Fair Si, Buchanan No
by DCDave

I received the following e-mail dated October 7, 1998, in response to my open letter to the chairmen of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and The American Cause (see Pat Buchanan, Where Are You?). In that letter I took the organizations to task for not making an issue over the impending expansion of the agricultural guestworker program. In his response, spokesman Jack Martin of FAIR takes issue with absolutely none of the points I have made about the huge illegal immigration dangers in the proposed program. I have examined the additions that FAIR has made to its web site, and all I can say about them is, "Now we're getting somewhere." Anyone concerned about illegal immigration to this country should definitely check out their new Bulletin Board item.

Sorry to be slow getting back to your info copy of a message to Buchanan and Tanton. We have reviewed our website material on agricultural workers and found that an issue brief we wrote months ago had not been posted to the website. That has been corrected, and we added a new Bulletin Board item that ties together our website information on the issue and outside sources of information.

We had hoped that the Administration would do more to oppose this legislation. We were encouraged to be on the same side as a number of professional organizations and the Administration in working against the "techno-bracero" bill, but have not found the same opportunity on the ag-worker bill. Nevertheless, we are strongly opposed to the legislation and have let Congress know that. We have also made our views known publicly.

As you should recognize, we are working on a dozen legislative fronts at the same time -- amnesty for Haitians -- repeal of the in-out records for aliens -- million-dollar visas -- rewarding illegal aliens, etc. Nevertheless, now that the "techno-bracero" effort has largely ended, we will be shifting effort to the "new-bracero" issue -- to the limited extent that any more can be done with the effort behind the scenes in the appropriations process.

Jack Martin - FAIR

Patrick Buchanan is another matter. Neither he nor anyone from his organization, The American Cause, has responded to me. This makes now two e-mails and one phone call on this issue to them that have gone unanswered. I did notice one follow-up posting from one av139@lafn.org on October 8, 1998, that is beginning to look very perceptive:

In a 1996 USA Today article Buchanan came out in favor of ag guestworker programs. I suspect that the only reason he came out against expansion of the H-1B is because this visa is aimed at occupations that normally vote Republican.

If you want real immigration reform, you are going to have to ditch the Republican party. They have sold out to cheap labor interests. The Reform party at the grass root level is dominated by immigration reformists.

A way to protest Republican immigration policy:

When you receive a letter soliciting for contributions, write a simple note, something like "IT'S IMMIGRATION STUPID" and send it to them in the enclosed envelope -- without money of course!

What conclusion can one come to from Buchanan's ignoring of this issue and from his continued failure to respond than that the above take on Buchanan, as painful as it might be to many people to admit, is correct? It would appear that in this instance he is putting his true-blue Republicanism over his true-blue Americanism.

In the meantime, I have discovered another organization, American Patrol, which also raises the alarm about the rising tide of immigration, but they, too, seem to have overlooked the huge new threat embodied in the proposed guestworker expansion. They have been notified of their oversight and they have responded with a statement of intentions to rectify the situation. Their site is also to be commended for its links to other groups interested in the immigration question.

David Martin
THE GREAT SPECKLED BIRD

p.s. Have you begun to notice that almost everyone with a keen interest in this immigration issue seems to have the last name of "Martin?" I can't say about the others, but, to the best of my knowledge, I bear no blood or in-law relationship to any of them.

p.p.s. At least now we have the influential FAIR completely on board to try to stop this new slave labor legislation, legislation which would be certain to bring with it a tidal wave of new illegal immigration as well. It is still not too late to stop it. You can click to the FAIR site as I recommended above, but, better yet, go directly to CRLAF (dead link) for instructions on what you might do here at the last minute to make a difference.

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