Insult to Mexicans

On May 12, county Supervisor Susan Golding held a press conference asking the federal government for relief from the “massive invasion” of undocumented aliens that she said is bankrupting the county.

She stated that “local citizens are getting less and less, and the illegal immigrants are getting more and more” of the county budget. She also quoted estimates supposedly from Sheriff John Duffy (since refuted by his office) stating that “61.5% of all rapes, 34% of the car thefts and one-fourth of the burglaries in our county are committed by aliens.”

The use of these false and unsubstantiated figures by a public official in order to bolster her threatened lawsuit against the federal government for reimbursement of county law enforcement expenses is totally irresponsible.

It is unconscionable to announce that these undocumented workers are getting “more and more” of the county budget when the well-documented facts show them to be the victims of unmerciful exploitation by the agricultural and service industries. The people who Ms. Golding claims are benefiting so much from our tax dollars are the same ones often shown by the media to be living in “spider holes” underground in North County, while laboring under conditions and at wages no American would ever accept.

Supervisor Golding has done a great injustice to the Mexican nationals and all people of Mexican heritage living in this area with her false and bigoted statements to the press.

Through the use of innuendo, she has branded the hard-working, taxpaying Mexican and Mexican-American community as rapists and thieves. We will not accept anything less than the complete repudiation of her statements and a public apology to our county’s residents of Mexican descent.

AL DUCHENY

San Diego