You and La Migra and Everyone We Know

David Weigel | February 5, 2007

Whenever immigration hawks get tired of backing Compean and Ramos, Eliza Strickland has their new cause celebre.

Jeremy Brickner [was] a bounty hunter who made his living pursuing illegal immigrants and delivering them to ICE for deportation. He was one of a select few hired by bond agencies to find aliens with final deportation orders, people released on "immigration bonds." According to Brickner's records, he delivered 112 aliens to la migra's doorstep in the last three years.
...
But according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, Brickner took too many liberties with the law. In December, the attorney's office charged him with two counts of impersonating a federal agent, alleging he represented himself as "Immigration" when he handcuffed Terets, and again when he picked up a man in San Jose. ICE may be grateful for the other 110 aliens he picked up for them, but now the agency appears to have turned, bringing the full fury of the federal government down on him.

Whole story up at the SF Weekly.

Comments

|2.5.07 @ 10:28AM|#

Last week they said you're not allowed to shoot unarmed immigrants while they run scared to death for their lives back toward Mexico. This week, can't even fake being an immigration cop to round 'em up and put 'em on the next boat to whatever hellhole they came from. Next week, hablaremos español!

Larry A|2.5.07 @ 11:35AM|#

Charles DeMore, ICE's special agent in charge of investigations in San Francisco, says that each time a bounty hunter cuts a few corners to get his man, it makes ICE's work that much harder. "It terrorizes the [immigrant] community. They're afraid to deal with anyone - they're fearful that if they're contacted by someone who represents themselves as a federal agent, that they may not be."

As opposed to being fearful that they're being contacted by someone who is a federal agent terrorizing the immigrant community.

tros|2.5.07 @ 11:54AM|#

I think the more publicity ICE gets, the more people are going to realize that the people running the government for the past 6 years are completely fucking IN-HUMAN. Seriously, who goes over the head of the DEA to pay someone to murder innocent people? Google "House of Death" if you hadn't heard already.

It's about time people started to realize that the hard drug epidemic has been pushed on us by our government from the beginning, and its about time that people started calling out the Criminals In Action in public.

|2.5.07 @ 12:15PM|#

I support the completed border fence because I can look northward and see Quebec. I don't want the problem that Canadians have.

Mexican activists have never stopped pining what was ceded to the USA in the treaty of Guadelupe-Hidalgo. That was the one that was signed after we conquered Mexico city. Remember that? Didn't think so. Mexicans want back what was "stolen". They call it "Aztlan". The method they're using for la reconquista is called demographic conquest.

(And now to head off the ubiquitous and retarded "You're stereotyping!" accusation.)

Do ALL Mexicans feel this way? Of course not. Not ALL Quebecois were members of the Front de libération du Québec.

Of course, perhaps 100% of the Mexican "undocumented workers" will assimiliate just as all other immigrants have done. (And yet we don't hear "Pressen sie das zwei fur Deutsch".) Hope is always a teriffic substitute for reason, particularly when libertarian dogma trumps the culture on which it depends.

|2.5.07 @ 12:42PM|#

Hope is always a teriffic substitute for reason,

I went to hope.com. It sucked. And popped up an ad.

...particularly when libertarian dogma trumps the culture on which it depends.

Rather we should destroy the culture in order to save it...?

tros|2.5.07 @ 1:15PM|#

Mexican activists have never stopped pining what was ceded to the USA in the treaty of Guadelupe-Hidalgo. That was the one that was signed after we conquered Mexico city. Remember that? Didn't think so. Mexicans want back what was "stolen". They call it "Aztlan". The method they're using for la reconquista is called demographic conquest.

You'd better believe it's their country you nazi slime. If we should deport anyone it should be your pasty face. Why don't we put them in charge of the feds instead of your genocidal, nuke-toting goon squad. Then we can institute "America: Love it or leave it" (TM) and see how your neanderthal pre-brain likes it.

|2.5.07 @ 1:26PM|#

tros-

Holy crap, I hope you're joking.


