NOTE: PLEASE say if you DON'T want your name and/or email address published when sending VDARE email.

A Czech Reader Reports Media-Induced False Consciousness Among His Students

From: [Name Withheld]

Looks like your correspondent "VDARE.COM Addict" could well be right. Santa Claus may be eradicated from US public life, but he lives on at the Southern border. No sooner was the Mexican Truck package handed over, but the Administration begins gift-wrapping the Big Present.

Secretary of State Colin Powell just led a grovel crew to Mexico City. At a joint press conference, the Mexican Foreign Secretary arrogantly asserted that

"The Mexican government made its position very clear ... about looking for concrete, specific, timely agreements on very concrete points we can move on now."

Powell hurriedly offered -

"a quick series of discussions on the least controversial issues, perhaps including temporary work visas….Powell said. 'We want Mexicans to travel to the United States' and then 'come back to their homes to share whatever wealth they have gained by their efforts.'" [Emphasis added]

- "Mexico May Settle On Migration Reform," by Mark Stevenson, Washington Post, November 27, 2002

Magically, an editorial appeared Sunday (December 1) on the Wall Street Journal's Opinionjournal.com site, which, beneath a thick blanket of policy wonkery, made this same claim:

"In defense of immigration officials, it should be stressed that they're operating under policies distressingly out of touch with the demands of the U.S. economy and the desires of immigrants themselves. Artificially low entry quotas for, say, Mexicans who come here to mow lawns and change hotel bedsheets (and go home when they've saved enough money) [Emphasis added] don't help matters. Worse, these regulations steal time and money away from pursuing more probable terrorist threats. If Mr. Bush wants to make the INS more effective, he should consider making immigration policies more sensible."

Obviously, this idea that Mexicans go home after making money (sometimes less innocently than by mowing lawns and changing sheets, but never mind) is the new party line.

Still, any temporary visa proposal runs straight into the Citizen Clause problem. Under the current, highly-debatable interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, any child born on American soil is an American citizen, regardless of whether his mother is a foreigner or even an illegal alien. Given present immigration law's emphasis on "family reunification," such a child becomes an "anchor baby," making possible the chain migration of parents, siblings, cousins….

Proposing a temporary visa program without addressing the citizen-child problem is like asking America to hand over a signed, blank, check to the Mexican underclass. If the Wall Street Journal really wanted to make "immigration policies more sensible," it would raise this issue. But it appears nowhere in its archives.

Sadly, the WSJ Editorial Page's policy of repressing dissent has been reproduced in the more spacious arena of OpinionJournal's (censored) discussions. Decisive opposing statements are usually spiked. But patriotic VDARE.COM friends might write the WSJ (top right of article) asking what it proposes to do about the Citizen Child loophole. Copy VDARE.COM - let's see how many letters they can ignore!

December 02, 2002