Amnesty's Impact on the Future of the U.S.

The law of unintended consequences is always at work. Americans are being asked to pay for the mistakes made by our bureaucrats and politicians and, inexplicably the policy and social mistakes made by those of other countries.

Read this excellent essay by Yeh Ling-Ling at WorldNetDaily:

President Bush and the congressional leaders of both parties are determined to achieve a de facto amnesty in 2006 for possibly over 12 million illegal migrants. Since more than half of the illegal migrants came from Mexico, Americans should not ignore another amnesty's severe impact on the political future of the United States.

Professor Samuel P. Huntington, chairman of Harvard University's Academy for International and Area Studies, warned in "The Hispanic Challenge," an article published in Foreign Policy in April 2004:

Demographically, socially, and culturally, the reconquista (re-conquest) of the Southwest United States by Mexican immigrants is well underway. No other immigrant group in U.S. history has asserted or could assert a historical claim to U.S. territory. Mexicans and Mexican Americans can and do make that claim ...

Huntington also noted that "Mexican immigration differs from past immigration and most other contemporary immigration due to a combination of six factors: contiguity, scale, illegality, regional concentration [in the American Southwest], persistence and historical presence."

In May 2005, the BBC reported:

The Latinization of California is nothing short of a revolution. California will become a predominantly Spanish-speaking state within the next few years. And, as the majority population, there is really no need, or incentive, for them to assimilate into mainstream American society as their predecessors have always done. Whether Latinos then decide to push for greater autonomy or to seek a political agenda of their own with closer ties to Mexico and Central America is very much up for grabs.

Back in August, 2001, even the French newsweekly Le Nouvel Observateur carried an article with the title, as translated into English, "The Reconquering of California by Latinos." In October of that year, the left-wing, pro-immigration New California Media reported that Mexico "continues to mourn the loss of half of its territory to the U.S. in the 19th Century."
Those warnings and reports are supported by actions, statements, joint lobbying efforts of high-level government officials in Mexico and activist leaders of Mexican descent in the United States:


• In 1997, Ernesto Zedillo, then the president of Mexico, said in Chicago: "I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders and that Mexican migrants are an important – a very important – part of it."

• In 1998, Jose Pescador Osuna, then-consul general of Mexico, stated in California: "We are practicing La Reconquista in California."

• In 2004, Vicente Fox, president of Mexico, declared in Chicago: "We are Mexicans that live in our territories and we are Mexicans that live in other territories. In reality, we are 120 million people that live together and are working together to construct a nation."

That Americans, born and bred in the United States are tooting the same horn and playing the same tune is an eye-opener:

Leaders of Mexican descent in the United States have made similar statements:

• In 1995, Henry Cisneros, former U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said at a Hispanic conference at the University of California at Riverside: "As goes the Latino population will go the state of California, and as goes the state of California will go the United States of America. My friends, the stakes are big. This is a fight worth making."

• Also in 1995, Jose Angel Gutierrez,≈ a political science professor, a former director of the Mexican-American Studies Center at the University of Texas-Arlington, and the founder of the political party, La Raza Unida, said: "We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. The explosion is in our population."

• In 1998, Mario Obledo, co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and former California secretary of Health & Welfare, warned: "Eventually, we are going to take over all the political institutions of California." Obledo added that California will soon become a "Hispanic state" and that anyone who does not like Mexicans "should go back to Europe."

• In 2001, Elena Poniatowska, a prize-winning Mexican novelist who has taught at Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other American universities, clearly stated: "Mexico is recovering the territories yielded to the United States by means of migratory tactics."

• In 2002, Charles Truxillo, professor at the University of New Mexico, confidently predicted that the U.S. Southwest's secession is an "inevitability" because of continued high Hispanic immigration. He promised to use the "electoral pressure" of the future Hispanic majority of that region to achieve that goal.

How the Mexican government achieving this:

In recent years, Mexico has also actively encouraged illegal migration.