"You'd better believe it's their country you nazi slime
I think the Navajo might have something to say about that.

Rhywun|2.5.07 @ 2:14PM|#

Wow, this thread got x-treme real fast.

tros|2.5.07 @ 2:17PM|#

Nope, not joking. Land stolen in a bald-faced war of agression. Would you prefer that we forget that? This is a genocide that is still going on this very day. We call these people "hispanic" when we should call them "native american".

|2.5.07 @ 2:22PM|#

You'd better believe it's their country you nazi slime

Can we have a Godwin ruling on this? Thread over?

tros|2.5.07 @ 2:29PM|#

Oh shit I forgot about that rule!

Well, I guess we can declare the thread over as long as we can agree that that guy is the nazi. Evolutionary psychology has an irrational association with eugenics and nazism in academic circles because these academics are fascist personalities. The implications are that if they drank the koolaid, so to speak, they would need/want to purge all of the fascists in charge of the government.

Anyway, they are the ones building concentration camps. Do you think we can suspend Godwin's law if there are actually nazis in charge of the government?

|2.5.07 @ 2:30PM|#

tros,

Personally I'm not really concerned about land grabs of the distant past. Life goes on. Plus, weren't the spanish the ones who originally grabbed the southwest- I could be wrong here. Genocide? Wow.

Umm... no, native americans are not hispanic.

tros|2.5.07 @ 2:37PM|#

Mass murder of innocent people by CIA contracted paramilitaries = genocide, no? Why is that allowed in Nicaragua but not Estados Unidos?

|2.5.07 @ 2:37PM|#

Loundry,
You mean like we are always stating that Canada is going to be the 51st state? Remember 54º40' or Fight!? Didn't think so. That's where the US ceded the British the stretch of land from lower Alaska to Vancouver and over to the Quebec border. You bet your ass that all of those red-blooded Americans that have immigrated to Canada are looking to recapture it for the good ol' USA!

tros|2.5.07 @ 2:41PM|#

Umm... no, native americans are not hispanic.

This is true. I am telling you that many of the people you think of as "Hispanic" being smuggled over the border are actually Native American. Mostly. They are mestizos of the predominantly indigenous variety. Are those words fancy enough for you? All the Spanish blood is clotted up in Mexico City.

|2.5.07 @ 3:15PM|#

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mestizo

I actually have portuguese ancestry so I'm closer to that term than a Navajo would be.

"Mass murder of innocent people by CIA contracted paramilitaries = genocide"

Not unless the purpose in killing the people was to wipeout an ethnic of racial group.

tros|2.5.07 @ 3:20PM|#

Shall we say, attempted genocide, then? Since they were not completely successful? How am I supposed to prove their intent, one way or another? Does it make it any less heinous? This has been going on for 500 years. This is just the latest episode.

Stay tuned for more episodes of "Doomed to Repeat"

AFTER THIS COMMERCIAL BREAK

TLB|2.5.07 @ 3:28PM|#

Fun fact: according to a Zogby poll, 58% of Mexicans think the U.S. southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico. That doesn't mean they're all extremists, but that general sentiment could and probably will lead to something similar to Quebec. That's especially more likely considering that there are almost zero Mexican-American leaders who are not some variety of Aztlan extremist. In fact, I can only think of three leaders that support our laws.

But, Reason Magazine tells us we don't need to worry about any of that, so go back to reading Rand.

|2.5.07 @ 3:33PM|#

You'd better believe it's their country you nazi slime.

Indeed: people who wish to conquer the USA instead of emigrating here and assimilating into American culture tend to make my Hitlerhhoids flare up, big time.

If we should deport anyone it should be your pasty face.

You and what army?

Seriously.

You and what army?

That's what this subject is about: force. That's why the USA has the Southwest: force. That's how the Mexicans plan to take it back: force. (Specifically, demographic conquest.)

