“Some children won't have the same rights as other children.”

[McCamy Taylor]

I. More Insanity from Arizona

Arizona has lost it. Their latest proposal----deny U.S. citizenship to children born of undocumented aliens---is so unconstitutional that it should be laughable.

Emboldened by passage of the nation's toughest law against illegal immigration, the Arizona politician who sponsored the measure now wants to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in this country to undocumented parents.

http://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/2010/0615/Arizona-lawmaker-Russell-Pearce-takes-aim-at-automatic-citizenship

Ha, ha. Very funny. And yet…

What does it say about our country that this proposal has been made before, in our nation’s Congress?

When children of illegal immigrants are born in the United States, they automatically become citizens. Some Republicans want to revoke that privilege to discourage others from crossing the border.

They've tried to do that almost every session since 1995, but the proposal has never made it to a vote.

This string of failures has not deterred Republican Rep. Elton Gallegly of California from introducing the Citizenship Reform Act of 2007. It would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. whose parents aren't citizens or permanent resident aliens.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca50_bilbray/morenews/20070323_shns.shtml

Instead of using this as an opportunity to poke fun at Arizona, we should ask ourselves “Why is the party of Big Business so intent upon keeping children of immigrants second class in this country?”

II. America Hates Its Children

America hates its children. We beat them. We rape them. We send them to prison for life. And we starve them.

Over 13% of our kids live in poverty. Half of these are extremely poor. Keep in mind that the poverty threshold in the U.S. is set at $21,027 annual income for a family of four with two children. It actually takes twice as much as this for a family to pay its bills. For instance, a single parent family with children ages 3 and 6 needs $45,000 a year to make it in Dallas.

Economists like to claim that there is a “magic number” for unemployment. A certain number of folks have to be out of work in order to keep labor costs low enough for business profits to be high. The same economists would never dare to suggest that there is a “magic number” for child poverty in this country. However, if you compare our policies towards those of other wealthy nations, you might wonder if poor children are part of corporate America’s plan for financial success. During the big business driven Bush years, rates of childhood poverty increased---and that was before the recession. Among a list of wealthy countries, the U.S. comes second to last---Mexico is at the bottom—in child poverty. Black and Latino children are more likely to be poor. So are kids who live with a single (female) parent.

How does childhood poverty benefit business? Children who grow up poor are less likely to finish high school. Since education determines your income, poor children grow up to be the next generation of underpaid laborers for America’s factories and sweat shops.

Poverty links:
http://www.nccp.org/tools/frs/budget.php
http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/repcard6e.pdf
http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/child-poverty-in-america.pdf


III. “Some children won't have the same rights as other children.”

From the Christian Science Monitor link above:

Araceli Viveros, 27, and her husband, Saul, 34, are illegal immigrants from the Mexican state of Guerrero. He has been in Phoenix for 20 years, she for 10, and their 2- and 9-year-old children are U.S. citizens.
"I am so proud my children were born here. They can learn English and keep studying," Viveros said in Spanish.
She said her husband has been working hard in Phoenix as a landscaper, and their children deserve to be citizens. The lawmaker's proposal "is very bad," she said. "It's changing the Constitution, and some children won't have the same rights as other children."

It is nice to know that people from other countries still see this as the land of opportunity. Those of us born here know the truth. Inequality has been the rule of the land for as long as the U.S. has been a country. At various times non-landowners, slaves, women, Chinese-Americans, Native-Americans, the disabled and many others have been discriminated against under the law. Anti-discrimination laws do not make us all equal. If they did, women would not continue to earn 78 cents on the dollar. Blacks would not be targeted by our police departments and criminal justice system.

Systematic discrimination is useful (to business owners), because it divides the work force. With Whites and Blacks pitted against each other, and men versus women and citizens against immigrants, there is less chance that workers will unite to form powerful labor unions. Discrimination serves a second purpose. It ensures that there will always be an undereducated, underpaid, underemployed labor pool in this country. The mere presence of a serf class keeps wages low for all of us, since employers can threaten to bring in cheaper workers if we do not make concessions. And to an unemployed parent of starving children the threat of being called a “scab” means little if he or she can finally put some food on the table.

