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Indybay Feature

Minutemen Unwelcome in Marin

by Buff Whitman-Bradley
On July 28, 2007, the Minutemen border vigilantes held a meeting in Larkspur, California, to organize a new chapter in Marin County. Local immigrant rights activists greeted them with the message that racists are unwelcome in our county.
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by @
Well done. We in the south bay are making sure that the minutomen are drowned out by voices for human rights and respect for all workers. Immigrants have always been a convenient scapegoat for working class angst in this country. The struggles of the Chinese and Filipino and Japanese and Mexican workers against racism in California are an inspiration and white folks should remember that someday they and their kids may be economic refugees. My grandparents were Okies (economic refugees) who fled Oklahoma and New Mexico during the dust bowl and depression. There were corrupt toll-takers along the california border who enforced a classist discrimination against the destitute immigrants from Oklahoma and I am sick at heart to think that people can forget so fast that their families have suffered and then turn around and abuse workers in similar situations. Nobody is driving white folks out of california, we are just going to need to learn to share and respect each other.
by via la-imc
Defending The New Sanctuary Movement in Long Beach
SOS/Minutemen in Long Beach
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/07/203627.php

by Mary
People, those against illegal immigration aren't racist and those who say they are don't have command of the facts. Illegal immigration is an economic problem. The US simply cannot keep absorbing 4000+ people a day from our southern border or anywhere else. This takes a huge amount of resources from water and land to having teachers at hand to teach more students and even more to teach English to those who don't speak it. Healthcare is affected when these folks turn up for care and can't pay for it. Hospitals close and premiums go up. The incarceration of illegal immigrants is costly too - someone has to pay for all this and the US taxpayer is paying dearly. The more people we have the more we need of "everything" and it simply is not feasible for us to allow so much uncontrolled population growth in such a short amount of time. In contrast, legal immigration allows for orderly and controlled growth, the planning for what resources will be needed and is the best way for the US to remain strong.
by hmm
640_immigration_percent_550h.jpg
Levels were higher before WWII and have also declined recently.

Immigration probably helps the economy overall and illegal and legal immigrants often pay more in taxes than they receive back in terms of government services.
by Stephen R. Gibbons
To who it may cercern,

I find it rather difficult to understand why “patriotic” Americans would be labeled in such a way anyone, especially by those who harbor & promote Illegal Aliens breaking our laws, burning our flag and disrepecting our country. As it happens, I’m a life-long Catholic, husband, father of three; working in the Department of Defense industry fighting the war on terror.

Ironically, I would have suspected that the 2 billion dollars paid out to victims of “petifile” Catholic Priests (and the 660+ million dollars just awarded to 500 victims in the LA church sex abuse case), would be far more of a priory for a newspaper and news journalist.

Yet, you spend time insulting me and other MCDC/MMP members, who you don’t know or have never met. I’m sick and tired of the filth you and others put forth and demand an apology without further delay.

Meanwhile, I will pray for the many thousands of victims of petifile Catholic Clergy. Those victims who were raped and have had their innocence and ultimately their lives, forever ruined by these evil individuals. And the 47,000+ Americans murdered by "illegal aliens" (not "immigrants"!) since 9/11.

I will also continue to supply and train the brave American patriot volunteers (hardly racists or vigilantes) who risk life and limb in a united effort to secure our nation’s borders.

Steve Gibbons
DOD/DOJ Accounts & Tactical Product Specialist
US Night Vision Corp.
Central Contractor Registration: #4CP11
D&B: #623156093
MCDC CA Chapter Member: #GIBB95674059
Supplying and training the brave professionals who protect our homeland……..


