News and views from the award-winning author of the novels The Skinny Years, America Libre, House Divided and Pancho Land

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Another Act of Political Theater

Guard

Yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would send more than 200 national guard troops to the California-Mexico border.

Even assuming things are as bad as the governor would have us believe (which they are not), are 200 troops going to make a difference? At a time when the border is actually more secure than ever and the number of undocumented immigrants has declined, it's hard not to see this anti-immigrant (and anti-Latino) political theater as anything except pandering to public fears.

Seems the governor, an experienced actor, does not want to be upstaged by other politicians playing to the fast-growing nativist audience.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez