Taking Exception With Maegan "la Mamita Mala" Ortiz

There was an event in New York wherein women expressed what it is they want in a presidential candidate, what they want from their government. Some of the things wanted were standard fair, such as affordable childcare...as someone that has no children, never been one to understand why I should have to support affordable childcare with my tax dollars, but that is another post. After listening to several of the You Tube videos from this event, one stuck in my crawl, made me upset enough to take exception to her words. If you Google Maegan"LaMamita Mala" Ortiz, this is what you will find:

Maegan "la Mamita Mala" Ortiz

Maegan is a
Queens born and bred Nuyorican mami, Espanglish poeta, freelance writer, blogger, and all around rabble rouser.

La Mala has traveled between Puerto Rico and New York City her entire life, stopping for a brief time to live in Chile. She's spent many years working on grassroots activist campaigns around such issues as police brutality, racial violence, and radical mamihood.

Her words and opinions have been featured in the Washington
Post, Latina Magazine, The New York Daily News, and National Public Radio.

When she's not blogging here, she's shamelessly exhibiting
herself on her personal blog Mamita Mala, writing for magazines/websites, working on a book or two, and spitting poesia in clubs in NYC, dragging her daughters behind her.

What I found offensive was her speech which is shared below. She is upset about several things, but primary amoung them is the fact that immigration (her code for illegal aliens) was not even mentioned in the three Presidential Debates. She is upset that people in her Native Puerto Rico do not have the right to vote...uhhh, excuse me, but isn't it Puerto Rico that has voted against becoming a state on more than one occassion. She is upset that immigrants (again, seems to be code for illegal aliens) are paying the brunt of the health care crisis, are hurting the most from America's failing economy.

For the record:

1. I think that all LEGAL IMMIGRANTS and citizens of America should be entitled to a helping hand up, should be able to expect the basic liberties America offers in its constitution.

2. If Puerto Ricans want the vote, they should become a state.

Now, some facts. If you broke our laws, and find yourself in prison, you should not be allowed to vote, you sacrificed that priviledge when you committed a crime egregious enough to land you in prison. If you are illegally in America, you do not have a right to work, and in fact are violating the law by doing so. Simply stated, Illegal Aliens ARE CRIMINALS.

Illegal Aliens working in America depress lower and middle class wages by over $230 Billion dollars a year (gleaned from a PEW report). Further, illegal aliens weaken our economy by sending (just to Mexico) over $125 Billion dollars a year back home in remittances. A basic law of economics...if you put a dollar into the economy, it creates six more and conversely if you take a dollar out, you eliminate six. That is a 12/1 turn around, remittances to Mexico are denying the American economy over $1.4 Trillion dollars in much needed fuel.

I don't dispute Maegan's belief that at least half of those uninsured in America are illegal aliens. What I do disagree with, is her seeming belief that we OWE THEM coverage...in fact, hospitals should be allowed to refuse service (even emergency service) to any one that cannot prove they are here in America legally, either as a citizen, legal immigrant, or guest. If our government enforced our Immigration Laws as they now exist, if our government deported those here illegally, American lower and middle class wages would go up, there would be more overtime hours available for those that wanted them, and those uninsured in America would drop to under 5 million as companies would be forced to offer more incentives and benefits to retain their trained work force.

Maegan seemed to paint the immigration reform issue as a Latino issue...it is not. It is true that the majority of those here illegally are of Latino decent (IE, we have 10 percent of Mexico's population living in America illegally), but that does not make the issue of illegal aliens a Latino issue, nor a race issue. It comes down to Law and Order, it comes down to enforcing our laws if we as Americans are going to respect those laws. If you want to live the American Dream, you do not criminally enter the country, and steal your dream from a legal American citizen by under cutting their wages, you do not live your dream by destroying the property values of legal citizens because you think it is OK to live 20-30 to a house so that you can send money back home.

I am all for Immigration...LEGAL IMMIGRATION. Abide by our rules, if you want to become a citizen, learn to read, write and speak English. If you want to be an American, embrace our cultures, rather than thinking you can bring yours too our country and force them onto your neighbors out of rudeness and a sense of arrogance.