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Hillary's Open Borders Disgrace

By John Perazzo
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 24, 2007


Hillary Rodham Clinton’s position on illegal immigration is an unmitigated disgrace, and American voters ought to be aware of it.


Last Thursday Mrs. Clinton appointed an individual named Raul Yzaguirre, identified as a “Hispanic civil rights activist,” to co-chair her presidential campaign and to direct her outreach efforts to Hispanic voters. Proud to have an opportunity to help the Senator’s cause, Yzaguirre beamed: “Hillary Clinton has spent more than three decades advocating on behalf of those who are invisible in America. Not only is she the most experienced and qualified candidate to be president, Senator Clinton has the ability to bring people together to get results and move this country forward.”



Let’s take a look at the man who spoke these words, and who was entrusted by Mrs. Clinton to fill one of the most vital positions in her campaign.

For fully three decades, from 1974 to 2004, Yzaguirre served as President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, an organization that:

· views the United States as an irredeemably racist nation
· favors racial and ethnic preferences for minorities in the workplace and in higher education
· supports open borders and amnesty for all illegal aliens
· supports the DREAM Act, which is designed to allow illegal aliens to attend college at the reduced tuition rates normally reserved for in-state legal residents

· advocates “reform” that would give illegal aliens full access to taxpayer-funded health care services
· characterizes any reduction in government assistance to illegal border-crossers as “a disgrace to American values”
· supports access to driver’s licenses for illegal aliens
· supports voting rights for illegal aliens
· opposes the Aviation Transportation and Security Act requiring that all airport baggage screeners be U.S. citizens
· opposes the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act, which would empower state and local police to enforce federal immigration laws

· opposes the REAL ID Act, which requires that all driver’s license and photo ID applicants be able to verify they are legal residents of the United States, and that the documents they present to prove their identity are genuine.



At many of the “pro-immigration” rallies that NCLR members have attended in recent times, their signature slogan has been: “La Raza unida nunca sera vencida!” (“The united [Hispanic] race will never be defeated!”)



All of the foregoing views are Yzaguirre’s as well. Every single one of them.


While heading NCLR, Yzaguirre also condemned groups (such as the organization US English) that call for English to remain the primary language spoken in the United States. “US English is to Hispanics as the Ku Klux Klan is to blacks,” he said.



In 2001, NCLR formed focus groups to study how the American public felt about the word “amnesty” vis a vis immigration policy. After the focus groups reported that the public’s reaction was extremely negative, Yzaguirre advised then-Mexican President Vicente Fox to avoid using the term ever again. He urged Fox instead to employ such euphemisms as “regularization,” “legalization,” “normalization,” “permanence,” “earned adjustment,” and “phased-in access to earned regularization.”



In Yzaguirre’s view, illegal aliens are best described as “hardworking people who are paying taxes, who are helping this economy.” “They are benefiting you and I,” he adds. “They’re making it possible for you to send your grandmother to a nursing home to get taken care of.…[T]hey are creating jobs, not taking away jobs.” About the enormous social, political, and economic costs that illegal immigration imposes on American society, he is silent.

Yzaguirre opposes the imposition of sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants, claiming that such policies create “massive levels of discrimination against Hispanics.”



In fact, Yzaguirre rejects the very use of the term “illegal.” “Why are we calling them illegals?” he asked Pat Buchanan during a 2001 debate. “If you [are] calling them illegals you’ve got to call every employer an illegal, every consumer an illegal, everybody who hires them an illegal. Let’s -- if you are going to paint somebody with that brush,…let’s be equal about it. You are talking about a police state.…Draconian steps that would create a police state based on fear-mongering.” He then told Buchanan that modern day illegals “did same thing that your ancestors did.” When Buchanan replied that his forebears “came here legally,” Yzaguirre retorted: “What’s the difference? You can change the laws?”


In 2004 Yzaguirre characterized the Border Patrol’s arrest of illegals in a number of southern California communities as “a clear assault on civil rights in an area with a sizable Latino population.”



While heading NCLR, Yzaguirre also condemned groups (such as the organization US English) that called for English to remain the primary language spoken in the United States. “US English is to Hispanics as the Ku Klux Klan is to blacks,” he said.



Notably, Yzaguirre is not the only open borders advocate who has joined Hillary Clinton’s campaign this year. Last month, the New York Senator also welcomed former National Council of La Raza Chairman Jose Villareal aboard her express train to the White House. Villareal has served Democrat candidates and office-holders before. He was an aide to President Bill Clinton, a fundraiser and campaign co-chair for John Kerry in 2004, and the treasurer of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential bid.



The issue of import here is not Raul Yzaguirre’s or Jose Villareal’s unmistakable desire to dissolve America’s borders and to welcome all current illegal aliens as new U.S. citizens and voters. The issue of import is that Hillary Clinton, who wishes to get your vote for President of the United States, has willfully selected these individuals to work for her campaign. She knows exactly who they are and what their agendas are.

Consider very thoughtfully what these selections say about Mrs. Clinton.