MAX BOOT - MYTH BUSTER

MANSOOR'S THE REASON
You know, I really don't want to turn this blog into a venue dedicated to the illegal immigration issue. Despite the fact that Costa Mesa's young jailer/mayor, Allan Mansoor, has placed himself and our city squarely at the forefront of this issue and used it to get re-elected last year, I think it's been blown all out of proportion.

MAX BOOT NAILS IT!
Yesterday, Los Angeles Times columnist Max Boot, shown above, hit the nail right on the head. In a column entitled, "Immigrants are a boon, not a curse", he articulated how I have felt about this issue for a long time - only much better than I ever could. As an interesting aside, in the print edition of the Los Angeles Times the editors chose to entitle Boot's commentary, "End the immigrant hysteria". Regardless the title, the message remains the same and was stated concisely in the sub-title, "Republicans should stop treating millions of people who want to better their lives as a threat." Well said! You can read his column at this link.

Boot's a pretty smart fella. He's a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times Opinion section and the author of "War made new: Weapons, Warriors, and the Making of the Modern World."

MYTHS DEBUNKED
In his column Boot addresses many of the myths currently being foisted upon us by the more rabid anti-immigrant factions in this country, like Jim Gilchrist and his not-so-merry band of malcontents in the most recent iteration of his Minuteman Project - whatever they're calling it today. Among those are that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from "real Americans", and thereby stifling economic growth. Humbug! Read Boot's column!

AMNESTY?
He also addresses some solutions, among them the creation of a method of legalizing many of those illegal immigrants already here. Read Boot's column!

MY VIEW
As I've said many, many times on this blog, in my view the first thing that needs to happen is that our borders need to be secured. Anything else comes after that. Once the borders are secured we need to develop a method of "earned amnesty" - a way those illegal workers already here can pay some form of restitution and be granted immunity for their "dastardly transgression" - trying to make a better life for their families. It is also likely that some method of providing "guest workers" will also be necessary to fill the ongoing demand for labor that is being filled by illegal immigrants. This is not rocket science - it was done in the middle of the last century through the bracero program and worked just fine.

FEAR AND LOATHING
It is also my view that illegal immigration is not what drives our mayor and his motley crew. I think it's something much darker than that - an abhorrence of those brown skins among us - the illegal immigrants just make an easy target for their wrath. I've chronicled just why I feel that way from nearly the first words I wrote on this blog and it's predecessor more than two years ago and in newspaper commentaries before that. I won't re-hash all that here.

WRITE, BUT READ FIRST
I welcome comments on this blog, but before you go all apoplectic on me and melt the comments inbox with your rants, please take the time to read Boot's column. It will either provide you with some answers or give you more ammunition, depending on how firmly you've got your feet dug in. Remember, I'm the sole arbiter of what appears here. I'll publish your comments unless you use bad language or libel someone. Put a name on them, even if it is fictitious - no comments addressed as "anonymous" will be published. My blog - my rules.