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If he weren’t so woefully injurious to the sensibilities of others, I might actually consider it a blessing to have Rep. Dana Rohrabacher around. By “around,” of course, I mean as a dead weight lashed around the legs of the Republican Party as it struggles to swim from the shipwreck of 2012 to shore. He’d be the Democratic Party’s secret weapon, if he could keep his barking mad stupidity a secret.
Just as the Republican Party suddenly gets clued in to the idea that bashing of “illegal immigrants” — what I call “unauthorized residents” and some call “undocumented workers” — is really not conducive to long-term (or even medium- or short-term) electoral success, here comes Rep. Rohrabacher to make a hash of that in grand and baroque style. It’s impressive, in its way.
Rohrabacher is currently raising money for — OK, being used to raise money for — PICO, a progressive faith-based group calling itself “People Improving Communities through Organizing.” (The link is to their FAQ.) Rohrabacher — in the manner of last year’s failed Republican U.S. Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, the “no abortion even in case of rape” twins — just did something really memorable, something that we’ll be talking about for a long time, something that may have Democrats sniffing the beach air and reasoning “well, if Ron Varasteh could win 39% of the vote against Dana in the 48th District with almost no budget, maybe I could move in and help rid the country of this embarrassment.” But I’ll let PICO tell the story — they, after all, are the ones raising money off of it.
This appears under a beautiful photo of young Jessica Bravo, an OC resident with a nice smile, a strong spine, and a compelling story.
PICO pitch featuring a photo of Jessica Bravo, the unauthorized resident of Costa Mesa (much to her surprise, having arrived here at age 3) against whom Dana Rohrabacher implicitly threatened deportation when she lobbied for a path towards citizenship.
During a recent visit to Washington, Jessica, an 18-year-old aspiring American, walked into the D.C. office of U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher – her hometown congressman – excited to have a meeting with him to discuss citizenship legislation.
The congressman, a powerful man three times her age, told her “I hate illegals,” and threatened Jessica and her family, shouting at her “I know where you live!”
No matter what Rep. Rohrabacher thinks about immigration reform, what he did was just plain wrong. Every person is made in God’s image.
I spoke to Jessica, and while she is still hurting – she wants to stand tall. Not just for herself, but for all the other 11 million aspiring Americans who are our neighbors, friends and who worship in our faith communities.
I told her that none of God’s children deserve hate. I also said that I know that the PICO National Network and our allies will fight for her and others like her even harder in this citizenship debate.
Just to make it clear how many people of faith have Jessica’s back, will you join me in calling on U.S. House Speaker John Boehner to publicly condemn the behavior of his colleague Rep. Rohrabacher? And then, invite your friends and family to join you in sending a clear message to Speaker Boehner?
Click here to sign our message.
The message to Speaker Boehner reads:
“None of God’s children deserve hate. We call on you to publicly condemn the actions of your colleague Rep. Rohrabacher against Jessica. This incident will motivate us to fight even harder for a roadmap for citizenship for 11 million other aspiring Americans.”
We’re going to take your signatures and deliver them. We’ll be using your notes to condemn these attacks and demand an apology from Rep. Rohrabacher. We will push his allies to condemn the remarks as well as to support a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million other aspiring Americans like Jessica.
Then, we’re going to call the media and make sure they know what he said to this young woman and that people of faith everywhere are standing up against this kind of ugly rhetoric against any of God’s children.
Please join me and people of faith from across the country in standing up to these ugly attacks. Jessica and the 11 million others like her deserve better.
Click here to add your name to our message.
With concerted action from our community, we can demand better treatment from members of Congress for the 11 million aspiring Americans just like Jessica and get a fair hearing for a path to citizenship they deserve.
With faith and hope,
Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews,
Director of Clergy OrganizingP.S. Read Jessica’s story as published on the Sojourners blog today. What courage this young woman has.
She’s the kind of young adult we should be pleased to welcome as a citizen; the kind who, unfortunately, until the federal DREAM Act passes has to be worried about the prospect of deportation. And what Dana Rohrabacher says to her, to win an argument, is: “Now I know where you live.” (This was just after asking her, at the end of their meeting, whether she’d signed the guest register for meeting with him. Classy!)
To be fair, the impression I get from the movies is that this argumentative gambit does work for mafiosi and other villainous types trying to scare vulnerable people into submission. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Rohrabacher decided to wield this weapon for show, the way he has many others.