In December, 2004, the Mexican government published a guide advising illegal Mexican nationals on how to cross the U.S. border safely. In 2001, Ernesto Ruffo Appel, who was then Mexico's commissioner for Northern Border Affairs, reportedly told would-be illegal Mexican migrants: "If the Border Patrol agent finds you, try again." In addition, according to recent new reports, there have been at least 126 incursions on U.S. territory by the Mexican military.

Furthermore, Mexico has vigorously opposed all U.S. measures to curb illegal immigration, such as the proposed border wall and Proposition 200, an initiative that was placed on the Arizona ballot in 2005 whose objectives were to curb voter fraud and illegal immigration. In the last few years, the Mexican government has also pushed hard for amnesty, unlimited guest-worker visas, and various benefits for migrants, such as in-state tuition and driver's licenses for millions of illegal Mexicans.
If the federal government yielded to Mexico's and Mexican activists' demands – unlimited guest-worker visas and U.S. citizenship for millions of illegal Mexican nationals – once naturalized, those migrants could add tens of millions of people (and many future voters) to the United States through births here and through immigration of extended families. Children born in the United States, even of guest workers, are American citizens and can vote at 18. Our last national elections were very close. The impact of such an amnesty on future elections cannot be ignored.

Although many Mexican-Americans are patriotic and most Mexican migrants have no political agenda, many newcomers could be mobilized by Mexico to vote according to Mexico's interests. U.S.-born Juan Hernandez, while serving as a member of President Fox's cabinet, stated, "We are betting that the Mexican-American population in the United States ... will think Mexico first." Indeed, in recent years, a number of American citizens of Mexican ancestry have returned to Mexico to run for political office. American citizen Manuel de la Cruz reportedly wanted to make the United States of America a Mexican electoral district when he ran for Mexico's Congress.

Furthermore, in recent weeks, over a million demonstrators marched in many parts of the United States. Even high-school students in many states have participated in walkouts. Many of the protesters of all ages were waving Mexican flags, pressuring the United States with demands identical to Mexico's. On April 24, the Mexican government sponsored a meeting in Mexico City with Latino leaders from the United States to discuss the "Great American Boycott" that took place on Monday.
As early as in 1994, Mexican Americans and immigrants were demonstrating against Proposition 187, an initiative on California's ballot which would deny benefits to illegal aliens. Mexico also actively opposed that measure. During that time, 70,000 people were marching in Los Angeles. According to news reports, "a sea of Mexican flags" was seen during the march.

Through concerted efforts by leaders and activists in the United States and in Mexico, and following a multi-year, multi-faceted approach, the population of Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants has rapidly increased. As their numbers grow, they have become a strong political force that has the ear of leaders of both parties.

In 2000, Adolpho Aguilar Zinser, then the head of Mexico's National Security Council and the personal strategist to President Vicente Fox, advised in writing that Mexican immigrants in the United States should model themselves upon the Jews and Miami's Cubans to gain political clout. He said they should vote, lobby, put up candidates, and form alliances with other groups that agree with their positions.

A December 2002 article in the Arizona Daily Star reported on the formation of a 100-member council "created by Mexico's government to represent Mexicans living in the United States." The council's members are all U.S. residents and, the newspaper said, "their main duty" is to give advice to the Mexican government regarding the "needs" of Mexican-born residents, legal and illegal.

Joint lobbying efforts by activists of Mexican ancestry and Mexico regarding immigration legislation have been quite effective. A major accomplishment was the misnamed "Immigration Reform and Control Act" passed by Congress in 1986, which amnestied 3 million illegal aliens. (Although measures to curb illegal immigration were included in that act, they have been mostly ignored).

In addition, after California's voters approved Proposition 187 – the 1994 ballot measure that would have denied public benefits to illegal immigrants – the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and other pro-illegal-alien groups sued to overturn it. Parts of the initiative were ruled unconstitutional in a federal district court and the measure was taken up on appeal.

Before the appeal process was completed, then-President of Mexico Zedillo paid a visit to California Gov. Gray Davis. After the meeting, Zedillo told the media that he was confident that Gray Davis would block the implementation of Proposition 187. Subsequently, Davis decided to settle the case "out of court" through mediation. But only the opponents of Prop 187 were invited to take part and the measure was shelved. Antonio Villaraigosa, then-speaker of California State Assembly, publicly thanked the Mexican president for his help in killing Prop 187.

