Immigration

Cold Logic

"I think we're in a methamphetamine epidemic here," Galax police Chief R.C. Clark said. "This is a distribution point. There is cultural support. There are other people who speak Spanish." "I still desperately need someone who speaks the language and is also adept in the culture of diversity," Clark said.

Right now, Galax has no officers fluent in Spanish and cannot hire any because larger departments are willing to offer much higher pay, Clark said. Some officers are taking language lessons.

Last year, two Mexican men were found shot to death along a logging road in Grayson County. Both were illegal immigrants, authorities said, and their deaths are thought to have been connected to drug dealing. The man suspected of shooting the two also is Mexican, and is thought to have returned to that country, Grayson County Sheriff Richard Vaughan said.

"Cartels tend to swim in the ocean of illegal aliens," said George Grayson, a professor of government at the College of William and Mary who has written extensively about U.S.-Mexico relations.

He did not find it surprising that Galax and other small towns across the country with high concentrations of Hispanic residents would become beachheads in the cartels' push to expand their trafficking northward.

"Often the cartels will use smaller towns ... as an area of operations because typically the law enforcement agencies don't have the resources to deal with the underworld characters," Grayson said.

These and other "inferences" are repeated at the website - http://bitterqueen.typepad.com - dedicated to the "History of Gay Bars in New York City" "Get the Mafia out of Gay Bars".

In an article at http://roanoke.com/ featuring Megan Brown, "Her own suppliers and, from what she could tell, their suppliers, had not been Latino."

Alison Flinchum in a

response

to the Roanoke Times article said "This article could have been greater, but chose to cater to the fear of a region."

In the face of this sort of logic, I recommend a tamale from "La Tapatia" on East Grayson St. in Galax.

 

Attrition Through Enforcement

Anti immigrations forces have agreed upon a strategy that works. Make life bad enough for a class of people so that they will leave. The immediate benefit of such a strategy is that you can blame your problems on largely defenseless populations and deflect criticism of those who created and benefited in the first place.

The first principle of the global economy (and all large scale economy) is the exploitation of cheap labor. In Galax, textile and furniture production in China is an obvious example. Migrants are mere commodities in the corporate toolbox.

The second principle is power. If corporations can get nations to go to war, how much easier is it to keep the workforce compliant either by the threat of arrest and deportation or competition from a segment who cannot complain about workplace conditions and will shut up, work hard and never - never complain.

International Travel 1995-2000

While working on immigration policy, I happened upon an old passport and puzzled over the visa stamps. Most of them were granted upon entrance but two multiple entry visas were obtained - El Salvador and Bangladesh. Curiously, the Bangladesh visa almost cut one trip short as the records in Washington did not agree with those in Dhaka. None of them permitted employment but all of the trips were under contract with the Agency for International Development of the US Department of State.

The system worked well enough for me which makes the current immigration situation even more puzzling. Especially in view of the 50 years of progress towards individual freedom of movement in Europa, the European Union.

Sabbath Work - Foreign Resident Solution

Solution

This proposal has undergone several revisions and I anticipate several more. Comments are welcome (but you must have an account to make them or use the contact link in the menu). The solution is quite simple but requires the cooperation of multiple entities and governments.

Country of origin

First, the country of origin issues a hardware encrypted "smart card" to their
citizens who wish to travel to or already reside in foreign countries.
This smart card incorporates one or more of the following features.

  1. Passport number.
  2. Drivers license number.
  3. International drivers license.

Foreign Citizen

The foreign citizen adds to the card.

  1. Debit card.
  2. Sufficient funds to provide return travel to their home country for themselves and their dependents.

US Government

The US Government adds to the card.

Mike Easley supports access to NC colleges

"Here's my position. The people we are talking about were brought here as babies and young children through no fault of their own. They distinguished themselves throughout our K-12 (public school) system. Now, I'm not willing to grind my heel in their faces and slam the door on them. The Community College System has to be open to them in order for them to be productive members of our society and help North Carolina and America compete in the world economy."
- NC Governor Mike Easley

Immigration: the Debate

I have thought about this subject over the last couple days and had this drawn out short book to post here about my thoughts on Immigration. But ill spare everyone the pain and just post a short paragraph. For those of you who don't personally know me, I'm 37 years old, single and have only a select few loves in my life, and one of the loves at the top of the list is to travel around this most fascinating planet of ours. I'm not what you would call your average traveler by any common sense of the word, the places that I have had the opportunity to visit are some of the poorest places on this planet not to mention some of the most dangerous.

They say a photograph is worth a thousand words..... So here is two thousand.

The first is of me in front of a stream in the mountains of southern Mindanao Philippines, the fine folks in the background are bathing and doing there laundry on rocks.

Wake Forest University - Immigration: Recasting the Debate

I attended most of all three days of the conference. To get me to travel from Independence three days in a row is some sort of tribute in itself. Especially in view of the fact I drove home from the Plenary session in a fit of despair.

Immigration: Recasting the Debate

Marshall, Martinez among speakers to address immigration issues at Wake Forest <!-- InstanceEndEditable -->


September 25, 2007

<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="Release" -->

Ray Marshall, former U.S. secretary of labor in the Carter administration, and Republican U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida will be featured as the keynote speakers at “Immigration: Recasting the Debate,” a three-day conference hosted by Wake Forest University Oct. 3-5.

The conference, which kicks off the university’s 2007-2008 Voices of Our Time speaker series, is free and open to the public.

Child

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Child

A child was held by her mother at a news conference in New Bedford the day after her father was among 327 employees of Michael Bianco Inc. who were detained by immigration officials. (Peter Periera/The New Bedford Standard Times via Associated Press)

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