And once we're talking about conquest and "who owns what land", then it all comes down to force.

In any event, I'm happy to see you get so upset. May your anger give you a splitting headache that causes you to lose sleep. :)

|2.5.07 @ 3:46PM|#

You mean like we are always stating that Canada is going to be the 51st state?

We are? Always? News to me.

Remember 54º40' or Fight!? Didn't think so. That's where the US ceded the British the stretch of land from lower Alaska to Vancouver and over to the Quebec border.

You're comparing apples to oranges. In the Mexican American war, we invaded Mexico and kicked Mexican ass left and right. We conquered their capitol city. We lowered the Mexican flag in the Zocalo and raised the American flag. It was such a significant event in American history that we ended up taking half of Mexico in the process (which the Mexicans agreed to as part of getting their ass kicked). Most Americans are clueless about the Mexican grievance as they are about the fact that we invaded and defeated their country in war, and thus they are woefully unprepared to understand the basis of Mexico's present demographic invasion of the USA.

Your "54 40 or fight!" Polk slogan is little more than a historical footnote in comparison.

You bet your ass that all of those red-blooded Americans that have immigrated to Canada are looking to recapture it for the good ol' USA!

Are you arguing that since the USA is not presently demographically conquering another country that it can't be possible for another country to be presently do it to the USA? That's got to be the stupidest thing I've read in weeks.

|2.5.07 @ 4:13PM|#

That's got to be the stupidest thing I've read in weeks.

You clearly don't use Preview.

|2.5.07 @ 4:34PM|#

You clearly don't use Preview.

Actually, I do. I'm just careless sometimes. It happens when I'm in the middle of a Hitlerhhoid flare-up. I need some Preparation H (the H is for Hitler).

Aside from that, were you criticizing my typos, my reasoning, or my values? I was criticizing "Polk's" reasoning, which was, and still is, stupid.

|2.5.07 @ 4:47PM|#

Aside from that, were you criticizing my typos, my reasoning, or my values?

I am sure I would find cause to criticize your values, but I was criticizing your reasoning.

In order to accomplish "demographic conquest", the invading hordes would need to (a) become legal, (b) become residents, and (c) become citizens, all over a period of many years, all while maintaining their invading horde mentality and their original cultural and political sympathies.

That anyone seriously imagines anybody is going to accomplish anything this way is, to put it bluntly, ridiculous.

|2.5.07 @ 4:51PM|#

MikeP,

I think he is referring to a mass influx of illegals which wouldn't need to do a, b or c.

|2.5.07 @ 4:59PM|#

StupendousMan,

What, pray tell, would they do?

|2.5.07 @ 5:04PM|#

Uh, I assume just cross the border in large numbers, displacing current residents, ignore the laws and institue their own. Possibly write a declaration of independence from the old USA.

|2.5.07 @ 5:34PM|#

Okay. That's even more ridiculous than I thought.

|2.5.07 @ 5:41PM|#

I don't understand what you're talking about. Are you saying that the scenario is impossible or improbable?

|2.5.07 @ 5:58PM|#

Wildly improbable. The likelihood that something would happen that would make a difference to anybody is slight.

Note that I'm not talking about some professor of Latino Studies at Cal State Whatzit drafting a Declaration of Aztlan Independence as a cute exercise or even a serious discussion point -- something that will put certain people in the mother of all tizzies. I'm talking about "displacing current residents, ignore the laws and institue their own" to any degree that even prompts the need to summon the local police, much less treat it as an invasion threat.

tros|2.5.07 @ 6:50PM|#

Uh, I assume just cross the border in large numbers, displacing current residents, ignore the laws and institue their own. Possibly write a declaration of independence from the old USA.

You are a delusional idiot. The worst thing they are going to do is water your rich neighbor's lawn. Once we shut down the CIA-bankrolled cartel in Juarez you won't have to worry about Mexican junkies raping your daughter.

