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Monday September 26, 2005
Wetfoots
This is a pretty brief handling of what we regard as a major incident. A boatfull of Cuban immigrants was intercepted three miles off the coast of Florida. This is a millitary unit, the Coast Guard, intercepting a group of hopeless refugees in the ocean, with the intent of arresting them and returning them to the place they are fleeing from. The Cubans got within a mile of shore before the Coast Guard conqured them. This is desperate stuff: if they make it on to shore, they get to stay. If the don’t, they get hauled back. So the struggle is pretty intense, but of course the Coast Guard guys win (they have the hardware).
Is this how we want to be running our immigration pollicy? But wait . . . it gets better: check out this woman, a Haitian who escaped when her life was in danger (um . . . anti-Aristide mobs were going around her neighborhood killing people) back in 1992. She pasted her photo into a passport she bought on the black market and escaped to the US, where she’s lived (and raised two sons) for the past 13 years. Now, becasuse of some mistake in a law designed to allow people to stay, she’s being deported.
Can we, as a nation, please sit down and figure this shit out? This is an embarrasement.
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In fact, the nation’s immigration policy has already been established. It mirrors the red/amber/green alert system developed for Homeland Security.
If you’re Black, you may not enter.
If you’re Brown, you might be allowed—depending how brown.
If you’re Yellow, you might be allowed, depending how educated.
If you’re White, come right in.
There are exceptions, of course, for humanitarian issues,
such as, How much money the prospect can humanly deliver.
I hope this clears the matter up.
Remember—your government is here to help you.
If the country relaxes immigration restrictions, we will end up with a gigantic population in need of basic human services, such as housing, food, medical attention, etc. We’d also have a lot of people without jobs, some without job skills, in a part of the country where housing is sky-high, wages are rock-bottom, and education, particularly desperately needed vocational education, is secondary in significance to tailgate parties at football games.
Look around at who runs this place, who’s in charge of the resources, and where the money ends up. Are we ready for this? You think south Florida has the will and the wits? Or do you suppose, based on what you see, that the influx of immigrants by the tens of thousands would turn this area into an even bigger cluster-fuck than it is already?
Immigration is a good thing. This nation was both built and re-built on its shoulders. It says something very bad about us now, today, that we’re unwilling and incapable of handling new prospective citizens. When you expect company, you better clean the house first.
I love seeing more people arrive here. I’d love to build housing for them, provide employment, and transform this backwater banana republic into the nation’s laboratory for new citizens learning the skills they need for the 21st century. Of course, we’ll need to drain the Everglades to accommodate them all, and build Miami up into one gigantic palm treed tenement, but we’re doing that already.
To quote President Bush: Bring ‘em on!
The whole issue may become moot anyway. Things are getting so bad in this country that people will start lining up to emigrate—exit, stage left! —and desperate refugees will head elsewhere. The Haitians will head for Cuba, the Cubans will storm Jamaica, and the Jamaicans will flee to England, where the aging, dried-up Anglo population is dying off.
Interesting, MisterE Man.
Following this train of thought,
I presume nobody will bother to approach France,
and the French will remain where they are.
Perhaps there’s method in their madness.
What do YOU think, Kathleen?
Check this out. Immigration to the US has subsided by about 25 percent—from a peak of 1.5 million a year in 1999 and 2000. In NY, it’s dropped to a 15-year low. Legal immigrants are going elsewhere.
Actually, “Wetfoot” and “Dryfoot” doesn’t work for me. But I’m planning to arrive soon! And I’m looking forward to raising a family in your neighborhood, too!