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April 20, 2008
More Truth-Challenged Arguments
Candidates and advocates are told to stay on message.
Such advice is sound only if the "message" contains a modicum of truthfulness or at least believability. Both of these qualities have been noticeably absent from the speeches and rhetoric of those who oppose the Governor's executive order on illegal immigration and related bills. Friday's rally followed form.
Members of the state's Hispanic community yesterday gathered at the State House once again to protest Governor Carcieri's recent order cracking down on illegal immigration.* * *
"The anti-immigrant sentiment that swept across this state and this nation is going to cause a lot of families to be broken up," said the Rev. Eliseo Nogueras, 46, the pastor of Pawtucket's House of Prayer Gethsemane. He is also chairman of the Governor's Advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
The call has been for the enforcement of existing immigration laws, not their removal from the books. Only the latter would constitute "anti-immigrant sentiment." Note also the phrasing of that sentence: not "anti-immigration" but "anti-immigrant." This is presumably to personalize and emotionalize a statement that is false to begin with.
Secondly, the reference to the breaking up of families is not just untrue, but insulting in two ways. It is insulting to everyone's intelligence to suggest that immigrant parents would leave their children in another country. And it is insulting to immigrant parents themselves to imply that they would do so.
In view of the emotion-rich and fact-poor arguments put forward from the beginning against the anti-illegal immigration measures implemented by the Governor and pending on Smith Hill, I am beginning to share the doubt of those who question the actual number of people who do not support these reasonable measures. They may count in their ranks not too many more than those who rally or testify on Smith Hill and a percentage (but not all) of undocumented immigrants.
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This campaign against the common sense executive order has been conducted almost solely by the Hispanic"leadership" and the "advocates".The clergy leaders who jumped on the bandwagon are just as shameless as the Poverty Institute commies or the Jobs With Justice politburo-they ought to stick to ministerial duites and stop using their turned around collars or beanies to push a political agenda against the existing law of the land.
Posted by: joe bernstein at April 20, 2008 10:37 AMI didn't see a whole bunch of Africans or Asians at these rallies and there are plenty of immigrants from both groups in RI.
There is no real point in debating the "advocates"-they deal in party line bull**** and can never admit they are wrong.Some,like Ramon Martinez speak out of both sides of their mouths.
The media handmaidens like Rappleye,Ziner,Bakst,Kerr,et al have made journalism an obscenity in this arena.
It is not untrue that it will break up families and it is quite alright that they "personalize and emotionalize" with "immigrant" rather "immigration".
First, the anti-illegal-immigrant side has personalized and emotionalized the issue with terms like "lawbreakers" "trespassers" "illegals". With this disgusting behavior, they have helped pass these laws across the nation. It says a lot about whose right that the anti-illegal-immigrant side has personalized and emotionalized the issue in offensive ways, while defenders of illegal immigrants are doing it to try to bring out the good in people.
There are families where the parents are undocumented and some of their children are US citizens. Some of these children may have an aunt or uncle who is a legal resident or US citizen. Depending on how bad circumstances would be for their children back home and how much better here, it is possible they may leave their children in the care of another family member, hoping it wont be for long. I don't know how many families will choose to do this, but I think some will. It is not insulting to believe some will. When the well-off do it, they call it "boarding school."
Posted by: arturo fernandez at April 22, 2008 12:14 AMMonique, do we disagree, or have you changed your mind?
Posted by: arturo fernandez at April 23, 2008 6:44 PMJust kidding. This is the internet. Nobody changes their mind on the internet.
Posted by: arturo fernandez at April 24, 2008 8:29 AM