Manipulating the masses
I have not said much on the Elvira Arellano story, in large part because it is an all too familiar story for someone who grew up in a large Hispanic community. However, the Chicago Tribune (one of the last real newspapers in America) brings something to the story that I had not seen before. Cold hard reality...
"Elvira Arellano was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Los Angeles Sunday afternoon, but before being led away, she took a moment to comfort her tearful 8-year-old son.
According to immigration activist Emma Lozano, she told the boy: "Calm down. Don't have any fear. They can't hurt me."
Then the single mother was taken away from her son and promptly deported to her native Mexico.
The poignant image on the front page of the Tribune was of young Saul holding his head and looking inconsolable after the arrest. This is not the first, of course, that Americans knew of him. He often has been pushed under the klieg lights to recite lines about the injustice of his mother's treatment and his fear of losing her to deportation.
While his mother holed up at Chicago's Adalberto United Methodist Church for the last year defying authorities, Saul has been trotted out to march at the head of the Puerto Rican People's Parade, speak at rallies, visit lawmakers in the Mexican parliament and go on TV. Instead of trying to make his childhood as normal as possible under the circumstances, Arellano has assigned him the role of public advocate -- a heavy burden for a child." (emphasis mine)
It angers me when I see adults using children as political pawns. It is especially loathesome to see someone who supposedly "loves" the child doing so.
The Trib then cuts through the hyperbole of Ms. Arellano's claims of having to stay here.
"It's truly sad to see Arellano and her son separated. But if you want to place blame for that painful spectacle, it belongs on her, not ICE. Saul is an American citizen because he was born in this country -- a couple of years after his mother was first deported after entering the country illegally. And if mother and child are separated again, it's not because the U.S. government insists on keeping them apart.
In fact, the boy is free to go to Mexico to be with her -- and to come back to the United States if and when he chooses. But that simple reality is not as powerful as the images that have been manipulated on her behalf." (emphasis mine)
The Trib is right - after all, who can resist a child who is being "terrorized" by the big bad government. The only problem is, the government is not the one "terrorizing the child....it is the adults who supposedly care about him that are doing it.
Simple reality does not fit the meme that the proponents of illegal immigration want us to see, so they use emotion and the best way to wring that emotion out of people is to manipulate a little 8 year old boy. Because after all, who can resist a little child...
"Elvira Arellano was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Los Angeles Sunday afternoon, but before being led away, she took a moment to comfort her tearful 8-year-old son.
According to immigration activist Emma Lozano, she told the boy: "Calm down. Don't have any fear. They can't hurt me."
Then the single mother was taken away from her son and promptly deported to her native Mexico.
The poignant image on the front page of the Tribune was of young Saul holding his head and looking inconsolable after the arrest. This is not the first, of course, that Americans knew of him. He often has been pushed under the klieg lights to recite lines about the injustice of his mother's treatment and his fear of losing her to deportation.
While his mother holed up at Chicago's Adalberto United Methodist Church for the last year defying authorities, Saul has been trotted out to march at the head of the Puerto Rican People's Parade, speak at rallies, visit lawmakers in the Mexican parliament and go on TV. Instead of trying to make his childhood as normal as possible under the circumstances, Arellano has assigned him the role of public advocate -- a heavy burden for a child." (emphasis mine)
It angers me when I see adults using children as political pawns. It is especially loathesome to see someone who supposedly "loves" the child doing so.
The Trib then cuts through the hyperbole of Ms. Arellano's claims of having to stay here.
"It's truly sad to see Arellano and her son separated. But if you want to place blame for that painful spectacle, it belongs on her, not ICE. Saul is an American citizen because he was born in this country -- a couple of years after his mother was first deported after entering the country illegally. And if mother and child are separated again, it's not because the U.S. government insists on keeping them apart.
In fact, the boy is free to go to Mexico to be with her -- and to come back to the United States if and when he chooses. But that simple reality is not as powerful as the images that have been manipulated on her behalf." (emphasis mine)
The Trib is right - after all, who can resist a child who is being "terrorized" by the big bad government. The only problem is, the government is not the one "terrorizing the child....it is the adults who supposedly care about him that are doing it.
Simple reality does not fit the meme that the proponents of illegal immigration want us to see, so they use emotion and the best way to wring that emotion out of people is to manipulate a little 8 year old boy. Because after all, who can resist a little child...
Labels: Elvira Arellano, Illegal Immigration
posted by The Lady Logician at
7:01 AM
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