BlogMouth

We are all immigrants but it seems that newly arrived immigrants are not granted any rights. HR 4437, passed by the House of Representatives, has spurred great many protests throughout the country. From LA to NY and everywhere in between hundreds of thousands have marched against this proposed legislation and many more protests are planned in other cities throughout the weekend. On Friday hundreds of LA students walked out to protest HR 4437 and in Phoenix thousands marched up to office of Republican Sen. Jon Kyl. The people are marching against HR 4437 not just because it is anti-immigrant but simple because it is racist. HR 4437 is not patriotic nor will it beef up our national security since that is not its intent, its intent is to target the defenseless, for example by imposing a “5 percent surcharge on wire transfers from illegal immigrants.” Immigrants have always been targeted for abuse; this proposed legislation intends to institutionalize that abuse.

To those that defend legislation such as HR 4437 as patriotic I say to you that it is not patriotic to be racist. Some wrongly believe that this legislation will protect our nation from future terrorist attacks but the facts have proven that not one of the 911 hijackers crossed the US border with Mexico or wired money out of the US to help support their families.

As a concerned citizen I am just appalled at such mean spirited legislation. The simple truth is that we are all immigrants and immigrants have always been the source of our national identity.

[tags]HR 4437, immigration, legislation, walkout, protest[/tags]