The Black Republican

ABC News: GOP Candidate's Call for Labor Camp Rebuked

Of course that headline could have been written without the word "camp", but ABC knows how to fuel a controversy, even if it requires the use of less than completely accurate imagery.

Sen, McCain, and Rep. Kolbe, both proponents of rewarding the foreign invaders with amnesty and a path toward citizenship, object to a Republican candidate's (Don Goldwater) suggestion that those who are caught here illegally repay this country for their offense by serving time as laborers constructing an obstacle to prevent further incursion, and to clean up the litter the invaders are leaving behind as they sneak in.

"a Mexican news service, quoted him as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting."

A service Goldwater equates with the current use at local and state levels of using prisoners to clean highway medians of the litter we Americans create on the roadways.

Now, I have seen such labor performed, and never has it caused me to compare the practice, as Sen. McCain alludes, to:

...loaded symbolism, injustice and un-Americanism...and a stunning lack of respect for the basic values of a generous and decent society

It has always seemed, to me, to be a way to retrieve from the criminals some of the time and expense they have caused us with their crimes. If we have them, whom we have payed to convict and now pay to house, do this work we won't have to pay someone else to get it done.

So, I have to wonder why, other than his pronounced intent to let the invading scofflaws off scot free, why would the Senator choose to characterize Mr. Goldwater's suggestion in this way? And, I wonder, what does "loaded symbolism" mean? To what does the Senator, who also served in Vietnam, allude? I refuse to guess, and will not let my imagination be co-opted to invent an explanation which will fit McCain's vaguery. And, unless he wants to make a direct comparison which actually fits the situation, I discount his entire characterization.

With regard to Mr. Goldwater's suggestion. He was not the first to propose the idea, I heard it elsewhere first. And, though I do see the justice in causing the invaders to help us secure the borders they violated in coming here, I have to wonder about the quality of the product they would leave behind. Not to demean their abilities to create a quality product, but I am skeptical because they would have only a limited interest in creating a wall that would withstand their future attempts to invade. I certainly would feel uncomfortable with the notion that the invaders would have such familiarity with the weak points in the wall that will surely occur, every system has its specific points of vulnerablility, why create experts who could later lead other invaders to the vulnerable spots. I wouldn't, knowingly, hire a burglar to install my home security system either.

But, forcing the caught invaders to clean up the litter left by them and their ilk, no problem with that idea. If they are trashing the frontier to the extent that has been reported, they should clean it up. We don't need Al Gore or Robert Kennedy Jr. to know that litter is bad, we had all those sixties ads and a crying indian to teach us that lesson long ago.

Generally though, I have held the concept of invader labor within a joke I received in an e-mail. The idea there was, paraphrasing, we could solve several problems at once by digging a ditch the length of our southern border, then use the excavated material to construct better levees in Louisianna, next we pump the water out of New Orleans to fill the ditch thus creating a moat, and finally we ship all of the Florida alligators to the border and resettle them in the moat. And, voila, three problems solved. In my mind the labor to dig the ditch would come from the captured invaders, the e-mail must have arrived about the same time as I first heard someone propose invader labor in constructing a wall, and the two concepts have melded as one.

To the best of my knowledge Mr. Goldwater did not write that joke. And Sen. McCain could not have written it, he has no sense of humor now that his every move is outcome (at the polls) based. His objections are not well thought out, his allusions are not worthy of our time to decipher, and his ideas are based on his future, not ours. Wouldn't it be beautifically ironic if it turns out the the voters of Arizona actually embrace Mr. Goldwater for, if not this proposal, his earnest attempts to help America first. Goldwater's purpose seems to be the support of the best interests of the American people, a claim we can not make for the invaders,or the invader's support system. We have seen the voters of San Diego reject one candidate who promised to serve as a member of the invader's support system, in favor of one who wants to protect our borders; will the voters of Arizona show similar resolve?

If it ever happens that the captured invaders are put to work, they will have to be housed within a controlled setting during non-working hours, a prison, or jail, is what we generally call such a facility. But we can expect ABC, the Mexican government, and the rest of the invader's support system to use other words to identify the facility. But then, their attitude will be understandable, they are not working in our best interests.