First I want to say that I do not think it is right for people to live in the United States illegally. I come from a family of immigrants who all took the necessary steps to become US citizens. I feel that it is the right thing to do. With that being said I do not condone the acts of racism, discrimination, racial profiling, and prejudice which are happening in PWC, VA. I was disgusted by the older gentleman’s comment about Hispanics working in America: “I don’t appreciate people speaking Spanish in my country.” His country? His words made me sick to my stomach, it seemed as though he had so much hatred built up inside of him towards immigrants and especially Hispanics. His unwillingness to listen to other’s point of view just made him appear more ignorant. I feel like this group (9500Liberty) in PWC, VA is doing a good thing by posting these videos and building awareness of the sudden discrimination and acts of racism going on in the area. Someone left a comment on 9500Liberty’s website saying that they were born in Virginia and that’s all they had to do to become a United States citizen. I found that statement very touching, that’s all I had to do as well. By chance I was born here instead of in Greece like the rest of my family. But it is still not right for people to break the law. Maybe the problem lies in the process of obtaining citizenship and its level of difficulty. I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that this has always been an issue and it will most likely always be.

Seem to be 2 sets of arguments Legals status, anti-illegals Quality of life, preservation issues Overcrowding, littering, crime, language, appearance of poverty Ways to handle it Lynch mob Effectively racial profiling laws “probable cause” to suspect illegal status Day laborer centers attract illegal immigrants? …and pubs attract alcoholics, point? Not all pub patrons are alcoholics low income, working class Ride of the Valkyries, wow. I will never look at elmer fudd the same way again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEhHroh2r4w historic use of Wagner as a rhetorical agent Wow, the video is rich with dialogue promoting a White vs. Hispanic conflict but I see at least several frames for the events in PWC: “Racial”, Anti-Illegal, and Anti-Immigrant. Groups supporting the proposed legislation are accused of being racist or having “racial” or Anti-immigrant motivations for seeking or supporting this resolution but many comments have been quick to label this a fight against illegal immigration. These arguments appear to be spurious but not entirely because of directly racist motivations. The video interviews clearly show stereotypes are at work. The prejudicial assumptions that Hispanic immigrants don’t speak English, can’t read or write, and contribute to societal depreciation are long established in the media in forms of late-night comedy routines and documentaries like Los Trabajadores. There is no legitimate way to observe “probable cause” for investigation of legal status. Without checking every driver’s residence status, the only option would amount to racial profiling. If the argument is anti-ILLEGAL immigrants, I wonder where the harm is. I want to see the bodies. The anti-illegal argument reeks of hypocrisy when one considers European colonialism but it falls within the law. There is an unspoken assumption that legal immigration status is available to all who apply for legal immigration options are held to the same standards. One comment suggested the government officials were acting on the will of the people, but just who are those people? It is clear from other comments that the citizenry of PWC is divided on this issue. This comment also suggested there was systematic inherency to correct because Illegal immigrants place an undue burden on the educational system by requiring more ESL teachers to handle the overload of undocumented students. Is the problem really about more teachers, or are people afraid of changing languages? Others suggested it was about principle of law and policy: If illegal immigrants are allowed to stay after cutting in line they devalue the citizenship bestowed upon people who follow the rules and obtain naturalization. Is this alleged “devaluation” of the process really harmful or is it a stand against immigration altogether? Are our citizenship and naturalization systems really just designed to keep people out? Is our society acting out of fear and protectionism as if somehow integrating other cultures and languages into our own would somehow make us less American? One comment brought up the use of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyrie as a backdrop for the Help Save Manassas rally and its rhetorical connection to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation and the Nazi concentration camps as a symbol of Aryan pride and nationhood. This was an utterly horrifying realization. Media will play a crucial role in this conflict. I can only hope the KKK is kept at bay. As a side note on the significance of media, YouTube is a public tool. The following video, How to Harass Illegal Aliens Legally: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jie48FwoYKM promotes the notion that all day laborers are illegal immigrants. It is loaded with harmful stereotypes of animalistic, untouchable others. It has high production values; a group of people must have organized the event, wrote script, pre-staged cameras, and edited this in a way reminiscent of a Daily Show or Colbert Report farce. Even with its construction and “humor”, the workers appear to be real people. This shows the lengths people will go, in a day and age we like to think has moved beyond this form of hatred. While there is the right to free speech and expression we have to make sure these hate videos are not allowed to exist unchallenged or they could promote copycats and eventually outbreaks of violence.

While I am torn on the issue of what to do about illegal immigrants in this country, I whole-heartedly feel that resorting to any form of violence about the matter is completely unacceptable. The youtube video really got me thinking about the issue. I do feel that if you are going to come into this country, you should do so legally. I have many friends that come to this country legally and pay the expenses in order to do so. It is not fair for them to see people coming here illegally and getting to stay. Unfortunately the issue of illegal immigration is very tricky and I don’t think it will be able to be resolved easily. Prince William County’s resolution is completely unacceptable in my eyes. It is just going to make the situation worse for that area and cause many racial profiling problems. Just because someone looks Hispanic is no reason to make them show their paper work, and that is what is going to happen by leaving it up to “probable cause.” If someone looks Hispanic they are going to be targeted by this resolution, regardless of their immigration status. Like one woman pointed out in the video, this resolution is going to make “peace keeping officers” become “immigration officers.” It is going to cause a lot more harm than good. I feel that this is a serious issue that really needs to be addressed and I applaud 9500 liberty for doing so. The comments on the page were shocking to me. It is sad that we live in a country that values freedom of speech, but as the posts on the page showed, many of these immigrants are afraid to speak openly because of threats of violence. Another person posted that “this is not a complicated issue at all. Those who are here illegally need to remove themselves from the country and apply to enter the country properly.” Sounds easy in theory, but in actuality it isn’t. I do not see any easy, uncomplicated way of getting the illegals that are already here to go back willingly. While I feel that people should not come into our country illegally, and that illegal immigration is a huge problem that our country needs to address, I do not feel that Hispanic people should be targeted by some resolution passed by the local government. Legal immigrants are having to face discrimination and threats of violence that are uncalled for. America is and has always been the “land of opportunity” and our families were all once immigrants to this country. We need to remember that when thinking about this illegal immigration issue and try to come up with a solution that still holds true to what our country’s values and ideas were based on.

George Allen’s ‘06 “macaca moment” was so politically incorrect, my first reaction was, “Wow, what an idiot!”. For someone in the public eye, on camera, campaigning for an election, to make such a thoughtless, racist comment seemed to be almost too good to be true. I’m pretty sure that deep down we all know there are plenty of corrupt politicians out there, fuming under their red neckties with words they cannot say. So for Allen to actually make a blatantly racist comment makes me wonder if he had ulterior motives. Maybe he knows how many anti-immigration, white supremacist voters are out there, who would pat him on the back for giving THEM a voice. But what about the millions of immigrants who are the victims of prejudice, like the people in the 9500 Liberty video? Where is their voice? We saw in the video that the older white man’s stereotypes about the “illegals” were immediately shot down. They spoke English, they were legally documented, they were not in gangs or running the streets drunk and jobless. The majority of people who migrate to this country come to seek better opportunities for themselves and/or the families they’ve left behind. After all, that’s how most of us got here and that‘s why many of us stay. Politicians and activists, like those in Prince William County, are only facilitating hate. They are dividing the people of our country, in part, denying a voice to those who believe in it the most. When we stereotype, we lose sight of the individual and his or her personal struggle. For immigrants, legal or not, when their motives for being here are questioned, in the face of ignorance, one young boy from the 9500 Liberty video responded the best, “What else am I gonna do?”.