By Vern Nelson
OC Voice Columnist
In the first Naked Gun film, Lieutenant Frank Drebin, while impersonating an umpire in a major league 
baseball game in order to prevent an assassination, finds himself at a loss what to do when the batter swings and misses. After a long, uncomfortable silence, feeling a thousand expectant eyes fixed upon him, he finally stammers, hesitantly, “…Strike one?” And the crowd erupts into cheers.
Immediately Drebin is transformed by the crowd’s approval into a super-umpire. Inspired, he begins shouting and singing out calls with dance moves and acrobatics, driving the delighted fans crazy:
“STEERIIIIKE TWOOO!!!” There is no middle ground or gradual change as there would be for you or I; the public’s roaring approbation transfigures him instantaneously from mute uncertainty to no-hold-barred showmanship, wallowing in the fans’ adulation for the rest of the game.
It was just like that for Senator Tom Harman when he first discovered the awesome crowd-pleasing power of anti-immigrant rhetoric in mid-2006: the assemblyman known most for his solid environmental record, who had never before been noticed to mention immigration, transformed himself overnight into Orange County’s foremost defender of Anglo-Americans from the encroaching brown hordes. “It is the single most hot-button issue in the district!” he enthused to Laguna Beach’s Coastline Pilot.
California Coalition for Immigration Reform president Barbara Coe, whom I met at a small Mayday Minuteman rally in Santa Ana, tells me, “Tom is the greatest! He not only says the right thing, he gets out there and does it.” Pooh-poohing the appearance of insincerity in his suddenly discovering this issue in the heat of a nailbiter primary against wingnut Diane Harkey, she attributes his metamorphosis to a “very convincing presentation” her group gave him at a meeting around that time.
In columns he regularly generates for the other local papers, Harman regurgitates the usual, easily-debunked canards on immigration familiar from such firebrands as Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh.
He repeats the common claim that undocumented immigrants cost taxpayers $10 billion a year, but in fact they pay-not just sales taxes, income taxes, and property taxes (through their rent), but also $8.5 billion a year to Social Security and payroll taxes (from immigrants with false SS cards, who will never receive the benefits.) Most Americans don’t realize that the undocumented aren’t eligible for welfare, Medicaid, food stamps or state health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office concluded last year that the taxes undocumented immigrants pay easily exceeds the cost of services they use.
Then there’s the old imaginary immigrant crime wave: In fact, studies have shown clearly that immigrants commit less crimes than native-born citizens; and Justice Department statistics show that noncitizens account for only 6.4 percent of the incarcerated-far from the one-third Harman claims.
Harman boasts now that he has “penned more bills against illegal immigration” than anyone in the legislature, and this is probably true. He hit the ground running this legislative season with his Senate Bill 3; an amazingly radical and fascistic bill, it fortunately has no chance of passing.
SB3 would make any undocumented immigrant in California, whether on “public or private property,” guilty of trespassing and subject to large fines and lengthy imprisonment. This would transform all state and local police into immigration agents and is more radical than anything that Minutemen leaders like Jim Gilchrist have proposed, placing Harman on the fringes of the debate; and his other bills are no better.
Although figures like the new Harman insist their opposition is only to illegal immigration, it’s easy to see that he really is, as moderate Republican Congressional candidate Ron St. John observes of his immigrant-bashing opponent Dana Rohrabacher, an “opponent to any immigration, who’s in the ‘enforcement-only’ camp, treating the 12 million undocumented workers here as an invading army and offering a militaristic solution that would depopulate the country.”
As Harman 2.0 continues to fantasize out loud about “sealing the borders using technology like laser beams, drones or sound detectors, and then dealing with the twelve million currently here,” hate crimes against Latinos skyrocket, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids of the type welcomed by Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor grow in their frequency and cruelty across the nation, incarcerating hundreds of Latino immigrants for lengthy terms just for trying to feed their families.
Harman’s newfound passion may win him votes among the hardcore Orange County Republican faithful, but he’s incontestably contributing to the climate of hate and fear that is making millions of lives miserable and solving no real problems. Heck of a job, Tommy!