IV. Little More Than Slaves

Right now, we encourage undocumented workers to come to our country. We do this by offering them jobs that pay more than they can get at home. Employers face, at worst, a wrist slap if they are caught using (cheap) illegal labor. Our borders are porous. Our immigration process is so broken that it is easier to come here illegally than to get an official work permit. Even those who have been here for decades, paying taxes and supporting their communities, risk deportation if they attempt to correct their illegal status. There are no social services for the undocumented. No health insurance. No educational opportunities.

For the children of undocumented workers, things are very different. As U.S. citizens, they qualify for health insurance and public education. If they grow up healthy with a high school or college degree, they will be able to get good jobs, in safe work environments, with decent wages and benefits. They will pay taxes, go out to eat, buy clothes and cars and other goods, which will support the economy.

This is not some kind of special deal dreamed up by liberals to coddle "illegal" Mexican immigrants. This is the way it has always been in the United States. As a result, each generation rises above the poverty of the last, and our country becomes stronger---

But wait! Industry does not need more educated highly paid workers. It craves cheap, docile labor.

Slavery was the ultimate expression of our country’s disdain for the working class. Cotton plantations needed workers who would do grueling labor for minimal (i.e. no) wages. No free American, immigrant or native born, would accept that kind of work if there were other options. So, some people were told “You and your children and their children will work these fields until the end of time.”

Those who seek to deprive children of their citizenship are not really interested in sending them all back home. They are salivating at the prospect of young, uneducated but English speaking laborers who will be forced to fill their parents’ spots at the local chicken processing plant---or face the prospect of deportation to a “home” they have never known, a place whose language and customs are foreign to them.

V. Follow the Money

Rachel Maddow documented the racist organizations which help promote anti-immigrant legislation.

http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2010/04/racist-roots-of-russell-pearces-regressive-antiimmigrant-laws.html

In corporate fascist America, right wing ideology often works to promote the interests of Big Business. I thought it might be informative to look at the money behind the anti-immigration movement.

Source Watch has a list of donors to FAIR---Federation for American Immigration Reform.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Federation_for_American_Immigration_Reform

Wow. Look at the top donor. The Carthage Foundation, aka part of the Mellon Scaiffe empire. Scroll on down and you see the name Scaiffe two more times. Makes you wonder, how did the Mellon Scaiffe family make its money? Answer; Alcoa (aluminum) and Gulf Oil (petrochemical).

Imagine the delight of mine owners if they can hire workers who are cheap and expendable. No more nasty news coverage of mine disasters. “They aren’t real Americans, and there are plenty more of them where they came from.” If injured employees threaten to sue, you can get your buddies in the government to send them home. Imagine how much more cheaply your oil can be processed and your nuts and bolts manufactured if the employees are paid less than minimum wage. Imagine how happy companies like BP will be if they can use cheap undocumented immigrant labor to clean up their messes.

Then there is the Kirby Foundation. Woolworth became Foot Locker. We all know how much retail clothes and shoes stores like to advertise that they sell “Made in America” products. Unfortunately, it is hard for manufacturers to compete with Southeast Asian wages. A permanent serf class in this country would help Foot Locker cut costs and improve its image.

Rounding off the list are John M. Olin foundation—arms manufacturing, Smith Richardson Foundation---Vicks VapoRub, William H. Donner Foundation---steel. Manufacturers again, and labor is the biggest cost if you are involved in manufacturing.

The Pioneer Fund was founded by Frederick Henry Osborn (railroad, oil industry) and Wickliffe Preston Draper (textile manufacturing).

Forget ideology. This is all about money.