by Fairy Godmother
...that the first U.S. census, in 1790, recorded under 4 million Americans. By 2000, this number had grown to over 281 million, and is expected to reach 308 million by 2010. So, by the graph you present, in 2000 immigrants comprised roughly 1% of the US population. That's still 2.8 million immigrants - up from roughly 40,000 in the 1800s. When the US reached 300 million in population, that 1% figure would equal around 3 million immigrants. I think we can all say that we have more than 3 million immigrants in the US. Most census reports and studies indicate between 12 and 20 million (if not more). At first glance, your graph seems to support what you're trying to say but it is, in fact, misleading. It is unclear whether the information is supposed to include all immigrants, both legal and illegal, or it doesn't. My opinion is that it does not.
by Sam A.
Here is JUSTICE in ACTION! Disruptive threats at a Council Meeting should be understood as loss of "the floor" or mic as it were!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Pg4wilSCc
by Gary Stewart
What a silly and misleading video. So, are they saying there should be no immigration laws in the US, anyone should be
able to come here? Does anyone saying this really understand what this means? How does
anything the Minute Men do get a racist tag? This video is nothing more than a misinformed cheap shot
at the Minutemen; it's a lie..... For the record, the Minute Men don't dislike illegals, they belive
in doing the right thing for their country, think about it....

As for the statement that deporting illegals is only part of the problem.....How silly. Yes,
it is part of the problem, and we're trying to fix it just like the employer problem. What
a silly statement. So, since there's an emploer problem, we shouldn't deal with the
illegal problem too?

How about if we start leaning on Mexico to clean up their act and do the right thing for their
countrymen, or is that the fault of the United States too?
by no war but clas war
People seem to forget NAFTA and the US' subsidized corn that was put into the mexican market for dirt cheap prices, at the cost of the US taxpayer. this genetically-modified corn was extremly cheap, and therefore caused families that farmed for so many generations to go into mexico city and work in the sweatshops (which were, not suprisingly, making products for US multi-nationals), or go into the "land of oppourtunity" and try to make a better life for themselves. the process for legal immigration is long and arduous, and they could either wait the months it took and watch their children starve, or come in illegally. so yes, this is partly the fault of the United States.

Has anyone ever read the grapes of wrath by steinbeck? someone else on here mentioned their grandparents being "okies." Large-scale, bio-agricutural interests came in and terrorized the people off their land, and turned them into migrants. These migrants had no choice, besides starving to death, and so went to california, and were met with discrimination, and when they did find work they were exploited and paid shit money. This is exactly the same situation, only its not our own citizens we put on the street, and this is alot more cruel world.
by ICE@DeportNOW.org
Administration readying crackdown on employers
By SUZANNE GAMBOA and ANABELLE GARAY Associated Press Writers
© 2007 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Employers across the country are preparing to fire workers with questionable Social Security numbers to avoid getting snagged in a Bush administration crackdown on illegal immigrants.
The Department of Homeland Security is expected to make public soon new rules for employers notified when their worker's name or Social Security number was flagged by the Social Security Administration.
The rule, as initially drafted, requires employers to fire people who can't be verified as a legal worker and can't resolve within 60 days why the name or Social Security number on their W-2 doesn't match the government's database.
Employers who don't comply could face fines of $250 to $10,000 per illegal worker and incident.
by Gary Stewart
Yeah, somhow I knew this situation must be the fault of the United States. I'm no fan of NAFTA;
however, if we didn't do NAFTA, you can bet we'd be hearing how our trade practices were the
reason for the flood of illegals; either way we'd be a fault. I have an idea, how about if we all take
some responsibility for our own actions. Example: If you don't have a job, or any real way of
making a living, don't bring three, four or five kids into the world, then sneek into the US then expect
somone else to pay for it all. Take a look at the dollar figure strapped to the back of the American
tax payer of illegal immigration.

We've heard all about the plight of the illegal, now let's hear from the other side:
My wife and I both put our selves through college (without help), we didn't have kids because
because after paying our college loans we could afford it. Twenty years later, we both still work
about ten hours a day, and pay a lot of taxes. Now that we've achieved some success, we're told
we're bad people if we don't want to pay the bill for illegal immigration.... Well, you know what, we
have had enough! We have gone from feeling sympethic to the plight of illegals to feeling used.
If you want to come here and work that's fine, but don't expect a handout in the form of free
education, medial or social security, etc. And please don't come here waving a Mexican flag claiming
this land is rightfully yours, this display of ignorance and arrogance is nothing more then an insult
to anyone with a brain.

