Globalization, NAFTA and immigration

Immigration and emigration between Mexico and the United States is driven by a complex set of forces. These forces are the result of economic and political policies put in place by the United States and Mexico. One such element is the maquiladora program which essentially expands the borders for U.S. manufacturing concerns deep into Mexico. Under this program, American corporations are allowed to transfer their manufacturing facilities to Mexico and pay pitifully low wages and send the finished goods back to the U.S. market without tariffs or other duties leveled on importers from other countries. In almost all respects this is a losing proposition for Mexico and most critically for Mexican workers.

It is ironic to hear so much nativist cant about the so-called loss of control of our borders when American companies enjoy the benefits of an expanded economic zone in Mexico without the burdens of U.S. regulation, wages or environmental concerns. Simply by placing a manufacturing plant 50 feet across the border from the United States, American companies are able to produce manufactured goods while paying their workers less than $5.00 a day. When you consider that manufacturing jobs in the United pay about $12.00 an hour this expansion of U.S. borders greatly benefits U.S. corporations.

Whenever I hear nativists talk about the “integrity of our borders” I often wonder what borders they are referencing. For U.S. concerns taking advantage of Mexican workers, the borders have little relevance to their operations except insofar as they lock Mexican workers to jobs that do not pay subsistence wages. The wall being built on the U.S.-Mexico border will not keep American corporations from moving their operations south of the border. But, Mexican workers will constantly be reminded that the wall is symbol to hypocrisy.

Globalization is a lose-lose proposition

I once supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other free trade pacts in the hope that freer trade would raise the tide for all nations and help equalize wages between nations. I now believe that the critics of globalization were absolutely right. Globalization not only displaces local economies but it opens up weak markets to rapacious global corporations who then wreak havoc on local producers. Globalization is a lose-lose proposition for developing markets (and also for U.S. workers).

Nativist anger at undocumented workers is misplaced. If nativists really cared about U.S. jobs and the welfare of the American worker they would focus the intensity of their anger at U.S. corporations and the politicians that do their bidding. It is these corporations that ship American jobs abroad and the politicians that make their actions possible and this is where their actions should be focused. But as we have noted before, most nativist anger has little to do with jobs or borders and more to do with hatred against Latinos. One need only peruse the dominant Nativist site, VDare.com and its links to other sites, to see the hateful vitriol that is spewed not just against immigrants but also against Latinos and other minorities.

Maquiladoras employ about a million Mexican workers at $4.65 a day

The impact of the maquiladora program on Mexico and on Mexican and U.S. workers is enormous. There are over 3000 manufacturing plants, most of them American companies, now located in Mexico. Maquiladoras, today employ about a million Mexican workers. The overwhelming majority of these workers labor at the Mexican minimum wage, which at today’s exchange rate is $4.65 a day. Keep in mind that the cost of food in Mexico is comparable to or higher to the prices of food in the United States.

It is not a far stretch to argue that each job taken by a maquiladora is one less American job. At prevailing U.S. manufacturing wages (which have been falling) this is one family’s salary.

What does this have to do with emigration from Mexico? For starters, the maquilas have drawn workers to the Mexican border areas simply because that is where the jobs are to be found. Ciudad Juarez went from a small city of 200,000 in 1965 to well over 2,000,000 today. This population cannot be sustained on the maquilas alone and hence there is a push factor from these cities. Given the dismal wages paid by the maquilas, many workers find work across the border much more attractive.

The maquilas receive almost no industrial support from Mexican manufacturers (meaning Mexican manufacturers get no benefit from these companies) and pay almost no taxes. As such, they contribute little to the Mexican economy and likely even fail to pay for the infrastructure that supports them. Given the lack of revenues from these enterprises the Mexican state has little incentive to provide social services, or even basic infrastructure such as roads, sewage systems or clean water supplies to its people. This also provides a push factor from Mexico.

The situation and possible remedial factors were outlined by Simon Chandler of the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas.

