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To: John Chen who wrote (133599)	10/25/2001 5:29:10 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

John, this sounds like a "shut the door quick, but right behind ME" argument. Why are "new immi" any worse than you, your father or grandfather? I am correct in assuming there wasn't a Chen on the Mayflower? Even so, they were "immin" (is that the plural of "immi"?) too. This country has been absorbing economic, political and religious refugees since before it was even a country. The result has been a dynamic, resilient, creative and, with a few notable exceptions, tolerant population that has built the strongest, most stable, richest nation the world has ever known. Immigration MADE this country. Yet, whenever the nation feels threatened, whether from physical threats or simply economic weakness, certain voices cry out and point fingers at those who aren't "like us" (as if we are some homogenous group with shared ethnicity, religion and political views). In the years leading up to and during WWI, Germans were so suspect, in the minds of others here (politicians, the press, individual citizens), that many changed their names. During WWII, we locked up all the Japanese among us, regardless of whether any evidence of "disloyalty" existed. They were suspect simply because they were of Japanese ancestry. As for whether "they" qualify their condemnation of terror, I submit that there are probably more qualified condemnations from people on the far right, self-annointed protectors of liberty, the anti-globalist hodgepodge of left and right, and from the far left than from any group of immigrants. They are using the fear of terrorism to push their own agenda of protectionism, racism, pacifism or religious (or other) intolerance, or simply in pursuit of power. Sure, we do need to enforce our immigration laws, but that does not mean we should shut the door. It doesn't even mean we should slow it down significantly, just that we should do a better job of knowing who is here, turning away people with unsavory backgrounds or who we have (valid) reason to suspect of criminal intent in coming, and kicking the ones we let in back out (or jailing them) if they don't abide by our laws. Bob