James Pinkerton, Mark Potok, Doris Meissner oppose citizen action against illegal immigration

James Pinkerton of the Houston Chronicle offers "Taking border battle to the streets" about a local group (U.S. Border Watch) that protests in front of day laborer sites. While it's not as bad as other similar articles, he takes his lead from LBJ: he doesn't call them racists, he just makes them deny it. [see the update]

Far from the halls of Congress and the front lines of the Southwest border, the divisive immigration debate is being played out in local neighborhoods, including the Houston area. A number of groups have upped the ante by moving from debate to confrontation, attempting to take immigration duties into their own hands.

The latter is somewhat of a questionable statement: if they were unlawfully trying to enforce the laws they probably still wouldn't be doing what they're doing.

Then, it's time to roll in Mark Potok from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group indirectly linked to the Mexican government. His group "monitors such organizations."

[The head of USBW]... repeats claims that 25 Americans citizens are killed each day by undocumented immigrants. Islamic terrorists are slipping across the Southwest border, he says, camouflaged as illegal immigrants.

''There have been reports of Spanish-speaking schools popping up in the Middle East and teaching people in that part of the world to speak Spanish so they can blend in easily," Collier said.

Potok, with the poverty center, said those claims are common to this new breed of anti-illegal immigration activists. ''These are the paranoid fantasies of people with difficulty handling reality," he said.

First, the 25 per day claim would have illegal aliens committing more than half of all murders, so that's obviously too high. Rep. Steve King says it's 12 per day, however an article I put more faith in says it's somewhere between about 4 and 6 (humanevents.com/article.php?id=10663). See also this. As for the Mideast schools, I haven't heard anything about that, but I certainly have heard about terrorists - or at least those from "Special Interest" countries learning Spanish in order to masquerade as Latin Americans. And, there are several reports about those from such countries - including at least two Hezbollah members - coming across our borders on the immigration terrorism page. And, both Democratic and Republican House members have warned about terrorists infiltrating over the borders, including disguised as Mexicans and others from Latin America.

Adding everything together, I'd have to say that the head of USBW - despite his incorrect figures - is more credible than Potok. Perhaps if Pinkerton wanted to do a better report he would have called both of them on their statements.

Then, we're treated to this:

Doris Meissner, who headed the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the Clinton era [and is now with the Migration Policy Institute when not attending secret NAU meetings], said groups such as Border Watch have proliferated due to frustration over the government's inability to control illegal immigration. And while Meissner characterized the groups as ''spot outbreaks," she considers them a threat.

I'm not going to suggest reflexively considering what she considers to be a threat to be a blessing, but given her extremely poor history that's something to consider. See "Meissner's Gift to Criminal Aliens" (humanevents.com/article.php?id=323) and "Thwarting Homeland Security" (humanevents.com/article.php?id=238).

Then, Pinkerton tries to portray citizens doing their duty as a bad thing:

[After local religious leaders tried to start a day laborer hangout] Border Watch volunteers marched on the Chamber of Commerce, and scores of members dominated a September meeting on the proposed center.

Oh, the horror of U.S. citizens - rather than citizens of other countries - protesting.

"All we wanted to do was get a place for day laborers to be safe, to get out of the sun and rain, to get a drink and go to the bathroom," [pastor Franklin Moore] said.

Aww. Of course, he doesn't mention that most day laborers are illegal aliens, and the church is facilitating illegal activity.

Then, Pinkerton quotes one of the opponents; at least he mentions that he's worked with the "International Socialist Organization and the Progressive Workers Organizing Committee, among others".

MINOR UPDATE: According to this, what I refered to above about LBJ was actually an anti-LBJ satire from Paul Krassner.

Immigration2007b · Mon, 11/05/2007 - 22:43 · Importance: 4