The maquiladora industry grew steadily since its establishment in 1965. But the really strong growth occurred in the years following the signing of the NAFTA agreement in 1994. NAFTA was an agreement which set out to create a free trade zone between Canada, the US, and Mexico. It allowed the free movement of good, services, and capital. But not labor. The European Union (EU), formerly known as the European Community, and before that the European Economic Community, has also established a free trade area. But with the major difference that labor is as free to move as goods, services, and capital. So, as it stands today, a person in Greece or Portugal can freely move to Germany or France to work, or study, or just live. Or vice-versa. Whilst there, the person can use all the health and social services that that country offers to its own citizens. Originally, the European Union was composed or 5 or 6 Western European countries. When nations such as Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece applied to join the EU in the early 1970s there was quite an income disparity between the member countries and the applicants. So as part of the economic integration process, the richer countries provided grants to the poorer countries to allow them to develop infrastructure, invest in industry and education, and do other things that would help develop their economies. There were fears that with the free movement of labor that the population of Portugal and Greece would simply relocate to France or Germany where both wages and benefits were substantially higher than in their own countries. But that has not happened. The industrial development strategy has been quite successful and allowed the poorer countries to build stronger economies. Countries like Ireland and Spain have been experiencing economic growth like never before.

This is an important lesson. There is an underlying perception that if the US opened its southern border, the whole of Latin America would enter and swamp the country. But our experience here at Annunciation House, working with migrant sand refugees has taught us something. It has taught us that the decision to migrate to another country is not an easy one to make. To uproot one's life, leaving behind family, friends, and one's culture is a wrenching decision that most people would prefer not to have to make. Migration is caused by poverty, desperation, and oppression. A country that provides a standard of living where people have enough food to eat, are able to get healthcare and an education for themselves and their children, and where people do not fear their government, does not generally experience mass emigration. But it is this poverty, desperation, and oppression that causes thousands of people to cross the southern border of the US and has led to over 2,700 deaths over the past 10 years as migrants have tried to enter the US. Mexico has an economy comparable in size to the state of Ohio. How hard would it have been to have included in NAFTA a component to allow Mexico to develop its economy and bring about some kind of economic stability to the country? How hard would it have been to provide supports to a Mexican agricultural system that is at the point of collapse and could see millions of people leaving the land in the next few years?

http://www.annunciationhouse.org/news_winter2003_maquillado.html (emphasis added)

Until these structural deficits are addressed we will continue to have migration of undocumented Mexican and Latin American workers into the United States. While it is certainly true that Mexicans need to pressure their government for needed reforms the United States cannot pretend that a long wall will solve the immigration problem. Globalization needs to be addressed on this side of the border by the workers whose livelihood is being decimated just as it needs to be addressed by Mexican and Latin American workers.

Further Resources
American Friends Service Committee (www.afsc.org/immigrants-rights): Has a national program, Project Voice—Migration and Mobility Unit, that works to strengthen the voices of immigrant-led organizations in setting the national agenda for immigration policy and immigrants’ rights.

American Immigration Lawyers Association (www.ailalawyer.com): A legal association for immigration attorneys with a membership of more than 10,000 immigration lawyers. AILA provides an immigration lawyer referral service on its website.

Border Action Network (www.borderaction.org): A network of immigrants and border residents in Nogales, Douglas, and Tucson, Arizona, working to amplify the voices and power of those who are most impacted by border and immigration policies.

Breakthrough, international human rights organization that uses media, education and pop culture to promote values of dignity, equality and justice: www.breakthrough.tv

Campaign for Labor Rights (www.clrlabor.org): Mobilizes grassroots support throughout the United States for campaigns to end labor rights violations around the world.

Coalición de Derechos Humanos (www.derechoshumanosaz.net): A grassroots organization working to promote respect for human and civil rights and to fight militarization, discrimination, and abuse of authority in the southern border region.

Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras(www.coalitionforjustice.net): A tri-national coalition of religious, environmental, labor, Latino, and women’s organizations supporting worker and community struggles in the maquiladora industry.

