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Child refugees reader part 2: The right-wing freak-out

Child refugees reader part 2: The right-wing freak-out

Last updated on: August 25, 2014 at 8:51 am by Fred Clark

Child refugees reader part 2: The right-wing freak-out 2014-08-25T08:51:41-04:00 Fred Clark

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• Manny Fernandez, “Towns Fight to Avoid Taking in Migrant Minors” (The New York Times)

Overwhelmed by an influx of unaccompanied minors who are fleeing violence in their home countries in Central America, federal officials are searching the country for places to house them and have been forced to scrap some proposed shelter sites in California, Connecticut, Iowa, New York and other states because of widespread opposition from residents and local officials.

… Some of the opposition has also bordered on the extreme. A few of the protesters who marched against a proposed shelter in Vassar, Mich., on Monday were armed with semiautomatic rifles and handguns. In Virginia, an effort to house the children at the shuttered campus of Saint Paul’s College in Lawrenceville caused such an uproar that federal officials pulled out, even though a five-month lease had been signed. Someone spray-painted anti-immigrant graffiti on a brick wall at a former Army Reserve facility in Westminster, Md., that was being considered as a shelter site.

Some cities have raised health and security concerns. Northeast of Oyster Creek, League City passed a resolution opposing any shelters from opening even though the federal government had no plans to do so. The resolution claimed that “illegal aliens suffering from diseases endemic in their countries of origin are being released into our communities.”

• Matt Hansen and Mark Boster, “Protesters in Murrietta block detainees’ buses in tense standoff” (Los Angeles Times)

A crowd of 200 to 300 people in downtown Murrieta surrounded three buses carrying immigrant detainees Tuesday afternoon, causing the buses to turn around before they reached a Border Patrol station in the Riverside County city.

Waving Americans flags and protest signs, the crowd refused to give way when the buses arrived with some 140 detainees from Texas, which has seen a flood of Central American immigrants cross the border in recent weeks without legal permission.

• Doktor Zoom, “American Genius Writes Real Good Vandalism Against Brown Babies” (Wonkette)

Before the announcement, just to make sure that precious funds weren’t wasted on housing and feeding children, Republican Rep. Andy Harris vowed that if the Department of Health and Human Services used the currently empty building to house filthy disease-ridden immigrant children, he’d block funding for HHS, because he’s on the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Harris posted a message to his Facebook praising the decision, because if constituent service means anything, it means making sure that brown children be shown no mercy.

• Jeremy Peters, “For the GOP, Fine Line Seen on Migration” (The New York Times)

Some senior Republicans are warning that the party cannot rebuild its reputation with Hispanics if it is drawn into another emotional fight over cracking down on migrants — especially when so many are young children who are escaping extreme poverty and violence. But pleas for compassion and even modest proposals for change are dividing the party, and setting off intense resistance among conservative Republicans who have resisted a broader overhaul of immigration.

Gestures of sympathy, like a trip to the border by Glenn Beck, the conservative radio and television personality who has raised more than $2 million to buy teddy bears, shoes and food for migrant children, were met with scorn and derision. Some anti-immigrant activists responded to news that the government was buying new clothing for the detainees by organizing a campaign to mail them dirty underwear.

• Keegan Hankes, “KKK Joins Immigration Debate With Calls for ‘Corpses’ on the Border” (Southern Poverty Law Center)

With thousands of undocumented children amassing at the U.S. border, Robert Jones, Imperial Wizard of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, doesn’t want amnesty. He wants “corpses” on the border.

Speaking to Al Jazeera America, Jones, in full Klan robes, warned that immigrant children crossing the border are a threat to a “white homeland” and simply one more way President Obama has “sold out the American people.”

“If we can’t turn them back, I think if we pop a couple of them off and leave their corpses laying at the border maybe they’ll see we’re serious about stopping immigration,” Jones said.

• Miranda Blue, “GOP Committeewoman Warns Child Migrants ‘Highly Trained as Warriors’ Could ‘Rise Up Against Us as Americans'” (Right Wing Watch)

When we see these kids, you and I think young kids, we think maybe 12-year-olds, maybe homeschoolers — excuse me, middle-schoolers,” said [Republican National Committeewoman Tamara] Scott, who is also Concerned Women for American’s Iowa state director and works as a lobbyist for the conservative group The Family Leader. “But we know back in our revolution, we had 12-year-olds fighting in our revolution. And for many of these kids, depending on where they’re coming from, they could be coming from other countries and be highly trained as warriors who will meet up with their group here and actually rise up against us as Americans.”

• Brian Tashman, “Frank Wolf Thinks Terrorists Are Crossing the Border Whistling Dixie Thanks to Obama” (Right Wing Watch)

Rick Wiles may be a bizarre End Times radio host who promotes utterly insane conspiracy theories, but that hasn’t stopped Republican politicians from appearing on his show. Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, appeared on Wiles’ show, “Trunews,” yesterday, where he warned that terrorists are crossing America’s southern border thanks to President Obama’s supposed refusal to administer immigration law.

• Margaret and Helen, “Jesus Loves the Legal Little Children”

Our good Christian Governor down here in Texas, Rick Perry, said he would use his executive authority to activate up to 1,000 National Guard troops to help secure the Texas border region against “criminal aliens.” Criminal Aliens being Spanish for children, I think.

