I guess it serves my ass right for letting my jones for chicken mole enchiladas with lip smackin' tomatillo sauce get in the way of realizing this was the designated date for the proverbial shit to hit the fan, so to speak. Paco and the gang was probably out in force at Union Square waving the red, green and white while the gringos left behind botched my order to high heaven. I completely blanked out about the nationwide protests and demonstrations that was scheduled on this designated "day without immigrants." You could say my ambivalence towards the date extends to where I currently stand on an issue that's gone from lukewarm to a hotbed of controversy faster than a Mexican driving in California without insurance.

Since I'm a first-generation American, I can certainly empathize with people who risk it all for a chance at a better life. As the daughter of naturalized citizens, how could I not want for others what my parents wanted for themselves? I certainly count myself as one who wants them to remain here, legally. If you go through the process of becoming a U.S. citizen, then I'll be personally be on the picket line also to petition on the behalf of those seeking all the rights and privileges deserved. Due the incentive created here: education, health, wealth and welfare benefits, these are advantages that anyone couldn't and wouldn't shy away from. The apparent taking of jobs by immigrants is a familiar scapegoat in the midst of the furor, yet unemployment were steadily climbing since 2003 with nary a peep till now. Would anyone give a damn if the faces occupying the landscaping, construction and service positions were filled with Canadians as opposed to those from Honduras or El Salvador?

However, there's certainly a distinction between peaceful rallies and retaliatory boycotts and work stoppages. Calculating on this economy just to prove how much they love it doesn't ring quite so sincere in an uphill battle. The quest to expose America as a stagnant prima donna lost without her worker bees and will then buckle and pass forgiving laws that loosen its borders and grant the 11 million to 12 million illegal workers their rightful place in the American landscape is wishful thinking at best. And sound bites such as the following only serves to aggravate the fuming natives...

Nineth Castillo, a 26-year-old waitress from Guatemala, said she has lived in the United States for 11 years "without a scrap of paper."

Asked whether she was afraid to parade her undocumented status in front of a massive police presence, she laughed and said: "Why? They kick us out, we're coming back tomorrow."

It's one thing to try and seek amnesty, but to be so arrogant about the situation has rubbed me the wrong way to their plight entirely. They're truly on some power trip as if being undocumented residents, they have rights protected under the U.S. constitution. No, you are illegal. For example as a foreign citizen, going around toting your flag screaming "podemos sí" as a rallying cry is not furthering the cause. The reality is that most Americans just say come over legally and put money into the system instead of being a burden on social services which in turn erodes support for the people who really those need those resources, but can't receive them. While migrants in the United States have held huge demonstrations in recent weeks, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico suffer mostly in silence. And though Mexico demands humane treatment for its citizens who migrate to the U.S., regardless of their legal status, Mexico provides few protections for migrants on its own soil. Rings more than a bit ironic, don't you think?

I'm even more incensed that some Latinos have crossed the line of audacity to link their pursuit of absolution with the struggles of the civil right movement. ¿Opinión qué? Since when was over 400 years of slavery and approximately 60 more of legalized oppression via Jim Crow on a level playing field with being an uninvited guest in someone else's home and proceeding to strain the resources from everyone else?

Conveniently lost in the mix amidst all this hoopla is precisely the opening Dumbya & Co. need to keep the masses so preoccupied with the illegals that he can give a few more attempts at pushing privatization right past our noses. There's a far bigger agenda that is hiding under the disguise of these immigrants and their rallies and it's beginning to feel like spin mode all over again. You see what happened after 9/11 and history's a bitch that loves to stay on repeat.

Labels: immigration, politics