Members of the Green Party oppose the Party’s Position on Illegal Immigration

The as it is in direct conflict with one of our 10KV — Social Justice. Check out our party platform on the issue at: http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#1002510

The Green party’s position is a sad reflection of the same political pressures that the Dems and the Repugs succumb to.

The ever-growing Hispanic base has become an extremely powerful political force that is causing greens to abandon core values such as future focus, sustainability, and ecological wisdom so as to not alienate a growing political power. The Sierra club is still dealing with the political fallout as a result of internal squabbles about whether to appear more anti-human than ecologically wise as it relates to their position on immigration. The USGP needs to exhibit the type of leadership that does the right thing regardless of the political price.

A fair and equitable program to help these folks will provide equal access to working people of all nationalities, not tied to a specific employer or guest worker program. Programs involving temporary worker status must include the option of permanent residency for immigrants already in the U.S. and protection of migrant worker savings.

Another way of saying what was just said in the above statement is “Allow everyone who wants to come to the United States to just come on in. No process, no rules, no requirements, no thought to the social, cultural, economic, labor, or environmental effects of such a policy, just a loyal alliance to an ideal that in the end is neither humane or reasonable.

Telling the truth is often a lonely proposition.

The truth is that unfettered immigration, legal or illegal will only escalate the environmental apocalypse that is upon us.

It is cowardly to talk about human rights while shitting in the very mechanism that provides us life.

Some things on the left never change.

-Steve Geiger

—– Original Message —–

From: George B. Hutchinson

To: SteveGeiger@Freightliner.com ; pgp-cc@list.pacificgreens.org ; pgp-discuss@list.pacificgreens.org

Cc: Melinda McComb ; Connie Razmus ; Ginger Gouveia ; Rand Dawson ; Catherine Ryan ; Milica ; Bridget Wolfe ; Alice/Bruce McCain ; Dee Meyer ; andrew rodman ; Max Glenn ; Jeannette Hodges ; Joanna Camille ; Diane Eckstein ; Denise Ross ; Cheri Russell ; Richard Koehler ; Tom Gravon ; John Colman-Pinning ; Robert Fischer ; Tessa Green ; Carol DeLong ; Francis Menlove ; Warren G. Rennie Ferris ; Greg Jones ; Joanne Cvar ; Dorothy Stern-Kucha ; Dorothy Mack ; Herb Faber ; Ardis Letey ; Tony Ogden ; Susan Fischer ; Ann Aronson ; Amy Dudley

Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 12:11 AM

Subject: [discuss] Re: [cc] What should be the Green position on unfetteredimmigration?

This is a cogent and thoughtful line of thinking that has been considered by many since Malthus first wrote. In the early Seventies I became an advocate of Zero Population Growth for the environmental reasons Steve mentions below. Having ZPG become a value that all cultures adopt is difficult due to religious values and most obviously, economic values.

Free trade and the bracero programs which have existed in this country for decades need to be terminated. One way to help bring that about is to insist on living wages being paid for all work in the United States. The global corporatists say: “Immigrant laborers are doing work Americans don’t want to do.” Correct–Americans don’t want to do that sort of work for the very low wages paid. Pay a living wage, and Americans will flock to those jobs! If Americans flock to those jobs, there will be no plethora of jobs for immigrants–legal or illegal.

Secondly, if we really wish to slow immigration to the US, then let’s begin rigorously enforcing those laws which penalize employers that hire illegal immigrants. A huge bust just happened in Portland where scores of “illegal immigrants” were arrested by INS. The entire story has been one of enforcing the law, splitting up families, and the harshness/righteousness of that action. Were any employers arrested? Will any go to court and be found guilty and receive a prison sentence? Put the bosses in jail, and the jobs will begin to disappear for those who come here primarily to support themselves and their families.