VI. The Life of an American Serf

Here is what the future holds in store for children if laws like this one are passed:

Baby will not be able to get routine check ups and immunizations, since he will not qualify for government funded health insurance. Therefore, his childhood illnesses will go untreated. If he has developmental delay, no one will notice until it is too late. When he turns five, he may or may not get to go to kindergarten. It will depend upon the whim of the school district where his parents live. Keep in mind that if his parents are homeowners, they will be forced to pay taxes to support the local school system that their child may not be allowed to attend. Catholic Schools will probably try to take up the slack, but that will cost the family money which they may not have. Even if he gets to go to public school, his chance of going to college will be shot---no educational loans or grants for a non-citizen like him. If he gets into trouble with the law, as kids sometimes do, he will not be given a second chance. He will be sent “back” to a country he does not know. Since “trouble with the law” includes reporting a crime, if he gets robbed, assaulted or even raped, he will keep his mouth shut.

If Baby is a girl, she may not have access to birth control services, which means she may have an unplanned pregnancy at an early age. Being unable to qualify for Medicaid (which all other pregnant women can get) her second generation American baby will start out at a severe disadvantage, the same way that she did. If she is lucky, her mother will watch the child while she goes to work in the service industry, making less than minimum wage. She will drive a car without a license, since her state will not let her have one. Whenever she sees a policeman, she will pray that he does not pull her over, because a routine traffic stop could mean a one way ticket for herself and her child back to a country she has never visited, where people speak a language she does not know. If a local employer with a lot of political clout tells her “I can make sure you (and your baby) stay in this country”, she will accept any wage and any work condition----

And American business will celebrate the acquisition of another serf.

Don't believe the people who claim that the "born in the USA but not citizens" will be sent back. People will not tolerate it. The very idea of sending some 17 year old who does not speak Spanish back to Mexico will shock the public. They will demand that she be allowed to stay---as an alien, of course. Subject to all the legal discrimination which aliens suffer. A working class deprived of the vote. Just what the GOP dreams of.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. K& ... somehow canceled ... R

[McCamy Taylor]

2. That's because Immigrants and Muslims are the designated "groups to hate" right now.

I always get lots of flak when I defend either of them.

[fascisthunter]

3. too many xenophobes... talk about unamerican

[DesertFlower]

5. so do i.

[nickinSTL]

4. "it's changing the Constitution"

not unless it's a Constitutional amendment, it isn't.

Putting it into a bill makes the bill unconstitutional UNLESS the Supreme Court decides to overturn over 100 years of precedent and change the interpretation of the 14th Amendment.

[CTyankee]

19. But can the Supreme Court "interpret" a constitutional amendment

in a way that LIMITS rights heretofore granted? I can see an interpretation of a constitutional amendment to EXPAND the right (or the prohibition of federal laws, as in the expansion of the church/state prohibition by extending it to the states via the 14th amendment).

That's kinda crazy in my book...

[TheKentuckian]

6. Stellar write up. Deserves near record recs

[katty]

7. dangerous crazies-AZ, geezus get grip on yourselves!!

[happygoluckytoyou]

9. ARIZONA--- putting the AZ back in NAZI

[newtothegame]

20. Wow, how do I unrec a comment? nt

[hunter]

8. Exactly.

recommended

[snake in the grass]

10. Great read...

...as usual.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. yep

[grantcart]

11. It is laughable and it will be laughed out of court

And that is the cynacism at its apex.

They never intended to pass a law that would be actually enforced.

They simply wanted a show boat bill that would end crazies on the right from challenging them (see McCain vs Hayidiot).

It will be laughed out of court and the conservatives will say "We tried" and blame liberal judges.

All too familiar. All cynical all of the time.

[Nikki Stone1]

12. "A working class deprived of the vote. Just what the ELITES dreams of.

K & R

[offog]

17. "A working class deprived of the vote. ... "

"Just what the ELITES dreams of."