Yes, we are talking about force here. Demographic "conquest" is not force. There is plenty of space in the U S of A. They are not putting you out of your home. You are the one putting a gun in their face at the border of the country you continue to steal from them.

TLB|2.5.07 @ 7:25PM|#

It would be very difficult to explain nuclear fission to kindergarteners, and likewise it's a bit difficult to explain to idiots like MikeP why they're idiots.

Those who don't want to be like MikeP should spend some time in L.A.'s other areas, and extrapolate. And, do as much research as possible into this issue rather than relying on starry-eyed libertarians.

Mexico already has a great deal of politicalpower inside the U.S. Their citizens affect our elections. We're forced to take their citizens into account when taking political actions. There are several legislators who act more like MexicanPoliticians than Americans. There is no real push to assimilate from within or without.

Idiots like MikeP think the only form of an invasion is one under arms, or that has a common goal. That isn't necessary. With a large enough population base, some racialdemagogue could issue a racial appeal and gradually build power until they're able to achieve some form of autonomy. At that point in time, our laws mean nothing: it just comes down to force as someone else said above. If ten million Mexicans want to secede, what exactly could we do about it? Unless we wanted to go nuclear on our former state of California, our only choice would be to capitulate.

The bottom line is that none of the writers and many of the commentators here don't know what they're talking about and are unable to think things through.

Paul|2.5.07 @ 7:27PM|#

Brickner should have known. When you pair up with an unsavory group such as the feds, you're going to end up with a knife in your back. Sooner or later, it's curtains.

tros|2.5.07 @ 7:50PM|#

The bottom line is that none of the writers and many of the commentators here don't know what they're talking about and are unable to think things through.

I'm sure that's why they are paid to write the magazine.

I don't think if it would matter if we had a government run by Mexican knuckle-draggers as opposed to WASP knuckle-draggers. I'm just giving thanks and praise to God that the American people booted you warmongering pedophiles.

|2.5.07 @ 7:59PM|#

Lonewacko,

Do you really have so little faith in American values, culture, and people, much less the political system? If so, why do you think it's all worth saving?

|2.6.07 @ 11:33AM|#

tros,

Or should that be fucking twit. I was outlining what a demographic conquest might look like. Your reading comprehension leaves much to be desired.


MikeP,

Do you think that American values and culture are some eternal truths that will always exist?
I think what many people are concerned about is what effect mass immigration will have on our future. It's foolish to ignore possible downsides. Yes, believe it or not, it's possible that a huge influx of poor into the US
will create a large uneducated, unassimilated population. In fact go to any large city and you will see the seeds of this possible future already exist. Will it happen? I don't know but to advocate open borders without weighing effects is confusing to me. On this board it's all sunshine and puppydogs.

|2.6.07 @ 1:07PM|#

Do you think that American values and culture are some eternal truths that will always exist?

Actually, no, I don't think American values and culture are eternal truths that will always exist.

In fact, I think they are under great threat from protectionist and xenophobic forces right now.

|2.6.07 @ 2:16PM|#

Xenophobic...
When you use that term you're implying that concern/fear about the influence of foreigners is irrational. It may be in some cases, but examining the pros and cons of uncontrolled immigration is certainly not xenophobic. I'd say smugly throwing that term about without addressing any points brought up that might challenge your position is downright phronemophobic.

Ridiculous, xenophobic, delusional, etc. Those all offer nothing. If you've thought the issue through you should have considered some negatives and come up with reasons why they won't apply or are of very low probability.

|2.6.07 @ 2:58PM|#

Interestingly, I think that the notion that a mass of immigrants will form into a movement that will forcefully take over territory of the United States is an exceptional claim. I think the onus is on those making an exceptional claim to prove it.

Nonetheless, here are a number of tendencies that would resist such a "demographic conquest":

1. Mexicans migrating to the United States do so to be in the United States, not Mexico. As such, they are selected out of the pool of all Mexicans as those looking for a better life in a different place. While they may prefer being around lots of Mexican culture, they are not likely to want to recreate Mexico's political or economic system in the US.

