Oct 17

The border wall along the US Mexico border. America's shame and an insult to our neighbors to the south

The border wall along the US Mexico border. America's shame and an insult to our neighbors to the south

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, says a provision to build more fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border was cut out of a federal spending bill.

The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday the provision, which would have added 300 miles to current border fencing, is no longer part of a $42.8 billion spending bill for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Continue reading »

Jan 06

What a year 2007 was.

The war in Iraq continued and the casualty count is now well over three thousand and for what? To allow KBR civilian contractors and others to get rich scamming the government as those who were recently indicted in Afghanistan have shown us.

Blackwater security employees used Iraq as their personal killing fields, putting  themselves above the law, and now it appears, they will succeed.

And how about the new “training” facility being built in San Diego county just a few klicks north of Tecate Mexico? That ought to make the hard core anti immigration folks amongst us happy as hell! Wonder how long it will be until we hear of “accidental” killings in that part of the border.

And of course, February brought us notice of the intent of the FMCSA to COMPLY with OUR AGREEMENT made under the NAFTA accords. Imagine that! A President willing to do what was right. And oh, did it piss off a few people!

The Mexican Cross Border Program, Mexican Truck Pilot Program, Cross Border Demonstration Program, call it what you will!

Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters came out with that piece of gonzo journalism they paid Charles Bowden in 1999 to hack and tried to portray the Mexican trucking industry as a bunch of drunk, drug addled highway killers driving sub par junked out trucks.

That set in motion events that brought Mexico Trucker into the picture to combat and denounce these transparent lies and exaggerations with documented facts and photographic proof to the contrary, with some success.

Joan Claybrook of Public Citizen, aligning herself with OOIDA and some self styled “public safety” organizations, denounced the program with outrageous claims of more than 10,000 “dangerous Mexican trucks and unqualifed drivers” preparing to invade the United States.

Todd Spencer of OOIDA, continues to this moment, to try to convince his membership that this is all about allowing the border shuttle fleet full access to the U.S., despite conclusive evidence to the contrary. But hey, it gained them an additional 3000 + members who bought their bullshit! Follow the money!

The debate over illegal immigration intensified. Curious that this happened at time when things were not going so well in Iraq. A comprehensive immigration reform bill was introduced in Congress that ultimately failed due to the anti hispanic/illegal/immigrant (label them what you will) forces objecting to any form of amnesty. We lost a good opportunity to do something about a bad situation, and failed! Likewise, the failure of the DREAM act which would have given options to children of illegals who were here through no fault of their own. Another failure to address the situation.

And at every roll of the dice, illegal became synonomous with Mexican, and the Hispanic community, both legal and illegal, felt the heat of the inherent racism that lays close to the surface of our society.

And the debate continued, focusing on the Hispanic population, while ignoring the more than 7,000,000 OTM (other than Mexicans) who entered the country legally and overstayed their visas, blending into American society. America, as a country, can’t racially profile nor single out individuals unless they or of Hispanic heritage!

And of course, how can we forget, the lawsuits filed to stop the Mexican trucks. OOIDA, the Teamsters, Public Citizen and The Sierra Club, all went into the 9th Circuit in San Francisco to try to stop the program, only to be denied injunctive relief. I think in 2008, we’ll see the suit thrown out for various and sundry reasons. At any rate, by the time it is heard and a decision rendered, the cross border program will be coming to an end.

Now, we’re entering into the first days of 2008, and it has been interesting here at Mexico Trucker. We’re on a new, more secure server, with 50 gigs of storage and 500 gigs of bandwidth per month. Ready to kick ass in the new year!

Sen. Byron “The Dork” Dorgan, as you know, introduced the amendment to the omnibus spending bill, that would supposedly stop the cross border program dead in it’s tracks. But apparently, the stupid son of a bitch, has a problem with words, and was not specific in the amendment. Now, he is crying, whining and threatening FMCSA with sanctions for ignoring the “spirit” of the law! Forget about the “word” of the law as it is written when it doesn’t accomplish your purpose. I imagine his “handlers” are furious at the money that went into his PAC to gain his cooperation was wasted.

Now, it’s back to work. Both on the road and on this site. We’re in the process of a new design. For a short while, you may experience errors in your browsing experiencem but those will be corrected.

And while that is happening, the cross border program will continue. Safely and with absolutely no threat to America’s safety, security or economy, despite what the opposition would have you believe with their fear mongering tactic.

Let’s all have a great 2008 and come to understand that there or much more serious problems confronting us than a few Mexican trucks, who, incidently, will continue to have authority to operate in the US, even if the program was canceled tomorrow

Apr 29

Whose land is this anyways?

By P.M. Corn General Comments Off

Mr. Kruschev, meet Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Simcox, meet Mr. Delgado.

OK, maybe the posturing that’s going on between the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps of Texas and the Brown Berets isn’t anywhere near the nuclear standoff between the U.S. president and Soviet premier, but it sure has people worked into a tizzy.

Chris Simcox organized the Minuteman Project to address the illegal immigration issue. He and a group of like-minded folks assembled along Arizona’s southern edge to do what they say the Border Patrol doesn’t do well enough — patrol our border.

Continue reading »

Apr 29

Rascist Myths

By P.M. Corn General Comments Off

So, just who are the “illegal” in California and elsewhere, and who has a greater right to live and work here? As he stated was his goal was on his inaugeration night, President James Polk stole California (and much more) from Mexico by violent force, just a few generations ago.
Now we pass laws making it illegal for most Mexicans to live and work here, and forcibly remove them when they cross the border “illegally” (having exhausted all legal means for entry).

Let’s examine and expose a few of the racist myths behind the outrage against “illegals” that’s all the rage in the United States!

Myth: Mexican “illegals” are “parasites” who want a free-ride from the U.S.