This is so true. I like to read business news whenever I get the chance, just to see how the other half lives. It's useful to find out what they say when they think the unwashed aren't paying attention. The contempt and hostility towards the poor and working class is palpable.

I can't tell you how many times over the years I've read comments about how those non-taxpaying, freeloading loser low-income people always vote the wrong way (i.e. against the conservatives); they should stay out of the way and let successful people make the decisions. Also, any time there's a protest about poverty and/or homelessness, the reaction is "We pay taxes; you don't; STFU."

Then there's that whole law-of-the-jungle vibe and the message that compassion is for wimps and losers.

[alp227]

13. So when you hear Republicans campaigning on a "pro-family" agenda...

they're only talking about families in the suburbs and gated communities, not the inner cities or lower-income neighborhoods.

Personal responsibility, self-reliance, all that good stuff...how can those be practically applied for those families deep in a sinkhole?

[mntleo2]

15. Adoption and Foster Care Industrial Complex

At this time with low income assistance in crisis, the next step is to take those kids and label the low income parent as "neglectful" and Maltreating" their children, which is a legal term where children in poverty could be defined. This does not mean the parents did any such thing, just that they are poor and cannot provide a middle class home. But because they cannot afford decent legal assistance ("defense" lawyers assigned are also depend on losing their cases because they are funded from the same sources below), and their children will be sold in adoption where the state also gets between $20-50,000 per child when they are adopted. It is happening already in every state. To take kids from illegal parents will just add to DSHS cash flow and add millions to their minions. Family court judges already blatantly ignore Constitutional rights and give kids away on admittedly false charges, so illegal parents will be a piece of cake and another CA-CHING for their job security.

DSHS and family courts at this time are dependent on funding to keep their jobs and they do it on the backs of taking little kids from their homes because the only funding in town is Title IV, Medicaid, and TANF funding, where 1000% more goes to the taking of children and putting them in foster care, rather than giving families services. It would actually be cheaper and safer to keep those kids at home but ...because the general public assumes a child is safer in foster care than in their own homes the funding for foster vcare is given precedence. In truth kids left in their homes and the family given services actually cuts child abuse down to a minimum ~ and worse kids in foster care are 3 X more likely to get abused than if they had stayed home. These facts are ignored ~ and a cash cow for non-profits, DSHS agencies and family courts, because DSHS actually gets money for destroying families, funding is based on how many children taken, and not a cent if they return these kids home.

Here is why:


First of all, follow the money. In my state I have gotten (reluctant) information that our DSHS spends literally 1000% more on taking children and placing them in foster care than in helping out the family. As a matter of fact after taking millions from Title IV funding (an entitlement only used for foster care and CPS, family courts, their consultants and non-profits), our DSHS agency goes in and takes over 1/3 of the TANF (Welfare) money (discretionary funding meaning this does not have to be funded). Then legislators and our governor cries about having to cut services for low income families because "there isn't enough". Yet there is more than plenty to take kids from their families and place them in foster care where DSHS collects ~ about $8000 per child per month that funds an enormous industry we call "The Adoption and Foster Care Industrial Complex" because it is about the only thing in town for all kids ~ and for their CPS/Family Court/CASA/Non-Profits/Consultant's pay.

I have this information from such places as the Health and Human Services offices in DC, Representative McDemott's office who chairs the TANF Social Security (Welfare) committee, The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, and The NW Casey Foundation, all whose studies are based on information gleaned from university studies and the agencies that provide services for DSHS. Here is the worst part of this funding information: all funding is based on how many kids are taken and not on how many return home. As a matter of fact DSHS gets not a red cent when children are returned home. Thus the impetus for judges, CPS workers, consultants and non-profits to "err on the side of the child" because the taking of kids from their housing, especially low income families, based upon their funding geared to the taking of children, so they depend on taking and selling these children for their very jobs and existence.

