Dear Linda Chavez

Source: Townhall.com::Latino Fear and Loathing::By Linda Chavez:

What is said today of the Mexicans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans and others was once said of Germans, Swedes, the Irish, Italians, Poles, Jews and others. The only difference is that in the past, the xenophobes could speak freely, unconstrained by a veneer of political correctness. Today, they speak more cautiously, so they talk about the rule of law, national security, amnesty, whatever else they think might make their arguments less racially charged.

Where once the xenophobes could advocate forced sterilization and eugenics coupled with virtually shutting off legal immigration from "undesirable" countries, now they must be content with building walls, putting troops on the border, rounding up illegal aliens on the job and deporting them, passing local ordinances to signal their distaste for immigrants' multi-family living arrangements, and doing whatever else they can to drive these people back where they came from.

Golly, I hope she doesn't mind that I hold an opinion slightly in conflict with hers. I was going to go into a long dissertation how she has lept into the void of reason by conflating all immigrants into one big pile. Without thought she treats illegal immigrants are the same as legal immigrants. (That must make the legals feel real smart about following the law, oh but "rule of law" is now a code phrase for "racist". Amazing.) Without taking a breath she implies that all illegal immigrants come from south of the US border, which isn't true. At least 40% come from somewhere else, many from lands that are outright hostile to the US. (Oh wait, I'm not supposed to imply that this is a national security issue. Darn.) Last, I could go on about my own upbringing in that little part of the world known as The Mission (in San Francisco), but why bother? In the end, I found that Lou Dobbs had just the right response, even if it's not explicitly aimed at her. You tell 'em, Lou!