Detention Watch Network (www.detentionwatchnetwork.org): A national coalition addressing the crisis of immigration detention and helping detainees and their loved ones make their voices heard.

Families for Freedom (www.familiesforfreedom.org):
A multi-ethnic defense network by and for immigrants facing and fighting deportation.

Farmworker Justice (www.fwjustice.org): An organization working to empower migrant and seasonal farmworkers by improving their living and working conditions, immigration status, health, occupational safety, and access to justice.

Global Workers Justice Alliance (www.globalworkers.org): A cross-border network of worker advocates and resources that combats migrant worker exploitation by promoting portable justice for transnational migrants.

Immigration Equality (www.immigrationequality.org): A national organization working to end immigration discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive people, and to help win asylum for those persecuted based on sexual identity or HIV status.

Life or Liberty, a non-profit media project begun in 2002 to produce documentaries on immigrant communities affected by post-9/11 policies. The project has produced award-winning short documentaries for grassroots organizing and educational outreach: www.lifeorliberty.org

Maquila Solidarity Network (www.maquilasolidarity.org):
A labor and women’s rights advocacy organization promoting solidarity with grassroots groups in Mexico, Central America, and Asia, that works to improve conditions in maquiladora factories and export processing zones.

Migration Policy Institute (MPI), "independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to the study of the movement of people worldwide": www.migrationpolicy.org

National Employment Law Project (www.nelp.org): Provides information and advocacy in defense of low-wage workers, including immigrant workers.

National Immigration Law Center (www.nilc.org): Provides information, policy analysis, and advocacy in defense of low-income immigrants and their family members.

National Immigration Project (www.nationalimmigrationproject.org): A project of the National Lawyers’ Guild, Inc. devoted to defending the rights of immigrants facing incarceration and deportation.

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (www.nnirr.org): A national organization bringing together immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights, and labor organizations and activists from around the United States in defense of immigrant rights.

Pew Hispanic Center (PHC), "nonpartisan research organization [whose] mission is to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the entire nation": http://pewhispanic.org

Rights Working Group (www.rightsworkinggroup.org): A nationwide coalition of groups and individuals committed to protecting civil liberties and human rights.

SweatFree Communities (www.sweatfree.org): A national network assisting sweatshop workers globally in their struggles to improve working conditions and form strong, independent unions.

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), "a data gathering, data research and data distribution organization associated with Syracuse University...information about federal enforcement, staffing and spending": www.trac.syr.edu

U.S. / Labor Education in the Americas Project (www.usleap.org): Works to support the basic rights of workers in Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico, especially those who are employed directly or indirectly by U.S. companies.

United Students Against Sweatshops (www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org): An organization of students and community members at over 200 campuses around the United States, supporting the struggles of working people and challenging corporate power.



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The links between racist hate groups and anti-immigrant organizations

The Eternal Hope blog has a nice piece setting out the racist hate groups that underlay many anti-immigrant organizations. For anyone who follows these groups closely, it is very clear that their agenda is not merely tighter immigration restrictions but wholesale xenophobia and racist nativism. The mainstream media has been slow to recognize these connections and will still quote hate-groups such as FAIR - the Federation for American Immigration Reform as if they were respectable advocacy groups. In addition to prior posts on the links between hate groups and anti-immigrant groups, I highly recommend reading Eternal Hope's incisive piece, "The link between Anti-Immigrant groups and White Supremacists," at (http://americaabroad.tpmcafe.com/node/).



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Should we treat undocumented immigrants humanely?

Should we treat undocumented aliens humanely? Asking this question today is akin to asking whether special privileges should be given to prisoners: 'no damnit, they should live on bread and water and break rocks, etc…' I particularly detest the use of the term "aliens" a political buzzword perfected by the Republican hate machine. Be that as it may, the so-called Department of Homeland Security is carrying out aggressive actions to round up undocumented workers. These actions take no regard for the fact that the person rounded up and deported may be the sole-breadwinner or caretaker to a family of children. Nativists have no problem with leaving a group of "illegal" children destitute and without parents. Most human beings feel otherwise. One need not be "pro-immigrant" to question whether families should be split up with the children remaining parent-less or father-less. I think most rational human beings believe that families should be accorded some level of respect or protection.