Significantly, efforts to defeat Prop 187 were not limited to a handful of Mexican-American leaders in California. Some 500 leaders and activists of Mexican ancestry from many states participated in the Latino Summit Response to Prop 187, held at U.C. Riverside in January 1995 and hosted by MEChA, the acronym of a Mexican student organization very active on college campuses throughout the United States. They included professors, elected politicians, media people, health-care specialists and a former California Supreme Court justice.

Jose Angel Gutierrez of University of Texas-Arlington, Armando Navarro of U.C. Riverside, Rodolfo Acuna of Cal State-Northridge, Leo Chavez of U.C. Irvine, Juan Gomez-Quinones of UCLA, and Raul Ruiz of Cal State-Northridge were among the professors. Other notable attendees at the summit included: Gloria Romero, former trustee of the Los Angeles Community College Board and now California state senator; Fabian Nunez, speaker of the California Assembly; Cruz Reynoso, former California Supreme Court justice; Antonio Villaraigosa, former California Assembly speaker, now mayor of Los Angles; Joe Baca, former California assemblyman, now U.S. congressman; and Art Torres, former California senator, now chairman of the California Democratic Party. Many individuals in the media also attended, including Roberto Rodriguez, a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and Gilbert Bailon, who was then the president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Many Mexican-American organizations have actively registered voters. MEChA has been very aggressive in recruiting new voters. MEChA's national constitution calls for the "liberation of our land." MEChA has had prominent political leaders among its members. For example, Antonio Villaraigosa, current mayor of Los Angeles, headed MEChA's chapter in Los Angeles when he was a student at UCLA. Cruz Bustamante, the lieutenant governor of California, was also a member of MEChA, as was California State Sen. Gil Cedillo, who has been vigorously pushing legislation to grant driver's licenses to illegal aliens.

Leaders and activists here of Mexican descent do put up candidates of their own ethnicity: the governor of Arizona is of Mexican descent, the governor of New Mexico also has Mexican roots. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, California Sen. Gil Cedillo, current Speaker of California State Assembly Fabien Nunez, Congressman Raul M. Grijalva of Arizona are also of Mexican ancestry. They all are supportive of Mexico's immigration demands.

Leaders and activists of Mexican descent also formed a coalition with the business lobby, the AFL-CIO, the religious lobby, human-rights activists and civil-rights activists, to push for massive immigration. In 1924, in large part thanks to the lobbying efforts of the AFL-CIO, Congress passed legislation which drastically reduced immigration from about 1 million a year to an average of less than 200,000 a year for the subsequent 40 years. Now, the AFL-CIO is lobbying for the amnesty for illegal migrants. It is to be noted that the current speaker of the California State Assembly, Fabien Nunez, was formerly the political director of the AFL-CIO in Los Angeles.

As the Mexican population grows, redistricting is a critical instrument for Mexican-American activists to ensure properly ethnic candidates are elected even over veteran politicians who have been very supportive of their positions. A case in point involved a lawsuit filed in 1992 in federal court by a nationally known political organization, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, alleging the new congressional and state assembly boundaries unfairly favored white incumbents. In California, very pro-Latino Democratic Congressman Howard Berman's district was one of four congressional seats targeted. Berman told the Los Angeles Times that he was "very disappointed" by the suit. He also said: "For 30 years in public office, I have not merely voted for, but have led the legislative battles to enact, issues of importance to the Latino community. I guess for MALDEF, it's more about skin color and ethnicity than the philosophy and quality of representation."

Mexican Americans prefer candidates of Mexican descent even over those who have been their strong political allies. For example, in 1998, veteran California State Assemblyman Richard Katz ran for state Senate against Mexican American Richard Alarcon. Even though Katz was a strong, longtime supporter of Mexican immigrant rights, state Sen. Richard Polanco funded a mailer to Katz's district in the last days of his close primary, accusing Katz of various anti-Latino acts, which the Los Angeles Times editorial of July 13, 1998, termed "irresponsibly wrong." Katz lost the primary to Alarcon by a slim margin.

