Is Your Busboy a Serial Killer? Nation at Fear Pt II, Immigration

[McCamy Taylor]

We are not a Nation at War. We are a Nation at Fear. In the last few weeks, the Bush-Cheney administration has been pushing all the Terra buttons to kick it up a notch.

Here comes a new offensve. This time it is a ground assault. Immigration is Karl Rove's pet issue for this election cycle and no one has been taking it seriously, but that is going to change, gosh darn it! Go to this site. Check out this article with its suggestive title "Revolving Door" and the picture of the young man with the bald head (skin head is skin head in any language- one picture of an urepetent bald headed young man staring straight into the camera can do more than a thousand shocking words).

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/15359034.htm

"CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- For years, young women have been raped, mutilated, killed and dumped in shallow graves in Ciudad Juarez, the gritty Mexican city across the border from El Paso. For just as long, the perpetrators have gone unpunished, sparking international outrage at an inept Mexican justice system.

"Now a possible break in the case raises questions not only about Mexican justice but also about U.S. policies that allowed a leading suspect in some of the killings to get out of American jails and to shuttle between Juarez and U.S. cities along the border.

"Law enforcement records in Texas and New Mexico show that the suspect, Jose Francisco Granados de la Paz, was frequently in American jails and was sent back to Mexico repeatedly, only to return to the U.S. and commit more crimes. He was on probation on a Texas felony conviction when at least some of the slayings he is suspected of committing are believed to have occurred."


The way this story is supposed to work is that Republican Americans safe in their gated cul de sacs in Oklahoma are supposed to look at their teenaged daughters and think "OMG! Serial killers from Mexico are gonna come up here and kill my Fluffy!" As you get farther south, the fear is supposed to cross party lines, so that by the time you reach California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas even Democrats and Independents are worrying about their Jennifers and Shaunas. Never mind that the serial killings took place in Mexico. Never mind that serial killers tend to prey upon their own ethnic group. Never mind that there have been many suspects and arrests over the years, none of which have panned out. Never mind that these men have not been found guilty of anything. Never mind that the worst serial killers in the world are white American males whom you could pass in a grocery store right here at home and not think twice about.

There is only one reason that this story may fail to gain traction in the news, and it is not the right reason. It is actually a very wrong reason. The American public does not give a hill of beans what happens to poor women who live and work across the border in Mexico. This is especially true as you go farther north where there are fewer hispanics. However, I would be mighty surprised if Al Gonzales and his Department of Injustice pass up this opportunity to sow some fear in the border states before this falls election.

So, when you hear people in a panic, have your talking points ready. Steer the conversation to the women who died and from them to the plight of all the people who still live and suffer in border towns. Building a wall up to the moon will not fix what ails the Rio Grande Valley.