WEAPONS OF MISDIRECTION: The FTAA & the Demise of the American Middle Class

By David Hodges

Many illegal aliens who flee to theUnited Statesare merely seeking to escape a bleak and hopeless existence where extreme poverty and personal victimization are perpetrated by narco-terrorist crime syndicates which run their respective governments. It is easy to empathize with their motivation for wanting to better their collective fates through illegal entry into theUnited States. However, far too many illegal aliens come toAmericain order to violate our nation’s most fundamental principles of rule by law and they do so with the unwilling and often unwitting aid and comfort of the American taxpayer. It must be stopped now!

Led by Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado), a collective chorus of millions of Americans voices is crying out for the government to finally enforce our immigration laws. Our failure to enforce our own immigration laws has led to the systematic erosion of our tax base in the name of supporting social benefits for illegal aliens (e. g., health care) as well as experiencing an exponential jump in lawlessness and various social ills which can largely be attributed to leaving our borders unprotected. Further, we are witnessing the erosion of our culture and language as well as the destruction of the American middle class wage structure. A chronically porous border has put American citizens at a far greater threat of, once again, becoming the victims of domestic terrorism. The aforementioned social perils are being perpetrated on America in order to reap the profits of cheap labor who will work for about 20%, without benefits, of what our children will work for in today’s economy. Multinational corporations, which profit from the cheap labor of illegal aliens, are investing massive sums money in attempt to prostitute legislators into continuing their inaction toward the present illegal immigration problem. Yet, illegal immigration is only the first part of a two-pronged attack on the United State in the name of increasing the bottom line for the multinational corporations.

The second prong of this attack on the United States has been cleverly orchestrated with stealth and misdirection through a series of trade agreements which have passed Congress in the past decade. The FTAA is the latest in this series of proposed trade agreements which follows NAFTA and CAFTA. The FTAA will create a single trade zone which will incorporate North, South and Central America. The FTAA advocates sing the praises of unrestricted borders in the name of free trade. Although FTAA supporters attempt to keep American citizens in the dark as to their real plans, FTAA sponsors admit that the FTAA is intended to follow the lead of the European Union (EU) in which there will be no meaningful national borders. Technically, this will constitute a “paper only” victory for the opponents of illegal immigration. Illegal immigration will cease to be a legal problem only because there will soon be no such thing as illegal immigration. In the near future, the problems that we have historically attributed to the evils of illegal immigration will be assigned to the newly legalized guest workers.

The present neoconservative arguments in support of the various free trade arguments center on the premise that prospering nations and impoverished nations can engage in mutually beneficial trade. Americans are being propagandized into buying into the myth that free trade somehow benefits everyone including the American worker. However, these basic free-trade models do not factor in for the consideration of various government policies that encourage major movements of labor (i.e., guest worker programs), businesses and investments. We are experiencing history in the making as we are witnessing the unparalleled, unwarranted and engineered destruction of the American middle class. Soon, the John McCain and Ted Kennedy sponsored guest worker programs, of CAFTA, will bring millions of “guest workers” (formerly illegal aliens) over what used to be our borders in order to take the future jobs of our American children.

The FTAA is CAFTA on steroids as it will more than double the amount of eligible guest workers who will come to the country formerly known as the United States of America.

In Los Angeles County, 97 percent of outstanding warrants for murder are for illegal aliens. Changing the label of these predatory, illegal alien criminals to (legal) “guest workers” will not mitigate the danger for all law abiding Americans. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985 require that hospitals treat the uninsured mothers and babies without reimbursement at the expense of the American taxpayer. California leads the way in the implementation of this insane practice. Therefore, it should not be a surprise that 65% of babies born in Los Angles are born to illegal aliens. In the recent case Farmers Brothers Coffee vs. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board the court held that California law views immigration status to be irrelevant to the issue of worker compensation. Do we really want to continue with this ”Californication” for the rest of America? More importantly, we need to be considering the implication of the 10-15 million newly legalized “guest workers”, per year, who will make their trek across what used to be our border and replace the 3-4 million people who are presently illegally migrating to the United States. At what point will we exceed our carrying capacity to provide traditional governmental services to all Americans? Where will the water come from? How will we fund the needed highways? What will happen to our classrooms with our newfound multilingual approach to education? More importantly, how can America function as a coherent and unified society with millions of guest workers who will enclave and not assimilate? When did citizenship status suddenly become "irrelevant"? We are venturing into uncharted and very dangerous territory as we allow key politicians, such as Presidential hopeful John McCain, to play “pitch and catch” with the future of this country.

First there was NAFTA, then there was CAFTA and now the American people are getting the SHAFTA! It is time for all Americans to use every political, legal and moral avenue to defeat the stealth and intentional misdirection that the FTAA is attempting to perpetrate upon the American people. If we fail to stem the tide of both illegal immigration as well as the proposed FTAA guest worker programs, then the illegal-immigration problems we are already experiencing will constitute the proverbial walk in the park compared to what is coming. Once the FTAA’s immigration floodgates are opened, our once great nation will be consumed by a tsunami of crime, cultural destruction and a lower standard of living.

February 9, 2006

About the Author
Dave Hodges is the Chairman of the Constitution Party of Arizona. He also teaches college level psychology and statistics courses in the Maricopa Country Community College District in Phoenix, Arizona. He also serves as the spokesperson for the Arizona Coalition to Protect Personal Property Rights which is an advocacy group who is helping to lead the fight against government abuse with regard to eminent domain cases. He is also the head men’s basketball coach at Glendale Community College. Dave Hodges is also a nationally certified mental health counselor and has provided mental health counseling services to incarcerated and paroled individuals.