A recent article in the New York Times illustrates the fear and intimidation that is taking place throughout the country.

Facing Deportation but Clinging to Life in U.S.

By JULIA PRESTON

Published: The New York Times, January 18, 2008

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — She is a homeowner, a taxpayer, a friendly neighbor and an American citizen. Yet because she is married to an illegal immigrant, these days she feels like a fugitive. …

From Illinois to Georgia to Arizona, these families are hiding in plain sight, to avoid being detected by immigration agents and deported. They do their shopping in towns distant from home, avoid parties and do not take vacations. They stay away from ethnic stores, forgo doctor’s visits and meetings at their children’s schools, and postpone girls’ normally lavish quinceañeras, or 15th birthday parties.

They avoid the police, even hesitating to report crimes.

“When we leave in the morning we know we are going to work,” said Elena G., a 47-year-old illegal Mexican immigrant and Waukegan resident of eight years who works in a factory near here. “ But we don’t know if we will be coming home.”

Last year, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than 35,000 illegal immigrants, including unauthorized workers and immigration fugitives, more than double the number in 2006. They sent 276,912 immigrants back to their home countries, a record number.

Since about three-quarters of an estimated 11.3 million illegal immigrants nationwide are from Latin America, and many have spouses, children or other relatives who are legal immigrants and citizens, the sense of alarm has spread broadly among Hispanics.

A survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, found in December that 53 percent of Hispanics in the United States worry that they or a loved one could be deported. ….

“The raids have really spooked them in a big way,” said Douglas S. Massey, a Princeton demographer who has studied Mexican immigrants for three decades.

Based on his own surveys and recent reports from other scholars doing field research in the Southwest and in North Carolina and other states, Professor Massey said the “palpable sense of fear and of traumatization” in immigrant communities was more intense than at any other time since the mass deportations of Mexican farm workers in 1954. …

…

Nonetheless, for many residents fear has become a daily companion. One woman, a 37-year-old naturalized citizen who was born in Central America but grew up in Waukegan, has decided to stay away from the city even though her mother still lives here. The woman, a lawyer practicing in the Chicago area, fell in love with an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.

After they were married in 2004, she realized that under immigration law it would be difficult for him to become legal, even though she is a citizen. Because he had crossed the border illegally, seeking legal status would require him to return to Guatemala for years of separation, with no guarantee of success. She abandoned plans to move back to Waukegan. She and her husband feel safer in Chicago, with its large Hispanic population.

“I know everything about Waukegan; it’s my town,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous because of her husband’s status. “I know the high school, the first Mexican restaurant. I should feel free to go in and out whenever I want to. But it’s not the same freedom anymore.” …

Miriam M. and her husband, married in 2004, own a tidy house on a peaceful street and are raising four children from previous marriages, all United States citizens. He runs his own landscaping company, paying business and property taxes.

Even though Miriam M. is a citizen, it is difficult for her husband to obtain legal papers, since he entered illegally from Mexico 12 years ago. She did not focus on her husband’s illegal status when she first met him.

“Boyfriend and girlfriend, you don’t think much about it,” she said. “All right, maybe I didn’t want to think much about it.”

Now he stays close to home and avoids downtown Waukegan, driving around the city limits when he can.

Mr. Hyde and other city officials said they expected to wait several years before Congress adopted new laws to control illegal immigration. Meanwhile, the mayor said, he will do what he can by enforcing local law.

“Do I believe in closing the borders?” Mr. Hyde said. “Do I believe in putting troops down there? You bet your life. Illegal is illegal, and that’s the end of the conversation, really.”

Legislation has been introduced by Rep. Hilda Solis [D, CA-32] to mitigate the impact of the ICE raids on families. The bill entitled, Families First Immigration Enforcement Act, H. R. 3980, (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.3980:) whose stated purpose is:

To provide for safe and humane policies and procedures pertaining to the arrest, detention, and processing of aliens in immigration enforcement operations.

