Upon which CNN locates the bottom of the barrel, claws through it, and wallows in the mud beneath.

[rocktivity]

23. Found this article at CNN

Last edited Sun Jul 6, 2014, 07:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Vargas starts out the video by describing himself as "the most privileged undocumented in America" because he works as the kind of journalist who can get published in the New York Times:

In outing myself, I risked everything and prepared myself for anything. What I was not prepared for, however, was silence, especially from politicians in Washington, where immigration has become the third rail of American politics, often framed in partisan, polarizing terms, mostly subjected to elections, and tied to the future of political parties.

Consider this state of affairs: Congressional leaders, particularly House Republicans, hesitate to pass substantive reform because they don't trust the Obama administration to enforce immigration laws. The Obama administration, meanwhile, has been busy enforcing the laws by deporting nearly 2 million immigrants in five years -- that's a record, and an unjustifiable part of President Barack Obama's legacy.

And in the backdrop of this finger-pointing, political standstill is an urgent moral crisis among millions of families in America. To us who are directly affected by the political standstill, immigration is urgent and personal... Immigration is about our families.

He certainly wasn't worried about being deported, or he wouldn't have done it -- at least, not without an American "sponor" in his back pocket. As for the political "silence" he speaks of, here's a newsflash (if you'll pardon the expression): the politicians are silent because they're perfectly happy with the status quo. With a vulnerable, expandable, powerless, practically penniless underground workforce, wages can only decrease and organized labor can only get weaker -- good news for the corporatists who finance the politicians. That's why Washington only makes enough noise about "reforming" immigration to get votes, then shuts up about it.

Meanwhile, how dare Obama utilize the illegal immigration laws that are already on the books! As I understand it, he's concentrating on deporting those who have criminal records, so it makes sense that he would do so "silently." And was Vargas happier when Bush II was looking the other way, or would he have preferred President Romney's "self-deportation" policy?

Talk about speaking with a forked tongue! And come to think of it, why would someone as educated and talented and "privileged" as Vargas have a problem a good-paying journalist job in his native Phillipines? Maybe he didn't take such a big gamble after all...


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