- A radical Hispanic movement's dream to retake the southwestern
United States is becoming a reality with the aid of Mexican and U.S. policies,
according to some immigration watchers.
-
- A massive influx of illegal immigrants is "importing
poverty" and growing an ethnic community with greater loyalty to
Mexico than the U.S., maintains Glenn Spencer, president of <http://www.americanpatrol.com/Voices
of Citizens Together, a California-based non-profit group.
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- "Unless this is shut down within two years, I believe
that it will be irreversible, and that it will most certainly lead to a
breakup of the United States," Spencer told WorldNetDaily. "I
don't think there is any doubt about it."
-
- A breakaway of U.S. states is a distinct possibility,
according to prominent Chicano activist and University of California at
Riverside professor Armando Navarro. In an interview with WorldNetDaily,
Navarro would not answer directly whether he shared separatist aspirations,
but said that if demographic and social trends continue, secession is
inevitable.
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- "If in 50 years most of our people are subordinated,
powerless, exploited and impoverished, then I will say to you that there
are all kinds of possibilities for movements to develop like the ones
that we've witnessed in the last few years all over the world, from Yugoslavia
to Chechnya," Navarro said.
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- "A secessionist movement is not something that you
can put away and say it is never going to happen in the United States,"
he continued. "Time and history change."
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- In a 1995 speech to Chicano activists, Navarro said demographic
trends are leading to "a transfer of power" to the ethnic Mexican
community in the Southwest. He notes that most studies show that within
the next 20 to 30 years Latinos will comprise more than 50 percent of
the population of California. This fact, and other cultural and social
developments, are opening the door for "self-determination"
and even "the idea of an Aztlan," he said in his speech.
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- Aztlan, the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs, is regarded
in Chicano folklore as an area that includes California, Arizona, Nevada,
New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas. Spencer believes the aim is
to create a sovereign state, "Republica del Norte," the Republic
of the North, that would combine the American Southwest with the northern
Mexican states and eventually merge with Mexico.
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- "I see that as the overarching goal of the Mexican
government and many Mexicans who want self-determination," Spencer
said.
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- 'America's Palestinians'
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- On its <http://aztlan.net/website, a group called
"La Voz de Aztlan," the Voice of Aztlan, identifies Mexicans
in the U.S. as "America's Palestinians." Many Mexicans see themselves
as part of a transnational ethnic group known as "La Raza,"
the race. A May editorial on the website, with a dateline of Los Angeles,
Alta California, declares that "both La Raza and the Palestinians
have been displaced by invaders that have utilized military means to conquer
and occupy our territories."
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- But the threat of secession is not merely from groups
that might be considered on the fringe, Spencer insists, noting the declarations
of Mexican leaders, up to the highest office. Former Mexican President
Ernesto Zedillo said in a 1997 speech in Chicago to the "<http://www.nclr.org/National
Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, that he "proudly affirmed
that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders
and that Mexican migrants are an important ñ a very important ñ
part of this."
-
- Zedillo said that because of this fact his government
proposed a constitutional amendment that allows Mexican citizens to hold
dual citizenship. Spencer believes that the objective is to enable Mexicans
in the United States to vote in the interest of Mexico.
-
- Ultimately, many Mexicans hope for a "reconquista,"
a reconquest of territory lost when Mexico signed the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidlago
at the end of the Mexican-American War.
-
- "One could argue that while Mexico lost the war
in 1848, it will probably win it in the 21st century, in terms of the
numbers," Navarro told WorldNetDaily. "But that is not a reality
based on what Mexico does, it's based on what this country does."
-
- Spencer argues that misguided U.S. policies and lax enforcement
have allowed a steady stream of 1 million illegal immigrants a year to
enter the country. Demographers agree that instead of integrating into
a "melting pot," new Hispanic immigrants, both legal and illegal,
are building a distinct, politically active community.
-
- The problem is not that they have a voice, Spencer says,
but that they increasingly are acting according to the interests of Mexico.
-
- Spencer believes that the Mexican government played an
important role in the legal quashing of a 1995 California voter initiative,
Proposition 187, that limited taxpayer funds to services for citizens
only. After a visit with California Gov. Gray Davis in 1999, former Mexican
President Zedillo told reporters that he had a commitment from Davis to
ensure that "the catastrophic effects which were foreseen with Proposition
187 several years ago will not come to pass."