Although the bill almost certainly has no chance of passing it is incumbent upon anyone who believes that all people should be treated humanely – most especially working families – to contact their representatives and immigrant advocates.

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American Apparel Takes Principled Stance on Immigration

Cutting Edge Apparel Company, American Apparel, attracted a lot of attention when it posted an ad in favor of comprehensive and fair immigration reform. Many companies have taken positions on issues, mostly on the right of the political spectrum, and hence have gotten no flack from the chattering classes. Kudos to American Apparel for taking on a controversial issue! In case you are curious here is the ad. (http://americanapparel.net/presscenter/ads/newyorktimes0712.html) From Daily Kos:

Through a major public education and media advocacy campaign called ‘Legalize LA’, the trendy clothing company, the largest garment factory in the US, has been taking out ads in major national newspapers like The New York Times to make the case for legalizing the nation’s undocumented workers. (Click here to check out their ads – no worries, their usually racy look's been toned down to discuss this serious topic.) The purveyor of porn, which just went public last month, has been featuring profiles of its workers – all of them with legal status – and what they and their families bring to the company and the economy. Given American Apparel is based in Los Angeles, the city with the nation’s highest number of undocumented residents, the firm’s principled and practical stance on what to do with the nation’s undocumented folks – allow them to earn legal status so they can participate in the nation’s economy and exercise their rights as workers to the fullest - works for me.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/18/12625/4855/452

Cadillac Queens and Crackers: The Nativist Missives of Alan Wall in Mexico

Ronald Reagan would often support his policies with anecdotes that were patently untrue. One of his favorite fictional quips was the “Chicago welfare queen,” who Reagan alleged had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards, and had collected benefits for "four non-existing deceased husbands," bilking the government out of "over $150,000." The real welfare recipient to whom Reagan referred was actually convicted for using two different aliases to collect a total of $8,000. Reagan continued to use his version of the story even after the press pointed out the actual facts of the case to him. The reason he was able to continue to use this clearly false story was that it played to the bigotries and the biases of his audience. Even if it was untrue, in the minds of his followers it was consistent with their view of reality.

For years much of the news and analysis about Latin America has been distorted by a similar prism of logic. To read textbooks or even academic books written in the 50s, 60s, and 70s about Latin America and Latin Americans is like reading about African-Americans in the 20s, 30s and 40s. There is an underlying – and really quite smug – condescension that pervades such works. They are, by today’s standards, embarrassing. What changed in the intervening years was the growth of a Latin American scholarship to counter the caricatured reality that North Americans were being fed by so-called analysts, journalist and academics. Much of the information we get today is still informed by this sensibility, but at least now we have recourse to alternative sources of information.

The Mexican intellectual community presents a rich array of views on the issue of immigration as it does on many issues dealing with the United States. See for example:

Politics by Other Means: The “Why” of Immigration to the United States, Fredo Arias-King (Center for Immigration Studies, December 2003) (http://www.cis.org/articles/2003/back1703.html)

“[Carlos] Monsivais speaks out on Latinos” (El Universal, April 10, 2004) (http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=4073&tabla=miami)

Mexican Intellectuals' Perceptions of Mexican Americans and Chicanos, 1920-Present, Richard Griswold del Castillo, (Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, v27 n2 p33 74 Fall 2002)

“Whatever the Outcome: The Proposed U.S. Immigration Bill: A Challenge for Calderon to Practice Self-Help in Mexico,” Jenna Schaeffer, (Council on Hemispheric Affairs, June 14, 2007) (http://www.coha.org/2007/06/14/proposed-us-immigration-bill-a-good-opportunity-for-calderon-to-practice-self-help-in-mexico)

“Interview with Jorge Castañeda, Former Foreign Minister of Mexico,” (Council of the Americas, November 29, 2007) (http://coa.counciloftheamericas.org/article.php?id=788)

What I find most disturbing about the so-called immigration debate is that it is animated as much by anti-Latino animus as by any concern for U.S. workers and the so-called integrity of “our borders.” The most glaring example of this animus is the writing of Harvard professor, Samuel P. Huntington, who makes little secret of his disdain for Latin American culture. (See my piece, “Nativism’s Apologist,” December 20, 2007, www.eristic-ragemail.blogspot.com) The web is awash with ant-immigrant sites that trade as much on hatred as they do on policy. I was challenged by one such site written by a gringo living in Mexico and married to a Mexican woman.

