The Times Community papers ran an article today on the illegals/day laborers. It begins with this bit about Jerry Kilgore:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore continued to criticize the Town of Herndon last week for creating an organized gathering spot for its growing number of Hispanic day laborers. But both his opponents, Democrat Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine and Independent state Sen. Russ Potts, accused him of being opportunistic.
But a few paragraphs later, the article makes a seamless transition into some Kilgore quotes...
?It?s not too much to ask a person to obey our laws before they ask for our assistance,? he said.Kilgore has consistently pushed to deny state and local services to illegal aliens.
Whoa! When did day laborers become illegal immigrants? Not all day laborers are illegals. But by insinuating that day laborers are lawbreakers, whether or not they are, different images are conjured.
What are we going to do? Point to a parking lot of Mexicans and instantaneously deport them? Let's keep the two issues seperate.
1. Illegal Immigration. This is a federal issue and state candidates have no business promising deportations. The feds should be taking care of this, and not passing the buck down to the states. Jerry Kilgore has no business talking about illegal immigrants.
2. Day Laborers. This is a local issue, which involves localities deciding whether to bring order to the day-laborer job process. This is not the same as illegal immigration--these are law-abiding citizens who need a place to meet with employers.
Now, with that out of the way.
What is Jerry Kilgore doing beating illegal immigration as if they were the day laborers themselves? Jerry and his media adviser, Scott Howell, knows that everyone, like me, dislikes lawbreaking. By implying that day laborers are illegals, our innate xenophobia is triggered. Inflaming nativist passions for an issue completely unrelated is rather low.
Reminiscent, if you ask me, of the Simpsons episode where Mayor Quimby blames high taxes on illegal immigration, leading to a nativist frenzy to deport Apu.
Are we going to let Kilgore get away with this? I think not. Like Tim Kaine said--this kind of hysterical rhetoric is slimy.