The anti-migrant plan for dealing with undocumented immigration is akin to putting together a ship-in-a-bottle puzzle by assembling the ship outside the bottle then staring at the hole. Their ship is deporting migrants while the bottle this tactic must fit in is the real world. Their enforcement only approach does nothing to solve the real issue which is ‘why’. So we’ll never have a solution just more money pouring into violent technologies and a world crumbling under the idea that the wealthy shouldn’t have to be disturbed by the poor.
One politician who believes in this ‘enforcement only’ approach is Tom Tancredo who tried to build a presidential campaign on calling migrants terrorists. According to A Blogs For Arizona post, reprinted at Migra Matters, titled “Graf, Tancredo, and Buchanan: Tres Banditos en Tucson” Tancredo knew full well he wouldn’t win the nomination, but that wasn’t the point. He just wanted to get the right wingers to look to their right a bit and now he’s using that juice to push local politicians.
He’s doing this with Bay Buchanan, Pat Buchanan’s sister, at Team America PAC a political action committee which exists to curb immigration. While the stated mission only cites “illegal” immigration the truth is Bay, like her brother Pat, wants to stop both legal and “illegal” immigration.
I know they’re not interested in telling the truth because they claimed on the Team America site that I’m for open borders:
While these two and their supporters are staunchly against “illegal” immigration you won’t find them talking about fixing the cause. They’re only concerned about dealing with the effect. This is an irresponsible approach to a human problem. The “enforcement only” or “attrition through enforcement” approach is a sick solution which only supports the idea of a police state. Arkansas is learning about this approach to law enforcement now. (24-Hour Curfew Hopes to Cut Back on Crime) Instead of practical approaches to deterring crime it seems this community believes keeping everyone indoors will solve the problem.
While Tancredo claims that “illegal” immigration is the biggest problem in the United States he openly states, in an interview with John Hawkins at Right Wing News that he realizes the public doesn’t agree.
John Hawkins: In poll after poll, by a large margin, Americans have appeared to support cracking down on illegal immigrants. Why do we have so many people in government who still don’t seem to take our immigration laws seriously?
Tom Tancredo: Because they don’t believe that people will vote on it exclusively. Most of my colleagues believe that they will be able to finesse this issue. That is to say, that they will be able to tell their constituents, “Yes, it is a problem, we’ll have to look at it,” but it won’t be the thing most people vote on, it won’t be the ultimate issue. As long as that’s the case, they can get by with finessing it.
In this same interview Tancredo stated we should employ war technologies on the border. This isn’t exactly the thing you expect from a country that sings “this land is your land…”
Tom Tancredo: Long before Bill O’Reilly said it, I proposed that we militarize the border and that we use drones, sensors, cameras, radar & every other technological advantage we have in this country to actually control our borders.
The following quote is from a Houston Chronicle article:
Tancredo pointed out that in 2005, the Mexican government actually produced and distributed copies of a “Guia del Migrante Mexicano” (Guide for the Mexican Immigrant) which contained “practical advice” for Mexicans on how to safely sneak into the United States. (A sensible write-up on this document can be found here.)
The guide contained tips on everything from crossing rivers and navigating the desert to ones “rights” as an illegal alien if apprehended. The booklet is widely available online. This increased the flow of illegal aliens into the United States - illegal aliens who will be returning to Mexico through Sonora as enforcement efforts in the U.S. intensify.
“Perhaps the Department of Homeland Security and Government Printing Office can return Mexico’s 2005 favor and help local officials in Sonora cope with the influx of returning Mexicans,” said Tancredo. “We can develop a ‘Guide for the Returning Illegal Alien’ packed with helpful information like how to get back to various points in Mexico from the U.S. border, and a reminder that illegally immigrating is, well, illegal - and has consequences.”
Tancredo said he is exploring the option of drafting legislation to authorize the production of the booklets.
Here’s what Mexico Trucker thinks of Tancredo.
Here’s what Peak Dems Blog has to say.
Tancredo Setting New Standards for Racism at Wonkette.
In Peter Brimelow, Purveyor of Hate, Master of Vdare The Subway Canaries writes on Tancredo’s defending VDARE, a hateful anti-migrant website who celebrates the first white (European) born American in its name.
From One People’s Project:
While vigorously fighting for the anti-immigration platform for many years, the most hypocritical part is that Peter Brimelow is an immigrant himself from England. That’s right, born and raised in England, moved to Canada and became a naturalized Canadian, then moved to the United States and became a naturalized American citizen. So how could an immigrant himself be such a staunch anti-immigrant? Simple, Peter Brimelow is a racist who is against the non-white immigrants, and wants to rid America of anyone who is not white like him.
Crooks and Liar writes UPDATED: Bay Buchanan on GOP: ‘We assume our candidates have been loyal to their family.’
Bay Buchanan provided an “extreme makeover” of Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s 9-11 accounts at Media Matters.
