If you were trying to lose, and lose bad, while challenging Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, it would make sense to make illegal immigration the cornerstone of your campaign. It appears that Republican Rosie Avila, who is running for the 47th Congressional District, is looking to lose by a very wide margin, as she was interviewed by the O.C Register on July 3, and she did indeed focus on immigration.
When asked about amnesty, Avila said she was not for it, and that Ronald Reagan screwed up when he signed off on an Amnesty measure. And then she dropped this bomb, “I think people on all sides would love my immigration views.” Wow! I think Avila might need a drug test!
Avila’s other big issue is learning English. She talked about how her parents left Guatemala and came here to the U.S. with only $1,000. And her dad did learn English. However, she fails to note that her parents were Germans before they were Guatemalans. Any linguist can tell you that English is founded, in large part, in the German language. It is far easier for a person who speaks German to learn English than for a person who speaks only Spanish to do so. Spanish is rooted in Latin and Arabic.
Avila then dropped the Homeland Security card:
We need to let people into our country who work to help our economy. And also, we need to have national security. We need to screen people, if they’re terrorists, or if they’re drug lords, or if they’re criminals. We have to keep our country safe and our people safe.
Were any of the 911 terrorists Mexicans? I know that over 300 Mexicans died in the 911 attack – but NONE of them were terrorists. And why doesn’t Avila want a wall to be built at our norther border? She is of course pushing for a border wall on our southern border.
And what exactly can Avila do in our economy? Has she ever held a real job? I have seen her unedited writing – it is absolutely atrocious. She may speak English but she can barely write in English.
I realize that the OC GOP leader put Avila up in the primary in order out Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist. But now they are stuck with Avila. And as usual they have no hope of taking out Congresswoman Sanchez…
The woman is and has always been a nut.
(Please change “loose” to lose, sorry I’m a teacher)
‘If you were trying to lose, and lose bad, while challenging Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, it would make sense to make illegal immigration the cornerstone of your campaign‘
Tell that to Michael Williamson, who was the 2nd highest vote-getter in the 42nd CD primary. He even embarrassed Ron Shepston and most people don’t even know who he is since he didn’t run a campaign and had what amounted to essentially a one-page website calling himself the ‘no amnesty candidate.’
Lesson: never count out the politics of hate.
SMS
Art, A great 1984 film, “The River” starring Sissy Spacek and Mel Gibson, told the true story of Tennessee farmers who, when about to lose their family farms after floods destroyed their crops, hired on as scabs at a steel mill to break a long-running steel workers strike. A poignant film, you felt very deeply for both groups of desperate hard working people pitted one against the other by events and avaricious employers. We have the same today with our immigration situation. Even with a new amnesty (which I’d be for), unscrupulous employers would immediately turn to new illegal immigrants to drive wages down, and keep working people, including the new legal immigrants, in poverty. You’re pretty hard on just about anybody who criticizes immigration, Art. What do YOU think should be done for the long term?
post 3 art is in favor of open borders . he criticizes any one who is in favor of ENGLISH ONLY . shutting down the border ,is for amensty for law breakers , and if your against that your a racist . and cant make heads or tails between ILLEGAL immigration and legal immigration . sounds like his pal nativio aka larry lopez .
#4,
Actually, I do believe that young people should be taught in English primarily. I think being bilingual is great – but not if it means being less than fluent in English. However I am not opposed to charter schools that teach kids Spanish first. If people want that, good for them. I make a lot of money as a bilingual safety trainer so speaking Spanish has worked for me – however I also do a lot of training in English and I have spoken at over a dozen conferences in the last two years, in English. I certainly would not be a good writer if I was not well grounded in English.
My problem with Avila’s take on English is that she appears to be very punitive about this issue. It annoys me that she brings up her parents and holds them up as examples as to how immigrants ought to learn English when they had a leg up on other Latin American immigrants due to their knowledge of German. I understand why adult immigrants have a hard time learning English – in most cases they are very busy working and don’t have time to go to ESL classes. Avila simply lacks compassion for these hard-working people.
