May 27, 2008

Geraldo Rivera warns of immigration raids' devastating effects on nation's "orchids"

Geraldo Rivera continues the struggle to help "his" people, littering the pages of the HuffPost with "Secretary Chertoff, Call Off These Raids" (link). In addition to what was already covered here, let's look at this:

In view of the pending Puerto Rico Democratic primary and the island commonwealth's rare opportunity to explain itself and amplify the growing importance in the larger nation's future of the Latino vote; it is time to say to all three candidates that our votes will go to the presidential aspirant who has the courage to defy the mob and call for an immediate cessation of ICE's draconian workplace campaign.

Needless to say, not all Puerto Ricans would agree with Geraldo and, for instance, most Chicanos don't exactly have much in common with Puerto Ricans. So, until such time as he becomes some sort of pan-ethnic Hispanic leader I don't think Geraldo has much standing to refer to "our votes" in the context of the largely mythical "Latino vote". Maybe I'm wrong; perhaps he could give the fine folks at aztlan.net a call and see if they'd accept his help.

Then, let's look at this:

And what exactly did our heroes under the direction of Secretary Michael Chertoff accomplish? They shut down or severely crippled production at the food plants and fields and orchids, so the nation's food supply has been aversely affected. (The New Bedford plant was sewing knapsacks for our GI's). DHS/ICE has expended millions in executing these operations. They have denied the Social Security trust fund of the millions of dollars these workers were paying into accounts that they have no dream of ever redeeming, because they did not really exist. They have separated working parents from their children, many of whom are citizens. And they have denied the workers' commerce to their communities, many of which have been resurrected by the immigrant's presence in recent years.

1. Not just one but two no doubt spittle-induced typos: he meant "orchards", not "orchids". He also meant "adversely", not "aversely".

2. He's sneering at ICE agents not because they weren't doing their job according to our rules, but simply in order to support illegal activity.

3. He's supporting using illegal serf labor rather than, for instance, mechanizing or raising wages to employ legal workers.

4. He provides no evidence of our food supply being affected, almost certainly because - aside from whines from interested parties - there is none.

5. He forgot to mention that most people agree that the Michael Bianco factory in New Bedford was a sweatshop.

6. Having foreign citizens - especially illegal aliens - playing a role in production of military equipment is generally a bad idea; Geraldo wouldn't care.

7. He wants the Social Security system to profit from illegal activity, which would lead to political corruption. Further, some plans would result in those illegal aliens being able to obtain benefits, and those who enter the country to work illegally must surely realize after a bit that they're paying into a fund that they might not get to access in the future. Geraldo might consider concepts such as unjust enrichment.

8. The only way to deal with mixed status families is to discourage illegal immigration, yet Rivera supports it. And, he's not holding the parents responsible for their actions.

9. There are ways to "resurrect" communities other than through illegal activity, and if it can't be done through legal means then perhaps the town should just be disbanded. And, Rivera is supporting things such as landlords renting to illegal aliens knowing there's a very good chance they're here illegally, and so forth.

P.S. There are a few geraldo.* TLDs available if anyone wants to put up a parody or something.

Posted to Immigration2008a at May 27, 2008 10:13 PM