Immigration IV: Duke continues the discussion and presents his view of the obstaclesMar 27, 2006

A conversation between allies on immigration reform.

Duke1676

When I speak of two or three generations to reach a bilingual nation ... I am referring to the time needed to teach native born 'merikans a second language. You're right, immigrants pick it up within the first generation at the latest, usually.

I have worked in the restaurant/hotel industry my entire adult life and although my linguistic abilities are nothing to brag about, I have acquired a working knowledge of conversational Spanish (and picked up a lot of inappropriate salty Spanglish, I might add). I am consistently shocked to meet people my own age or older with the same relative experiences whose ability to speak and understand Spanish is limited to "Yo queiro taco bell". Certainly their lives would be easier if they had taken the time or effort needed to learn to communicate with a growing majority of their co-workers... but they don’t. It will be our children and grandchildren that will hopefully make the transition and you are right to point that out.

I will grant you that if nothing were to change, given the current rates of immigration, that within a few generations the ethnic makeup ( for lack of a better term) of this nation would be changed greatly and this whole debate becomes moot.

But … there are powerful forces at work to see that that situation does not occur. The most reprehensible and irresponsible factions of the racist, xenophobic wing of the Republican Party (and don’t think for a second that certain factions of the Democratic Party wouldn’t follow suite) are poised to force this issue to the forefront and, if they have their way, enact some of the most intolerant and back-ass-wards legislation that we’ve seen since the days of Jim Crow. Look at the alternatives presented so far:

Sensenbrenner's HR4437 that will criminalize even the smallest immigration infraction and turn all 12 mil undocumented workers already in this country into felons. It contains provisions for indefinite incarceration, mandatory detention, and expanded “military” powers along the border.

On the other side you’ve got the “reasonable” ones proposing “guest worker” programs that are nothing more than thinly veiled indentured servant programs to keep a constant flow of newly arrived, low-skill, low- wage workers to be used for three or six years then sent packing.

Add to this the recently acquired contracts by Halliburton subsidiary KRB to build $385mil worth of new “detention centers” (see interment camps) for undocumented emigrants. Add to this the refurbishing of abandoned military bases to be used as holding pens of immigrants, and the picture becomes downright frightening.

I really doubt that we have the time to allow for “nature to take it’s course” as far as the ethnic makeup of this country goes. If things continue on this path there is a better chance my grandchildren will be calling me Großvater than Abuelo. If we don’t stop this movement in its tracks it will not be long before storm troopers are requesting to see papers and those without them will be herded into cattle cars and shipped off to the camps.