http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-oreilly-jose-antonio-vargas-immigration-entitlement
I would bet my dog that Bill O'Reilly's ancestors were undocumented, too.
Because we didn't start documenting immigrants until the 1920s, and we did that out of naked, avowed racism.
Most citizen's ancestors came here under an immigration system that did not put any restrictions on them coming here. America did not start keeping out ANY immigrants until the 1880s, when they excluded Chinese on racial grounds. And then they started putting quotas on Eastern Europeans, because Slavs and Jews were considered a degradation of America's "Nordic" blood stock.
In the 1960s, they greatly relaxed those quotas, but they also moved to a system that documented and restricted immigration from the Western hemisphere for the first time.
And Bill? They really hated the Irish back in the 19th century. Maybe as much as people hate on Hispanics now.
Meanwhile, in other news involving Mexicans...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/protest-march-mexican-students-violence
Since institutionalizing true democracy about 14 years ago, Mexico has suffered from poor voter turnout, anemic civil society and a lack of trust in government. (I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that Mexico uses the same, FUBAR Madisonian system of government that we do.)
But there is perhaps some hope that Mexicans are fed up with poor governance and rampant corruption and are ready to take control of their country.
This could be a very hopeful moment for Mexico in the long run, even if it seems scary right now.
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