I haven't been agreeing with Michelle Malkin 100% this past week, but I have to say that when I saw this posted on her site, my blood began to boil.
Via Michelle Malkin:
03/28 : Student protest
Whittier area students from Pioneer, California and Whittier high schools walked out of classes to protest the proposed federal immigration bill March 27, 2006. The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upside down at Montebello High. (Leo Jarzomb/Staff photo)
Malkin's coverage is extensive with a great roundup (with updates) of the remarks from around the blog world.
I live in Southern California and see and/or deal with this problem every day. The argument that illegals "do the jobs Americans won't do" doesn't hold much water with me as I've listened to too many young people complain that there are no jobs for them because the Mexican workers get them all. And if you are not bilingual in this area, it is very hard to find any type of work that requires dealing with the public. My nephew, an exception to the rule, was approached by one company owner to be their "token" Americano because they needed someone with good English to be their bill collector and all their other employees spoke Spanish as their only language.
Red State has also had good coverage of the entire subject as well as the rallies:
The Associated Press reports many of the 500,000 people who crammed downtown Los Angeles last Saturday to protest the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act learned where, when and even how to demonstrate from the Spanish-language media. The mass protests against the legislation designed to stem the tide of illegal immigration were not spontaneous.
They also have a very informative post covering the SAOI bill (McCain-Kennedy) in the Senate:
With regards to illegal immigrants, the SAOI does the following important things (among others):
- Requires the Commissioner of Social Security to set up a national electronic database to verify the legal status of all employees. (Sections 402 and 403, generally). The demands for this system are detailed, and leave the Commissioner with very little discretion.
- Employers must affirmatively verify that every employee is legally entitled to work in this country. Failure to do so subjects the employers to double civil penalties (Section 406), and also subjects them for criminal penalties of up to five years. (Section 701(m)(1)).
- No illegal immigrants who were not residents as of May 2005 are eligible to obtain nonimmigrant status under the bill. (Section 701(b)(1)).
- Those who wish to obtain nonimmigrant status are required to pay a $1,000 fine, get a background check, and leave after six years. (Section 701(i)(3)(A)).
- Those who wish to stay after the six year period must pay an additional $1,000, pay their back taxes, learn English, undergo a health exam, and educate themselves in American history and civics. (Section 702).
California Conservative has also been giving extensive coverage to this subject with an excellent piece from Front Page Magazine in an article entitled "Who is Behind the Immigration Rallies?":
Ben Johnson has the answers:
BIG CORPORATIONS AND THE FAR-LEFT HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON: both like to employ cheap illegal immigrants to do their heavy lifting.
The leftist media have tried to portray this weekend’s massive protests against House measures to curtail illegalimmigration as the uprising of “The Other America”: forgotten, humble, hidden Hispanic members of the working poor simply demanding their “rights.” As events spanned from California to Detroit, Phoenix to Washington, D.C., the media kept up its anti-enforcement drumbeat. Although some have credited Latino DJs for the 500,000-strong illegal immigrant turnout in Los Angeles alone – and some credit is deserved – the real legwork was done by a more eclectic group of organizations: leftist labor unions, George Soros-funded agitators, Open Borders lobbyists, Roman Catholic clergy, and teachers unions.
In other words, the usual suspects.
Los Angeles predictably had the largest turnout – and the most disruptive. Half-a-million people crowded the streets demanding the “right” to flaunt this nation’s immigration laws, and underage students ran onto a California freeway, risking their lives and shutting down interstate traffic.
Andres Jiminez, director of the University of California’s California Policy Research Center, told the media, “It’s not only Latinos who are marching in the streets, its unions too: firefighters, farm workers and Hispanic students who had thought of U.S. law as protecting them and are now starting to see it as a threat to their future.”
He was right about this much: Latino organizations did not act alone. The media has failed to report that organized labor directed the illegals and minors. The L.A. Times revealed the rally’s “security” was handled by a union identified only as “Local 1877.” That would be local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the far-Left union founded by New Left radical Andrew Stern, which called for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq in June 2004 and worked in concert with Ted Kennedy to roll back anti-terrorist Homeland Security measures. According to the L.A. Times, the SEIU’s goons kindly helped “herd marchers along the route.” That was not the extent of SEIU’s help, though. The union also “coordinated the more than 100 buses that dropped off marchers from throughout California, Las Vegas and a few Southwestern cities.”
And via Gateway Pundit, we get an idea what the polls are saying about the illegal immigrant issue(s):
Mexican illegals vs. American voters
National polling data could not be more emphatic — and has been so for decades. Gallup Poll (March 27) finds 80 percent of the public wants the federal government to get tougher on illegal immigration. A Quinnipiac University Poll (March 3) finds 62 percent oppose making it easier for illegals to become citizens (72 percent in that poll don't even want illegals to be permitted to have driver's licenses). Time Magazine's recent poll (Jan. 24-26) found 75 percent favor "major penalties" on employers of illegals, 70 percent believe illegals increase the likelihood of terrorism and 57 percent would use military force at the Mexican-American border.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (March 10-13) found 59 percent opposing a guest-worker proposal, and 71 percent would more likely vote for a congressional candidate who would tighten immigration controls.
An IQ Research poll (March 10) found 92 percent saying that securing the U.S. border should be a top priority of the White House and Congress.
Yet, according to a National Journal survey of Congress, 73 percent of Republican and 77 percent of Democratic congressmen and senators say they would support guest-worker legislation.
And lastly, via Red State Rant and via the stars and stripes museum we learn proper flag etiquette. I hope all Americans know the simple rule that you ONLY fly the American flag upside down to indicate extreme distress. Also, you NEVER fly another country's flag above the flag of the United States of America within the U.S. So, I'll end this post the way I began ... seeing that opening picture makes my blood boil. In fact, I would say that that one picture has done more to turn me against the cause of the illegals than all the other rhetoric combined.
The improper use and display of a U.S. flag and flags of your visitors is worse than no display at all.
The U.S. flag is flown upside down only as a sign of distress. It can be a great insult to fly a flag upside down. Great care should be taken when displaying flags of others.
The U.S. flag takes precedence over all other flags when flown within the United States. It should be raised first and lowered last. It should not be flown lower than another flag nor should it be smaller than another flag flown with it.
Other flags may, however, be flown at the same height and in the same size. Other national flags should not be smaller nor flown lower than the Stars and Stripes when displayed together. If it is not possible to display two or more national flags at the same height, then it is not proper to display them together at all.
I learned this flag etiquette in elementary school. What the heck are they teaching kids these days? Remember those two flags were flown from a high school flag pole, presumably with teachers and a principal somewhere nearby.
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