Washington Big Media Noticing Immigration! [Peter Brimelow] - 03/25/05Standing out from the endless procession of “conservative” media cheerleaders for the Bush Administration is today’s editorial in the Washington Times—“Vigilantes” [March 25 2005] “We've reached a very strange moment in the immigration debate. On Wednesday President Bush condemned a group of good American citizens worried about the breaking of U.S. immigration law….An hour or two later, Mr. Bush welcomed to his Texas ranch a man who insults the United States for its immigration policy and leads a government that routinely flouts U.S. immigration law…Mexican President Vicente Fox hit a trifecta of contempt for the United States and its laws over the past week….It's sad to see an American president roll out a royal welcome to a foreign dignitary so openly contemptuous of U.S. law, while simultaneously condemning Americans who are trying to help duly constituted authorities enforce the law.” The Times preceded this with a news story Mexico accused of abusing its illegals [Jerry Seper, March 24 2005] that was one of sharpest polemical blades handed to immigration reformers in quite a while: “The State Department says that the Mexican government…consistently violates the rights of illegal immigrants crossing its southern border into Mexico….The State Department's Human Rights Practices report…cites abuses at all levels of the Mexican government, and charges that Mexican police and immigration officials not only violate the rights of illegal immigrants, but traffic in illegal aliens.” Meantime, the elephantine Washington Post obviously has vague sensation that something is happening amongst Republicans immigration-wise: “Conservatives Split in Debate on Curbing Illegal Immigration [by Sheilagh Murray. March 25 2005] “Republican lawmakers are headed for a showdown over illegal immigration, an issue that exposes a deep and bitter rift within the GOP…The immigration debate pits one core GOP constituency (law-and-order conservatives) against another (business interests that rely on immigrant labor). At VDARE.COM, of course, we believe there are more reasons to reform immigration than just rule-following. We also think there is absolutely nothing conservative about flooding the country with huge supplies of non-English speaking unskilled labor. But it is encouraging to see the Post is aware that this is not just a Beltway spat: “Rancor over illegal immigration has become a staple on conservative blogs and talk radio, with much of the wrath directed at Bush…House Rules Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) got a jolt during his 2004 reelection campaign, when radio hosts in his outer Los Angeles district decided to make him a "political human sacrifice" for his immigration views…He won with 54 percent of the vote, a lower proportion than previous years, and has since taken a prominent role in advocating [reform]” Our conclusion: Agitation works! |
