vans and skinheads

Our red state operative, Ken X, suggests that we all read this article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution (registration required) on the emerging camionetas industry in America… “Camionetas,” in case you don’t know, is Spanish for “van,” and apparently there are dozens and dozens of them rolling across the United States at any given time, ferrying members of illegal alien community between states. Here’s a clip from the article:

Experts say this is how the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants prefer to get around in the United States. Van services like this… operate with little oversight from federal agencies, despite new safety rules and a continuing mandate to stop illegal immigration.

Camionetas are part of a loose-knit network of cottage industries profiting from immigrant smuggling. In Atlanta, they drop off passengers at unadvertised but well-known locations near Buford Highway, including a strip shopping center in Chamblee. A short walk away, police say, shady labor brokers and document sellers hawk what the immigrants need next: papers, a job, a place to sleep.

And, here, as long as we’re on the subject of illegal immigration and the almost non-existent efforts on the part of law enforcement to curtail it (because, after all, we really are addicted to the cheap labor), is a link to a post at the Orcinus site concerning the fact that racist and neo-Nazi elements seem to be finding their way into the grassroots Minutemen movement that was initiated in order to do what our government wouldn’t, and secure our borders. Here’s a clip:

This is a recent Minutemen rally. And yes, that’s a Nazi flag there…

Well, I’ve been saying all along that the Minutemen’s core demographic is constituted of right-wing extremists, including many outright racists.

At a recent anti-immigrant rally in Laguna Beach, the connection was made explicit.

The rally was held July 30. It apparently was a follow-up of sorts to a similar rally held in the same locale on July 16, in which a local anti-immigration activist decided to protest a local arts festival’s financial support for a day labor center for undocument workers. This rally drew the participation of the Save Our State campaign (an ostensibly mainstream anti-immigration organization) and the Minutemen’s Jim Gilchrist. It also drew a contingent of neo-Nazis….

What’s going on, of course, is that the Minutemen provide an ideal opportunity for white racists to “mainstream” their agenda, using the relatively benign “average citizens” that Lou Dobbs exclusively observes in their ranks as just so much cover. …

The Stormfront forum is especially enlightening, since it is a specifically neo-Nazi chatroom. Especially noteworthy were the many posts questioning the use of the Nazi symbology at the rally, since it would “turn off” many whites. It’s worth remembering that most dedicated racists take care not to let it show publicly — unlike these fellows. But the whole thread makes clear to what extent these extremists now move among allegedly “mainstream” right-wing operations and not infiltrate them, but fully hijack them.

So, where does that leave us… under-the-table enterprises being built to serve the ever-growing illegal immigrant market to the point where they almost rival Greyhound, while the government looks the other way, and white supremacists stepping in to fill the niche. Now, that’s what I call synergy! A formula for success if I’ve seen one… I can’t wait to see how this plays out.