Having your cake and eating it too...? Pro'ly not...

it's fascinating to watch (at least for me) the issues surrounding illegal immigration on our southern border... there are so many competing interests that, sadly, often cross the line into outright rascism and, even worse, violence... from the "close-the-door-behind-you" attitude of some immigrants (ah-nold being one of the most prominent), to the white supremacists, to businesses that rely on cheap labor, to government and human services officials struggling with overburdened and underfunded programs, to border security issues, to mexico's on-going disparity between the have's and the have-not's, to the frightening appearance of the minuteman militia, the issus are deep and complex... here's just a snapshot in microcosm featuring, in high irony, an hispanic republican in idaho, the home of white supremacy in the u.s...

(more)

Mr. [Robert] Vasquez, 55, a Republican county commissioner and Mexican-American in a region where Latinos are ascendant, has been on a crusade against illegal immigration, what he calls "an imminent invasion" from south of the border.

Mr. Vasquez has tried to have Canyon County declared a disaster area because of the strain from illegal immigrants. He has also sent a bill to the Mexican government for more than $2 million; that is the cost, he said, of Mexicans who are in the county illegally.

Mr. Vasquez says the newcomers overwhelm public services, bring gang violence and drugs, spread diseases like tuberculosis and insist on rights that should not be granted to noncitizens.

His latest salvo, a plan to sue employers who hire illegal immigrants, has angered the solidly Republican business community and many of the senior political leaders in this heavily Republican state. The plan would make Canyon County the only local government in the country to use federal racketeering statutes against people who employ illegal immigrants, said Howard Foster, a Chicago lawyer advising the county.

As a result, Mr. Vasquez has forced a sharp fight on an issue that poses difficulties for Republicans, pitting people and business owners who rely on illegal immigrants for labor against people who see them as a threat to jobs and security.

and there ya have it...

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