April 1, 2006
Immigration Rally Reaches Federal Plaza
Tips and photos are beginning to come in regarding today's rally against changes in the immigration laws. Multiple thousands were expected to cross over the Brooklyn Bridge this morning, ending up in front of the Javits Federal Building. Obviously there were many protesters, but from the photographs we've seen the projections initially being thrown around sound a bit high. What happened? Were people worried about the rain? (Semi-related tangent: There was a really great article a while back that we're too lazy to google on the complications of getting an exact person count in protests, does anyone else remember this?)
Did you march? Do you think it was successful? Drop us a comment!
Meanwhile Bloomberg yesterday finally offered up some of "his most explicit views so far" on the immigration debate calling for "tighter border controls, more generous visa policies for foreign scientists and the granting of permanent residency - though not necessarily citizenship - to the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country."
Eh, OK, fine Mike. But when you say you would support a physical wall on the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico, that was an early April Fools, right?
Photo by jgo★ via G'ist Contribute.
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Do the marching morons know that one of history's biggest opponents of illegal immigration was a man named Cesar Chavez whose own brother organized a minutemman patrol to keep the criminals out?
Sadly, too many high school students don’t know the difference between legal and illegal immigration. But it’s not surprising, because their teachers and the news media call illegal aliens ‘immigrants’ and ‘undocumented workers’. Legal immigration means Americans are making conscious choices about who they admit for citizenship, illegal immigration is simply an invasion.
The students who are walking out of school and protesting today should really be asking themselves why their cities and states encourage illegal immigration by offering benefits to illegal aliens. That’s a slap in the face to every legal immigrant who waited in line for their chance to come to America.
My name is Michael Class. I live in the Seattle area with my wife and two children. I am a retired "dot-com" executive who just couldn't sit by and let the mis-education of our youth go unchallenged anymore.
I wrote, photographed, and published a book designed to set the record straight, to properly prepare our children for the future. My book is called Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame.
In the book, my real-life son, twelve-year-old Anthony, time-travels to 1907 and meets his immigrant great-grandfather at Ellis Island. Anthony listens as officials question the new arrivals and document their intentions in the United States. Anthony witnesses the personal impact of immigration policy: He sees some people turned away at America’s door, causing families to split up.
It's a harsh lesson: The purpose of immigration policy is to discriminate, to make choices about the people we want to admit to the United States.
Even when admitted to the United States, Anthony learns that life in the new land is anything but certain. Anthony’s great-grandfather masters the language of America - English - and works his way through school, only to end up in the trenches of World War I, and then back in America during the Great Depression. Eventually, he starts a business, rises from poverty, and raises a family.
To tell the story of America's earlier immigration experience, I used advanced digital photography to insert Anthony into historical photographs. And I didn’t stop with family history: Anthony meets famous American heroes and witnesses pivotal events of the 20th century. Anthony is pictured in the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis with Charles Lindbergh, on the moon with Neil Armstrong, in the laboratories of Thomas Edison and Jonas Salk, and on Normandy beach on D-Day (see photos at: www.MagicPictureFrame.com). Throughout the book, historical accuracy rules: Even Anthony’s conversations with America’s heroes are based on things they really said.
While writing and photographing the book, I spoke with relatives of famous scientists and inventors, Holocaust survivors, award-winning biographers, and others who could help me ensure that the facts of the book were both accurate and vivid. The book includes more than 500 footnotes.
But the book goes beyond a simple recitation of historical facts: the book presents the moral lessons of American history. The chapter about Lindbergh’s flight is really about choosing one’s destiny. The story of Lou Gehrig is one of a virtuous life. The chapter about Thomas Edison is really about business. The story of Apollo 11 is about wonder, taking risks, and courage. The story of Dr. Jonas Salk and the cure for polio is really about dedicating one’s life to a higher purpose. Anthony’s observation of D-Day and the liberation of the death camps during the Holocaust is a testament to the reality of evil and the need to fight it.
Back to the immigration issue:
When Anthony meets his immigrant great-grandfather at Ellis Island, it’s really a story about what it means to be an American. Anthony’s great-grandfather says: “I became an American because I believe in America, and it’s my belief in America that makes me an American.” Anthony comes to realize the simple truth of the statement, and remarks: “America is an idea as much as it is a place. I am no different than my great-grandfather and all the immigrants who came to this land: I can only be an American by choice.”
It's not an easy book. The book challenges the reader to see the modern world in the light of the lessons of the past.
We can't afford to raise a generation of Americans who do not value their country, their heritage, and their place in the world. As Abraham Lincoln said: America is the "last best hope of earth."
Thank you.
Michael S. Class
Father / Author / Photographer / Publisher
Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame: An American History Book for Right-Thinking Americans and Their Children
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E-Mail: class@MagicPictureFrame.com
Web site: www.MagicPictureFrame.com
Throw a net, thats all INS had to do to get rid of all the illegals, almost all of them were marching a few days ago and they were all rallied together, THEY took all the work of finding them all and mad it into a simple thow a net on everyone and detain anyone without a verifiable ID. Idiots these days.