My experience has been the opposite. Everytime I walk in downtown area of any American city, I am constantly approached by the poor looking for a handout (“Spare change for a cup of coffee?” “Spare change for a bite to eat?” “Spare change for a beer?”).Everyday as I work throughout the United States, I am confronted each and every day by apparently healthy able-bodied young men wanting a handout.

In Mexican cities, there are more poor than in American cities. However, in Mexico, it is rare to be asked for a handout! Don’t get me wrong, the Mexican poor are quite skilled at separating you from your spare change, but they do it by selling you things: jewelry, souvenirs, etc. Even the small children sell chicklets chewing gum in exchange for spare change. Others offer to shine your shoes or provide some other service. However, it is quite rare to be asked for a handout in Mexico. Moral of the story? It is a myth in America that Mexicans want a free ride. The Mexican poor, in stark contrast to the American poor, hold an unquestioned assumption that they have to earn their way, and nearly always offer something in exchange for what they need.

Myth: Mexican “illegals” pay no taxes, contribute nothing to our society or our economy, then rape our social services systems for free, unearned benefits.

The southwest and California were built in large part by undocumented Mexican immigrants. There was a time when Mexican migrant workers passed freely over the border each season to labor in the Southwest. In that time, Mexicans were an important and welcomed source of cheap labor. At the end of the season, the laborers would return to Mexico. The border was always open for their return, so they had no particular reason to remain in “Alte” California (“Upper” California, as the state was called before the U.S. stole it from Mexico).

Throughout the California Gold Rush, which commenced just months after the U.S. took over California from Mexico, Mexican mule trains were crucial in distributing supplies to mining camps and towns throughout California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. (Incidentally, although the U.S. gave $15 million to Mexico at the close of the Mexican war as a token for the takeover by the U.S. of California, New Mexico and other Mexican provinces, the California Gold Strike produced hundreds of millions of dollars for America, which was equal in value to billions of today’s dollars).

Today, Mexican workers pay sales taxes and work for substandard wages at the shittiest jobs in the state. Paying illegal workers below minimum wage is very common and results in higher profits for the illegal employer, and therefore higher taxes paid by the employer. End result: worker gets much lower pay (essentially payroll withholding) which results more taxes being paid into the U.S. and State treasuries (due to higher profits for the illegal employers). Many illegal employers know their Mexican laborers are illegal, but nonetheless withhold payroll taxes from their paychecks, and rather than pay those taxes to the government, simply pocket them. Quite often the employer will not realize that the Mexican is illegal, and so will go ahead and withhold payroll taxes and pay them to the government.

Since illegal Mexican workers live in fear of deportation, they rarely seek social services or file for income tax returns for fear of being discovered and deported (the only exceptions are emergency medical care and primary education, the two things too urgent to forgo. It’s no coincidence that California & Arizona recently passed a law requiring medical care providers and schools to deny services to illegal immigrants – those are the only two social services they use (in spite of the contributions they make to the economy), because those 2 are the only ones they’re willing to risk deportation to use. Justice prevailed – a federal court declared the law unconstitutional).

Myth: Illegal Mexican immigrants are criminals deserving severe punishment.

The typical illegal Mexican immigrant is an honest worker struggling for a better life for himself and his family, not a violent criminal.

In 1995, an article in the San Jose Mercury News reported that it is quite common for families to be divided by the border. For example, the father and one of the sons are legal residents, while the mother and another son are in Mexico and unable immigrate legally. The one father and son cannot afford to give up their jobs in California to return to Mexico, and the rest of the family is unsuccessful at immigrating legally, so the family must live apart.

The anti-immigrant folks never seem to give a second thought to rich U.S. farmers who knowingly employ undocumented workers at sub-standard wages (and in sub-standard conditions). Such employers are a major source of the draw of immigrants into California, but are rarely if ever portrayed as criminals who deserve to be “severely punished”. They are indeed breaking the law by employing undocumented workers, but this law is lightly enforced if at all whereas it is becoming quite fashionable for politicians in America to call for increasing efforts at enforcing laws against illegal border crossings (and for Usenet demagogues to scream for severe punishment of “illegals”).

In my career iwhich takes me throughout the United States and Canada, I have noticed that the janitors are almost universally Mexicans, and driving through the agricultural areas of California, the laborers breaking their backs in the fields (often covered with carcinogenic pesticides) are mostly Mexican. It seems to me that the Mexicans have really gotten the bottom of the barrel in our society.

So how is it that Mexican immigrants are responsible for all of our economic problems and other troubles, and why all the outrage? To me it bears a chilling resemblance to the way Hitler was able to dupe all of Germany into believing that all their problems were caused by the Jews.

We need to stop being spoonfed our issues by politicians, and stop letting the demagogues push our emotional buttons, and look at the real source of our problems, such as the fact that 50% of what the government collects from us in corporate and individual income taxes is spent on destruction (the military), rather than on building a peacetime social and industrial infrastructure, and a very significant sector of our economy is the “defense” (war) industry, which, unlike peacetime industries, drags down rather than fuels the economy. Why is there no outrage over the fact that the Trident IV first-strike nuclear weapon is still being funded at $300 million a year, when the cold war is long over? Why is there no outrage over the fact that 75% of all international weapons sales are made by the U.S., and 90% of our customers are non-democratic regimes? Why is it that the Mexican worker and welfare mothers are getting all the blame for this country’s problems?Huh

It never ceases to amaze and disgust me to see grown adults blaming Mexican schoolchildren and pregnant women for their economic woes, while monthly expenses for Bush’s War costing billions are not given a second thought..

Let’s wake up people and start thinking for yourself and quite accepting what is being spoon fed to you by the politicians seeking re-election, the rascist “Patriots” seeking an all white America and all others with a secret agenda!

preload preload preload