January 15, 2005

Guide for the Reconquista?


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Originally uploaded by octopod.

The Mexican government has published a guide for migrants to the U.S., legal and illegal. An excerpt is posted.

Given that much of our Southwest was taken from Mexico in war, this guide, innocuous public service comic book though it seems, is in effect a guide for the reconquest of the Southwest by across-the-border infiltration.

It's hard to fault the individual migrant, who is seeking a better life and usually comes here to work and send money back home.

But the lack of security in the post 9/11 age, the rise of ethnic separatism, and the slowness of assimilation, all make immigration from Mexico and Central America, legal and illegal, a potentially serious problem.

Indeed, the website of MEChA, the Chicano student movement that Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante refused to repudiate during the recall campaign in California, still posts the "Spiritual Plan of Aztlán", that says, among other things:

In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal "gringo" invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlán from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny.

We are free and sovereign to determine those tasks which are justly called for by our house, our land, the sweat of our brows, and by our hearts. Aztlán belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent.

In this context, for the Mexican government to publish a guide to "wading that river" is an unfriendly act. If immigration were slowed, the demand for a different régime in Mexico might be unstoppable. The true beneficiaries of better border security and curbs on immigration would be our lowest-paid native-born workers, black and white. Bush's lackadaisical, Wall St. Journal approach to immigration is a potential Achilles heel for the GOP if a smart Democrat smells an opportunity. Even many citizens of Mexican descent are concerned, now. It is also a threat to our security and continuity of national culture.

How far to go down the road of restricting immigration, deporting those already here, and sanctioning employers of illegals, are all important and not easy questions to answer.

But the present trend is too much, too fast, with too-unpredictable an outcome. Something beyond the current ostrich strategy needs to be done.

HT: Lonewacko.

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