In recent years, there’s been a national campaign to clamp down on illegal immigration. There have been calls to build a fence along the U.S-Mexico border (although actual attempts to build said fence have left some American homeowners stranded on the wrong side). In Texas, a Republican legislator recently introduced a bill that would penalize anyone caught employing an illegal alien.* But what about folks immigrating here legally? No one has a beef with those guys, right? According to a TV ad that recently launched in San Francisco, it’s not that simple.
Most groups working to oppose illegal immigration dodge the inevitable accusations of “that’s racist” by claiming they only oppose unlawful immigration and people who jump though all the requite hoops to legally enter the United States should be welcomed with open arms.
However, there’s a California-based group that’s started to run an ad in the San Francisco TV market taking on the formerly sacred cow of legal immigration.
The ad, entitled “Ill-Legal Workers” (you can watch it above), argues there are too many legal, government-sanctioned immigrants coming into the state–costing native-born Californians the jobs that are their God-given right.
The organization putting out the ad, Californians for Population Stabilization, broke off from Zero Population Growth in the mid-1980s when the original group decided to focus on the “politically safer issue of global overpopulation.”
CAPS, which also opposes birthright citizenship, has articles on its website blaming everything from failing schools and high taxes to traffic congestion on all those foreigners.
While the group started with an environmentalist bent, and still largely retains a green focus, they’ve since incorporated many messages traditionally associated with far-right conservative groups. Rick Oltman, the group’s National Media Director, has been a regular guest demonizing immigrants on The Howard Beale Show, The Glenn Beck Show, and has been linked to white supremacist groups.
It’s interesting that the group is airing the ad now, just as the number of native Californians has overtaken the amount of people who came in from out of state for the first time since the gold rush.
Countering CAPS’s nativist sentiments are a number of groups across the country calling for the government to let in more international workers.
Most heavily concentrated in Silicon Valley, these groups argue that increasing the number of H-1B visas, something CAPS also opposes, would combat an international brain drain caused the country’s Byzantine web of immigration laws.
The ad was launched first in SF, reports New America Media, due to our “high immigrant population.” It’s yet be seen if what South Park calls the “they took our jobs” argument will gain traction amongst Californians, but CAPS plans on rolling out their ad next in the Bakersfield market, then to the rest of California in the next four months.
*Naturally, the bill excludes maids and gardeners because, let’s face it, those azaleas aren’t going to water themselves and if that conceited bitch Sharon wins Best Lawn at the Homeowners Association Annual Pot Luck Gala & Awards Ceremony again this year to God I’m swear I’m going to scream.
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