15 June 2006

Gary Miller opposed to illegal alien amnesty

Two of my favorite blogs, Nite Swimming and Ellen's Illinois Tenth District Blog, are run by progressives based in Republican congressional districts. They concentrate heavily on the bad behavior of the current Republican Congressmen, John Doolittle and Mark Kirk, respectively.

I have my own bad Republican Congressman, Gary Miller. He is NOT to be confused with George Miller, a pro-labor Democrat who serves Martinez and Concord in Northern California. Today, I received a flyer from Congressman Miller in the mail, stressing his commitment to enforcement-only policy against illegal immigrants.

Miller claims that wages have been depressed and welfare costs ballooned due to the presence of illegal aliens. While it cannot be ignored that illegal aliens have hurt wages for the American workers, the real issue is that the employers are the ones who created the black market for cheap illegal labor. Miller seeks to punish the illegals themselves, with only a slap in the wrist for the actual creators of the black market. The illegals, to me, are victims of dire circumstances; thanks to the disastrous policies of the Vicente Fox/PAN regime in Mexico, it makes more sense to work illegally at slave wages in the US than to look for a nonexistent middle-class job within Mexico. And Fox and PAN didn't work in a vacuum; they are one of the numerous Latin American right-wing regimes propped up by the W regime and previous Republican administrations.

Miller's district covers Diamond Bar and Rowland Heights, two communities known for their high concentrations of immigrants, primarily Chinese and Korean. Diamond Bar also has East Indians and Muslims. Many are successful achievers of the American Dream, and the vast majority are definitely in the US legally, if not naturalized outright. Yet none of these immigrant communities are speaking out against Miller, even though almost everybody in these communities knows/works with an illegal friend or relative. The Chinese community, for starters, relies heavily on illegal mainlanders, and has an elaborate community network for turning them into legal workers, then legal residents. If Miller has his way, the ENTIRE Chinese community becomes criminal. In the Korean community, meanwhile, a common practice for older immigrants is to bring their unmarried adult children (who are considered minors under Korean law) in as well, even though children over 21 must apply on their own; these adult children end up becoming illegals. Miller will make all these Korean families criminals too.

But these communities seem to be so content with Miller's social conservatism and materialistic policies, that they are selling out their own best interests at the ballot box. So much so, that Miller's district is one of the only 12 nationwide where the Democrats won't even run a challenger. You just have to love the corrupting influence of fundamentalist Christianity on the Korean community, which is now seeping into portions of the Chinese community as well. In fact, as long as I continue seeing Chinese materialism in the form of Mercedes-Benzes with "8888" (money money money money) or "168" (achieve money) vanity license plates, and Korean fundamentalism in the form of extremist churches all over Miller's district, I don't see much hope.

Prior to Miller, the Korean community yielded a Congressman for this district. But he was a rabid right-wing Republican as well, and a leading proponent of Gingrich's "Contract with America." I don't miss him a bit.

As much as I wish for the best in this district, there is only so much I can do about immigrant communities that are determined to shoot themselves in the foot again and again. The best I can do is to work for a more progressive candidate, Democratic or otherwise, in another district here in Southern California. It appears that Progressive Democrats of America is supporting several candidates in the greater Los Angeles area, and I will be sure to somehow support them the best I can. I cannot let the Republican control of Congress continue.