2. While there are a few large centers of Mexican culture, the new immigration is widespread across the entire nation. Those millions of immigrants are not only becoming used to an America outside the barrios, they are also unavailable for a concentrated territorial acquisition.

3. While the Lonewackos of America may imagine they are the canaries in the coal mine, there are tens of millions of much louder and more powerful birds a little further down. A concerted effort at organizing for demographic conquest would be met by strong political resistance. At some point, xenophobia might even become rational. Demographic reconquistadors really do not want to be tagged as terrorists by the federal government.

4. The government of Mexico itself would want absolutely nothing to do with any of this since their active support would warrant invasion of Mexico in the event of territorial conquest by immigrants. Mexico will actively prevent such organization.

|2.6.07 @ 3:54PM|#

Nonetheless, here are a number of tendencies that would resist such a "demographic conquest":

1.

Mexicans migrating to the United States do so to be in the United States, not Mexico.

>>Um.. I guess I can't disagree with that.

As such, they are selected out of the pool of all Mexicans as those looking for a better life in a different place.

>>The pool certainly includes people who aren't willing to risk the trek or don't have the resources to make it to the border. This is a much larger pool

..While they may prefer being around lots of Mexican culture, they are not likely to want to recreate Mexico's political or economic system in the US.

>>Why not? Does the culture create the political/economic system or is it created by it? Once a culture is in place will it need the political/economic system it developed under to continue- if so how hard would people work to create such a situation (multiculuralism and all that)

2. While there are a few large centers of Mexican culture, the new immigration is widespread across the entire nation. Those millions of immigrants are not only becoming used to an America outside the barrios, they are also unavailable for a concentrated territorial acquisition.

>> I don't think the data is in on this. Anecdotally I've seen it again and again. Here in Chicago as more immigrants move to the burbs little barrios are popping up in many places. Living in Chicago I don't see the large scale integration many say is inevitable.

3. While the Lonewackos of America may imagine they are the canaries in the coal mine, there are tens of millions of much louder and more powerful birds a little further down. A concerted effort at organizing for demographic conquest would be met by strong political resistance. At some point, xenophobia might even become rational. Demographic reconquistadors really do not want to be tagged as terrorists by the federal government.

>>I also don't think there is a large coordinated effort. My concern is that once there is a large population of unassimilated immigrants (which I think exists now) the racial/ethnic demigogues will appear. If this happens we will have some serious crap to deal with. Some of my concern may be due to the screams of "go home whitey" and "you don't belong here" I get in my neighborhood of peaceful, assimilated immigrants. I truely think everyone is pretty much the same- that's what scares me.

TLB|2.6.07 @ 4:50PM|#

Many of those illegal aliens come here not to be in the U.S., but to be in their own communities. And, also because they think their country rightfully owns U.S. territory.

Once again, MikeP doesn't understand "force". No forceful conquest would be needed. The changeover is already happening to those who aren't too corrupt or stupid to see it, and that changeover is not in almost all cases known to those engaging in it.

Let's imagine how the U.S. could take territory from Canada. We'd invent some claim or grievance, we'd send U.S. partisans to establish communities in Canada, and we'd take advantage of Canada's "liberal" nature to demand extra rights for U.S. citizens. Eventually, the U.S. or U.S. leaders would have a great deal of control over Canada. And, with enough U.S. citizens in Canada, yet another Quebec could be formed. Since I need to spell that out: at that level, the only law that applies is the law of the jungle. Short of a nuke, Canada would not have enough military force to reclaim the territory that the U.S. had taken.

That's how we could do it if we wanted to. I'm not saying that Mexico in engaged in a similar campaign, but what's happening now is what would happen if they had such a plan.

Once again for the hard of thinking: I'm not saying there's such a plan, just that the end result is the same.