Immi-ungratful

There is a legitimate debate going on about undocumented aliens, their cost (drain?) on social benefits and whether or not they should have a means to find legitimate residency in the U.S. The battle rages. Some say that in these hard times, U.S. citizens are losing jobs to undocumented workers, yet when bottom-level jobs (digging ditches by hand, stoop labor to pick crops, working in slaughter houses, bus boys in restaurants, etc.), frequently no legal resident applies – fruit rots on the ground, construction work stops for lack of the super-unskilled exceptionally physical labor, and meat processing plants cannot keep up with demand.

I’ve blogged about the super-skilled, engineering and math types, who have been blocked from immigrating at the expense of growing new technology jobs in this country, but this blog is about something else entirely. When California schools are providing $8-9,000 a pupil public education to the young undocumented aliens, when emergency rooms administer very necessary care to those injured undocumented workers (who clearly are uninsured), the social costs begin to mount. So the debate is legitimate and healthy, and within the nexus of the democratic process, perhaps we can find a viable middle ground as the Obama Administration clearly hopes to do.

On the other hand, the passions enflamed on this issue have another, vastly more sinister side. Super-right-wing groups, ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to those militias who are training their “troops” to replace the existing government with a Nazi-like Aryan racial purification civil war. That the economy is in shambles, people are losing their jobs and homes and an African-American is in the White House have angered a significant mob of political dissidents. For the militant extremists, however, hell-bent on growing their ranks with accelerating recruitment efforts, there is a much easier way to find nascent extremists who might be convinced to train for what they perceive is the inevitable violent purge for racial purity – hold anti-immigrant rallies that cater to jobless (and often angry) Americans.

It seems that what would be a normal process of free speech and assembly under the First Amendment, to express dissatisfaction with the government’s position on undocumented immigration, is being used by those with the ability to spot the particularly vulnerable members of the audience to be approached later and separately as a part of this militant recruitment effort. On April 15^th, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning the current climate of economic hardship is a particularly good time for such recruitment efforts.

The April 15^th Los Angeles , Times: “[I]n September, the agency issued a report that highlighted how right-wing extremists over the past five years have used the immigration debate as a recruiting tool… The latest assessment started making its way into the mainstream press after conservative blogs got wind of the analysis. In this report, the agency warns that imposing new restrictions on firearms and returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their communities could lead to terror groups or individuals attempting to carry out attacks. The returning war veterans have skills and experience that are appealing to right-wing groups looking to carry out an attack, according to the report.”

As lax American policies allow a “funnel of firearms” to make their way from the U.S. to Mexico may result in new government policies, to restrict arms sales, that are profoundly threatening to right wing militants (who see the Second Amendment right to bear arms as their most important right), as undocumented aliens – the overwhelming number of unskilled and uneducated works come from Latin America and crossed from Mexico into the States – move from the their initial point of contact in the border states and disperse to fill jobs all across the U.S., the opportunity to use immigration rallies to recruit more angry militants is rising.

I’m Peter Dekom, and there seems to be so much to worry about!