Inbox

[October 1st, 2008]

Anti-immigration OR White supremacy?
In response to the Señor Senator pieces [“Señor Smith,” “Señor Smith, Part Dos,” “Tres Strikes,”WW, Sept. 10, 17 and 24, 2008] and the issue of immigration, let’s be realistic. The U.S. as a nation has benefited twofold. First, the free trade agreements enacted by the government provide multi-national corporations with land, factories, and carte blanche. Secondly, when all the locals who find themselves without land or work due to corporate interference head north to look for a source of livelihood the U.S. gains a veritable army of labor. This [raises] the question why would the U.S. government ever attempt to do anything about the issue of “illegal immigration” besides maintain the status quo?

This fact illustrates that people like Tom Wenning and organizations like OFIR (Oregonians For Immigration Reform) are a joke. They lack even a semblance of serious analysis regarding the situation, and are completely reactionary. They are spinning their wheels trying to get the government to change something that it benefits from. Unless they are riding this issue to further a more frightening nationalistic agenda. We should see these anti-immigrant people for what they actually are, which is the contemporary expression of white supremacy. They struggle not against immigration policy, but against the makeup of the country. If the borders were airtight tomorrow they would still be in operation. Let us not become distracted by the slew of red herrings in their rhetoric about American jobs and the abiding by the law. Their actual goal is keeping the “Legal America” White.
Beriah
Northwest 19th Avenue

CORRECTION: In WW’s March 12, 2008, Rogue of the Week about Palazzo Custom Homes, LLC’s and Randy Palazzo’s homebuilding in Portland’s Concordia neighborhood, WW reported that a neighbor complained Palazzo employees had trespassed on his property. Palazzo denies the allegation, and neither Palazzo Custom Homes, LLC nor its employees have been charged with or sued for trespass in connection with the project. WW also reported that Palazzo employees had left sidewalks covered with building debris and that Palazzo’s workers complained to police about a neighbor, resulting in the neighbor’s arrest. Palazzo had closed the sidewalks with permission from the City of Portland, and the person making a police report was an employee of a subcontractor, not an employee of Palazzo. WW regrets the errors.