"Give the land back is a faulty argument"

Conor Friedersdorf of the Beyond Borders offers this editorial about those who claim that the U.S. southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico.

...Even the worst ideas can endure when they're not directly challenged. At present there are people who earnestly believe the United States owes immigration spots to foreign Latinos to atone for historical sins. As we consider this particular argument, let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the United States did seize the Southwest from Mexico somewhat unfairly. Now consider how arbitrary it would be to undo that particular historical wrong amid the vast sweep of centuries stretching behind us...

He goes on, but my argument is much shorter and much more basic: this is now our land no matter how it was obtained. Anyone who works to take it away is automatically declaring themselves an enemy of the United States. In that case, no further argument is necessary.

Immigration · Sun, 01/15/2006 - 03:13 · · Importance: 1

Comments

if we take that argument and expand it a little, why don't we just go ahead and give it all back to the indians, or morerather, the grizzly bear, sabertooth tiger and wooley mammoth?

i would love to see this theory applied in europe or africa.....

Posted by: calypso catteraugus at Jan 18, 2006 10:29 AM

There is no reason to assume that current generations of Latinos would have inherited anything. The government is wrong to increase the aggression on living citizens for any reason, and thus also to do so for the aggrandizement of those whose claim to have been otherwise in line to inherit something,if history had turned down a different course.

Posted by: John S Bolton at Jan 15, 2006 11:38 AM

I'm with Lonewacko on this; it's your turf if you have the manpower and the will to defend it. Alas, a number of my fellow Americans are eager to give away the American southwest to Mexico. But it's not theirs to give away.

Posted by: dchamil at Jan 15, 2006 7:04 AM

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