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- Among other signs of Mexican influence on U.S. affairs,
Spencer notes that less than two years ago, West Los Angeles businessman
Eddie Varon Levy became the first person living abroad to join the Mexican
Congress. Varon Levy said one of his goals as a member of the Chamber
of Deputies was to establish a special attorney's office to defend immigrants'
rights.
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- Border erasure
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- The U.S. has tripled its border patrol budget over the
past five years, but the flow of immigrants has barely changed. At the
same time, Mexican President Vincente Fox has pressed for an eventual
erasure of the southern border and encouraged Mexicans who seek work in
the U.S.
-
- At a speech one year ago at a border post in Nogales,
just south of the Arizona border, Fox said: "We want to salute these
heroes, these kids leaving their homes, their communities, leaving with
tears in their eyes, saying goodbye to their families, to set out on a
difficult, sometimes painful search for a job, an opportunity they can't
find at home, their community or their own country."
-
- Under the Fox regime, Mexico has an Office for Mexicans
Abroad that provides survival kits for Mexicans who seek to enter the
U.S. illegally.
-
-
- Some immigration watchdogs in the U.S. believe, however,
that all this does not add up to a desire by the Mexican government to
retake the Southwest. Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Los Angeles office
of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, believes statements
by Zedillo and Fox indicate "they are looking for some way to gain
leverage with regard to American policy."
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- "They want to create one market where they will
be able to send workers here without any restrictions, because it's in
their interest to do so," Mehlman said.
-
- The incentive to cross the U.S. border is high. The average
illegal worker can make about $60 a day in the U.S. compared to about $5
a day in Mexico.
-
-
- Immigration hurts both countries
-
- But Allan Wall, an American married to a Mexican and
a resident south of the border for 10 years, maintains that immigration
is not helping Mexico. "I see it having many bad effects where I
live," said Wall, Mexico correspondent for Project U.S.A., an immigration
reform group in New York. "It's kind of like welfare; it encourages
people to use the U.S. as a safety (net) rather than solve the problems
in Mexico."
-
- On the U.S. side of the border, Mexican migrant workers
are viewed by many lawmakers and officials as an economic boon. Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has said that the illegal workers increasingly
play an essential "anti-inflationary" role in the U.S. economy.
-
- But Spencer argues that the most recent census confirms
that the immigration tide is "importing poverty." Wall agrees
that the influx is precipitating a demographic meltdown that could lead
to a fracturing of the country. "The United States needs to drastically
reduce immigration and go back to an assimilation model, where immigrants
learn English and become American; otherwise it will be a disaster,"
Wall said.
-
- Studies indicate most Americans believe immigration policy
is not serving their interests, Mehlman said. "They're upset about
it, but still haven't been upset enough to demand that the government
change its policies."
-
- Mehlman explained that the impact on the average citizen
is not easy to assess. "Even though they are aware that this is not
necessarily beneficial, it's hard to convince someone of how much it is
costing in social costs, how much it might be costing in lost wages."
-
- Polls show that most Americans want something done about
immigration, said Spencer, but are afraid to speak out because they don't
want to be labeled as racist, or anti-immigrant. "That's the weapon
the other side uses against us," said Spencer, who served among Native
Americans for many years. "It is very effective, and they know it,
and so they use it at every opportunity."
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- Wall believes that the "whole discourse on immigration"
must be changed. "We have to distinguish between being anti-immigrant
and anti-immigration," he said. "Like any other public policy
issue, it should be debated. Unfortunately the mainstream press is only
giving us one side of the immigration issue."
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- The stunning documentary video "Conquest of Aztlan,"
which unveils the aims and methods of a radical movement intent on taking
over the American southwest, is available from WND's online store.
-
-
- The upcoming February edition of WND's popular Whistleblower
magazine will be dedicated entirely to America's enormous immigration and
border problems. The current issue, "AMERICA DEFENSELESS," deals
with protecting the U.S. from attack with weapons of mass destruction.
Subscribe to Whistleblower at WND's online store, or by calling toll-free
1-800-4WNDCOM.
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- http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25920
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