Chertoff Has No Room To Talk About Trash on Border

Many comments coming out of the Department of Homeland Security seem like nonsense these days. Oppenheimer is right, the presidential administration is making a concerted effort to bash no only immigrants but Latinos- whether they are citizens, legal residents, or undocumented.

There is a lot of symbolism in Chertoff's comment that undocumented immigrants are "degrading" the landscape on the border. The word degrading is very powerful... Chertoff's advisors know full well what his wording means for the public image of Latinos. -- think degrading, not just environment but the U.S., American culture, American lives.

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Chertoff border-fence statement is nonsense
Posted on Sun, Oct. 07, 2007
BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com

HERMOSILLO, Mexico -- The people in this northern Mexico city are still shaking their heads in disbelief at Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's assertion that undocumented immigrants are ''degrading'' the environment on the U.S. border.

Look who's talking, they say.

In an interview with The Associated Press last week in which he defended construction of a 670-mile-long fence along the 2,000 mile border, Chertoff claimed that the fence will actually be better for the environment.

''Illegal immigrants really degrade the environment. I've seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifacts in pristine areas,'' Chertoff said. ``And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment.''

Is he serious? I asked myself when I first read this statement, as I was about to come to Mexico. Does the secretary of homeland security really believe that the human waste and discarded bottles left behind by undocumented immigrants crossing the desert is such a major environmental threat?

...My opinion: Chertoff's remarks are the latest Bush administration capitulation to the anti-Hispanic immigrant hype that is sweeping U.S. cable television networks and radio talk shows.

The level of on-air insanity -- and its growing acceptance by U.S. government officials and most Republican presidential candidates -- is becoming dangerous.

For the record, I'm not for unregulated immigration, nor do I think we should condone littering along the border.

But the growing cable television and radio talk show hysteria claming undocumented workers are security threats (despite the fact that not one single of the 9/11 terrorists entered the United States through the Mexican border) or environmental threats (despite the fact that those of us who live legally in America are by most standards the biggest polluters on earth) is ridiculous.

The Bush administration should be ashamed of joining the chorus of fear-mongers...


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