Today is the perfect day to go for a walk in Sunset Park
The US should start redistributing illegal immigrants from cities that are burdened by them to other cities and states that are unburdened by the them--e.g., Fargo, ND, Sioux Falls, SD, Cedar Rapids, IA, Omaha, NE--maybe it will result in minimizing the problem illegals cause in the metropolitan areas they predominate in and may result in legislation that everybody can live with pertaining to these people.
"To tell the story of America's earlier immigration experience, I used advanced digital photography to insert Anthony into historical photographs"
Wow, you must be a genius!
Hey, guys, I'm not going to embroil myself in a political debate/flame war, but I did just tag some shots for you that you might like (set here), and would estimate that by the end of the tag, there were twice as many people there as in that photo. Nuts.
With the 4/5 service down, I tried to get on the 6 at the Bridge, but the platform was completely bursting with people. I turned around and walked home in the rain, but it was an inspiring rally with a crowd that was diverse in age as well as race.
And I can't help myself: I'm as much against illegal immigrants leeching resources as the next guy, but even more than that, I'm for human rights and viewing and treating people as just that - people - not subhuman 'illegals.' As long as we're going to rely on them to drive our economy, we ought to think about the conditions we're imposing.
Hey right-wing nutjob, thanks for the spam...
It is indeed unfortunate to see America encumbered by a fast growing culture of xenophobia and blanket assumptions that those marching are ALL undocumented. Many of the undocumented have adult US citizen or legal immigrant relatives who live here, families and children that would be brutally torn apart by Draconian laws. Did anyone bother to question, detain and interrogate ALL of the marchers to conclusively verify the supposed fact that they are all illegal or undocumented or it is part of the mass hysteria propagated by immigrant bashing propaganda vehicles ? Where is the same level of outrage against undocumented Europeans or Canadians ? Would America be a better place as a police state where civil liberties and the right to extend humanitarian rights are trampled underfoot ? One has to wonder why America should continue to fight or stand for "Freedom" and "Democracy" and when people exercise their first ammendment rights (as guaranteed to all who are within the confines of the borders of this country), some who seem to have selectively forgotten the values that make up this country, and the fact that most of them arrived here as immigrants through their predecessors 2 - 4 generations ago, are keen to call them morons or criminals, but indeed nothing is said when Irish flags are flown on St. Patrick's day, the Irish Prime Minister comes to America and requests amnesty for undocumented Irish immigrants or the fact that American values can accomodate in the spirit of diversity, places that reflect immigrant heritage such as Little Italy or China Town. Immigrant bashing without hard facts and figures are symptoms of a society that is fast steering itself to a regrettable state of xenophobia. There is no country in this world that has been shaped the way America has through immigrants and it is that fact that makes America great. There are many myths [1 , 2] about the undocumented being propagated, it is time immigrant bashers took an opportunity to wake up from their deep slumber and faced reality with open objective minds and accepted that the undocumented no matter what laws are passed, will not leave this country on their own volition. Fix the borders, put a stop to new undocumented immigration and then address the issue of the 12 or so million undocumented immigrants who for all realistic intents and purposes will not leave this country no matter how draconian the laws may be. And as one Senator stated this week on the reality of attempting to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants : "They would fill 200,000 buses in a caravan stretching bumper-to-bumper from San Diego to Alaska", its just not an economically feasible task, America simply cannot afford it without further burdening law abiding tax payers. America needs both these undocumented and legal immigrants as hard workers who contribute to this country's economy and must come up with feasible solutions that are not xenophobic fueled and misguided solutions that only worsen a runaway situation.
i went to the rally. i had only found out about it last night, so i didn't expect as many people as the California and D.C. marches because I hadn't heard any press publicizing it.
What I want to know is, are the 4 irish ilegals living in a basement across the street from me included in this whole "illegal immigrants=criminals" business? And the haitian nannies on 5th ave...who is going to call the cops on the family that hires them for cheap labor? We have to stop thinking that these illegal immigrants are "draining" our government resources...they supply as much to our society as legal immigrants and american citizens.
i think people have to realize that being a "legal immigrant" today is much much harder than in the past. (unless you get marry to a citizen) not everyone have the luxury to apply for a legal residence. Illegal immigrants today are illegal because they have no realistic way of becoming legal.
the march was well-attended, the rally not so much (many of the organizers of the protest were religious groups, so the rally ended up being very church-like... so obviously not for everyone... it was pretty freaky, actually).
there were lots of families, amd a real mix of people, although mostly latin-american (big mexican, ecuadorian, and dominican turn-out). spanish was definitely the dominant language of the event. there was a tiny korean contingent and apparently some egyptian and haitian organizations involved, but you wouldn't have known from looking at the crowd. and for the record, there were plenty of people (myself included) who weren't immigrants (at least not recently so) participating in the march. these laws affect all of us, folks.
will have photos up on nymosaico.com soon.
y ningun ser humano es ilegal!!!
Wow, Saturday must be day-release day.
