Tancredo-Barletta ‘08

Read this excellent statement that Mayor Lou Barletta of Hazleton, Pennsylvania posted at the city website explaining his proposed ordinance (it has since been enacted) on illegal aliens. The ordinance, as he unabashedly puts it, is “intended to make Hazleton one of the most difficult places in the U.S. for illegal immigrants…. this ordinance seeks to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into Hazleton. They are not welcome here!” What a man! No apologizing. No shilly shallying. No whining about the poor powerless needy people of the world and about how we have no right to our own country and our own communities. No. What comes first is our right and responsibility to put our house in order, just as other countries should put their houses in order.

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Brian writes:

I read your post about Barletta’s statement about his illegal immigrant policies with enthusiasm. However, what triggered me to reply is a statement he made in his letter. Whenever I read or hear certain immigration restrictionists’ thoughts on these matters, I find a significant trend that tends to crop up.

Barletta made a major mistake. Is it a lack of belief in the specificity of the American nation, or his community and state? Like saying “I’m not racist, but … “, which attempts to deflect from criticisms after stating politically incorrect ideas, it instead shows a lack of confidence in one’s ideas. This is what he said in his open letter:

“This ordinance does not roll back the welcome mat to those who are legally in the United States. This country was built on the backs of legal immigrants. My own great grandparents came to this country seeking a better life. Rather, this ordinance seeks to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into Hazleton. They are not welcome here!”

The unfortunate thing is that Tancredo believes the same thing. At least, this is the rhetorical style he was using when I listened to an interview with him on WNYC.

I don’t think I need to qualify my statement that unchecked immigration is bad with stating that my grandparents came here, as immigrants, and prospered. Out-of-control immigration is wrong, plain and simple. And immigration that destroys our national, historic character is also wrong.

It’s this lack of real belief in the worth of what we are defending that is bothering me. Whether or not my grandparents came to this country doesn’t matter to me in context of what is happening now. Immigration is out of control. America is “not supposed to” have its own particularity, its own cultural goals. And we’re stuck in the middle of this debate where our lives and our nation hang on the balance, based on what the official ideologues of the federal government think how this nation should look like in the next 30 years. The thing is, I don’t think any of that needs qualification.

LA replies:

I agree that Barletta’s statement was not perfect. But even when he did make those obligatory sounds (“this is not racist,” “my great grandparents came here as immigrants”), he made them so briefly, and returned so quickly to his hard-line theme, that for me it did not spoil the effect of the whole. In fact, by the very dispatch with which he handled those comments, he showed that he did not take them very seriously.

It is the opposite of what you get with President Bush, when he makes some pro forma statement about border security, then immediately returns to his true passion, the Hispanicization of America. With Barletta, his true passion is the removal of illegal aliens from his city and his country, while his remark about not being “racist” was the pro forma CYA pronouncement he felt he had to make in his position as a public official.

Also, given how tough the whole statement was,—I’ve never heard a public official speak so ruthlessly about illegals—if he had made no placating sounds at all, the statement might have seemed over the top.

So, having said all that, I’m going to change my opening remark. Looking at the situation as a whole, and considering the constraints on Barletta in his position, I think his statement was perfect. How often can we say that about anything done in public life?

Paul Nachman writes:

I just read Mayor Barletta’s open letter online. Barletta for President!

However, one criticism: Legal immigration is essentially out of control, too; it causes most the bad things illegal immigration does (aside from the flagrant law-breaking of the latter); and it forms the “seedbed” for Illegal immigration.

In short, the larger problem is mass immigration, in general. Here are a list of its impacts, distilled from ten years of observations before I escaped southern California:

1. The flood of immigrants drives wages and living conditions in our central cities toward those of the Third World.

2. The influx imposes both sprawl and gridlock on our metropolitan areas.

3. Immigrant families needing services overwhelm our schools, taxpayer-funded healthcare facilities, and other public agencies.

4. Those requiring services don’t assimilate and, instead, expect to be served in their native languages.

5. American civic culture frays as each ethnic group establishes its own grievance lobby and pushes for preferences.

6. Illegal aliens bring us fearsome diseases such as tuberculosis (new, drug-resistant strains) and Chagas.

7. Shortages of water and other resources loom, especially in immigration-blitzed California.

LA:

Agreed with your analysis of the problems of legal immigration. But Barletta, speaking in his capacity as the mayor of a city of about 80,000 people, cannot do anything about federal immigration laws. He can do something about illegal aliens in his town.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 18, 2006 04:46 PM | Send