The Disappeared-In-America Immigration System

You can read this article and you can not believe it, or not believe it, you can call it a generalization, or call it an abomination. Yet, dear reader, your opinion about this story and the people in it does not matter. Many others will be treated like the individual in this story, no matter who you share this story with or how much you might not want to even believe it or protest against it. 

That's because right now, a loud chunk of the voting public and the elected leaders hate immigrants. Voters don't actively hate them, they do it passively . Elected leaders are, however, very actively drafting and enforcing policies which are beyond cruel and abusive. Everyone, of course, can just call this system inadvertently harsh and brutal. And do nothing about it.

So why am I posting this? As with so very many posts here - it is something I do for myself. I post this because I do not want to be part of such a system. I have many friends who are terrified to be even near the edges of our current war on immigrants. I post it because I have this awareness, this slim bit of knowledge added to what is already known.

Anyone (typically not white) can be taken by ICE agents, and as a their detainee, you have no right to call anyone, no visitors, nor right to counsel though the detainee can hire one if he/she fills out the proper paperwork, that is if they can read and write English, and in the meantime ICE can move you from prison to prison, no outside contact, no hearings, no pleas, no time limit on how long you can be held so they just wait for the detainee to wear down and sign a voluntary deportation order.

"Locking up accused criminals indefinitely is a tried-and-true way of getting them to plead guilty, whether they actually committed a crime or not. The same principle applies to immigration detainees. And criminal defendants, even those accused of the worst crimes imaginable, don’t get sent to three different states in a two-month period as part of their pretrial detention."

Arizona Wants To See Your Papers, Citizen!

Ill-conceived, thoughtless and dangerous, Arizona's new law on targeting illegal aliens is prompting much discussion. I doubt any resolution or repeal will occur short of a lengthy court battle. Still, a couple of blog posts from Washington Monthly raise some critical questions.

Here's one post:

"Linda Greenhouse, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Supreme Court correspondent for the New York Times, isn't known for writing provocative opinion pieces. But the new, odious immigration measure in Arizona appears to have genuinely outraged Greenhouse. Good for her.

...I'm not going back to Arizona as long as it remains a police state, which is what the appalling anti-immigrant bill that Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law last week has turned it into.

What would Arizona's revered libertarian icon, Barry Goldwater, say about a law that requires the police to demand proof of legal residency from any person with whom they have made "any lawful contact" and about whom they have "reasonable suspicion" that "the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States?" Wasn't the system of internal passports one of the most distasteful features of life in the Soviet Union and apartheid-era South Africa?

Greenhouse's question about Goldwater's reaction to such madness also reminds me that there's another group of small-government-minded folks who claim to be concerned by authoritarian tactics. Reader B.H. emailed this poignant observation last night:

Just a question I haven't heard anybody ask: Shouldn't the tea party crowd be having a cow over this new immigration bill that Arizona just passed? Doesn't that sound like big government tyranny to them? Giving the police the power to demand "papers" from someone just on their own suspicion?

Any chatter from the tea party folk to this effect? I haven't seen any.

Nor have I. It's almost as if the right-wing crowd is only offended by government abuses when they're imaginary."

And more:

As the former Republican congressman [and talk show host Joe Scarborough] put it, '...It does offend me when one out of every three citizens in the state of Arizona are Hispanics, and you have now put a target on the back of one out of three citizens, who, if they're walking their dog around a neighborhood, if they're walking their child to school, and they're an American citizen, or a legal, legal immigrant -- to now put a target on their back, and make them think that every time they walk out of their door they may have to prove something. I will tell you, that is un-American. It is unacceptable and it is un-American.'

UPDATE: In comments below, Mike Silence points to one "tea party" blogger who speaks out against the Arizona law.

Rep. Davis Calls Homeland Security to Hamblen County Over Immigrant Concerns

Hamblen County residents are in dire straits, they say, because of the rise in Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal. This past Saturday Congressman David Davis and State Senator Steve Southerland gathered for a fundraising pancake breakfast held at a local VFW in conjunction with a group called T-FIRE to add their voices and promises to the discussion. Congressman Davis has vowed to call in Homeland Security and other federal agencies to address what some see as a critical state of affairs.

WATE-TV filed this report on Saturday's event, quoting some local residents:

"You go to the post office and they don't even know what slot to put their mail in," says Charles Cook.

But many illegal immigrants who have come from Mexico say life in Morristown is good and they have made life better.

"I think it is very good for the United States because we make jobs and pay taxes and help this country," an illegal immigrant told 6 News.

Of course, many inside and outside of Hamblen County disagree and want tougher immigration laws.

"I want to see the borders closed and if you are not an American citizen, then you go back home," says Cook.

Rep. Davis says illegal immigrants and their children in Morristown are overcrowding schools, creating long lines at emergency rooms, and some are even participating in gang activity.

Davis is now calling on federal and state immigration and Homeland Security agents to meet with local police in early March to work out a plan.

"Local law enforcement deals with this issue every day," Davis says. "They feel like it is a federal problem, not a local problem. The federal government needs to step up to the plate."

