Jersey Devil
24th April 2005, 21:15
This kind of "activism" in the Arizona-Mexico border began in 2000 with the Neighborhood Watch Ranch. They put out ads in several newspapers thoughout the U.S asking people to "Have some fun in the sun". Indeed, some members were even tied with the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Also, the current anti-immigration project is being supported by white supremacists of the National Alliance which have sent fliers asking people to come "protect the border" as did the NRW in 2000.
With that said however, not all people involved in this new '05 movement are "racists" or neo-"nationalist socialists". I was recently reading an article about this in Christian Science Monitor with a woman living in the area saying that she had several immigrants running though her ranch. She was in genuine fear that a confrontation might occur some day which would be harmful to both parties. Can I sympathize with this fear, yes I believe I could.
Nevertheless, I still regard these people as vigilantes. One of the problems is that many southern politicians build their political careers on "it's not my fault, it's Juan's fault" and this in turn encourages anti-immigrant sentiment that is simply irrational. One of the biggest arguments is that "illegals" hurt state agencies because "they" take healthcare and other benifits that they don't pay into. While this is true, one has to admit that there are also other social programs which "illegals" pay into, from which American citizens benifit and they never see a penny of.
For instance, social security and medicare, both of which "illegals" pay into but never see benifit from (however I will focus on social security in the following text). In order to work "illegals" get social security cards with fake social security card numbers. They pay payroll taxes that come off of their check, and goes to the federal government. However, the government now has fake numbers and doesn't know who deserves the benifits from social security, thus this revenue is kept by the federal government. Every year "illegals" pay 7 billion dollars into social security without seeing a penny of it, yet ironically the anti-immigration advocates complain about "illegals" taking advantage of social programs. Utterly ludicrous.
The Original:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html...DAD0894DD404482 (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F7091FFC345B0C768CDDAD0894DD4044 82)
Full Article:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_040505G.shtml
Starting in the late 1980's, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect - sometimes simply fictitious - Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the "earnings suspense file" in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.
The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990's, two and a half times the amount of the 1980's.
In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.
With that said however, not all people involved in this new '05 movement are "racists" or neo-"nationalist socialists". I was recently reading an article about this in Christian Science Monitor with a woman living in the area saying that she had several immigrants running though her ranch. She was in genuine fear that a confrontation might occur some day which would be harmful to both parties. Can I sympathize with this fear, yes I believe I could.
Nevertheless, I still regard these people as vigilantes. One of the problems is that many southern politicians build their political careers on "it's not my fault, it's Juan's fault" and this in turn encourages anti-immigrant sentiment that is simply irrational. One of the biggest arguments is that "illegals" hurt state agencies because "they" take healthcare and other benifits that they don't pay into. While this is true, one has to admit that there are also other social programs which "illegals" pay into, from which American citizens benifit and they never see a penny of.
For instance, social security and medicare, both of which "illegals" pay into but never see benifit from (however I will focus on social security in the following text). In order to work "illegals" get social security cards with fake social security card numbers. They pay payroll taxes that come off of their check, and goes to the federal government. However, the government now has fake numbers and doesn't know who deserves the benifits from social security, thus this revenue is kept by the federal government. Every year "illegals" pay 7 billion dollars into social security without seeing a penny of it, yet ironically the anti-immigration advocates complain about "illegals" taking advantage of social programs. Utterly ludicrous.
The Original:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html...DAD0894DD404482 (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F7091FFC345B0C768CDDAD0894DD4044 82)
Full Article:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_040505G.shtml
Starting in the late 1980's, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect - sometimes simply fictitious - Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the "earnings suspense file" in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.
The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990's, two and a half times the amount of the 1980's.
In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.