Why don't we just tell the truth, most anti-immigrant sentiment is just plain racism. Period. You know it's true. It has nothing to do with the color of their cards and everything to do with the color of their skin.
And unfortunately the Democrats are too dumb to just say it.
Tim, I agree with you 100%.
Ah, voices of reason. Are most Gothamist readers right-wing xenophobes, or what?
What can you expect? Most of these people stem from the midwest, they haven't mingled with such diversity until their what? Early-mid twenties and beyond.
Here are three "issues" I have for illegal immigration supporters:
1. (tangent) Morons who would rather call people "racists" than present arguments of their own. "Those other guys are racist; therefore, whatever I say is true," is neither valid nor sound.
2. Illegal immigrants, who are quite vulnerable to the whims of their employers, drive down wages for unskilled labor. Yes, they reduce costs of goods and services, but in doing so they put many others (e.g. black males in NYC) out of work.
3. Many supporters of illegal immigration are unable to see a relatively simple solution to the problem: fines. We don't need to "send them home" (i.e. with some enforcement approach applied to the illegal immigrants themselves). A fine of, say, $50-100,000 per illegal immigrant employed would send quite a message to shady employers and hirers of day laborers. Such fines should be aggressively pursued. As long as the risk and cost of employing illegal immigrants dramatically exceeds the "cost savings" of hiring them, there will be no market for their labor. Leave it up to them to find their own way home; jailing and deporting them would be unnecessary.
b, on #2
http://paa2004.princeton.edu/download.asp?submissionId=41338
Preliminary studies indicate that persons who are born in the U.S. are more likely to be unemployed than immigrants. This is in line with the economic motivation and self-selective immigration theory as well as the dual labor market theory. The results of our models show that a large percentage of the immigrant population significantly increases the whole population’s likelihood of employment, but a big part of this direct effect contributes to the immigrant’s unemployment. That is to say, a large number of immigrants lead to an increased risk of unemployment for some of them as well as for some U.S.-born people. Moreover, cross-level interactions also reveal some significant findings. They tell us that whites lose part of their employment advantages because of a decreased employment advantage for white immigrants; thus other things being equal, minorities’ employability increases in those states with a large number of immigrants.
[more]
One possible explanation from the data is that the personal endowments that immigrants carry are not that different from those of natives, so more immigrants in a state tend to increase the state average education level.
here here, tim n! here are some of my photos
Democrats have sold out the poor (specifically poor blacks) to pander to Latinos for votes.
If these illegals want to be Americans so badly. why were they walking around with Mexican, Dominican, and Columbina flags????
Why is it racist to think that ILLEGALS are leeching off of a system that our ancestors legally joined and that we all pay for in the end.
Can I perform an ILLEGAL bank robbery and get amnesty from the gov't?
Is it just coincidence that the banner ad above right now says "Apply for U.S. citizenship today"?
And check out today's NY Times for the truth on whether illegal immigrants are doing jobs Americans truly won't do.
From conservative columnist David Brooks... check it out...
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/opinion/30brooks.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fDavid%20Brooks
Basically saying that if these guys were white, they'd be voting Republican from now 'till doomsday. But some "right thinking" people can't see that.
Oh, and the current plan, which I support, does include fines. I'm surprised so many people are glomming onto this misnomer about amnesty, considering what a hard word it is to spell and all.
mike, here is more comprehensive analysis of #2:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/weekinreview/02broder.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
b, thanks for sharing the link and articles. I have read through and inevitably as with any study, it is indeed a very complex issue and I am sure there will be conflicting views and conclusions as the article below illustrates :
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189792,00.html
I also looked at the report that the NYT article refers to. Wouldn't it be better if minorities in America were motivated to seek higher levels of education than just high school education ? Would'nt this help achieve greater economic and social equality for minorities. There are obviously two sides to the coin in this issue but as much as many may want the undocumented to leave, they simply won't leave, the reality is they are here to stay.
Finally according to the 2005 Economic Report of the President - on average, immigration has little effect on native wages. Generally, estimates suggest that a 10 percent increase in the share of foreign-born workers reduces native wages by less than one percent.
This is a very difficult and complex issue on which to draw accurate and undisputed conclusions on.
b, thanks for sharing this article. Indeed the impact will always be debatable as this fox news report indicates.
There will always be conflicting information for instance as the 2005 Economic Report of the President states that on average, immigration has little effect on native wages. Generally, estimates suggest that a 10 percent increase in the share of foreign-born
workers reduces native wages by less than one percent.
Going by the NYT article and the related study. Wouldn't it better for minorities if they sought higher education levels beyond a high school education ? Wouldn't this give them more economic and social equality ? There are two sides to the coin in this issue, it just depends how one takes a look at it, but one thing is almost a given, the 11 million undocumented immigrants won't be going away any time soon if ever.
Illegal immigrants, this is absolutely pathetic, people who have no reguard for the laws, playing on our sympathy, and taking advantage of our kindness.
I was leaning towards some kind of break for them, BUT now, after seeing them demanding rights and behaving like ungratefull, arogant, fools. My feelings have changed totaly, towards illegal immigrants.