By Lewis Loflin
During the 2003 California recall election, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, the left-wing Democratic candidate for governor, openly defended his ties to the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (Mecha). Running in the October 7 election to replace Governor Gray Davis, Bustamante—a beneficiary of affirmative action during his college years—refused to disavow Mecha’s extremist rhetoric. The group’s motto, "For the [Hispanic] race, everything. For those outside the race, nothing," reeks of racial supremacy, yet Bustamante doubled down on his support in the weeks leading up to the vote. If a white candidate endorsed a similarly hateful organization, the backlash would be swift and unforgiving. This double standard exposes the hypocrisy of multicultural tolerance. See related: Killing Gringos.
Originally printed in the Bristol Herald Courier, January 26, 2003, this critique resonates today as identity politics continue to shield such groups. Mecha’s ideology isn’t just a relic of the past—it’s a warning of how unchecked immigration policies can embolden divisive agendas that undermine national unity.
President George W. Bush’s 2003 proposal to legalize illegal immigrants—part of his broader guest worker initiative—exposed the true war: not on terror or drugs, but on American workers. Third-term U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado), Chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, dismantled the myth that immigrants only take "jobs Americans won’t do." In an interview (read here), Tancredo stated, "Hundreds of thousands of Americans are losing their jobs to illegal aliens. I speak to electricians, carpenters, high-tech workers—people displaced by immigration. Illegal aliens in very large numbers are taking jobs in construction, meatpacking, and technology—jobs Americans not only can do but want to do."
Tancredo revealed the real agenda: a cheap-labor policy designed to undermine the value of American jobs. Employers, he argued, are "removing Americans from their jobs and replacing them with cheap labor," swelling the ranks of the working poor and trapping both immigrants and natives in permanent poverty. In East Tennessee and the Tri-Cities, this pattern is stark. Construction firms and meatpacking plants—like those in Morristown—have shifted to immigrant labor, slashing wages from $15–$20 per hour in the 1990s to $10–$12 today (adjusted for inflation, per 2024 BLS data). The result? Local workers, especially low-skill Black and white residents, are driven out, echoing national trends where native-born employment in these sectors has plummeted since 2000 (Center for Immigration Studies, 2023).
We must act decisively: deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. (a figure from 2003 that’s likely grown to 12–15 million by 2025, per Pew Research) and impose crippling fines on employers who hire them. California alone, with over 2 million in 2003, was teetering on bankruptcy—by 2024, its illegal immigrant population costs taxpayers $30 billion annually (FAIR estimate). End the absurdity of border-crossing births granting lifelong welfare access, a loophole that’s ballooned public assistance rolls. Halt all immigration—legal and illegal—for a decade, and dismantle bilingual and multicultural programs that hinder assimilation and inflate costs.
Enforcing existing laws would level the playing field, giving all Americans—especially the working poor—an equal shot at the American Dream through English proficiency and decent wages. In Virginia, illegal immigration’s $3.8 billion annual burden (FAIR, 2023) could be redirected to education and infrastructure, saving billions in welfare while lifting native workers. Instead, Bush’s plan—and subsequent policies—prioritized corporate greed over citizen welfare.
Start enforcing our laws and stop eroding civil liberties under the guise of phony wars—whether on terror, drugs, or economic necessity—that defy reason. Deport illegal immigrants, not American jobs. The Bristol-Tri-Cities region, where poverty lingers at 18% (2023 Census), can’t afford more displacement. Neither can the nation.
Lewis Loflin, Bristol, VA
Note: On January 26, 2003, Rep. Tom Tancredo was one of 15 Republicans who signed a letter to President Bush condemning his immigration proposal as shortsighted and destructive to American workers. Their stance, though drowned out by corporate lobbying, remains a clarion call for enforcement over amnesty.
Acknowledgment: I’d like to thank Grok, an AI by xAI, for helping me draft and refine this article. The final edits and perspective are my own.