Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner held a series of town hall meetings this week in an effort to push his vision of immigration reform.  To promote his narrow-minded ideas, the Wisconsin Republican Congressman made use of tabloid-like tactics as a means to market his bankrupt anti-immigrant campaign.

Wisconsin’s ultra-conservative unfavorite son is about to cost America billions of dollars in expenditures that will be needed by law enforcement if his failed ideas are passed. Unable to see the costs to human life and the billions of public dollars about to be wasted, Americans are being duped into compliance with sensational snake-oil statements made by the Congressman and the far right-wing political networks that support him.

This week the League of United Latin American Citizens, (LULAC) will be holding its 77th annual convention in Milwaukee. With approximately 115,000 members throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC is the largest and oldest Hispanic Organization in the United States.

The organization is already making noise regarding the dangerous statements and laws being promoted by Congressman Sensenbrenner. In a statement to the general public, LULAC’s national board chairman, Hector Flores stated, “If Congressman Sensenbrenner were serious about addressing the issue of comprehensive immigration reform, he would draft policy that attempts to address the root of the problem, which is a broken immigration system that is so outdated and unworkable, it encourages illegal immigration. Instead the congressman insists on simply focusing on an enforcement-only style approach that is costly, highly ineffectual, and deadly.  Holding town halls featuring himself as the sole speaker do not allow the community to express their concerns or to ask questions.  It is a travesty.”

These tough words are aimed at H.R. 4437, commonly referred to as the Sensenbrenner bill. LULAC states that the bill “does nothing but criminalize the undocumented and those who provide them with assistance…”

Indeed, H.R. 4437 is chilling example of a growing world-wide trend towards neo-fascism elevating its goose-stepping political crusade back onto the world stage without fear of criticism.

H.R. 4437, the Sensenbrenner bill, comes from a United States Congressman who almost sounds like the paranoid Wisconsin Senator who took the nation by storm with his fanatical right-wing fascists accusations of communism taking over the United States government in the 1950s—Joseph McCarthy.

The Sensenbrenner bill is elementary politics derived from fears and misconceptions promoted by simplistic political statements made by goofy right-wing radio talk-show hosts and political opportunists. These right-wing simpletons have seized an opportunity to attack weak and defenseless people as a means to advance neo-conservative political campaigns designed to advance their political ambitions at the expense of human life.

LULAC points out that “since 1993, when the Clinton administration began to crack down on border crossings in San Diego and El Paso, more than 3,500 people have died trying to cross into the United States through the desert. Yet, according to Border Patrol statistics, although the death toll has steadily grown annually, the number of those apprehended while crossing the border has not changed significantly.”

With laws designed to promote punitive actions continue to be passed in congress, LULAC states that the coyotes or smugglers who transport undocumented men, women and children have begun sneaking into United States through increasingly dangerous areas where temperatures are high, water is scarce and death is abundant.

This is the inhumane side of the immigration debate the United States is ignoring, but yet the rest of the world is aware of.

Compassionate conservatism, my foot! As Sensenbrenner continues to promote his half-witted measures for border security, he continues McCarthy’s legacy of fear politics.

Robert Miranda is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Publisher of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com