We hear a lot about the parent who abuses their child but literally nothing about foster care abuse. Few people pay attention to the 3 X more likely occurrence of child abuse in foster care than if removed children were left with their families. Few realize most kids would fare much better if the families were helped with services such as housing, livable wage jobs, education and other resources, even parental drug and alcohol rehab will help these kids more than if removed from their homes. I cite many studies from Michigan to Baltimore to here in Washington state of over 200,000 children which shows this statistic: Over 80% failure in foster care for children taken from their families resulting in juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy, prison, homelessness, and lack of education. Adoption does not rule out this fact either. http://www.nccpr.org/reports/01SAFETY.pdf

If we want to talk about DSHS dysfunction and the reasons for its failure we need to discuss this "off limits" conversation about CPS and foster care because DSHS depends on the destruction of families for much of its funding. Recently there has been the discussion about Medicaid but again within its re-authorization comes even MORE foster care money when they already have billions in ENTITLED money to their disposal. But family assistance, proven to work and be much less expensive for things like health care, food, housing, are left in the lurch and ignored.

Recently I spoke with a group of mothers who had lived in Opportunity Place run by the YWCA downtown Seattle for low income housing. It is a clean and sober housing project that requires residents to be drug and alcohol-free. They told me that between 2003 and 2005 every single child was taken from this housing by CPS and all parent's rights were terminated. As DSHS additionally gets between $20,000 and 50,000 for each child they adopt out and the YWCA coincidently houses a private adoption agency, one might wonder what is going on and if this practice is continuing today. With the millions to be had, I suspect it is not just the YWCA that profits from the taking of kids.

The WA state YWCA reports last year receiving about $34,000,000 in funding for their operations, and this is just one large non-profit, what are others doing to preserve families? You cannot tell me that the entire residential clean and sober population in this housing was so abusive that they lost their children. Every single one? I also spoke with a mother fighting for her kids in Philadelphia and she says the same thing is happening there in transitional housing. Every single parent is considered so abusive that their children are taken and adopted out. Well tell me, is this little surprise when DSHS is dependent on funding that is on the backs of traumatized little kids and only counts when children are taken with richly rewarded funding that supports a staff of literally thousands with nice salaries and benefits ~ and really, whose "interests" are best being served here?

All you have to do to understand that I do not exaggerate to say 1000% more is being spent to destroy families is see this study about Federal and State DSHS funding and how it is used. In this link below, scroll down to page 13 where you will see a graph that blares out just how much money is being spent nationally to destroy families that states adhere to and depends upon for their own funding: http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2009_02_17_FR_CWFinancePaper.pdf If even 1/4 of this money were used on family services it could significantly cut child abuse and this is a statistical fact.

If there is one thing to discuss it is about the federal strings attached to states for this funding which mandates how it is used. It has a powerful lobby because many citizens inaccurately believe a child is more at risk in their own families than in foster care and this is simply not the case. All but 2 states, Calaifornia and Florida had the option to allow caveats for family preservation to use the billions that they have gotten in Title IV money, but refused to take them. CA though they have these caveats refuses to use them for preservation because the Adoption and Foster Care Industry is so huge and such a cash cow. It has resulted in the bending and outright ignoring in the courts of Constitutional rights for the accused, mayhem and destruction within families, and needless agony with children. Until our family court judges do not depend on the taking of children for their own paychecks and thus in cahoots with all other court-ordered paycheck-dependent personnel, we will continue to see DSHS dysfunction because they depend on the taking of children and the destruction of families literally 1000% more than the preservation of families and they all use this destruction to subsidize their own livelihood.

My 2 cents, hope this enlightens you a little and scares the shirt off you because it is happening nationally to NATURAL citizens, now they have another resource with illegal immigrant families to further corrupt the laws ...

Cat in Seattle

[offog]

16. This is really scary.

I almost wish I hadn't found out about this stuff.

I guess for conservatives, "family values" means affluent white nuclear families.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

18. K&R

[Soylent Brice]

21. K&R