not contradict federal laws concerningnthe hiring of illegal residents, the proposednlaw would prohibit discriminationnagainst illegal aliens in the areas ofnhousing and education. Quotas onnbehalf of illegal aliens are just aroundnthe corner.nDean Proto was also correct in notingnthat New York is not alone innproviding social services to citizens andnnoncitizens alike. As FAIR (the Federationnfor American Immigration Reform)nrecently reported, the state barnof Texas provides free legal services tonillegal aliens of Central American originnwho now reside in the southernnpart.of the state. And in one of thenpoorest counties in Texas, HidalgonCounty, former illegal aliens — thosenwho received amnesty during lastnyear’s legalization program — continuento receive free health care and prescriptions,nwhile such services have beennterminated for the other Americanncitizens in the county, virtually all ofnwhom are also of Hispanic ancestrynand just as needy.nOf course, it is the citizenry whonlegally reside in these communitiesnwho should be outraged by the spendingnof taxpayers’ dollars on social servicesnfor persons who are in the counÂÂnutter f^i^**^ vlAiSX^^^^’C’h.n1^4, >^*Ki^ rM^c^4-nWHEN THE 80TH annual conventionnof the NAACP gathered innsolemn conclave in Detroit last July,nthe delegates listened approvingly tonExecutive Director Benjamin Hooks’ncall for “civil disobedience on a massnscale that has never been seen in thisncountry before.” Mr. Hooks was upsetnthat the Supreme Court recently deliverednitself of some rulings against affirmativenaction, and he threatenednunprecedented shenanigans if Congressn”is reluctant” to reverse thesenrulings through legislation. But Mr.nHooks’ rhetoric was familiar to thendelegates’ ears. Martin Luther King,nJr., whom the NAACP once criticizednfor being too reckless, long ago developednthe politics and oratory of intimidationninto a high science.nWhat surely but pleasantly surprisednthe delegates was to hear, the followingn10/CHRONICLESntry illegally, who typically pay no taxes,nand who perform none of the civicnduties expected of citizens of thisncountry. If illegal aliens contribute anythingnat all, it is to the well-being ofneither the employers who treat them asnchattel and pay them slaves’ wages, ornthe countries they return to after receivingntheir American education. Historicallynspeaking, education has nevernbeen a good producer of foreign policyndividends. The Japanese officers ofnWorld War II who traded stories withntheir American captives about life onnAmerican campuses were not entirelynthe invention of scriptwriters. Evennmore outrageous were the hundreds ofnIranian students attending Americanncolleges and universities on expirednvisas, who demonstrated against theirnhost country in 1979. In neither casendid an American education prevent thendenunciation of America as evil incarnate.nCall it “nativist,” “alarmist,” or evenn”ethnocentric,” but an eighteen-yearoldnkid from a hardworking, lowermiddle-class,nblue-collar family in NewnJersey has a right to be outraged whenna financial aid officer at a New YorknCity college tells him this fall that henwould have had a better chance ofnday, rhetoric not very different fromnthat of Mr. Hooks from the lips of anmember of the Bush administration, anformer Republican congressman, andnone of the more clamorous claimantsnto the now-vacant throne of Americannconservatism. Housing and Urban DevelopmentnSecretary Jack Kemp didnnot, it is true, threaten to chain himselfnto the lamp posts on Capitol Hill ifnelected public servants choose to votenagainst his wishes. But he did succeednin rather subtly endorsing the core ofnthe political ideology that has animatednthe NAACP and the rest of the Americannleft for most of this century.nMr. Kemp began his speech withnwarm praise for Mr. Hooks, and thatnmight be dismissed as a rnere obligationnof courtesy. But the housing czarnproudly repeated Mr. Hooks’ endorsementnof him for his present position atnnnfunding his college education if he hadncome into this country on the undersidenof a truck and sold himself as slavenlabor for a year in the City. Financialnaid officers at CUNY, however, reassurednme that they will continue to benstaunchly legalistic in denying financialnassistance to American males who havenyet to register with the Selective Service.nIllegal aliens, of course, need notnworry about such things: in case of warnthe country to which they immigratednand which provides them with freenlegal services, medical care, and tuitionnbreaks will be adequately defended bynthe lower-middle-class kid from NewnJersey who paid CUNY’s out-of-statentuition.nThe American citizens of New YorknCity need to remind CUNY and NewnYork’s City Council that the onlyn”right” illegal aliens have in our countrynis to be treated humanely duringntheir period of detention and deportation.nBut perhaps there’s still hope.nUpon asking an administrator atnCUNY’s central Office of Admissionsnwhether he really believed his employernshould be lowering tuition for illegalnresidents, he declared, “Hell no! Wenshould turn ’em in!” Exactly. (TP)nHUD. Mr. Hooks “said I was a liberalnwith a big ‘L’ on relations between thenraces,” beamed Mr. Kemp, “And,nBen, I won’t let you down.” He keptnhis commitment to uplift Mr. Hooksnthroughout the rest of the speech,naffirming “what a thrill it was the othernday to sit next to Ben Hooks at thenWhite House, as President Bush andndistinguished civil rights leaders andnmembers of Congress celebrated then25 th anniversary of the Civil RightsnAct of 1964, a milestone on the road tonfreedom and justice.”nAfter generous applications of progressivistnboiler-plate from Dr. King,nAbraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson,nand after praise for, among others,nHubert Humphrey and W.E.B.nDuBois, Mr. Kemp got down to business.nHe cheered “the boycotts, thensit-ins, the marches, the legal challeng-n
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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