It's refreshing to see groups like the Minutemen showing some backbone inthe face of this
insanity.

by no war but class war
I agree with you on population control, the world already has enough people on it depleting the ozone and fucking the resources. However, when the catholic church brainwashes people into believing using condoms is a sin somehow, but having 10 kids is a-okay, you gotta wonder what theyre smoking. It does have to do with responsibility though, people should stop having children they cant take care of.

Wanna talk about illegal immigration? What about Columbus, DeSoto, Cortez, and the other Conquistadors that practiced Genocide on the natives and were portrayed as fucking heros. Or the founding fathers, who killed plenty of "injuns" themselves...yeah sure, all men are equal.

"Third world" countries, like El Salvador and Honduras, for example (because not ALL the immigrants are Mexicans, which many ignorant people believe) are extremly rich in natural resources, and have abundant soil and can grow some kickass, amazing crops. People have farmed for thousands of years and survived on subsistance farming. The US and other wealthy western nations realize this, and in typical capitalist fashion, start thinking how they can exploit both the land and the people for maximum profit. Implement free trade laws, which benefit bio-agricultural interests and multi-national companies. Then Coca-Cola comes in and takes the little clean water the villages have, while poor people must walk 5 miles uphill to get clean water. They build sweatshops for Nike and Wal-Mart, and claim they're employing the people and helping their economy...forcing them to work 14 hour days for $.08 an hour in oppressive conditions isn't helping, its putting a band-aid on the shotgun wound you caused with CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) and NAFTA. Have you ever heard of the United Fruit Company back in the '60's, that were making workers pick bananas for dirt shit pay....its now known as Chiquita, but same concept.
What I'm trying to get at is that the immigration problem goes alot further that some mexicans that want to rape our social security and make us pay for them. "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to be free........NOT"
by Gary Stewart
I agree on many points; however, tell me how today's American tax payer should shoulder the responsible for the acts of Cortez, or the Cathlic church? If the illegals feel the Cathlic church is responsible for all their children, then send the
church the bill, not the American tax payer. In the end, these excuses are just another way of avoiding
personal responsibility. This thinking is reinforced by politicians pandering for a vote.

In the end, the American tax payer is getting stepped all over: We must pay for the illegals, so big business can
get cheap labor, pay for the social expenses of the illegals, because we want to feel like "good people". We're forced
into this situation by politicians trying to get latino votes, so they can stay in power. Our culture (in some parts of the country) is being deluted to the point where a trip to the store has us wondering if we live in a third world country (this comment is not a color issue, it's a cultural issue).

I have an idea: How about if we have an immigration system that allows only enough people into the country
to avoid all the problems mentioned above? Oh, that would be called LEGAL immigration.

That being said, we all feel for the plight of the illegals; however, when I see a family of six with no means,
and mom and dad saying they have to break the law to feed the family, then knowing if all these folks are made
legal our social systems will totally colapse, the sympathy gets worn a littl thin. How come we keep hearing
how this problem is the fault of everyone except the Mexican government, where corruption rules the day?





by Jimmy Justice
So let me get this straight. You believe peasants in third world countries should support your luxury lifestyle with their subsistence pay, and you think that is OK. But when they come here to get a slice of the pie you think you don’t owe into the kitty? They supported your unsustainable lifestyle for years and you think you owe nothing? You’re kidding me.
Well Bubba, welcome to the concept of there is “NO FREE LUNCH.” The Karma God has caught up with you. You have been living the “Life of Riley” on the backs of other people all your life and now it is time for you to pay back into the system. You have become spoiled and expected this handout all your life didn’t you? Well Bubba the free ride is over. It is time to pay your dues and pay your way. The backs of the poor have been ridden long enough. It is time for everyone to pull their own weight and live within sustainable means without oppressing others. The planet can no longer support your systems of oppression and gluttony.
by mark
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by William
My email was incorrect. I missed the second "e". My email is alinabree [at] msn.com
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