Determining Immigration Status Is a Tricky Business
A new Pew report finds that more than one in 10 students in Colorado, Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas are the children of undocumented immigrants--mainly coming from young families that are having kids at rates faster than previously believed, according to The Washington Post. A percentage of the kids, many of whom face poverty and lack health insurance, also claim U.S. citizenship because they were born in the country--a fact certain to complicate the nation's already strained debate about immigration. The number of children born to undocumented immigrants in the United States was 4 million in 2008. Life can be tough for back-door Americans. Just ask Rene Saldivar, 41, of California, who gained citizenship through his Colorado-born father but could not prove his status to immigration officials. He was jailed in a legal system with fewer rights than typical U.S. courts, according to The Associated Press, which points out that people can be arrested without a warrant, be deported without a hearing, and, until January, didn't even allow a free phone call to the accused. Against this backdrop, potentially violent extremist activity opposing immigration is also on the rise, according to the Department of Homeland Security (via Salon).
Comments
Submitted by Warren Bonesteel (not verified) on Wed, 2009-04-15 15:06.
The powerplayers in the Beltway are playing a game of "Let's you and him fight." How long will it be until the grassroots of both parties figure out that they're being played for chumps by their own government?
 Remember the outrage from the left when the same DHS was profiling and collecting information on left-wing groups and anti-war protestors? The right-wingers sneared right on cue from the Beltway powerplayers. Now, the left-wingers wear a smug snear on their own faces....on cue from the exact same players in the Beltway.
 Do you think the DHS has suddenly cleared and deleted their files on left-wingers and focused solely on Veterans, conservatives anf libertarians??
 We're all being played for the chumps that we are. Yeah. "Let's you and him
fight."
Submitted by Kevin J Jones (not verified) on Wed, 2009-04-15 12:10.
From a prescient March 23 essay "Terror Begins at Home" by Phillip Jenkins:
"Based on the record of past Democratic administrations, in the near future terrorism will almost certainly be coming home. This does not necessarily mean more attacks on American soil. Rather, public perceptions of terrorism will shift away from external enemies like al-Qaeda and Hezbollah and focus on domestic movements on the Right. We will hear a great deal about threats from racist groups and right-wing paramilitaries, and such a perceived wave of terrorism will have real and pernicious effects on mainstream politics. If history is any guide, the more loudly an administration denounces enemies on the far Right, the easier it is to stigmatize its respectable and nonviolent critics.
...Time and again, Democratic administrations have proved all too willing to exploit conspiracy fears and incite popular panics over terrorism and extremism."
