By: Diane Benjamin
This statement is on the Facebook page for today’s march in downtown Bloomington: https://www.facebook.com/events/1255754504522249/
Join us for a day of solidarity with immigrants and their families! Join us for a day of resistance against human rights abuses, racism, and oppression! Join us to keep families together!
The page goes on:
Most of us never have to think about what our children would do if they arrived home from school and we weren’t there—just vanishing from their lives. But that is the reality for some members of our community. Just last year, 53 people were transferred to immigration custody directly from our county jail and many more have been torn apart by deportation.
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In 2017, the threat against immigrant families is greater than ever. The new administration’s immigration policies are placing families under increasing threat of being devastated by an unjust immigration system and immigrants in our community are living in constant fear. As a community, we must stand up with and for our neighbors and take action to ensure immigrant families are protected in McLean County. March with us for justice, dignity and freedom for all!
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Immigrants and allies – On May 1st, don’t buy anything, don’t go to school, don’t go to work!
No where on the page are immigrants called “illegal”. Borders are immaterial, laws are immaterial, and the new administration is threatening them. Racism is an old label that means nothing other than you lost the election and your feelings are hurt.
Don’t bother to comment saying people can’t be “illegal”. People who didn’t go through the legal immigration procedures are obviously illegal. If you aren’t legal then you are illegal. American citizens expect laws to be enforced. Living in a civil society demands justice is applied equally for all citizens. Demanding made-up rights for non-citizens is yet another local mental disorder.
This same group will demand that Bloomington and Normal pass resolutions just short of saying both are sanctuary cities. Losing an election means they need to yell louder. Keep it up – demanding superior rights for illegals will keep you a permanent minority.
I wonder how they feel about the local companies who fired long time employees to bring in H1b visa holders? Is that justice? Dignity? Some lost their ability to collect the pension they worked decades for. People here illegally probably do live in constant fear, there is an easy remedy for that. Think those fired employees in their late 50’s don’t live in fear with no job and no income retirement stream except social security?
Marching for people who broke the law is telling.
Not marching against real discrimination of American citizens is tragic.
If the Bloomington and Normal Councils decide to pass a “welcome” resolution for law-breakers, it will say a lot about them too. Does the “welcome” apply to those H1b visa holders who displaced Americans?
I’m sure Tari was there. He told that same crowd on election night that “those who fear federal immigration laws, tonight is your night.”
Of course, no media outlets asked him about it, so I did. I asked what he meant and what he thought “those who fear the law” took from that statement. He will not respond.
Seems to me he’s got eyes on making Bloomington a sanctuary city. What else could we – or “those who fear the law” – take from that statement?
Koos evaded the question at a debate, they both would love to be sanctuary cities.
Look at the dudes “resume,” apply the logistics of reality and you’ll have no more questions about Tari’s socialist agenda.
Just wait until they start losing federal funding and grants.They will be screaming like the little pissants that they are!
That’s weird. They’re marching for ILLEGAL ALIENS but calling them immigrants. I wonder why they don’t use the true terminology? LEGAL IMMIGRANTS don’t need people marching for them because they’re here LEGALLY. (Yes, I know. Preaching to the choir.) I just spoke to the Sheriff’s office. Asked if they will follow Federal Law. They will. I’ll be calling Bloomington PD and Normal PD next.
I think it is interesting that the people who are all for immigrants from Islamic crazy countries would never ever have to live next to these people when they arrive. It will be low income poor neighborhoods that will be “blessed” with these people and their Iron Age backward culture right? They won’t be moving into the high rent areas or in the fancy subdivisions where the people who think it is a good idea to bring them in live, right? You want an immigrant in the United States so bad – bring them into your home…. easy to talk about when you never have to ever see or put up with them once they are here. Put your money, your children, your neighbors where your mouth is. Sponsor 3 or 4 immigrants from the Sudan tomorrow. There are boatloads of them right now in the Mediterranean so there a plenty to choose from. A word of caution: Many males from these countries in the Middle East and Africa see rape and even gang rape as a sort of pastime like we see sports. So keep your women and girls inside the house for their own protection. It is also best to throw a table cloth over them when the venture outside so as not in arouse your new immigrant friends with their provocative western clothes.
These organizers are promoting hysteria using hyperbole. Parents will vanish while their children are in school? “53 people were taken from the county jail for deportation.” Well, if you’ve committed a crime to land you in jail AND you are in this country illegally, it’s deportation time. It’s the law. Yes, stand in solidarity by making some signs, taking one day off from work or school, not buying anything for one day and march for a few hours. That is not a very impressive show of solidarity nor is it a promotion of justice.
Let me share a true story of immigration. During WWII, the Netherlands was occupied by the Nazi German army. The army confiscated all the food to feed the soldiers. The natives were left to eat tulip bulbs, dogs, cats, whatever they could find. Many starved to death. They had to burn their furniture to keep warm. All the while, some risked their lives by working in the underground to assist the allied forces. When the war was over, none of those who wished to move to the United States were given any preferential treatment. They had to find a US citizen to sponsor them. They had to have a job lined up before a visa was issued. They had to procure their own passage on a ship for the transatlantic voyage. Each person was allowed one suitcase. If you became ill on the ship, you were turned away at Ellis Island. There was no English as a second language for Dutch speaking immigrants. They had to spend many years to go through the process of becoming a citizen and then denounce the citizenship of their homeland. They prospered, raised a family and lived in freedom-something they cherished after living through the hell of WWII. Those who are marching for justice should be promoting this legal manner of immigration, otherwise they are are seeking special treatment which is the opposite of justice.
I have just finished reading an autobiography of a man who joined the Border Patrol after serving in WW II. His name was Buck Newsome and he kept a daily diary of his experiences of most of his days work. While the book is very interesting and with some colorful language, the one thing that he wrote around the late Forty’s is that the Border Patrol estimated that there were over 10 million illegals in our Country then. Not 2017, no it was around 1948. Almost Seventy years ago. Makes me think that this border has never been a true border of any kind, only a line to determine our boundary.
Did the book cover President Eisenhower’s mass deportations?
As a matter of fact, he did not mention it. But he saw politics as a big part of the problem, just like now.
Of course it’s politics. Most elected people only care about getting reelected, not enforcing laws that would prevent cheap illegal labor.
I read this blog last evening with “common sense” It refers to ILLEGAL ALIENS, well, seems the PRAVDAGRAPH panders to the Renner-Koos agenda of they ARE “immigrants” Such BS, however they BOTH stop short of saying they will be sanctuary cities, as they’ll loose what means MOST to them-MONEY! Oh, and there “might” be legal issues?? WHEN did that ever stop those two?