Current mood:

OMGWTF

American citizens deported, but that's okay, b/c they're 'criminals'
(The links here go to a Yahoo!News story and to the related "Buzz" page (whateverthehell that is), and I don't see a permalink to the latter, so let me know if they get broken.)

The AP reports that dozens--possibly hundreds--of US citizens have been caught up in the crackdowns on illegal immigration across the country. American citizens have been jailed and deported to their supposed "home" countries under suspicion of being illegals. The most vulnerable, of course, are those whose poverty, youth, mental illness, or difficulties with language mean they may not have the necessary documentation or clear understanding of what's going on. So they're deported. (The first case is of a mentally ill and illiterate man who was arrested on minor trespassing charges and deported to Tiajuana. It took his family 3 months to find him, while he slept on the streets.)

All of this is definitely fodder for unfunnybusiness. But in a fit of masochism, I decided to go and read the comments. I thought certainly that others would be outraged by this. Oh, naivete...

Not only are most of the comments deeply racist ("it's just 'Mexicans'") and blaming this problem on illegals ('if they didn't come here, we wouldn't be deporting our own citizens') or on the behavior of the deportees ('they're criminals and deserve to be deported'), but those (sane) comments that express justifiable outrage or point out the other commenters' racism are given poor ratings and thus 'hidden.' Apparently, Yahoo's "Buzz" section allows you to vote on the helpfulness/quality of a comment, and those with low ratings are then hidden and can only be made visible by clicking. All of the comments decrying this insanity are hidden, while those that say people who aren't out defending the border deserve to be deported are standing proudly out for us to see.

(Post a new comment)

	isaiddietpepsi 2009-04-12 11:51 pm UTC (link)
	Whaaaaat? Look, I'll admit that I have my issues with illegal immigration. But at this point I'm ashamed to say so because it seems like so many people use the phrase 'illegal immigration' as a cover for their being racist fuckwits. Because...yeah...everyone knows that ALL Mexicans are worthless and should be deported anyway! froths at the mouth (Reply to this)

sisterelwood
2009-04-12 11:51 pm UTC (link)

My God, the level of ignorance in the comments... People seem to forget that many of us came from families that were immigrants. I'm all for cracking down and enforcing the existing laws to keep illegals from coming into the country but when we're deporting our OWN citizens there is something SERIOUSLY wrong.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness- those rights don't belong to just SOME United States citizens, you inbred bastards. They belong to ALL United States citizens.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

chal
2009-04-13 12:26 am UTC (link)

But but but ... we were first! Back when it was hip and fashionable and all the cool kids were immigrating! Unless you're of Native American descent, in which case you were ... firster ... and dealing with boatloads of illegal immigrants of your own, back in the day, with much nastier intentions.

The hypocrisy ... it burns us!!!

Or maybe it's just that Americans who've been here a while know that side of the playbook a little too well.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	the__ivorytower 2009-04-13 12:45 am UTC (link)
	chuckles There are people who are way more 'Canadian' than I am, at least on my mother's side: she immigrated here with the rest of her family when she was four. My grandmother remembers it very well: she was sea sick the whole damn way. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	tachikoma01 2009-04-13 10:46 pm UTC (link)
	If one looks at the history of immigration, Americans have been doing the "We may be immigrants too, but we immigrated FIRST! Don't let those dirty others in!" dance... pretty much since more than one country has been sending immigrants here. Continues to hope people will defy history instead of repeating it, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. (Reply to this)(Parent)

spacelogic
2009-04-13 12:15 am UTC (link)

*wank on*

I'm from a region with a significant Mexican population including, yes, illegal immigrants -- I've known one for sure, more in all probability. And I've seen the migrants in the fields, working in an air that even feels poisonous to drive through for wages nobody with choice would seek, and I know a lot of those people aren't documented. I've also got a secondhand familiarity with the huge number of Chinese undocumented immigrants, who are rarely talked about but very present. And, frankly -- I don't think they're that dangerous. Definitely not enough of a threat to warrant shit like that. (Especially since deportation doesn't really work; the old pros'll just come back, as they've done before, because no matter how many times you dump 'em back in Mexico that's not going to create opportunities for them there.)

And there's also just -- the majority of people who really fuss about "illegals" are using it as code for "those scary brown people who speak foreign" as those charming commenters show. I speculate this is why outsourcing (of concern to me, as high-tech's my future livelihood) isn't such a big hot-button issue -- they're not being brown and foreign here so we don't have to, like, acknowledge their humanity in our daily lives.

*cleans up*

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	rosehiptea 2009-04-13 04:30 am UTC (link)
	This. I live in a suburb of Los Angeles and illegal immigrants aren't something that scares me, nor do I believe all the propaganda about how many services they supposedly use. Maybe we need a change in immigration policy, though I'll admit I don't have a clear picture of what could/should be done. But either way, the shit the OP is talking about has to stop. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ariadne484 2009-04-13 04:46 pm UTC (link)
	applauds you Here, have a warmed towel. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	altoidsaddict 2009-04-13 06:59 pm UTC (link)
	What, you doubt the intentions of the government? I'm sure they're rounding up and deporting just as many white people. That's why you see so many upper-middle-class frat guys in Tijuana - they're not partying, they just got caught up in the raids at A-State, yo. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	shark 2009-04-13 02:33 am UTC (link)
	I bet not one of these dipshits speak so much as a word of [insert north american aboriginal tongue here]. (Reply to this)

	sithwitch13 2009-04-13 03:27 am UTC (link)
	Fuck this shit with a motherfucking spiked whale cock, I thought the repatriation bullshit was supposed to have ended in the motherfucking 1930s. Fuck historical repetition, and fuck ignorant-assed comments. (Reply to this)

	brennalarose 2009-04-13 03:27 am UTC (link)
	This is the stuff that Cheech sings about in "Born in East LA". Except it's real and, instead of funny, fucking deplorable. I don't agree with illegal immigration, but, god-damn it, this isn't helping. (Reply to this)

	queencallipygos 2009-04-13 05:55 am UTC (link)
	I stopped reading comments to news stories posted on Yahoo a LOOOOOOOOOONG time ago. Largely because I uniformly dismissed them as nuts. (Reply to this)

	nostariel 2009-04-13 10:27 pm UTC (link)
	Upvoted the few good comments and downvoted all the bad ones (on the front page, at least), but holy crap is that a lot of racism. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	ariadne484 2009-04-14 03:08 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you for wading through it to upvote the good comments. I took one look and realized my head would asplode if I tried. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	dejla 2009-04-14 05:36 pm UTC (link)
	Did the same thing myself. Might as well do a little something. God, those people make me ill. (Reply to this)(Parent)