ZPG must go hand-in-hand with social justice, fair pay, and economic and environmental sustainability. It is not an either/or choice. No good will come of strictly enforcing the law against illegal immigrants unless wages paid in all countries become living wages, and unless employers who break the law are punished. That will make the jobs illegals currently obtain disappear. When that happens, the motivation to come to the US, legally or illegally, will be greatly diminished. That is the focus, I think, which the Pacific Green Party needs to address.

—– Original Message —–

From: SteveGeiger@Freightliner.com

To: pgp-cc@list.pacificgreens.org ; pgp-discuss@list.pacificgreens.org

Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 2:31 PM

Subject: [cc] What should be the Green position on unfettered immigration?

In the opinion of this green, at some point the health of our planet must supersede our desire for global social justice manifested through the support of unfettered illegal immigration. I have never bought into the idea of scarcity, but the hard reality is that our planet is dieing and we need to begin to take measures to stop the suicidal track we are on.

Right now, the USGP has taken sides in the illegal immigration debate by siteing the fact that both major parties are operating out of the same framework to implement a massive cheap labor management program for the benefit of major and minor US corporations under the guise of immigration reform. They are correct of course, but what they fail to mention is the environmental impact of continued unfettered immigration. Does anyone else see this as odd coming from an environmental party?

The United States recently surpassed 300,000,000 people at the end of October. The current demographic predictions, based on accelerating growth levels, show America adding 100 million people by 2040. For those asleep at the wheel—that’s 34 years from now—a blink in time.

What does that mean to the land we live in? What about our overloaded cities? Overwhelmed schools? How about our water, farm land, energy, air quality, food sources, species habitat, and dozens of other critical environmental issues?

Do socially conscious Greens really understand the ominous consequences?

Can any Greens or others who care about humanity and social justice issues name one advantage to adding 3,000,000,000 more people to the globe? Is there some cosmic reason? Reasonable religious reason? Any rational reason? Any sane purpose? Already, eight million people starve to death annually. Over 35 percent of humanity does not have clean drinking water. Species extinction exceeds thousands annually. What is it that we hope to accomplish by adding another 3.0 billion people to the planet with the consequences already raining down on us with current population levels? In the next 50 years, you can expect 1,000,000 to as many as 3,000,000 more people added to your state depending on location. Once their numbers manifest, they won’t go away. Today, states like Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California don’t possess enough water for their residents. Aquifers degrade as fast as diesel engines pump them dry. No matter how many reservoirs they build, it won’t rain or snow more because they add millions of people. Water shortages and rationing will become the norm.

While we exceed the land’s carrying capacity, we pack ourselves in like sardines with smart growth, slow growth and managed growth. We continue to expand urban sprawl by building suburbs for the vanishing middle class to escape from the crowded cities. It’s all growth that adds cars, trucks, homes, power plants, malls and smoke stacks. Have you noticed traffic in your city? Have you seen the Brown Cloud thicken in toxicity over your area? How about the bumper-to-bumper traffic? Can you imagine what it will be with an added 100 million people in 34 years? How about your quality of life? What about species extinction? Air pollution? Acid rain? Crowding of national parks? Lakes? Streams? How about soil erosion? The continued assault on what is left of our vanishing forests?

As Greens do we simply ignore the incredibly devastating environmental effects of allowing corporate America and their Democrat and Republican lackeys to utilize an illegal workforce that can’t vote at the expense of what is left of our fragile environment? Should our commitment to social justice for illegal immigrants trump our future focus? Should social justice for illegal immigrants trump sustainability? Does prioritizing social justice for illegal immigrants constitute ecological wisdom?

These are tough questions that most greens want to just go away so they don’t have to face the realities of unfettered illegal immigration.

I don’t want to be misunderstood and I stand in solidarity with my Latin American brothers and sisters and have advocated the elimination of Free trade agreements like NAFTA that have helped to create the horrific economic conditions in Mexico and central American countries. But as a Green who cares about the world I am leaving my granddaughter, I can not in good conscience support unfettered illegal immigration and I think it high time that the Green party stop playing politics with the future of the planet.

–Steve Geiger

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