My views on immigration are essentially Libertarian. And I am not an advocate for giving mass citizenship to immigrants in our country. I think most of them just want to work legally and would be happy with green cards. The Dems keep pushing for citizenship because they want to register more voters. While the Reeps just hate on immigrants. I say – let’s make them legal via green cards so they can work.
And yes I do think that people like you needlessly demonize immigrants. It simply isn’t helpful. It is one of the reasons that Republicans like Bustamante are now a rarity in Santa Ana – and why the blue party dominates California.
You failed to mention BTW that I am firmly against the Taliban wing of the GOP that wants to legislate their religious beliefs…
Rosie Avila has my support for California’s 47th Congressaional District.
My advice to the writer of this article:
If you want to make something of yourself in journalism you must be persusive. To be persuasive you must be believable. To be believable you must be credible…and to be credible you must be truthful.
Rosie Avila matches all of the above. Perhaps Art Pedroza should follow her lead.
Jim Gilchrist, founder and president of the Minuteman Project
Mr. Gilchrist,
It is delightful to read that a WikiCelebrity has posted onto a local blog. Welcome!
As to your post, you are accusing Art in a back handed way of not being believable, truthful, credible.. However, maybe it is YOU, who are not able to devine those qualities in others because you, yourself, have strayed so far from those characteristics.
According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Gilchrist
You were removed from the Minuteman Project because of fraud and financial mismanagement. You also let your CPA license expire after you declared bankruptcy in the early 90’s. Your own choices and conduct look compromised.
Why should any reader belive you or any of your endorsements?
Additonally, do you feel that your personal endorsement of Ms. Avila is a help or hinderance in her race for the seat?
I’m just glad she doesn’t have a chance. Even the most conservative are going to run the other way when they actually have a chance to hear her speak. She has some very strange and paranoid ideas and I’ve heard them directly from her.
Hey #4, I truly would like to know Art’s ideas on this. This is very complex prolbem, and I don’t know a good solution, but I do know that the Milosovic approach used in Kosovo of round-em-up and drive-em-out favored by congressman Rohrbacher is immoral, unjust, and un-American. What does bother me is the name-calling and back-biting that substitutes for reasoned discussion on this issue very close to me. Rohrbacher graduated from college the same year as I; I went into the marines as an infantry officer, where 1 of 3 of my sergeants were foreign born hispanics who would be called “illegals” under todays laws. These were my brothers in arms in VietNam while Rohrbacher, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfawitz, and Georg W. , all darlings of the right, found ways to stay safe. Who were the patriots here? Today, for what reason I don’t know but I’m both proud and concerned, young latinos from OC seem to favor the Marine Corps for service. Look at the names of the killed and wounded in the local section of the LATimes and Register. Several of my former students (we’re 97% latino here) have done 2 Iraq tours so far, but their parents are still undocumented (‘illegals’) although they’ve lived here for years. Now Rohrbacher adjusts his flag lapel pin, gets a tear in his eye and says “support our troops”, then tries to get their families deported. What would be the effect on our military in the middle-east if thousands of our young soldiers and marines found they had no home to return to – that the country they serve deported their parents, brothers and sisters?
post 9 thank you for your service . i always hold the military people up on high and they deserve it ..
Grate One, here’s something I bet you don’t know: We have thousands of undocumented immigrants (you’d call them “ILLEGALS”) fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan in return for their citizenship. Many have gotten their citizenship posthumously.
Oh. That means after getting killed.
The Dems keep pushing for citizenship because they want to register more voters. While the Reeps just hate on immigrants.
For one thing Art, the Reeps are totally divided on this issue – between the ones who hate and represent haters, and between the slightly more intelligent and humane ones who care more about what’s good for business (McCain, StJohn, President Bush believe it or not)
And I understand your need to be cynical about Dem motives – you got a nonpartisan reputation to keep up! But there’s a vast middle ground in both parties on this issue that wants to make a “pathway to citizenship” including learning English, some sort of mildly punitive fine for being here illegally… but there’s no reason all these folks who are adding so much to our society should be a permanent underclass.
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