Taking a walk through the city

[scooterbird]

Decided to walk from my office to Union Station yesterday; it was not beastly hot as it's been for the last few, and I probably needed the exercise. I made an effort to do so in an alert manner, trying to take stock of my surroundings for, well, blogging purposes later. DC is a weird city, and there are stories just about everywhere.

• As I walked

Comments

I guess you have to see it first hand before you can really know about it.

[visualwords]

You know, it's funny. When I lived in Baltimore immigration was never an issue for me. I just could not understand why anyone would make a big deal about it. But then I moved to Nashville. Right now there are at least... at the very least, 15 very drunk illegal Mexicans on the state capital lawn using the bushes for a bathroom, breaking their beer bottles and making it so women are afraid to go out there at night. They sleep there at night and pick up day jobs in the morning. The police here don't arrest them because they can't afford to hold them till their court date and since they already broke the law in coming here they tend not to care about any other laws either so they just don't show up to court. INS has told the police here that it is a local problem and will not deport them

Re: I guess you have to see it first hand before you can really know about it.

[scooterbird]

Okay, so given that these are the problems, what solutions are you looking for in a candidate? Crack down on companies which employ them? Enforce existing laws against people whether they are illegal or not? Close the loopholes that exist between the local police and INS? Or just ship everyone with a vague tan and a "z" at the end of their name out of the country?

I mean, in describing this problem, it sounds to me like your police don't have enough money, you have a homeless problem, your state government needs to pass some laws concerning vehicle theft, and your friend works for union-busting corporate swine. None of this involves Mexico. As for money going across the border, whatever those Western Unions put out is absolute chicken feed compared to the hit our economy took when NAFTA, GATT, and similar nonsense allowed the corporados to outsource. Frankly, money, goods, shipping, ownership, manufacturing, raw materials...every aspect of business can flow freely over that border - except for workers. That's illegal

[mommyrex]

Well, I know lots of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. And many people in Kansas (like Colorado, not a border state, but one that attracts Mexicans because of the jobs available) encounter Mexicans every day. These citizens don't encounter Big Pharma, the president's lies, etc., except as filtered, over long distances, through the selective and slanted news media

[heptadecagram]

Agreed. 'Mexican' is a dirty word in the American lexicon at this point, and has been for years. This is really about racism, much more so than economics. Illegal immigrants make up about 4% of the population and 5% of the labor market (Pew Hispanic Center, 2006).

[thecanuckguy]

It might be a regional thing. It's not an issue in Maryland, but it is an issue for both whites and Hispanics in the border states. And from what I know, you really have to live there to grasp why it's an issue. (Which is why there are senators representing every state in the Congress.)

[scooterbird]

Here's some more on the topic...and I swear I did not see this before making my original post. Sam Smith and I tend to be in agreement on a lot of issues.