So people showed up for the on-again off-again Minuteman rally, and for the counterdemonstration.

Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrist, who was to have spoken at the rally, didn't leave his RV. He did show a misunderstanding of the First Amendment by saying his right to free speech was being taken away because a property owner didn't want him speaking on private property.

Gilchrist "said he believes there is a criminal conspiracy involving President Bush, his father, and political strategist Karl Rove to open America's borders to cheap labor for big business."

It's fascinating, this need people have to project conspiracies on open facts and processes. The power of big business, and its influence over US immigration policy (and other policies), is no secret.

Update: Much more here, worth reading.

Comments

[billg]

Heard a guy on the radio yesterday claim bribes from Mexican drug lords are the reason Bush hasn't sent in the troops.

[Bubba]

"Heard a guy on the radio yesterday claim bribes from Mexican drug lords are the reason Bush hasn't sent in the troops."

That's an interesting variation. The version I heard was that the Mexican drug lords bribed Bush to start the war in Iraq, so that the US would leave them alone.

[Bubba]

"It's fascinating, this need people have to project conspiracies on open facts and processes. The power of big business, and its influence over US immigration policy (and other policies), is no secret."

On the other hand, our immigration non-policy has been in effect well before the current president came to office.

[Bubba]

Maybe Ross Perot was right, to a certain extent.

"[It is a myth that] NAFTA will reduce illegal immigration. As manufacturing in northern Mexico expands, hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers will be drawn north. They will quickly find that wages in the Mexican maquiladora plants cannot compete with wages anywhere in the US. Out of economic necessity, many of these mobile workers will consider illegally immigrating into the US. In short, NAFTA has the potential to increase illegal immigration, not decrease it."

[billg]

I like your version better, Bubba. Now I'm waiting on some guy to say UN-sponsored black UFO's are flying immigrants across.

Truth is, the only thing that can really deal with this is better times in Mexico. So long as that large wage disparity exists, the incentive to migrate will remain.

[Bubba]

"Truth is, the only thing that can really deal with this is better times in Mexico. So long as that large wage disparity exists, the incentive to migrate will remain."

Vincente Fox has no incentive to solve HIS problem as long as we are willing to help him by tacitly ignoring OUR problem.

[Ed Cone]

Fox's problems and our problems are not unrelated. We provide a safety valve that allows young men to carry construction tools in Guilford County rather than weapons in Chiapas, and to ship money back to Mexico. And of course, many Americans -- including those powerful business interests -- don't see immigration as a problem in the first place.

[Cara Michele]

And speaking of that rally...

Have a look at this photo from today's paper.

And then read this quote from Joe Killian's article: "The opposing groups stood chanting and screaming obscenities at one another for a little over an hour." N&R

And this is why I don't take part in protests. No matter which side you're on, it's ridiculous (and undignified) to divide up and yell at each other. And obscenities? [Eyeroll. HUUUUGE sigh.]

[Joe Killian]

Have blogged about the protests yesterday with some personal observations over at my blog, Automatic Writing.

http://joekillian.blogspot.com

[billg]

>>"Vincente Fox has no incentive to solve HIS problem..."

Well, he does, actually. A better Mexican economy means more votes for Fox and his party.

If the U.S. isn't willing to militarize the border in border in order to thwart immigration, why would we imagine that any Mexican president would choose that option?

It is more than ironic that the U.S, a nation delilberately founded on the notion -- contrary to almost every other country-- that the right to live inside its borders is not tied to atavistic notions of tribe, language and race, periodically goes through these spasms of anti-immigrant fervor that are obviously rooted in equations of national identity with tribe, lanaguage and race.