Illegal Immigrant Intimidation

One hundred landowners in Texas are gearing for a showdown with the government surveyors intent on building a 700 mile wall on their properties, at the 1,200 mile long Texas-Mexico border on the banks of the Rio Grande. The land owners are against the move to erect a fence that the Homeland Security authorities believe would deny entry to illegal immigrants, since this would infringe on their rights to the property. Some of these lands were grants from Spain, prior to the existence of the United States, and regarded as a family heritage. Homeland Security Security Michael Chertoff is not about to back off since he believes that an enterprise cannot be discontinued for the benefit of one individual. He adds that giving up the land in this case is a civic responsibility and would solve the entry of illegals as well as criminal elements and drugs.

The massive wall being planned is intended to intimidate illegals from access to the United States. However, doubts remain about its effectiveness. Two years ago, the US Congress voted 239-182 to stem the tide of illegals from the South, and among the provisions was the construction of of a barrier at the Mexican border.
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano believes no wall would be effective. She said two years ago : " show me a 50 ft. wall and I'll show you a 51 ft. ladder". What Arizona has implemented is the Legal Arizona Workers Act which would penalize employers and business entities who knowingly hired illegals in their establishments. Penalties range from 10 days suspension of license to permanent closure. A week ago, Governor Napolitano asked that the law be amended to include provisions that would prevent use of the Act for abuse or discrimination. The Law, which took effect on January 1st has seen the exodus of foreigners in the last 6 months prior to 2008. The State looks at the returning illegals as self-deportation and Attrition by Enforcement. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry has used State and Homeland Security funds to increase border patrol personnel, provide overtime pay, initiate radio communications with rural citizens to alert patrols, use the National Guard for hot spots and for training of rapid deployment teams, among others under the program Operation Linebacker.

Another method that will take effect on the 31st of this month is for US and Canadian citizens to present Proof of Citizenship and a government issued ID when entering the US at land border crossings and sea ports. What used to be mere "oral declarations" now require documented evidence of citizenship. This move is viewed as a means of discouraging illegals and screening undesirables and terrorists.

The intended wall will most likely be a gigantic white elephant. One side claims the right to property, while the other invokes the right of the state to protect its citizens. Court cases will soon follow, but Homeland Security will not stop its construction while talks are ongoing. This is courting a gunfight similar to OK Corral. The key question before they start shooting each other, either with bullets or with legal action, is, "will the wall be effective?". The Walls of Jericho tumbled over upon mere blowing of Joshua's horn; the Berlin Wall did not stop the escape from East Berlin by those enclosed by it, until it was torn down by the imperative of unity and openness; the Great Wall of China, the most massive Wall the world has known, did not stop invaders from attacking the mainland throughout its history. Human ingenuity, intent, and frailties always take the upper hand when such physical structures are erected. This is the lesson of history. At best, it will minimize the access by illegals, but it will be nothing more than a billion dollar ignominy.

What will stop the illegals from blasting portions of the wall while it is still under construction, either as a means to gain entry or as a decoy? At what cost will the wall be maintained. What about those Legal Ranchers and farmers affected by the limited or total lack of access to the Rio Grande for their operations? What sort of logic was behind the genius of this outstanding abomination?

The Arizona Legal Workers Act is showing good signs of success. The flagging economy and a stringent law on hiring illegals will prevent entry since the traffic will stop if there are no jobs available. Employers will not risk their business to hire cheap illegal labor and lose their license in the process. This Law was written by thinking legislators, unlike the wall building idea which is like sweeping the dirt under the rug to get it over with. Garbage in-garbage out. While some quarters see the foreigners, legal or illegal, as contributors to the economy of Arizona, authorities believe that the labor demand will rise versus supply, but will eventually taper off.

The Proof of Citizenship method will test the patience of personnel at the border and the citizens themselves. Massive traffic jams and outbursts of anger are expected, but the intent is to get Americans used to carrying identification. Facilities such as portable outhouses and water fountains should be installed, especially during the summer months.

