April 29, 2010

GOP Rep: Deport US Citizens! (VIDEO)

Flicker/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonzo/3692287675/">Bonzo McGrue</a>

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Lest you think that Mother Jones only scrutinizes the missteps of retrogressives in red states like Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Virginia, Alabama, and South Carolina, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) has jumped in to remind America that hating all things vaguely immigrant-related—including US citizens—transcends state borders.

Hunter—not to be confused with his belligerent, anti-immigration dad of the same name, who more or less bequeathed the 52nd congressional district in San Diego to his son two years ago—traded the Beltway for a California Tea Party meeting last weekend, presumably so he could rail against the entitled Beltway elite class. The conversation turned to those durn’d dirty illegals, because there’s no better way to express your solidarity with a bunch of 18th-century British-born colonists than to rail against immigration. Hunter praised Arizona’s new “Papers, please” law to round up undocumented immigrants (or anyone who looks like one), calling it “a fantastic starting point.” But at one point, his red-meat stumping got really raw. According to Talking Points Memo, things got weird during the Q-and-A:

“Would you support deportation of natural born American citizens that are the children of illegal aliens?” a man in the audience asked.

“I would have to, yes,” Hunter said.

He continued:

“You can look and say, ‘You’re a mean guy. That’s a mean thing to do. That’s not a humanitarian thing to do.’ We simply cannot afford what we’re doing right now.”

Actually, Duncan, it’s not just a mean thing to do. It’s kind of illegal. And logistically a bit difficult. ‘Cause, you know, where are you going to deport a lifelong US citizen to?

Hunter, who batted for my Navy-Marine Corps team as an Iraq-deployed artillery officer, then explained that “it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s within our souls.”

So now, in addition to carrying your birth certificate and handgun with you in Arizona, you should probably steel yourself for any potential run-ins with the soul police. That’s totally different from the thought police, though. We swear! Scout’s honor!

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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