California Activists Fight over Census of Illegal Immigrants
(Contributed by Col. Mike Walker, USMC, retired )
All,
I have long been an ardent supporter of undocumented immigrant rights to the chagrin of many of my friends.
My "problem" is that they all are people to me therefore deserving of the full measure of human consideration and respect. Bashing these people is deeply troubling.
It is simply a matter of right and wrong.
However, the schism amongst the undocumented immigrant activists here in California is equally troubling.
The issue is about counting undocumented immigrants in California during the upcoming 2010 census, primarily in order to get more seats in the United States House of Representatives.
One side is arguing to make every effort to count undocumented immigrants in the 2010 census of U.S. citizens. This is destructive to our democratic republic.
It is simply a matter of right or wrong.
Politically, it is insidiously neutral. It favors all California political parties equally, only non-California U.S. citizens are hurt.
Undocumented immigrants do not get to vote but counting them inflates the numbers making the rest of us Californians sort of "super voters" i.e we get more congressional representation than the actual number of citizens.
Is is tragically like the slavery days when white southern males were able to count slaves to get an unfair and divisively larger number of seats in the House.
As the LA Times reporter Teresa Watanabe pointed out in the recent Sunday edition, as a result of the 2000 census, the undocumented immigrant count garnered California three House seats that also caused the loss of one seat each in Indiana, Michigan, and Mississippi.
The added undocumented immigrant count also ensured that all three went to California, narrowly beating out the citizens of Montana. Nice try and better luck next time Big Sky.
Or maybe not if some California undocumented immigrant activists have their way.
And there is a price to be paid by the citizens in the other 49 states. It comes in the form of federal aid that is calculated by a population statistic. More in any category means more federal dollars flowing into California. Neat, if you are a Californian, documented AND not.
This is not my first dilemma with undocumented immigrants. I have long found it unconscionable to charge an Afro-American citizen from Ohio a higher "out-of-state" tuition rate at, say, UC Berkeley while giving an undocumented immigrant from Michoacan Mexico a very reduced "in-state" tuition rate. Michoacan = California. I think not.
It is simply a matter of right and wrong.
But hey, when push comes to shove, what do you care? Really?
Surfs up, dude!
Mike