WVLT-TV noted that just over 100 people attended the event and filed this report and video:

"You know it's costing us an arm and a leg for hospitals, health care, schools,” said Bob McFarling, a Morristown resident. “We have to have special teachers."

"This is America and this county has more Mexican Flags flying in it than any place besides Mexico, I believe” said Teddy Ray Mitchell, another resident."

T-FIRE, an "immigration reform" group founded in Hamblen County, says the problem is that business knowingly hires illegal residents.

In a related story, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnigan says there is a local problem with bootlegging, citing an incident from September of last year:

"In September, Jarnagin and deputies raided a mobile home where the Hispanic residents were selling beer by the can without a permit. Inside they found a stock of beer — nearly three dozen 12-packs, three 30-packs and numerous loose cans.

The two caught running the operation pleaded guilty, getting $100 fines and probation.

"This guy did not have an inflated price. They were just furnishing a service," the sheriff said.

-----

"Nashville police say it isn't apparent that bootleggers are operating in the city. Spokeswoman Kristin Mumford said the department has not arrested anyone for bootlegging since the carding law took effect.

Other Tennessee sheriffs in counties with large immigrant populations also haven't noticed a bootlegging boom.

"We haven't heard of any cases whatsoever," Bedford County Sheriff Randall Boyce said.

He laughed and added, "They haven't thought of it here, probably — and they will soon, I bet."

The 2006 census shows the Hispanic population at 10%, and my own observations and discussions with a wide range of city, county and local leaders have revealed the largest number of Hispanics are from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. Still, many locals have begun calling Morristown "Little Mexico." So there is a lumping together of many issues, often under one idea and usually painted with a very broad and inaccurate brush.

And by far the most common complaint I hear is that "hearing people speaking another language in my town" is a terrible thing. Yet, some of the largest employers in the county are firms based in Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the U.K. and Canada.

For more background on the current status of attitudes related to immigrants both legal and illegal, I featured several reports from the Houston Chronicle which did a series of articles on Hamblen County in fall of 2006.

A documentary, "Morristown The Movie", which showed recently at UT in Knoxville also provides a look at the immigration issue, which I mentioned previously.

Ironically, some with groups like T-FIRE complain that schools are occupied with teaching English to immigrants -- as if not teaching them were somehow a better idea. Resolving the often irate and angry concerns of residents will be a major task for Rep. Davis' proposal. Will other counties and cites follow his lead?

Sidewalk Politics

A man who identifies himself as a pastor shot some video as he was protesting against illegal immigrants in Rhea County. His video page at YouTube says he was simply carrying a sign that read "Round Up Day For All Wetbacks." His other videos are rather intense as well.

The Rhea County Mayor Billy Ray Patton calmly tells the man he is a hatemonger, and asks him to leave. (Thanks to DeMarCaTionVille for posting this video.)

Forum from T-FIRE Draws Concerns

State Rep. Stacey Campfield (R) spoke to a gathering of folks who see many threats to America from illegal immigrants which was held in Morristown over the weekend. The group, says one blogger, dips into some dangerously racist worldviews:

"I think allowing white supremacist concerns to slip into the immigration debate is ridiculous. Why are respected Tennesseans granting validity to this nonsense? "

The entire post from Aunt B. can be read here.

Suit Filed Over Morristown Rally

A civil lawsuit has been filed against the city of Morristown, Hamblen County, numerous police and deputies and other officials in U.S. District Court in Greeneville by Teddy Ray Mitchell, a disabled vet who is claiming various violations of his civil rights and for injuries he claims he received when he attempted to carry an American flag and a lawn chair into the location of an anti-immigration rally held last June in Morristown.

noe4accountability has the contents of the suit at her website.

I wrote previously about the event here and here, and about the massive presence of at least 100 law enforcement officers who surrounded the very small group of protesters who had a permit for the rally to take place.

Mitchell claims he was tasered, taken down to the ground and arrested. His complaint also states:

"Citizens were encouraged to attend and to bring American flags. Mr. Mitchell brought along with him a lawn chair and an American flag to attend the rally. He also wore around his neck a picture of himself in his Navy uniform from the 1960's. Mr. Mitchell was not a member of any group or organization. He simply wanted to attend a pro-America rally.

And

"The officers forcefully demanded that he would not be able to take his flag into the rally. Mr. Mitchell objected to this. He asked if a Mexican flag would be allowed and was told by one of the defendant officers that, yes, a Mexican flag could go in. The officers then did forcefully try to take the flag from him and grabbed Mr. Mitchell and forced him to the ground. At the same time, they stunned and/or tasered him.

Intense emotions, including some fearfulness on behalf of law enforcement, were on obvious display at this rally. Much confusion has likewise colored the event and it's aftermath. Mitchell is also seeking $100,000 in damages as well. I can't help but be a bit surprised it has taken this long for the suit to be filed, but I've been informed that quite a few behind the scenes meetings took place to resolve the conflicts and prevent any court action.