“As governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano last year signed into law the nation’s harshest penalty for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, a measure that would take away their business licenses for a second violation,” according to the L.A. Times.
Is Napolitano’s appointment by President elect Barack Obama to serve as his Homeland Security Secretary good news for Latinos? Similarly, what are we to make of Obama’s appointment of Hillary Clinton, over New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who is a Latino, to serve as Secretary of State? It looks to me like Obama is already punking Latinos and he isn’t even sitting in the White House yet.
Napolitano also called for stationing the National Guard on the Mexican border. “Arizona has become one of the worst states for immigrants in this country,” said John Trasvina, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Los Angeles.
“She also proposed a “temporary worker program with no amnesty,” according to the L.A. Times. Trust me on this one – Napolitano is not interested in making it easier to come here. And she is not likely to support another amnesty. Republicans should be quite happy with her appointment. Latinos on the other hand need to take a long hard look at this appointment – and at their support for the Democratic Party.
Remember that the Clintons were awful on immigration. And now Hillary will be in a very powerful position in the Obama administration, while the ONLY Latino being mentioned for an appointment, Richardson, has been relegated to Secretary of Commerce.
I am predicting right now that the Obama administration will NOT be friendly to Latinos and immigrants. It is early, but his first moves are highly questionable. Perhaps he is trying to solidify support amongst white voters?
I’m once again disappointed in you Art.
You try once again to paint a position of enforcing the laws of illegal immigration as being against Latinos.
And this isn’t… find em and deport em. No. This is… penalize EMPLOYERS who break the law.
And its anti-Latino… whatever! Again with the immigration lesson.
41% of illegal immigrants are visa overstayers. That means they came in by plane from somewhere else and never left.
http://www.cis.org/articles/1997/IR28/5million.html
Now, we have a policy of enforcing laws NO ONE… NO ONE would repeal Art. Laws like: your employee has to have a valid social security number. NO ONE should make it easier to come here illegally.
No mass deportations. Just: No job here. Make up your own mind. And you want to make it more possible for illegals to show up to a job and give a fake social security number. Do you retain any respect for the system at all? Do you have any idea how dangerous your attitude is? Do you not value your family’s safety? That attitude is what let terrorists get on our airplanes in the first place. What? I don’t have ID? You cant ask me for ID, thats anti-Latino! I ain’t got to show you no stickin badges!!!
Now, if you used this piece as a lead in to rail about Obama, or complain that Richardson is only Secretary of Commerce… OK.
What I have just said was my “spin” on your bad call. The Democrats won’t respect the views of Latinos any better than Unions respect the views of their members. You could have waited for something better to come along…
Quit using that spin.
Terry,
Good morning! I knew this one might rile a few folks up. BTW, do you support a national ID card? Because I expect Napolitano does…
I applaud Napolitano’s clampdown on companies that employ those who have entered the country illegally.
Why? Because all Americans should consider the spectacle of hiring illegal immigrants just so they can be paid sub-standard wages, given no health benefits, and often kept from collective bargaining, just so we can have cheap strawberries, beneath the values that this country stands for.
#3,
A major study released this week confirmed that American Latino workers are ALREADY working for crappy pay with no benefits. Immigrants just get screwed over even more.
The problem is greedy CEOs and managers who overpay white collar workers at the expense of the people who do the REAL dirty work.
“The problem is greedy CEOs and managers who overpay white collar workers at the expense of the people who do the REAL dirty work.”
Well, “white collar workers” is a very vague category. If you’re talking about middle class professionals, their incomes adjusted to inflation are going downward. If you’re speaking of the CEO’s and upper management, then yes, most of them make far too much money.
But then fixing that does nothing to fix the ugly spectacle I mentioned in comment 3, so your point is really tangential to the point I made.
#4
The events of the past few weeks clearly prove the lions of Wall Street do not work, get fabulous bonuses and when times get tough, they fly first class to Washington DC, with their hands outstretched for a hand out. Go figure.