Immigration is without doubt a big issue in the US. Candidates' viability are affected by their positions on illegal immigration. The imminent recession, if not already existing, will make the issue more sensitive as the continued entry of illegals will take jobs, livelihoods, and even health care benefits from American citizens already experiencing difficulties with their standards of living.

But since the beginning of America's history, illegal immigration has always been a problem. The aliens took out their lands without compensation, destroyed the environment, brought diseases, deforested their mountains, decimated their animals, drove them to starvation, committed genocide against their people, wrecked their culture, lied to them for 150 years with unfulfilled Treaties, and gave the insignificant number of survivors a wasteland so they can be buried there when their "worse than death" existence is over. Ask Russel Means of the Lakota Sioux. Ask the Navajo tribe, or what remains of them. Look back to the Indians.

What the majority of Americans at the border are experiencing is nothing compared to that suffered by the true American. This is poetic justice, albeit a very small one.

Haaarrrrwwwwk...Twoooooph...Ting!

Turning from Treacherous Treaties

After enduring 150 years of broken promises, lies, deception, and neglect - to the point where they felt that the government simply wanted them to vaporize and vanish once and for all - the descendants of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, and have set up a country of their own.

The Lakota Country, according to longtime indian rights activist Russel Means encompasses parts of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. According to Means, they will issue their own passports and driver's licenses. They have invited people covered by the territory they mapped out to join them with offers of tax freedom for as long as they renounce US citizenship.

Russel Means is a lifelong indigenous rights and constitutional rights activist, actor, author and artist with a very colorful history. Considered one of the most magnetic speakers of our time, he has spoken in all major universities in the US and UK, done lecture tours in Switzerland, South Korea and Japan, and his most famous speech "For America to Live, Europe Must Die" has been included in America's top 100 speeches.

Means declared that the withdrawal is legal, citing Article 6 of the Constitution which states that Treaties are the supreme law of the land. He said that their move was bolstered further by the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the United States and the rest of the international community in 1980. "The treaties with the US are worthless words on worthless paper. We are within our legal rights to be free and independent", Means said.

How this move will play out in the future is uncertain. It would be a wise move to have the issue discussed in debates during the election campaign, specially among the Democrats. The annexation of Indian lands "have made the once proud tribes mere facsimiles of white people", Means said. Life expectancy for men is the shortest in the world at 44 years old, teen suicides are 150% above the US norm, and infant mortality is 5 times higher than the US average. These numbers are attributable to loss of hope, lost opportunities, depression, and a long history of abuse and oppression from the US government.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and those "Honorable" men in the US Congress came out with a Declaration of genocide against Turkey last November for the massacre of Armenians prior to WW 1; what do they think this issue with the Lakota indians are, a mere oversight? After 150 years? The tribes have been deprived to the point of starvation for long periods. As I mentioned in a previous post, perhaps the US Authorities were experimenting to see if starvation would make the Indian tribes turn white.

The blacks, latinos, and asians have had a better deal than America's own indigenous people. This is perhaps because these 3 ethnic groups adapted to the American way of living such as junk food, drugs, pollution,environmental degradation, wasteful consumption, consumer orientation, sex, violence, guns, etc. The Indian tribes were one with nature, they respected the environment and kept it in balance. An entire culture with enormous knowledge and sound practices that could lead us to a better way of harnessing nature's resources has been wiped out because of the age old greed of the white man for the fast buck and the huge profit. Massacre and genocide was a mere method to "clear the wilderness". Americans need not look elsewhere in the world for what its foreign policy makers do to the smaller countries of the planet. Right in their own backyard, they can see its oldest laboratory for oppression and genocide!

I am with Russel Means. I would like to see his country, may not be much, but its theirs. I will find a way to support their cause. However, what I foresee is an army of FBI men swooping down on their territory demanding that they surrender or die. Should this transpire and Russel and his tribe are vanquished, this will not be the end of it. There will always be those who will toil for it, fight for it, suffer for it. If need be, die for it. That is the power of truth.

To Russel Means and the future of Lakota Country, I return the phrase: Mitaku Oyasin (We are all related).