July 10, 2007
Memo From Oklahoma,
By
Allan Wall
Cashing In On Illegal Immigration In The Sooner
State
Currently I'm visiting my
home state of Oklahoma. On a trip to
Oklahoma City, I picked up a free
Hispanic newspaper in a restaurant. The
Spanish-language periodical is known as "El
Nacional de Oklahoma". The free paper bills
itself as "Oklahoma Owned. Hispanic Owned." The
copy I picked up was dated July 5th, 2007.
Looking over this paper can give one a good idea of
what is important to the
Oklahoma City Mexican immigrant community and who is
profiting from high Mexican immigration into the city.
Naturally, immigration was an important topic in
El Nacional’s July 5th, 2007 issue. On
the national level, the defeat of the
Bush/ Kennedy Amnesty/Immigration Surge bill was
bemoaned. On the state level, the passage of
Oklahoma’s HB1804 was criticized. In fact, Oklahoma
Hispanic leaders are considering a boycott against state
businesses which supported the recently-enacted
legislation or who don’t support the amnesty agenda.
The front page, above-the-fold article was dedicated
to an article about the Mexican consul Andres Chao, who
recently visited Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Oklahoma does
not (yet) have a
Mexican consulate/illegal immigration encouragement
station. But Chao is consul in the nearby state of
Arkansas, in the
new Little Rock consulate So, being next door to the
Sooner State, he can still do some damage. [El Nacional
July 5, 2007--México
abre nuevo consulado en EU]
Consul Chao visited Oklahoma, and got together with
members of the Mexican
colonies of Tulsa and Oklahoma City. In the latter,
Chao met with 300 Mexicans in a
Mexican restaurant. He was asked to send
a mobile consulate (used for dispensing
matricula consular cards to illegal aliens) to
Oklahoma every three months.
Chao said he couldn’t arrange to send the mobile
consulate every three months but would try to visit a
few times in 2008. However, the consul did point out
that the
new Mexican consulate in Little Rock is there
because the Arkansas state government (Mike
Huckabee, governor) actually requested its
establishment. So Chao suggested that the governor of
Oklahoma could make the same request.
Attorney
Giovanni Perry, chair of Governor Henry’s “Advisory
Council on Latin American and Hispanic Affairs”
said that would be the goal of
her organization.
One of the Mexicans present at the meeting used the
occasion to bellyache about Oklahoma’s new 1804 law,
scheduled to take effect November 1st::
"Everything I do I do for my family,
but I feel fear because of the new law".
Boo hoo. If he were
legal, why would he feel fear?
Consul Chao also bemoaned the failure of the
recent Senate Sellout: "Disgracefully, the reform
[Senate Sell-out] died and it’s sad for the
Mexican government that the
compromise was not accomplished. For us it is a
double worry because we know that they [emigrants]
left Mexico for the
lack of opportunities and therefore we want to
create jobs there [in Mexico]."
Mexican politicians say that sort of thing
a lot, so how about some action?
You can also learn a lot from the ads in El
Nacional. It’s a free paper, so it depends 100% on
advertising. The business community would not be
spending money on ads if they didn’t expect a return
on their investment.
In fact, the ads in the newspaper advertise for a
great variety of products and services, suggesting that
the Oklahoma City Mexican community has a fair amount of
disposable income.
Unsurprisingly,
law firms are disproportionately represented.
The ad for the Bumgarner & Goodwin firm tells readers
that "Legal o illegal, usted merece tener un buen
abogado" (Legal or illegal, you deserve to have
a good lawyer).
Bumgarner & Goodwin advertises its criminal law
expertise, defending clients from DUI charges, drug
charges,
domestic abuse, theft and
assault charges.
Winningham and Stein calls itself Oklahoma’s oldest
and most experienced law firm. Just so you know what
they’re up to, the firm’s website is called
legalizacioneeuu.com.
Other firms raking in the dough from Oklahoma’s
demographic transition are
Tuan A. Khuu which deals with both immigration law
and accidents,
Bryan & Robinson and Scott
& Standefer who can defend folks from DUI and
criminal charges as well as take on auto accident,
personal injury and
workers compensation cases.
Then there are
Olivarez & Looper Brian E. Powley ,and
Michael S. Johnson
Isaac S. Funderburk IV is a criminal lawyer who
"fights for you" i.e,
fights for the criminal. Other ads are placed by
immigration law specialists
Stump & Associates and the aforementioned Mexican
government-connected
Giovanni Perry [VDARE.COM
note: Perry doesn’t seem to have a website, but a
fawning Oklahoma Journal Record
profile (September 15 2006)
indicates her favorite vacation spot is Bora Bora,
Tahiti.]
So what’s wrong with that, isn’t this what
lawyers do?
Well, yes. But in any sort of
real debate over immigration, the fact that many
lawyers profit heavily from it ought to
be pointed out again and again—along with the fact
that many
ordinary Americans are hurt by immigration.
El Nacional de Oklahoma also has
automobile ads galore, as well as one placed by
"Byron’s Liquor Warehouse".
That
combination ensures there will still be a
need for
ambulance-chasing Okie lawyers to make some more
money off
auto accident and
personal injury cases.
No wonder the usual suspects are incensed over the
new Oklahoma law.
It could potentially cut into their profits.
American
citizen Allan Wall (email
him) resides in Mexico, with a
legal permit issued him by the Mexican government. Allan
recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq with the
Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are
archived
here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM
articles are archived
here his "Dispatches from
Iraq" are archived
here his website is
here.
