Saturday Forum
06/27/2009
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06/26/09 - A Reader Reminds Us Of More Forgotten Black Serial Killers

A Vietnam Veteran (Democrat) Says Sonia Sotomayor Will Advocate For More Special Privileges For Illegal Aliens; etc.

From: Paul (e-mail him)

Re: Henry McCulloch's Column: Sonia Sotomayor's Double Standards

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's primary focus, once she is appointed to the court, will be continued advocacy of more special privileges for illegal aliens, a tragedy for working Americans.

As an example, let me tell you about what has happened to the meat packing industry as a result of illegal immigration. I worked at a nationally-known meat packing plant when I returned from Vietnam and the wages I earned there helped to pay for my B.S. degree in economics at the University of Wisconsin.

My sister and brother-in-law worked at the plant for many years. My brother-in-law was also a union steward at the plant, deeply involved in union politics.

Back in the 1970s, the plant employed several thousand people on all three shifts, many of whom were black Americans. In fact, I worked with and became friends with several University of Wisconsin football players who went to the NFL but never made it past their team's final cut of the season.

The plant provided jobs that paid well. The work was hard, but a person could earn a comfortable middle-class income working at the plant.

This is no longer the case. What remains of the plant is now almost exclusively staffed with immigrants from Mexico and Central America who will work for a fraction of what American citizens were being paid, and who are also afraid to stand up for their rights when fair labor or safety standards are violated.

What has happened to the plant is common across the country. Was the Civil Rights revolution of the 1960s fought so that the advances for black Americans that were made could be undercut by corporate and political pandering to the illegal alien lobby?

Working class Americans like my old colleagues and myself suffer the most from illegal immigration. American citizens, both black and white, should receive priority over non-citizens in employment, education and all the other avenues that lead to success.

In closing I should point out that I am not a right-wing xenophobe. My Democratic family has strong union ties. My father was butcher and also a union steward who eventually became a union business agent.

Although I have earned a degree in economics with graduate credits and now work for an insurance company, I still have my union card with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of the AFL-CIO and continue to follow union politics closely.

Paul's previous letter about worthless Republican presidential candidates is here.

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A Missouri Reader Sums Up In One Word What It's Like To Work In Mexico: Nightmare!

From: Ned Garver (e-mail him)

Re: An American-Mexican Mom's Column: An American Contemplates The "Path To Citizenship" In Mexico—It's Hard!

Like the American-Mexican Mom, I found the road to working in Mexico almost impossible to navigate.

I worked under a tourist visa for three months and could legally renew it for three more months. During that six- month period, our Mexican and American attorneys worked on my behalf to secure a permanent work visa granted to a person for a specific job called an FM2 or FM 3 lucrativa"Lucrativa" as in "making money."

Foreign residents who work in Mexico are required to have them. They are to be carried at all times in addition to your U.S. passport.

To apply for the FM3 work permit I needed to submit the following notarized originals: my birth certificate for (as well as my wife's), our marriage certificate, high school transcripts with proof of graduation, college transcripts for every university I attended as well as proof of graduation, two letters of recommendation from supervisors for whom I had worked at least two years, a letter from the St. Louis Chief of Police stating I had I had no arrest record or outstanding warrants in the US and was "a citizen in good standing," Finally, I had to write a letter about myself that clearly stated why there was no Mexican citizen with my skills and why my skills are important to Mexico.

As if that wasn't enough, all of the above were in English that had to be translated into Spanish and be certified as legal translations with our signatures again notarized.

In the end, we had a folder about 1.5 inches thick with English on the left side and Spanish on the right.

Once these documents were completed, my wife and I spent several hours accompanied by a Mexican lawyer touring Mexican government office locations and being photographed and fingerprinted various times.

At each location we received instructions on regulations regarding Mexican taxes, labor, housing, and criminal law, with a reminder that we were obligated to follow these laws.

We paid out $4,000 in fees and bribes to complete the process. Only when this step was complete could we legally bring in our household goods that were held by US customs in Laredo Texas. This added more costly fees.

We could not buy a home and were forced to rent at very high rates and under contract and in compliance with Mexican law.

We were required to get a Mexican driver's license. This was an amazing process. My company arranged for the Mexican licensing agency to come to our corporate headquarters with their camera, fingerprinting equipment and laminating machine.

Surprisingly, we did not take a written or road test. The only instruction we received was never give a policeman your license if stopped, but to hold it against the inside window away from his grasp. If the policeman got his hands on it you would have to pay ransom to get it back.

Leaving Mexico involved the same process but in reverse. We had to surrender our "lucrativas" and, before our personal belongings were released to customs, to certify that we left no debts behind or had any pending unresolved legal matters.

Working in Mexico was a real adventure. If any of our Senators or Congressmen went through it once, they would have a more realistic attitude about Mexico.

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A Reader From India Is "Fed Up" With VDARE.com, Patrick Cleburne Replies

Dear Mr. Cleburne,

This is my final note to you and VDARE.com. I have become fed up of the constant vitriol and hatred spewed on your site by you and the other authors. I do understand many of the concerns that "white" Americans have and I do hope they are addressed and resolved in the future. However, by demonizing and vilifying a population of an entire nation, you have trivialized your own issues. And I know very well that you do not really care what a "brown" person thinks about your site but I guess I wanted to pour my heart anyway.

Guess what, you'll be extremely surprised to know that even though I am Indian, I do understand the concept of free speech. So I visited your site to understand your points of view and get the reasoning behind the vitriol. However, it seems no matter what, you have an inherent hatred for anything non-white so objective thinking is not on the agenda for VDARE.com.

Thanks a lot for totally demonizing and vilifying my fellow country people in the eyes of the world. I know we have flaws but then who doesn't. Even America wasn't in the best of conditions just 60 years after independence and it came to a point where it is today after much effort and hard work and it took a lot of TIME.

Good luck to you and your site.

Best Regards,

World Citizen

Patrick Cleburne responds:

I was saddened to get this.

In her previous letter, World Citizen appeared to be trying to be reasonable, and as I replied, I actually like Indians.

But Free Speech is an absolute value, not to be suspended because of impatience.

Furthermore, recent events give Americans more reason to be apprehensive the Obama Administration's prejudice in favor of this community.

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