- Lou Dobbs talks about our broken borders on his CNN program,
Moneyline. Fox News has Bill O'Reilly and his guest debating the issue.
Now, the new film Farmingville will bring the issue of illegal immigration
to even a wider audience.
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- The events depicted in Farmingville could happen these
days anywhere in the U. S. In this new movie directed by Catherine Tambini
and Carlos Sandoval, with Carlos Sandoval as screenwriter, we see the consequence
of uncontrolled, illegal immigration. The focus for this story is a hate
crime committed against two young Mexican day laborers by white youths.
As the filmmakers explore the story behind the violence, what we discover
is a story with implications for American society.
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- Farmingville is a small community located in the center
of Long Island, New York. In the 1990s, Farmingville's population jumped
with an influx of illegal Mexican workers. Situated in the middle of Long
Island, Farmingville attracts contractors who want a centralized work pool
from which to draw. As a result, street corners of Farmingville have become
de facto employment offices. Likewise, many of the neighborhood homes
are filled with 20 or more residents, most of them illegal immigrants.
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- The legal residents of Farmingville began to ask for
enforcement of local, state, and federal labor and immigration laws. Yet,
as Brad Slager writes in his review of the film, ''Tragically, the problems
the community had to deal with were the result of lack of enforcement of
immigration and labor laws, and by the time the ill effects were being
experienced, the time for action had already passed...when the problems
were detected there was little that could have been done.''
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- Eventually, the residents took to the streets in protest.
They confronted politicians, they hassled the contractors who came into
town looking for workers, and they formed activist groups to confront the
problem. Then, two illegal immigrant workers were brutally attacked by
two white young men, from the area. That's when the charges of racism began
to surface, and have not yet subsided.
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- Regardless of the pleas by the resident of Farmingville
for INS action, nothing was done. No one was interested in deporting those
violating our immigration laws. According to an MSNBC article on the events
at Farmingville by Sean Federico-O'Murchu MSNBC, ''...despite complaints
by some locals that many of the migrant workers are illegal aliens, the
Immigration and Naturalization Service says it won't approach a group of
people and ask for documentation without probable cause.''
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- The events at Farmingville mark a watershed in the problem
of illegal immigration in this country. Prior to the attacks at Farmingville,
an argument could be made that our need for low skilled and low paid workers
was the driving force behind illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.
S. There were jobs in the U. S. going without workers, so it made sense
to hire illegal Mexicans to do the work Americans did not want to do.
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- After the violence at Farmingville, it is obvious that
just the opposite has evolved. We have crossed a divide, now. Instead
of low paying jobs attracting illegal immigrants, the shear number of illegal
immigrants coming to the U. S. is encouraging the creation of more and
more low paying jobs. What began yesterday as a pull has now become, today,
a push.
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- Some business leaders now argue, that if there are thousands
willing to work for low pay, then why not hire them instead of higher paid
Americans? Add to this the exporting of American jobs to foreign countries
with cheep labor, and it is no wonder many Americans are both fearful for
their future and hostile towards immigrants.
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- Small proof that illegal immigrants are ruining the standard
of living for many Americans is given by Margaret Bianculli-Dyber, a resident
of Farmingville and President of The Sachem Quality of Life Organization.
She says, ''My husband works for a large food-distribution warehouse-he's
a forklift operator. Traditionally, they make 20-something dollars an
hour. My husband makes $12 an hour.''
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- Margaret Bianculli-Dybe continues, ''Labor is so plentiful
for (the company), they say, 'I can just replace you and get El Salvadorans
for $6 or $7 an hour.' Because of a plentiful supply of cheap labor, my
husband's wages are held down, and I have to work. Now, because of all
the Mexicans, my property values have fallen $18,000 in four years. So,
I can't afford to sell my house for a profit and move away'' (Michael Kamber,
The Village Voice. August 8-14, 2001).
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- Increased deportation of illegal immigrants would solve
the problem people like Margaret Bianculli-Dybe face, yet increased deportation
is not happening. INS figures show that 76,861 people were deported from
October 2001 to April 2002. The figures for 2003 are not readily available.
However, if one makes a conservative estimate of 8 million illegal aliens
in this country, then, it will take about 105 years for the office of Homeland
Security to deport all the illegal aliens at a rate of about 76,000 a year.
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- Other data from the INS seems to show that deportation
of illegal immigrants is declining. According to Randall Parker at ParaPundit.com,
''while the latest INS figures show a 75% increase in the deportation of
Arabs and Muslims (FY 2002 compared to FY 2001), the same figures show
an OVERALL DECREASE of 16% in the total number of deportations.''
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- Furthermore, ''In FY 2002, 28,833 fewer deportations
took place than the preceding year; the biggest decline was among Mexicans,
the single largest national group, which saw a decline of 32,692 illegal
alien Mexicans.'' What is significant about these data is that the number
of illegal Mexicans coming into the U. S. is increasing even as the number
of deported Mexicans is decreasing.
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- Many political pundits argue that the 2004 Presidential
election will not be about the occupation of Iraq. Instead, the election
will be about the economy. The Democrats feel that President Bush is vulnerable
on this issue. If new jobs are not created and if interest rates rise along
with unemployment, plans for a Republican reelection victory will be in
trouble.
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- Sooner or later, some Republican strategists must see
that illegal immigration hurts the President's chances for reelection.
The illegal immigration issue is now forcing Americans out of work, contributing
to the job drain and creating larger and larger numbers of low paying jobs,
besides creating racial tension like the racial tension in Farmingville.
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- The elites in both political parties have been hiding
too long from the issue of illegal worker and the solution of deportation.
Some Republicans say that deportation is not a realistic option to solve
the problem of illegal immigration, while other Democrats don't even know
how to pronounce the word ''deportation'' in public.
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- The blindness of our leaders over the issue of illegal
immigration is unforgivable. Newsday.com for January 2, 2004, claims that,
''Farmingville unflinchingly portrays the worst of what can happen when
the so-called border wars spread to suburbia. It also demonstrates what
happens when politicians opt to run rather than lead. It should become
required viewing for every decision-maker and local official in the State
of New York.''
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- Unfortunately, the events at Farmingville have not sunk
yet into the awareness of political and organized labor elites. Instead
of trying to attract the Latino vote by short term promises, political
leaders should focus on the long term, negative consequence of illegal
immigration. These leaders should consider increased deportation as a
viable solution to the illegal immigration problem. Instead of organizing
illegal immigrants just to increase their membership rolls, labor union
leaders should be working for the deportation of illegal immigrants, and
then pressure for good paying jobs for American citizens.
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- Deportation is the solution to our immigration troubles
because it both deters future illegal immigration and it removes illegal
who should not be here in the first place. All the laws are in place right
now to solve the problem of illegal immigration. The laws just need to
be enforced. Deportation was the solution to problems of illegal immigration
in the past and is the perfectly legal solution to this problem, today.
If we do not make a massive effort at deportation, then there will be
many more Farmingvilles.
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- _____
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- Robert Klein Engler lives in Chicago and teaches at Roosevelt
University. His books are available from amazon.com. The film "Farmingville"
received the Special Jury Prize for documentaries at the recent Sundance
Film Festival.
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- http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=5766
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