Next installment: On healthcare? Useless as a stick in the mud!
Vern Nelson is a pianist and composer who plays Friday and Saturday nights at Baci Italian Restaurant in Huntington Beach.
We should let in all the immigrants who want to come here. There is no such thing as overcrowding. We shall pay for all the social services necessary. Raise taxes as much as necessary. We shall bear the burden of all the world’s people.
Ever hear the expression “straw man argument?” Ever get as far as the sixth paragraph above? You have a lot to learn, HA!
The Racism argument does not work anymore. Try thinking out of the box. You only describe yourself with your accuations.
Americans see for themselves the negative impact that ILLEGAL immigration has on their communitites. And furthermore, “You don’t speak for me” and your statements are an insult to all of Americans of Latino decent. You would never know by my name. Stop with the Racist comments.
And by the way GROW UP!
Mr. Vern Nelson you clearly know nothing about food stamps. My cousin attempted to apply but was told he would have to whittle down his IRA to $2000. Of course the IRS would severely penalize him for any early withdraw. However, from reading the fine print he learned that he does NOT have to be a citizen to receive benefits so long as he has a CHILD who is a “citizen”! AKA Anchor Baby. So please do not say illegal immigrants do not receive any kind of aid.
Paula James, what are you attempting to say? Would you like to try again?
Ok, well, I hope that we can end the personal arguments and stick to the broader issues in the future. I have a question or two for both of you, since I think that you are both wrong in making differentiation between “illegal” and “legal” immigrants.
How can any American take that contrived “difference” seriously after the manner in which our country was founded?
Also, neither of you take into account USA economic imperialism as a compelling force for emigration northward. As long as that exists, the “guest worker” or other “reform” measures like those promoted by Kennedy and McCain are hollow gestures toward the rights of immigrant workers, who will be used as indentured servants by those programs. That’s great for the corporations that support Obama and McCain, but more bad news for immigrant and non-immigrant workers alike. That’s why millions of immigrant rights activists opposed those bills. Wouldn’t it be better for workers to get global in their union organizing (IWW style, not SEIU pro Wal-Mart style) and force workers’ rights guarantees across geographical, economic, ethnic and workplace borders?
More important, how does a line drawn on a map end a person’s right to eat or to move freely? Is that in the Bible?
Yes, boss, all of this is true. It IS absurd to call a person feeding their family, a person providing our economy’s desperately needed cheap labor, “illegal.” And US economic imperialism IS certainly at the root of these folks’ home countries’ impoverishment. And global union organizing WOULD BE a wonderful thing to see in the coming decades. My purview here was more modest – an 800-word-max essay on a certain Senator Tom Harman’s malign record on these issues (and then responses to whatever the readers throw at me.)
The sentiments and ideals you express in your last paragraph are beautiful ones to keep in one’s heart. But I’m just trying to be pragmatic here, seeing how we can make things a little better right now, and also attempting to change the minds of some folks who might not be quite as empathetic and liberal as you and I. I’m not too confident we can get rid of US economic imperialism this year, but getting rid of some of the more destructive characters in our public life and replacing them with more thoughtful, constructive public servants – that’s a possibility!
Not cavalier at all, I’m eager to know how I could help “global union organizing” begin and take root. Its time has certainly come.
Hmmm…name one democratic party candidate that opposes neo-liberal “free trade” policies that enslave peoples in poorer countries throughout the world and come back to harm our own workers?
How to organize globally? Lots of ways. Google it to get started. Or instead of wasting time filming the Minutemen, unless you are starved for mindless entertainment, go to any corner where day laborers look for work and introduce yourself. “Step by step, brick by brick…” That’s a song you should know:)
In previous comments posts here, writer Vern Nelson had asserted that another commentator was or might be, in fact, yet another person attempting to hide his true identity. On the slim chance that anybody cares or might have read such comments, they have been deleted because they have no known factual basis one way or the other. Further, there is no way for the OC Voice (especially since for all practical purposes it no longer exists) to investigate the true identiy of the people, sane or insande, cogently expressive or idiotic, who post comments on this website. I consider myself lucky to know who I am, so I sure as hell don’t know who you really are.