As an Aztlanista, I always wince when reconquistadores go over the top with illogical arguments justifying amnesty for illegals. I'll never forget when the usually genteel, always sharp Larry Mantle of Airtalk on KPCC-FM 89.3 once ripped into a Chicana activist because her response to some immigration matter was pablum about families. When Mantle pressed, the woman rambled even more.
But when I recently read that longtime O.C. yaktivist Nativo Lopez compared his latest cause to the actions of Gandhi, I laughed. Loud. Man, it's almost as bad as the time he held a dinner rally on the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The issue at hand is whether illegals should volunteer themselves to get counted in next year's census. Disregard the existential question at hand (how can you count something that's not supposed to be there in the first place?), and follow me: Larry and others argue the undocumented shouldn't bother with the census because the government doesn't bother with them–or, rather, bothers them too much with raids and the like.
“Refusing to cooperate with the U.S. census count is a political act of noncooperation and noncompliance in the best of Gandhian tradition conducted for the purpose of pressuring the political regime that pursues the persecution of immigrants on a daily basis at all nexus of social connection,” Lopez told a crowd during a recent lecture at Princeton University. “This action seeks to dissociate ourselves from this repugnant and immoral policy, which strikes at the heart of the immigrant family.”
Um, yeah.
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How funny that Nativo urges non-compliance with this part of American government but sure wants amnesty from the same “political regime”! That same evil Census actually helps the government better help illegals by allocating funds to serve the American population at large (that's why the pendejos at the SanTana City Council are already trying to team up with others to ensure the city's muchos mojados participate). If illegal immigrants actually follow Nativo's lead (but not like Nativo has been successful in anything longstanding since getting Loretta elected), then their invisibility mean Iowans get more funds, Latino-heavy congressional districts get shrunk or redistricted, and the immigrants would actually become a further burden on the government, further pissing people off.
Final point: Gandhian? Um, no. The actions of Gandhi and his followers were done to specifically cripple the British Raj and ensure Indian independence. Nativo's folly wouldn't hurt the United States at all except those persecuted communities he claims to love so much.
Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah: HAHAHAHAHA. Give up the grandiose comparisons, Nativo. Seriously.
