Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Charity Strikes a Blow Against Illegal Immigrants

You have to love charities in Texas.

They are so . . . Texan.

Texans, you see, make a great show of being against illegal immigration. They elect state and federal legislators who make it their business to wave the bloody shirt of illegal immigration whenever possible, especially to redirect one’s attention from things that they really care about.

Really bad things that they really care about.

This doesn’t keep Texans from hiring illegal immigrants at rates far below minimum wage for unskilled labor (or what would be considered fair in skilled construction jobs) everywhere you look. Texans love illegal labor. They hate illegal immigrants.

So it comes as little surprise that a well known holiday charity whose famous logo consists of a Santa ringing a tiny bell next to a red kettle, the Salvation Army, requires a Social Security number or a birth certificate from each and every needy child who steps forward with a small hand (maybe a small brown hand) outstretched.

They claim that they are merely trying to deter fraud. Fraud in getting more than one gift from more than one outlet.

This speaks so much to the voter fraud argument of the rightwing in attempting to deny, year after year, people of the right to vote, that attempting the argument here merely insults the intelligence of most people who have a grain of compassion in them.

Really. Christmas Gift Fraud?

Where will this insanity end?

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