Allan Wall publishes a blog and website about Mexico, immigration and Mexican society on a number of websites, the most prominent being www.vdare.com. As explained by Wall, the site was named after the first white girl to be born in the New World. What this says about Mexico is as telling as what it says about Wall. Clearly, we have a person anchored in, and in love with, Anglo-America. This bias informs everything that Wall writes. And Wall writes prodigiously.

Wall, who hails from Oklahoma, often features pictures of himself in the battle fatigues and helmet that he wore while stationed in Iraq. I doubt that Wall sees the irony in writing about Latin America while picturing himself in a soldier’s battle uniform. Given the long history of imperialism, gunboat diplomacy, and CIA shenanigans in Latin America one would think that any informed and astute U.S. commentator on Latin America would foreswear such images. Again, Wall is merely reflecting his paradigm, biases and preconceptions.

It is therefore, no surprise that most of his commentary is little more than one long anti-Mexican rant. Wall uses myriad anecdotes to express his ideas. Rarely, if ever, are any of these anecdotes supported by citations to supporting material. “For Mexico's Elite, It's Open Season On Samuel Huntington” April 22, 2004 (http://www.vdare.com/awall/huntington.htm); “You Say You Want A Reconquista?,” July 5, 2007 (http://www.vdare.com/awall/070705_memo.htm); “Allan Wall Articles” (comprehensive index of Wall’s articles) (http://www.vdare.com/awall/index.htm). As well, Wall makes sweeping generalizations that also go unsupported. He imputes motives to whole classes of people, “Mexicans believe…” “The Mexican upper class is motivated by X factor…” Almost any policy move by the Mexican government is viewed as proof of its mendacity. All this makes for good reading to many of his compatriots in the United States, but does little to inform us about Mexico. As Rosalyn Carter once said of President Reagan, “He makes us comfortable with our prejudices.” The same could be said about Wall.

What is most disturbing is that Wall gives credence to a range of crackpot theories. For example, Wall subscribes to the “reconquest” theory. “You Say You Want A Reconquista?,” The “reconquista” theory is a crackpot theory, advanced prominently by Samuel Huntington, holds that Mexico has designs on the U.S. Southwest—land lost the U.S. in the Mexican War of 1848. No respectable commentator, politician or journalist, either Mexican or Chicano, advances such a nutty idea. But people like Wall and many of his kind, impute this motive as if it were real. Every crackpot can feel comfortable in his resentment of Latinos part of a “fifth column,” waiting to undermine “our society.”

A typical column by Wall deals with the issue of Aztec human sacrifice. Again this is told anecdotally, with Wall mentioning some conversation where Mexicans allegedly defended the practice as advanced medical techniques. Wall imputes nonsense into the monolithic Mexican mouth and then sets out to dethrone it. According to him, Mexicans are in denial about their barbaric past. Never mind the ongoing scientific debate among archeologists regarding which Meso-American cultures practiced human sacrifice and to what extent; the reality is of little consequence to Wall. It’s the fact that Mexican’s refuse to face this “fact.” The implicit message is that Mexicans are barbarous.

Wall rails on like a redneck high on moonshine. He bemoans the rate of welfare use by Hispanics. “The Hispanic rate of welfare dependency is higher than [that of] whites and almost as high as [that of] blacks,” he claims in a recent posting. Contradictions don’t matter: Hispanics come only to enrich themselves and return to Mexico but they are also migrating in droves to reclaim the Southwest. Nativist claptrap flows constantly from Wall’s keyboard:

Mexican society as a whole does not respect the sovereignty of the United States of America - and it's ridiculous to expect it to. By "Mexican Society", I refer to the chattering classes (politicians, media, intellectuals) and also to the conventional wisdom on the street. Certainly, in conversations with individual Mexicans, I have heard sympathy for the American side of the problem and even bemusement that the gringos could allow themselves to be so abused by immigrants.