• Christy Hoppe, “Border sheriffs pan Perry’s plan to send National Guard” (Dallas Morning News)

Leaders along the Texas border with Mexico slammed Gov. Rick Perry’s move Monday to send 1,000 National Guard troops to South Texas, saying overwhelmed counties need law enforcement and charitable aid, not militarization.

• Rebecca Schoenkopf, “California Gets in on Hot Fun Screaming-at-Brown-Babies Action” (Wonkette)

As Jesus said, when I was hungry, you screamed in my face and chanted USA, when I was thirsty, you screamed in my face and chanted USA. …

• Miranda Blue, “Anti-Immigrant Protests a Bust: What This Weekend’s Rallies Tell Us About the Nativist Right” (Right Wing Watch)

The child refugee crisis has brought out the true colors of the anti-immigrant movement. Even as some conservative groups are urging compassion and care for the children fleeing to the southern border, Republican leaders seem to be buying the narrative of the small, Nativist anti-immigrant fringe.

• Emily Bazelon, “Blue State Disgrace” (Slate)

Where should the 57,000 children who are already here go? The answer is: Every state should be raising its hand and offering to take some of them. This is not a border-state problem. It is not up to Texas and Arizona to carry this load just because they’re the first places the children land. States in the Northeast and the Midwest can take some of these kids too. Yet some states are looking only for excuses to say no. Their leaders—including in my own state of Connecticut—are behaving shamefully. This NIMBY response is the worst kind of hypocrisy, especially coming from supposedly liberal blue states. Got a star on the flag? That means you have to pitch in right now.

• Tanseem Raja, “Child Migrants Have Been Coming Here Alone Since Ellis Island” (Mother Jones)

An unaccompanied child migrant was the first person in line on opening day of the new immigration station at Ellis Island. Her name was Annie Moore, and that day, January 1, 1892, happened to be her 15th birthday. She had traveled with her two little brothers from Cork County, Ireland, and when they walked off the gangplank, she was awarded a certificate and a $10 gold coin for being the first to register. Today, a statue of Annie stands on the island, a testament to the courage of millions of children who passed through those same doors, often traveling without an older family member to help them along.

Of course, not everyone was lining up to give Annie and her fellow passengers a warm welcome. Alarmists painted immigrants — children included — as disease-ridden job stealers bent on destroying the American way of life. And they’re still at it. On a CNN segment about the current crisis of child migrants from Central and South America, Michele Bachmann used the word “invaders” and warned of rape and other dangers posed to Americans by the influx. And last week, National Review scoffed at appeals to American ideals of compassion and charity, claiming Ellis Island officials had a strict send-’em-back policy when it came to children showing up alone.

• Jamelle Bouie, “America’s Long History of Immigrant Scaremongering” (Slate)

• Thomas Nail, “Child Refugees: The New Barbarians” (Pacific Standard)

• Matthew Yglesias, “Ted Cruz: deporting DREAMers is my ‘top priority'” (Vox)

• Arturo Garcia, “Michele Bachmann calls immigrant children ‘invaders’ and compares them to rapists” (Raw Story)

• Arturo Garcia, “Georgia Republican tries to stir up fears that immigrant children are carrying Ebola virus” (Raw Story)

• Brahm Resnik, “Arizona politician mistakes YMCA campers for migrant children” (Arizona Republic)

• Scott Malone, “Maine governor bemoans move of eight child immigrants to his state” (Reuters)

• Glenn Evans, “Message to Simpson on border crisis: ‘Constituents come first'” (Longview [Texas] News Journal)

• National Religious Broadcasters Board of Directors Award Winner Todd Starnes: “Obama lectures Russia about invading Ukraine, but gives Central America a pass for invading us.” (Twitter)

• Adam Weinstein, “Breitbart.com Is Sure This Adidas Shirt’s an Islamo-Mexican Terror Rug” (Gawker)

• Miranda Blue, “Pat Buchanan: Possible Immigration Action Shows Obama ‘Doesn’t Like the America We Grew Up In'” (Right Wing Watch)

• Miranda Blue, “Jim Gilchrist: Hundreds of Thousands of Central American Children to Be ‘Vanguard’ in ‘Trojan-Horse Invasion’ of US” (Right Wing Watch)

• Miranda Blue, “Sandy Rios Suggests Treating Refugee Kids Like Lepers, Warns They Will Cause Death ‘In Huge Numbers'” (Right Wing Watch)

• Miranda Blue, “Michele Bachmann Proposes 100% Tax on Money Sent Home by Immigrants to Stop ‘War That Is Being Waged Against Us'” (Right Wing Watch)

• Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, “Ku Klux Klan Seizing on Anti-Immigrant Sentiment to Draw New Members” (Think Progress)

• David Edwards, “Arizona sheriff provokes protesters to block road with trucks to stop ‘invasion’ of 40 child refugees” (Raw Story)

• David Edwards, “Louie Gohmert: Obama won’t ‘defend women’ from ‘hundreds of thousands’ of immigrant rapists” (Raw Story)

• Brian Tashman, “Louie Gohmert Claims Central American Youth Are Lying About Violence” (Right Wing Watch)

• Brian Tashman, “Steve Stockman: ‘Third World’ Obama Wants to Transform America’s Culture” (Right Wing Watch)

• Rebecca Schoenkopf, “Ohio Jerk Going for the Gold in Punching-The-Border-Children-In-The-Face Olympics” (Wonkette)

• David Edwards, “George Will stuns Fox panel: ‘Preposterous’ that US can’t shelter child refugees from violence” (Raw Story)

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