Close to 99% of immigration violations are prosecuted under the INA’s unlawful presence law.

Technically, only crossing the border without authorization or entering a legal port of entry fraudulently would be considered a crime.

But since an estimated 40% of unauthorized immigrants entered legally and merely overstayed their visa (or changed jobs, lost their job but stayed in the country on their original visa, etc.) , it is not correct to state that unauthorized immigrants are criminals.

So the reason why people see that point of view as racist is that it gets tangled up with the anti-immigrant rhetoric that IS racist, and those who are not outwardly racist do nothing about supressing those who are. In short, they end up looking like two peas in a pod.

And on your point about racial profiling, asking everybody who gets pulled over opens the immigration question up to two problems: first, it’s Constitutionally a question of federal, not local jurisdiction. Secondly, the motives for pulling someone over can be banal.

There is no guarantee in the law that Arizona cops would not turn a blind eye to the white people with a busted tail light while halting any brown skinned people he sees, including citizens.

The United States already has an embarassing habit of deporting US citizens. Are you so sure that Arizona’s cops are going to abide by the law?

Are you aware of how many child abuses cases are committed by police? There are an unbelievable amount of such cases. Don’t tell me the cops can be trusted not to be racists too…we have the Constitution to protect us for a reason.

BTW, it is now being reported by the local news that police officers from Bell went to residents homes with absentee ballots and told them to sign these ballots that were already filled out/telling them how to vote – so, next time people want to pick a fight about the incident that FOX is showing about the black panthers, they need to be reminded that police officers went to residents homes in California.

The fact is that many neo-Nazis simply carry conservative rhetoric to logical conclusions. In a way, many of them are far more honest than conservatives.

By the way, just for you Curtis, I actually went on the website of the National Council For La Raza and found this gem: http://www.nclr.org/index.php/....._programs/

Obviously this is far more research than you have ever done on the subject. Looks like your racist post just took one under the stack, and is headed for the bottom of the sea.

Applying Occam’s razor, I think most likely thing is that the guy was a simple racist who found the only large political group that wasn’t hostile to his views.

If one buys the theory that the Tea Party is a populist affair (which I do not, given it was spawned by Fox News and is the political equivalent of Lady Gaga), then it is natural to expect a come one, come all attitude.

So, the racists came.

And the Tea Party, being generally disjointed but sharing a common dislike for Obama with the racists, got swept up and carried away and it is was no longer convenient to police the ranks when obstructionism was in full swing and the political process was being angrily sabotaged by the unthinking right wing mob.

As a leftist I cannot quite see the point of exposing my camp to discredit by posing as a right wing extremist at a Tea Party gathering. After all there is far too much low hanging fruit there that is easy to exploit without so much as lifting a finger off the keyboard.

Who needs subterfuge to discredit Sarah Palin, for crying out loud? She does a fine job of it by herself.

All a body nees to do is stand and gape.

It’s obvious that A3P -does- need to maintain their active racism because that IS their agenda. They need to intertwine themselves with the TP so as to gather those who are easily swayed, to reach a larger group, & to appear less radical.

quote:
“The average Tea Partier may not be interested in joining a hate group, but hate groups have not been shy about their interest in the average Tea Partier.”

This is an extremely important point. The recruitment of the individual is effective when it’s subtle and unobtrusive. I have been saying this for quite some time: the A3P is the real danger; a crafty & significant foe.
One of THE MOST foolish things I have read was the branding of Republicans as racists.
I am NOT a Republican, however such a large group cannot be basically composed of racists as the exclusivity of that statement is in itself a prejudicial expression.
What’s more it marginalizes those who may have conservative leanings but have a commitment to treating people as individuals. It serves to divide and is a device of the agent provocateur.
I implore those who do not seek divisiveness to examine their priorities.
If a bowling league in Victor, Idaho was all white would that make them racists? Or does the fact that they are from Idaho bring to mind the Aryan Nations so powerfully that everything else is set to the background?
I say that because I have recently read several comments about Arizona & some people who believe that since there exists racist elements within that state, that it bespeaks racism within it’s ranks as a standard.
People had said that about the South (Alabama……) And we know that to be a gross generalization. If one were going to define a group by the level of racist elements within it’s ranks then CALIFORNIA most be the HOME of racists as more racist groups exist there than most any other state in the Union! {See Hate-Map}
My point is this: ANY group can contain some rotten apples. The larger the group, the more likely it contains some unsavory folks.
What’s more the exploitation of those groups by radical elements is a common occurrence. To brand everyone who happens to be a Republican or everyone who happens to agree with certain conservative agenda as a racist weakens the struggle for justice. In fact it weakens it to such a degree that such an individual who sports that agenda appears as an agent provocateur.
To that end it marginalized those who may have NO racist leanings and create a defensiveness that need not exist.

Those who falsely accuse an innocent person of rape are rapists themselves as they weaken the very fabric of justice & compassion for those so victimized.
—— Janet Washington

As for the “infiltrator”; there was no evidence that the one in the Youtube video was a leftist in disguise. He certainly talks like a racialist. If the Tea Partiers want to claim that these people are leftists in disguise, they need to present evidence of this.

An infiltrator from the _left_, though? Certainly not. I don’t think Stormfront, A3P, or COfCC members consider themselves “left-wing” or “left-leaning” in any sense of the term.

The tea parties happened because of President Obama being black, not Democratic. Remember, there were no tea parties—although, there were similar extremists—when Clinton was president.

Those anti-government extremists, while also racist, were more set against Democrats as a whole rather than a specific group of them. The tea parties are the ones that make the racial/national distinction; it’s not liberals in general that they hate like it is with mainstream conservatives, it’s non-white liberals. It’s been proven, not only by intrepid reporters, but even by those tea-hadists themselves.