Senator Frist's Plan...That blasted "virtual" fence...

According to the web site Instituto Fe y Vida, hispanics make up about 14.4% of the nations total population. Actual figures are estimated to be about 42 million hispanics, the largest minority population in the U.S. followed by African-Americans at around 37 million. Aside from the 42 million hispanic citizens, Pew Hispanic Center reports that there are between 11 and 12 million undocumented workers in the United States. Word out of ABC News earlier tonight is that "in an unusual move by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, lawmakers will start with the Tennessee Republican's own border security workplace enforcement legislation that does not include a guest worker program". The report goes on to state that "Hispanic activists and analysts say the Republican split on immigration could sabotage the party's long range effort to court the country's fastest-growing ethnic group". No kidding, at more than five hundred million hispanic protestors this weekend around the country, they better be worried about something. But the idea that the legislators will be taking into consideration Senator Frist's immigration reform plan, worries me. In Senator Frist's floor statement published on his web site http://frist.senate.gov/ , he highlights his plan to secure the United States, though he sure seems to be more interested in protecting the U.S./Mexico border than anything else. He pays good lip service when referring to his bill as acknowledging "the overriding principle that we must protect our citizens by securing our borders." I agree, as I've stated in the previous post, but to include in your plan a proposal that "establishes the long-term project of building a virtual barrier to cover every mile of our 1,951 mile border with Mexico", well, that rubs this Latino the wrong way. I am a United States citizen, second generation on my mother's side, and not too far down the line along my father's side. What upsets me most about this "virtual" fence is the fact that it screams racism to me, if only because Senator Frist clings to his stance on National Security, but fails to bring any measure to securing all of our borders, not just the one that is providing the influx of increasing numbers to it's largest minority population. If such a fence should be built, it may provide the message that our border with Mexico is secure, but it also sends the psychological message that no one of brown skin is welcome. Period. To me, that's a spit in the face to every United States citizen of Hispanic ethnicity who are here because our grandparents, mothers, or fathers, took a chance so many years ago to make the journey northward in order to provide a better life for themselves, and their posterity. Senator Frist's plan undermines this determination and human spirit, in such that he is willing to lump all of the United States security problems with immigration from Mexico and Latin American countries. But so what? Right? Who among our elected officials are willing to stand up for hispanics along the U.S./Mexico border, and the rest of the United States as well? Or for that matter, how many of our local leaders are willing to organize a peaceful march as well? But the matter regarding the lack of involvement and inactivity in the Rio Grande Valley is a whole different issue, or maybe it's the same only we're too scared to see it, or do anything about it.