The problem he faces is that it turns out that Americans do seem to have some limits when it comes to what they’ll accept of their public officials — look at non-Senators Akin and Mourdock, look at the treatment of Crazy Wayne LaPierre. And damned if he may not have just found a way to undercut all of the nice-nice that Republicans are trying to make during this cycle.
I’d almost want to thank him for making the job of Democrats too easy. That may be letting him off too easily, though. I will wait until after Jessica Bravo does so first.
I’ve lobbied Congress and always had to talk to staff. I’ve never been able to make an appointment to talk with the Congress-member. I question everything from the Main Stream Media. If I were a Las Vegas odds maker the opening odds on the truthfulness of this story would be 20%.
With 23% unemployment our Republic does not need more immigration, – legal or illegal. Either through incompetence or design the Federal Government can’t keep tract of the people who over stay their legally acquired Work Visas. I believe the Visa-over-stays account for 30% of the illegal immigration.
A mandatory national E-Verify system the matches the job applicant’s name with their Social Security will reduce one of the incentives to enter our country illegally. A number of E-Verify bills have been introduced but none have come out of committee for a vote; both Political Parties, at the leadership level, support Open Borders.
Unemployment is highest in the Black and Hispanic Communities.
Source: 23% unemployment:
http://www.shadowstats.com
http://danielamerman.com/articles/2012/WorkC.html
*Dana has priorities……it may have been our interview with Dana back in 1994 for the American Legion Post 291….that put him over. We carefully tape our questions and answers and then transcribe them into an article for our National Award Winning Post Newsletter.
Perhaps that interview indeed…. put him over. We would love to have a follow up interview sometime in the future……which would be really fun!
Great — let’s see if Rohrabacher follows your lead and denies it!
Undocumented individuals who have shown a presence after being smuggled in such as going to school, should be able to get a green card but have it where any felony would invalidate the green card. After 10 years of probation, the individual can stand in line for citizenship. A position like mine would be sensible and refreshing for a typical Republican.
I might quibble with 10 years, but this is pretty much in bounds. And yes, it would be very refreshing.
“aspiring american”…seriously?
Well, like many DREAM kids, she thought that she was a bona fide American until high school. Now she aspires to return to the status that she thought she had. Seriously.
I’ve had discussions with Dana – he gets a little heated with people from his own party. The young lady was in the “kitchen” – if you can’t stand the heat ……..
hey, i thought that i could play in the nba,,,now that the reality has hit, can i get a government program to get me a spot…hell, i will even play for the sacto kings.
she should be blaming her parents for lying to her, not looking for a free pass from the government
and by the way, all the times that i have seen dana out surfing, i have never seen him yell at anybody
Come on willie.
We’re all children of this earth and these political borders that are arbitrarily drawn by “the man” are put there in an effort to suppress our free spirits.
Oh , wait…you are “the man.”
Never mind.
Why did this young lady think she was here legally? If she was brought here when she was three, she wasn’t born here. Where her parents US citizens? it doesn’t sound like it obviously. Who led her to believe (until High School) that she was a legal citizen? What would her parents say to those of us who have gone through the legal process to get citizenship the proper way? BTW – nice attempt at presenting only one side of the discussion…there is much missing from this ‘blog’ piece.
Yes, obviously her parents are not U.S. citizens. She didn’t know that she wasn’t one because, like most of us, she had little or no memories before age 4 and didn’t remember being born in Mexico.
“By the way, you’re not a U.S. citizen” is a hard discussion for parents to have with their kids — and it’s potentially a dangerous one if a slip by the kid could lead to removal for the entire family. My understanding is that it often comes up in the context of wanting to get a driver’s license.
The question is whether one wants to punish the American-acculturated, not-Mexican-acculturated, child for the parents bringing her into the country. I don’t; apparently you do. See, there’s the other side of the discussion. Do you agree that a Congressmember saying “now I know where you live!” threateningly to such a young woman is vile?
Pretty name, C-sharp. There aren’t many pieces in C-# major, as you may know, because most people can’t handle dealing with 7 sharps – it’s like a sugar rush – composers have tended to write in D-flat major for the exact same sound. Except for Bach when he wrote his prelude and fugue in the first Well Tempered Clavier book, and that’s just because he was transposing pieces that he originally wrote in C Major.
So, you have come to the blog to defend both Catholic church pederasty and Republican immigrant bashing? Very sad choice for a C-sharp.
One might call that choice completely unnatural.