While “La Raza” and “Aztlan” activists, along with the Mexican government spout their claims that it is they who rightfully “own” much of the U.S., and shameful and disingenuous acts of surrender to those claims circulate the halls of Congress, perhaps the following (mentioned here at twc several times before) ought to be spread far and wide:
“In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
I’m more grateful than many for LEGAL immigrants. Without them, I’d never have met my Wonder Woman and enjoyed the last 29 years of her company. Sure, it was her grandparents who LEGALLY immigrated and became citizens, learning ENGLISH and becoming AMERICANS, but without their wholehearted resolve to forsake all other alliegiances and become Americans–decidedly NOT hyphenated-Americans with divided loyalties–she might never have been, for her two sets of grandparents were from rather widely separated regions of the same country, and their children might never have met, had they not emmigrated to America and ended up attending the same college here. And besides that, how would we have met–even had she been born–since I’ve never visited her grandparents’ homeland?
BUT, the key is clear: her grandparents came here LEGALLY and became citizens of this country with no divided loyalties, let alone “citizens” who proclaim, as “La Raza” and “Aztlan” people so widely do, that their only loyalty is to a foreign land.
If someone comes to this country and insists we adopt THEIR ways, insists we accomodate their former tongue, etc., then why come here? Let them be honest in their loyalties to another land and GO HOME.
Bill, at The Florida Masochist has made much of the case of Pedro Guzman, possibly an American “citizen” deported to Mexico. I emphasize “possibly” for good reason. Why? Because, according to the sources cited by Bill himself*, Pedro Guzman, supposedly an American citizen, identified himself to multiple authorities as a Mexican national. Hey! If that’s where his loyalties lie, then that’s where he ought to be: Mexico. The bleeding heart plea is that Guzman is supposedly “developmentally disabled”. Pull the other one, folks. Absent a better definition than that, it’s useless to make that bleeding heart plea.
I grew up with LEGAL immigrants and those on REAL Visas from Mexico. Although my high school was only about 15% “Latino” more than half my circle of friends was of that heritage. I know what Americans of that heritage can be like… and I know what pseudo Americans whose real loyalty is to another land are like.
If Pedro Guzman and others like him represent themselves as Mexicans, then bye-bye Pedro! If they genuinely want to be Americans, then,
“There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” [emphasis added]
And…
“…the policy or advantage of [immigration] taking place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) may be much questioned; for, by so doing, they retain the language, habits, and principles (good or bad) which they bring with them. Whereas by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures, and laws: in a word, soon become one people.” –George Washington
And, making my most critical point even better than Roosevelt did,
“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.” — George Washington (Address to the Members of the Volunteer Association of Ireland, 2 December 1783)
ILLEGAL aliens (and those who have neither the decency nor the moral character to give their allegiance to the country whose benefits they enjoy), who by the very fact of their illegal entry and residence irrefutably demoinstrate their disqualification as decent persons, should never be welcome here. Fundamental disrespect for our laws and the fundamental precepts of the Republic are disqualification enough. Oops. That would seem to exclude most of Congress and Fifi Bush, Felipe Calderon’s lapdog, wouldn’t it?
Oh, well.
Color me unimpressed (to put it kindly, the previous phrase having been thoroughly bowdlerized *heh*) with those who seek ever opportunity to excuse those who: invade our country, flout our borders and our laws, remain committed to a foreign government, while claiming American citizenship, seek the overthrow and suplantation of American rule of American soil, and who otherwise seek to undermine and devalue American citizenship.
*BTW, “born in California” is cited once in the linked article. Critical: ICE interviews indicated another fact:
Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department followed procedures correctly.
“My understanding is that this individual said he was a Mexican national and was in the country illegally when we interviewed him,” Whitmore said. “We turn that information over to immigration officials, who then re-interview him.”
Even were he born in CA, the myth of birth on American soil=American citizenship has been debunked on numerous ocassions by no less authority than… the U.S. Supreme Court… up until the activist court’s ignorance of “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” distorted its reading of the Fourteenth Amendment in Plyler v. Doe, 1982. Until that time, NO ONE born to foreign parents who just happened to reside in the U.S. was considered born a U.S. citizen (or even due the rights and protections of U.S. law or services) any more than a child born in Mexico to foreign parents residing in the country (legally or illegally) is considered a Mexican citizen or due any rights or privileges under their law.
And even in Plyler v. Doe, the court did not pronounce on “anchor babies'” citizenship rights in refutation of previous court decisions.
But Mass Media Podpeople and bleeding hearts won’t mention things like that, either because they do not know or because they do not want YOU to know.
It’s clear from the article linked by The Florida Masochist that the writer didn’t do any of his homework at all. The parents of Guzman are noted as being from Mexico, but nowhere was their immigration status noted. Legal? Illegal? Citizens? Not citizens? All the difference in the world to Guzman’s real status.
And apparently, he did represent himself as a Mexican national, viewed himself as a Mexican, not American, so where does he belong? A bleeding heart plea that he’s “developmentally disabled” and “often can’t remember the family phone number” is slightly suspect on its face, since, under stress, he called home from Tijuana.
Strikes me as a line of bleeding heart B.S., a setup for traitors to argue for shamnesty.
Some facts would help. “Doesn’t read” is a B.S. qualification for “developmentally disabled”–heck, college graduates can’t read worth a damn and high school graduates are worse; many of them can’t read at all.
Any time someone starts trying to twist a report with emotionally-loaded, content-vague terms like “devlopmentally disabled” without defining terms reasonably and then plainly distorts the “report” by leaving out pertient facts about Guzman’s parents’ status… and his own.
Lastly, IF he genuinely thinks of himself as American AND his parents were here LEGALLY when he was born (and thus “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S.), and he was born here to LEGAL residents, then “developmentally disabled” or not, he’s our problem and should be located and returned to his family. Otherwise, he belongs where he (reportedly) told Sheriff’s department and ICE interviewers his loyalties lie: Mexico. With the rest of his family, unless they are here legally, were born here when the parents were here legally, etc.
(Of course, if Guzman’s parents LEGALLY obtained amnesty under President Reagan’s ill-thought offer in the 80s, their illegal status–if such it was–would have been mitigated, amended, at that time. But we have NO information on their status and NO useful information on Guzman’s status that would impeach the statement by the Sheriff’s department and ICE that he represented himself as a Mexican national/illegal. Until then, I’d be more than willing to err on the side of safety and the percentages.)
Find another poster boy, Bill. This one isn’t even up to “Born In East L.A.” stature.