Dec. 30, 2005 - 17:37 MST

MEANS LITTLE

Much of whatI wrote about last night has been demonstrated to have happened in our past. An article in this morning's Rocky Mountain News by Peter Hecht of the Sacramento Bee brings it to light. Quoted in full:

CALIFORNIA SAYS IT'S SORRY FOR 1931 EXILE

400,000 Hispanics were sent to Mexico during Depression

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- "Carlos Guerra was only 3 years old when Los Angeles Country authorities came to his family's house in Azusa and ordered his mother, a legal U.S. resident, and her six U.S.-born children to leave the country."

"It was 1931. The administration of President Herbert Hoover backed a policy that would repatriate hundreds of thousands of Mexican-Americans, more than half of them United States citizens.

Amid the economic desperation of the Depression, Hispanic families were viewed as taking jobs and government benefits from "real Americans."

"In Los Angeles County, the Citizens committee for Coordination for Unemployment Relief warned of 400,00 "deportable aliens," declaring : "We need their jobs for needy citizens."

As many as 2 million people of Mexican ancestry were relocated to Mexico during the 1930s, even though about 1.2 million were born in the United States."

"In California, some 400,000 Hispanic U.S. citizens or legal residents were forced to leave."

"Now California, for its part, wants to say it is sorry.

"On Sunday, Senate Bill 670 -- the so-called "Apology Act for the 1930s Mexican Repatriation Program" -- becomes official. It acknowledges the suffering of tens of thousands of Hispanic families unjustly forced out of the Golden State that was their home."

"The state of California apologizes . . . . for the fundamental violations of their basic civil liberties and constitutional rights during the period of illegal deportation and coerced emigration," the act reads."

"The words fail Guerra. He is 77 years old now. He is a veteran who served in the U.S. Army in postwar Korea and France. But he can't forgive, forget, or accept the apology."

"He can't excuse the forced train ride that delivered his family to Guanajato, Mexico."

"He can't excuse the decade-plus estrangement that denied him of a relationship with his father, who stayed behind because California needed orange pickers."

"And he can't excuse being spurned by not just one culture, but two."

"What is an apology ?" asks Guerra, an artisan who makes embroidered furnishings. I don't understand it at all."

"Forced from the United States, Guerra and his American-born siblings had to learn Spanish, adapt to a new culture and endure the poverty of the Mexican countryside for 13 years before his family legally returned to California."

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So, what Mr. Tancredo seems to be attempting is something that the state of California is now apologizing for, it appears.

Unless Mr. Peter Hecht has missed something along the way - - - - apparently the State of California is offering absolutely nothing except a very empty apology.

I agree that something must be done. But feel that something concrete must be done to force the businesses in the United States to pay the exact same wages they pay our citizens to the illegal aliens that, due to the efforts and lobbying of the biggies are here now, working for less than our citizens.

I think we all have to make up our minds to pay the piper up front what he deserves and quit trying for unfair bargains. Or are we going to MalWartifry our country ? ? ? ?

An empty apology MEANS LITTLE . . . . . . . . .

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