THE URBAN DEMOCRATS BURN THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS WHEN IT COMES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
By Robert Klein Engler (04/05/06)
CHICAGO (4 April '06)--A recent editorial in the New York Times by David D. Kirkpatrick suggests that if Republicans come down too hard on the illegal immigration issue, then they will loose Latino voters and be unable to win elections on the national level for the next 50 years. Kirkpatrick writes, "The battle among Republicans over immigration policy and border security is threatening to undercut a decade-long effort by President Bush and his party to court Hispanic voters." I find this suggestion not only absurd, but without principles.
For the past 50 years urban Democrats have been segregating minorities for the sake of getting votes. The urban Democrats talk about integration, but in fact they practice segregation. A ride on Chicago's Red Line subway will make this evident. African-Americans in Chicago are still living on the plantation, and Latinos are being pushed onto the hacienda. By practicing segregation, the urban Democrats are assured block votes and political power.
Chicago's public schools are an example of 50 years of Democratic policies based on urban segregation. Anyone coming to the city will see the schools are segregated by being predominately African-American. Brown v. the Board of Education has not integrated Chicago's public schools. Fifty years of urban Democratic policies have created, instead, a Chicago public school system that has moved from being separate but equal to being separate but unequal.
Now, come the illegal immigrants from Mexico. The Democrats and editorial writers warn the Republicans that they better be careful and not alienate these soon to be Latino voters. Senator Kennedy claims that the issue of illegal immigration is the "new Civil Rights movement." What about the old Civil Rights movement? Do those Democratic voters on the plantation want to be outvoted by the new voters on the hacienda?
The voices of African-Americans have been strangely silent in the debate over illegal immigration, especially illegal immigration from Mexico. Illinois Senator Obama has said little. The Reverend Jesse Jackson prefers to go to New Orleans and speak about the election down there instead of getting involved in the new Civil Rights movement in Chicago.
In New Orleans, Jackson claims that, "The government can save money, no doubt, by exploiting illegal immigrants," but at home Jackson is reluctant to talk about how Latino voters are edging out Chicago's African-Americans in city and county politics. Even his son, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., has avoided the issue of how illegal immigration from Mexico will impact African-Americans in Chicago. It seems, even for all their bluster, that the Jacksons are as committed to segregation as any big city, Democratic mayor.
In spite of the silence by African-American leaders, some rank and file African-American voters are disturbed by the uninformed comments made by politicians when they claim that America is a "nation of immigrants." These African-Americans ask us to remember that their ancestors from Africa did not immigrate to the U. S., but instead were brought here as slaves. To overlook this aspect of African-American history is to overlook an important part of American history.
Other African-Americans are conflicted over the Democrat's handing of illegal immigration. They do not like the comparison of demands made by the illegal immigration movement with the demands made by the Civil Rights movement. African-Americans had to struggle for almost a century to get the right to vote. They do not like it when someone just walks across the border to the U. S. and then demands the rights of citizenship.
African-Americans in Chicago also see how illegal immigrants are cutting unskilled African-Americans out of the labor market. The Federation for American Immigration Reform reports that, "a GAO study found that a decade of heavy immigration to Los Angeles had changed the janitorial industry from a mostly native Black, unionized workforce to one of non-unionized Latinos, many of whom were illegal aliens."
Likewise, "Employment of Black Americans as hotel workers in California dropped 30 percent in the 1980s, while the number of immigrants with such jobs rose 166 percent. A similar story can be told of the garment industry, the restaurant business, hospital work, and public service jobs."
Add to these employment statistics the fact that under current laws every illegal Hispanic who gets a green card also qualifies for Affirmative Action preference, and it's no wonder that some African-Americans question the Democrat's policies on illegal immigration. It looks like the urban Democrats are embracing the issue of illegal immigration at the expense of African-Americans. The urban Democrats are burning the candle at both ends when it comes to Chicago's segregated minorities.
Republicans are not mistaken in their demand for immigration policies based on the principles of assimilation and integration, policies that strengthen our borders and deport illegal immigrants. Republicans are correct in their insistence that amnesty for illegal immigrants has failed in the past and will fail in the future. Republicans need to persuade more African-Americans of this, too. Republicans have an opportunity, now, to reach out to not only thoughtful Latino voters, but to informed urban, African-American voters, as well.
In a segregated city like Chicago, as the political influence of the hacienda grows, the political influence of the plantation shrinks. It's time, now, for African-American voters to recognize this and to look to their own interests. If they do this, then they will find that their interests lie outside the Democratic Party.
It is in the interest of African-American voters in Chicago and around the nation to support secure borders, strict enforcement of our immigration laws and no amnesty for illegal immigrants. It is in the interest of African-American voters to vote Republican in the November elections.
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