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June 30, 2006
 With
Senators Like Melquiades Martinez—The Cuban Half of
Hagel-Martinez—Who Needs Traitors?
By
Joe Guzzardi
Florida’s junior Senator Melquiades
Martinez won his 2004 election by only 70,000 votes. His
victory was uncertain until his Democratic opponent
Betty Castor conceded the next morning.
But, despite his narrow winning
margin,
Cuban-born Martinez is wielding disproportionate
influence on U.S. immigration policy. Martinez’s radical
views on amnesty and guest workers threaten American’s
future
Martinez is the co-author of the
Hagel-Martinez S. 2611—another amnesty for
illegal aliens. (Remember that since the IRCA Law of
1986, seven additional amnesties have followed.)
To review: S.2611 would legalize
and ultimately grant citizenship to 14.4 million people.
Here’s how the Center for
Immigration Studies, based on an analysis of the
IRCA Law of 1986, breaks down its figures that it
projects as "conservative":
- 7.4 million illegal aliens
will receive amnesty legitimately
- 2.6 million aliens will
legalize fraudulently
- 4.5 million spouses and
children living abroad will join their legalized
family
[Center for Immigration Studies,
Amnesty Under Hagel-Martinez: An Estimate of How Many
Will Legalize if S. 2611 Becomes Law, June 2006]
Martinez, unfortunately for
Americans who favor sane immigration policies, is one of
those supremely dangerous charitable types.
In 1962, Martinez came to Orlando,
Florida at the age of 15 as part of
"Operation Pedro Pan", a humanitarian program
developed by the Catholic Welfare Bureau (
Catholic
Charities) and sanctioned by the State Department.
This program waived visa requirements for
about 14,000 young children who, with their parent’s
permission, traveled unaccompanied to the U.S. to escape
Fidel Castro’s
communist indoctrination.
Like many children, Martinez lived
in foster homes until his family joined him four years
later.
According to Martinez’s Senate
website, his experiences as a teenage
Cuban refugee living in Florida instilled "a
strong sense of community and the need to give back to
this country."
Martinez’s pay back, then, is S.
2611? His "need to give back to this country" is
a bill that would destroy what’s left of the America he
remembers from the 1960s when he emigrated from
Sagua La Grande?
A close look at Martinez’s
record—then and now—shows that he has always been a
snake.
Martinez, once a Democrat and
former president of the Florida Academy of
Trial Lawyers, moved quickly up the political ladder
when he became George W. Bush’s Florida’s co-Chairman of
the
2000 Election.
As his reward for a job well done
(helping deliver
Florida’s electoral votes to the Republicans), Bush
appointed Martinez, until then unknown outside of
Florida, Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development.
During his tenure at
HUD, Martinez is best remembered for three things:
In 2004 Martinez, encouraged by
Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, resigned
from HUD to run in the Florida primary for Senate.
During his
campaign, Martinez boldly
lied about his immigration stance saying:
"I
oppose
amnesty for illegal aliens. I support a plan that
matches workers with
needy employers without providing a
path to citizenship. Immigration to this country
must always be done through legal means."
But Martinez soon tipped his
pro-immigration bias
At the
2004 Republican National Convention, encouraging the
re-election of President Bush, Martinez said:
"I have
lived the
American dream, and I am determined to ensure the
possibility of that dream for others."
Later in the same speech, Martinez
segued into Spanish:
"Tengo
el honor de haber trabajado para el Presidente que mas
ha logrado para la comunidad Hispana." (I
have the honor of having worked for the President who
has done the most for the Hispanic community.)
Another clue that Martinez was
driven by a pro-Hispanic, anti-American agenda came
during his first speech on the Senate floor.
Safely elected, Martinez had the
audacity to address it in Spanish without warning.
During his speech, Martinez urged
the Senate to confirm
Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General—saying that it
would "resonate" with Latinos.
Martinez’s ploy was so
disrespectful that even
Spanish speakers were offended.
Eduardo Montalvo, an occasional
editorialist from Central Florida at
HispanicVista.Com wrote, in his
column encouraging English as the nation’s official
language, that Martinez’s action was "a stunt"
and a "political maneuver." [
Lawmaker
Makes History: Speaking Spanish in Senate, Martinez Pays
Tribute to Attorney General Nominee Gonzales, by
Judy Holland, San Francisco Chronicle, February
3, 2005]
Martinez has another immigration
goal…liberalizing the already generous "
wet
foot, dry foot" policy that allows Cubans who
reach U.S. soil to apply for permanent
residency within a year. (Those interdicted at sea
are repatriated to Cuba.)
Citing his personal background as
an cause, Martinez feels that anyone fleeing
Communist Cuba en route to U.S. freedom should be
allowed to stay whether they make it to land or not. [
Freedom
and the Wet Foot, Dry Foot Policy, Roberto
Iraola, Jurist, May 1, 2006]
What can explain Martinez’s
behavior? Martinez isn’t motivated by White House
dreams. Since he is not a
natural born citizen Martinez cannot,
under the U.S. Constitution, become either president
or vice-president.
Martinez’s allegiance, despite his
patriotic front, is not to the U.S. but to the global
Spanish-speaking community—Cubans,
Mexicans,
Central Americans.
The fact that opening the doors to
millions more
poor, unskilled immigrants would be ruinous to the
U.S. does not concern Martinez.
Martinez reminds me of another U.S.
Senator with a compelling personal story who has managed
to fool a lot of people—Arizona’s
John McCain.
But time has caught up with both
Martinez and
McCain. And we see them now for what they
are—traitors.
Joe Guzzardi [email
him], an instructor in English at the Lodi
Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column
since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM. |