Notice how nobody in Mexico is left out this generalization: all Mexicans – from the chattering classes to the man on the street -- disrespect US sovereignty.

Wall makes no bones about his nativist ideology; he states forwardly that he subscribes to the nativist writings of Peter Brimelow (who wrote Alien Nation). His postings are linked to a variety of nativist and anti-immigrant sites and he is regularly featured on such websites and radio broadcasts. So why worry about one more nut on the Web? Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), called VDARE a "hate group," that was "once a relatively mainstream anti-immigration page," but by 2003 became "a meeting place for many on the radical right." The group also criticized VDARE for publishing articles by Jared Taylor and Sam Francis, along with other authors who deal with race and intelligence.

Once a relatively mainstream anti-immigration page, VDARE has now become a meeting place for many on the radical right.

One essay complains about how the government encourages "the garbage of Africa" to come to the United States. The same writer says once the "Mexican invasion" engulfs the country, "high teenage birthrates, poverty, ignorance and disease will be what remains."

Another says that Hispanics have a "significantly higher level of social pathology than American whites. ... In other words, some immigrants are better than others." Yet another complains that a Jewish immigrant rights group is helping "African Muslim refugees" come to America.

Brimelow's site carries archives of columns from men like Sam Francis, who is the editor of the newspaper of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, a group whose Web page recently described blacks as "a retrograde species of humanity."

It has run articles by Jared Taylor, the editor of the white supremacist American Renaissance magazine, which specializes in dubious race and IQ studies and eugenics, the "science" of "race betterment" through selective breeding.

(http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=285) "Based on evidence compiled by the Intelligence Report, the Southern Poverty Law Center is adding VDARE to its list of hate sites on the Web. "

As a full-time resident of Mexico,Wall may have somewhat more credibility, when speaking of Mexican attitudes towards the U.S. than say, Tom Tancredo. But this doesn’t entitle him to a free pass when it comes to immigration issues. Wall like most nativists, is a racist at heart—even though he may not consider himself one. And when he speaks, it should be noted that he spouts the same ideology put forward by the racists at the Federation for American Immigration Reform ("FAIR"). See Heidie Beirich (Where Anti-Immigrant Zealots Like Lou Dobbs Get Their 'Facts' - http://www.alternet.org/story/70489/?page=entire). Wall may be a gringo in Mexico, but he remains a true nativist in league with his racist supporters north of the border.

Keeping America White
At a meeting of 'paleoconservatives,' former Forbes editor Peter Brimelow and others sound the alarm on non-white immigration
Southern Poverty Law Center
By Heidi Beirich and Mark Potok
(http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=285#)

A heartwrenching story - Dream Turns Nightmare: Milwaukee Police Officer to Be Deported

The New York Times is carrying an especially poignant story about a boy who was raised "American" joined the Milwakee police department and was then ordered deported after an anonymous tip disclosed that he was not born in the U.S. Herewith is a portion of the story:

Growing up here, Oscar Ayala-Cornejo recalls, he played chess and devoured comics, hung out at the mall and joined the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. After high school, he realized a childhood dream, joining the Milwaukee Police Department.

But when Mr. Ayala-Cornejo filled out recruitment papers, he used the name of a dead relative who had been a United States citizen. He had to, Mr. Ayala-Cornejo says, because ever since his parents brought him here from Mexico when he was 9, he has lived in the country illegally.

The life that Mr. Ayala-Cornejo carefully built here, including more than five years with the police force, is to end at noon on Saturday, when, heeding a deportation order, he will board a plane bound for the country he left as a child.

The story is in the Saturday, December 22, 2007 issue of the New York Times (CATRIN EINHORN - author).