Nothing Changes but the Weather

Jon Bell of Vista, emailed me last week telling me I was right and wrong about the U.S. Occupation of Iraq and requested I “take pen in hand and address a more pressing and dangerous issue. That is the impending Federal legislation (S.1348) that would give INSTANT legal status to 12-20 million lawbreaking, invaders of US sovereignty. You should demand the Federal Govt throw the illegals out of the US and encourage your readers through letters, emails, faxes to their elected reps do the same.”

O.K. First of all, I don't use a pen to write this column, I use a computer. And second I would never demand the federal government throw the illegals out because I think the federal government is the problem. The “Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity & Immigration Reform Act of 2007” (S.1348) is no different.

It's hard for me to get worked up about immigration, legal or otherwise. Sure there needs to be immigration reform, yes, a closed border is impossible to achieve and maintain, and over population unemployment and social inequality are a huge issues that must be addressed. Also clear is how the US federal government enables the status quo to continue to suit the needs of their corporate masters in spite of various calls for changes to immigration policy.

Looking to Washington for remedy, is as futile, as it is self defeating. A California separatist I am more interested in what Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing to mitigate the unending influx of non-Californians, and their impact on limited resources and our tenuous quality of life.

That said, I figured I could find find 500 words to wax philosophical about U.S. Sovereignty, federal mendacity, and the importance of writing local officials.

In the past, when I have written about immigration it was usually regarding the ecological destruction resulting from failing attempts at border security. Habitat destruction due to border traffic, human and vehicle, border patrol and military exemptions from environmental regulation, and anthropogenic barriers blocking animal migration, are my cup of tea.

The task before me however is to address the federal government failing to enforce it's own regulations, and the granting immigration amnesty to millions of law breaking foreign nationals. My question is, if workers, employers, congressional representatives, and the Bush Administration don't adhere to current border regulations and immigration policy, why would a rational man expect anybody to adhere to S.1348?

Clearly cheap labor and corporate profit are the motivating factors in the land of immigration politics. And since corporatists control all 3 branches of the US government, where is the evidence any amount of organized protest would alter the strategically mismanaged bureaucratic nightmare encompassing the Mexican/American border?

Then there is the question of US foreign policy in Latin America, and what part the US government has played in creating the economic hardships faced by the people of Mexico and Central America nations such as Guatemala.

Personally, I am of the opinion that as long as there are people looking for food and fresh water, migration will continue, legal and otherwise. I also believe overpopulation is the real issue. And only the weather will change.

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