit your ass on the way out.” I forget.

More to come on this..

UPDATE: See Sean Braisted and John H on this as well.