Local Mayhem...

Found this nugget....

About Marie Waldron, she maybe running for Mark Wyland's spot in the 74th Assembly District. Of course, he's just as bad... and incumbent. She popped up at La Tapatia Restaurant & Cantina, in Escondido. She held a a fundraiser - oddly enough she was asking the Latino community to support her campaign.

But this is what is not funny...

I care about illegal immigration. I do. I don't want illegal immigration. But, I know what the facts are I know what the difference is. Most people do not. But, this website upsets me. Lots of numbers? yes! References to where the numbers come from and how they arrive at that information? NO! The references to news articles, from what group? The Center for Immigration Studies. Who are the Center for Immigration Studies and what do they do?

They are currently located here, on K Street in Washington, D.C. known for its influence peddling and partisan think tanks. Notice how similar its acronym is to the government agency,Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) and the right-wing think-tank, Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Odd!

They have been the talking points for Fox News, Roger Hedgecock, and Rick Roberts in our local area. The Republican groups can not get enough of this outfit and the great statistics they cook up.

But what they really do is cover up the facts, and position with rhetoric. Let me explain more.

People that cross the border fall into a few catagories that the INS/CIS keep track of.

• Naturalized Citizen (From a foriegn country, years of service, testing, and naturalized)
• Legal Permanent Resident (From a foriegn country, years of service, no testing - limited rights)
• Migrant Worker (From a foriegn country, years of service, VISA work program - limited rights)
• Temporary Admission (From a foriegn country, years of service, limited stay or naturalized)
• Refugee/Asylee (From a foriegn country, no years of service, threatened with death by homeland)
• Illegal Immigrant (From a foriegn country, years of service, no testing - not legal to be in US)

As you can see, there is quite a bit of strata to dig through. We have the big problem to deal with. How do you count legal or illegal immigration when you can't see it? It would be great to stamp people on the head and know if they are legal or illegal, but that is not going to happen. Cards can be faked, people lie on applications. We must accept there is a certain amount of unknown to deal with. Just like business know that they will lose money to incomptence and theft - it's built into the equation.

This is why scare-mongering works with illegal immigration. It's based on a visable race difference, coupled with a language and culture barrier. As well as a physical focal point... The border. The line in the sand is what matters as far as citizenship and rights. Unfortunately, its a easy issue to confuse due to the fact statistics are easy to make up, when you don't have something to count. It's like asking "How many cookies were eaten from the cookie jar?" - when you aren't even sure how many you started with. It's called a Universal Negative.

What are we supposed to do, take our California census and find the difference from our population and the population of Mexico? Then kick out that many brown people?

We are the 3rd largest state in the United States of America, directly next to the largest City in the World... MEXICO D.F.

Chances are we will inherit some people from that region. But, baseless accusations with out facts, figures, and points of reference are quite the draw when it comes to this issue.