**I posted this story originally in January, but considering the Amnesty Bill fight, I think it appropriate to bump up as a reminder of why Bush’s Open Border agenda is not only absurd but increasingly dangerous**
In the meantime, as we’re arresting and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars prosecuting border patrol agents, Mexico has detained nine Iraqis, with fake passports, trying to board a plane bound for California.
Mexico Holding 11 Iraqis With Fake Papers
Eleven Iraqis carrying false passports and heading to California were arrested at Monterrey’s airport, immigration officials said Monday.
Nine men, a woman and a two-year-old girl traveled from Madrid, Spain, to Monterrey, where they were detained Saturday, an immigration official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the arrests.
They say they’re Christians fleeing oppression in Iraq. Funny thing, they arrived from Madrid, where Christians are treated pretty darn well. But now, apparently, fleeing from persecution requires landing in California. Yeah, and I’m Jayne Mansfield. Well, I suppose I am a little, but not completely.
Oh yeah, and there apparently very few women Christians who need to ‘flee’ Iraq. This group of 11 had one woman among them (caring for the baby). For a bunch of male Iraqi ‘Christians,’ it’s amazing how they have no women in their lives.
I must admit I am pleasantly suprised that Mexico is actually engaged in the observation of questionable activities. Imagine what it would be like to have a cooperating partner on our southern border.
I find it amazing that Christian’s would aim for California if they were intent on fleeing religious persecution! I’d think they’d be just about as well off in Baghdad.
I’ve been following the plight of minority religious groups in Iraq. It’s pretty gruesome –up to and including the crucifixion of children. The number of Jews left are in the double digits…the Assyrians, who were almost wiped out by the Kurds in the early part of the 20th century, fled by the thousands to the West. They have large communities in Chicago, California, etc.
Frankly, they tend to be smarter and better-educated than the average Iraqi. That’s a generalization, but it holds up when you look at who gets hired for the more technical jobs.
The same is true of the persecution of the Copts in Egypt. Better educated, they were the Christian “clerks” for the Muslim govts.
See my post:
Eleven Iraqis in Mexico
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2007/01/eleven-iraqis-in-mexico.html
These people were trying to get to relatives…in California, most likely.
My post includes some material from a Congressional hearing last month re the obliteration of the religious minorities in Iraq. No one cares because they don’t kill anyone, they don’t bomb things. So what if they’re the indigenous people of Iraq?
The vaunted Golden Age of Islam attributed to the Arabs was actually the fruit of the Assyrian civilization. The Assyrian Christians were very advanced in science, medicine, architecture, mathematics and philosophy. The works of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were translated into Assyrian and then passed through to the Islamic Arabs who conquered the Assyrians and expropriated their culture. In time the conquerors destroyed the vitality of that great culture. Islam is and always has been a regressive force.
While looking for more information about the Iraqis caught in Mexico without passports I stumbled across an article by By Jeffrey Fleishman, Times Staff Writer, May 19, 2007. It was Mr. Fleishman’s intent , I think, to write this article about the number of Iraqi refugees settling in Sweden with a sympathetic tone. The following quote from a refugee that Sweden welcomed into their country reflects a high percentage of the Iraqis’ attitudes towards anyone that is not of Islam;
“We have safety and freedom here, but our tradition differs so much from the Swedes’,” said Amer Mazin, a Palestinian born in Baghdad, who paid a smuggler $13,500 and arrived here in December. “From my balcony, I can see into other balconies. I see a man in an apartment living by himself, and on the balcony next to his a woman is living by herself. They don’t believe in marriage like we do, they don’t believe in family. My language teacher tells me he has a dog and doesn’t need a child.”
I’m sure the Swedes would not agree with this statement.
Another alarming piece of Mr. Fleishman’s article concerns the smuggling of Iraqis into foreign countries;
“Paying smugglers as much as $15,000 per person, Iraqi refugees bound for Europe travel with doctored papers and forged passports from different countries. They spend weeks or months waiting in Jordan or Turkey before being hidden in cars and trucks and driven by circuitous routes across the continent. The lucky among them board planes in Amman, the Jordanian capital, or Istanbul, Turkey’s main city, and land in Stockholm, where they turn themselves in to immigration officials and apply for asylum.”.
I am grateful the Mexican government has caught this group. I wonder, though, how many have not been caught.