Voter fraud has been committed. After former Republican Congressman Bob Dornan lost his re-election bid to his Democratic challenger Loretta Sanchez by a very slim margin, there were allegations that a Mexican immigrant group helped non-citizens register to vote. On April 28, 1997, the Wall Street Journal reported:

Orange County District Attorney Michael Capizzi has determined that one immigrant-rights group alone registered 890 non-citizens in the county and that 547 of them voted ... Lawyers for Rep. Loretta Sanchez, who defeated Mr. Dornan, insist that only 77 non-citizens voted in her election. They are refusing to honor a subpoena for documents issued by Rep. Ehlers's committee on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. So too is Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, the group accused of registering so many non-citizens.

According to a Dec. 11, 1997, article in the Washington Times, "Nearly 2,500 people of questionable eligibility voted in the election in which Democrat Loretta Sanchez defeated former Rep. Robert K. Dornan last year, the California secretary of state said yesterday. Mr. Dornan lost by fewer than 1,000 votes." Furthermore, independent investigative reports by the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register found "a number of non-citizens who illegally voted for the Democratic ticket."
To quickly expand the Hispanic electorate, Hispanic activists across the country have launched a major lobbying campaign to secure the right to vote for non-citizens. This effort to blur the distinction between American citizens and those who are not will increase the number of voters of Mexican descent. So far, a number of cities have passed legislation allowing foreign nationals who are here legally and illegally to vote in local elections. In 2004, San Francisco voters were asked to decide whether or not non-citizen parents should be allowed to vote in San Francisco School Board elections. The measure was introduced by Matt Gonzalez, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He is of Mexican descent.

Skeptical Americans who continue to ignore the potentially very severe social and political impact of massive Mexican immigration should heed the following: According to the 2000 Census, the U.S. population had increased by about 13 percent from 1990, but the number of people who identified themselves as Mexican had grown by 53 percent. If this trend continues, the majority of people in the United States could very well be of Mexican ancestry within decades. Mexico is clearly using both legal and illegal migration to strongly influence U.S. policies and future elections, and to eventually extend the Mexican nation. Another amnesty could speed up the process of creating "Mexamerica."

The quasi-moratorium adopted in 1924 which lowered immigration for 40 years, from about 1 million a year to less than 200,000 annually, allowed Jewish, Italian, Irish immigrants to become Americans. Conversely, current record levels of immigration have no end insight. Furthermore, due to the explosion of the ethnic media, progress in telecommunications and public transportation, bilingual education, bilingualism in many public and private entities, and with continued massive immigration, it will be extremely difficult for newcomers to assimilate.

When asked how realistic it is to think the U.S. Southwest might secede, the aforementioned Mexican-American Professor Truxillo reminded his audience that any idea that the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia would break up would have seemed far-fetched 50 years ago. But now, that has become political reality. Truxillo also warned in 2002 on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes Show: "Throughout history, nations and empires rise and fall. No nation's borders have been permanent."

Mexican-American Professor Armano Navarro of U.C. Riverside echoed Truxillo's warning in 2002: "A secessionist movement is not something that you can put away and say it is never going to happen in the United States. Time and history change." Americans should note that a Zogby poll published in 2002 showed that 58 percent of Mexicans living in Mexico polled believed that the U.S. Southwest rightfully belonged to them and 57 percent of Mexicans in Mexico did not believe they needed U.S. permission to enter this country.

Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico, carried a column by Carlos Loret de Mola on July 20, 1982, which stated: "The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot."

Americans must remember that throughout history, when a land changes hands, it often leads to political social and instability.

Most have forgotten that a justification for war with Mexico in the 19th century was that Mexico "couldn't control its territory nor the inhabitants therein." The unintended consequences of allowing the influx of more than 10 million Mexicans that refuse to obey the laws of the United States is a demonstration of a lack of control of territory and population. You do the math...