US military may be “forced to intervene” if Mexico collapses into civil war

Mexico drugs bust: Mexico lies astride the crucial smuggling routes linking the US with the drug-growing areas of South America Photo: AP

America may be forced to intervene in Mexico to prevent the country’s “rapid and sudden collapse” at the hands of organised crime and drug cartels, according to the US army.

Telegraph | Jan 16, 2009

Mexico in danger of collapse, says US army

By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor

A report on the “Joint Operating Environment”, compiled by the army’s high command, places Mexico alongside Pakistan as a possible failed state of the future. America, which shares a 2,000 mile border with Mexico, would be the obvious destination for massive refugee flows if its neighbour descended into civil war.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed Mexico’s army in a new offensive against organised crime. This battle against four major drug cartels, along with a myriad of local syndicates, claimed the lives of 5,367 members of the security forces or suspected criminals last year alone.

“Two large and important states bear consideration for rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico,” reads the US army’s report.

“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state.”

Mexico, with a population of 110 million, provides America with more migrants than any other country. It also lies astride the crucial smuggling routes linking the US with the drug-growing areas of South America, notably Colombia, which remains the world’s biggest source of cocaine.

If Mexico became a failed state, millions would flee across the northern border and organised crime gangs would have a secure base from which to penetrate America. This could leave Washington with little choice but to intervene, possibly by military means.

“Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone,” says the report.

Mexico’s crime gangs have retaliated for Mr Calderon’s offensive by targeting members of the security forces for murder. Dozens of soldiers have been beheaded. Many ordinary police officers and security officials accept bribes from the drug rings. This corruption, which may reach into the highest levels of the government itself, is a crucial factor obstructing Mr Calderon’s campaign. Ultimately, it may also have the effect of destroying the state itself.

The US army’s report stresses that countries can collapse very quickly, pointing to the example of Yugoslavia which broke up during the civil wars of 1991 – 95. “The collapse of Yugoslavia into a chaotic tangle of warring nationalities suggests how suddenly and catastrophically state collapse can happen – in this case a state which had hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo, and which then quickly became the epicentre of the ensuing civil war.”

Mr Calderon won Mexico’s presidency by a tiny margin of less than one per cent during a controversial election held in July 2006. Despite this slender mandate, he has made the fight against organised crime the central goal of his leadership.

Britain “must set population limit to safeguard national security” say experts

Experts are demanding a Royal Commission to establish ‘an environmentally sustainable level of population’

Daily Mail | Jan 5, 2009

Britain must set a maximum population level if it is to avoid destroying the environment and putting national security at risk, say experts.

The Optimum Population Trust has written to ministers calling for a policy of ‘zero net migration’ – matching numbers allowed into Britain each year to numbers leaving.

The UK’s population is projected to increase from 60 to 70million over the next 20 years, and to 85million by 2081.

Experts are demanding a Royal Commission to establish ‘an environmentally sustainable level of population’

The trust, a panel of academics and environmentalists, says achieving zero net migration would cut Britain’s population in 2081 to 57million.

Mass immigration ‘feeds through into rising greenhouse gas emissions’ and more congestion, the experts say.

The trust warns that because Britain can produce only 30 per cent of the food, energy and other goods that it needs, it will become increasingly vulnerable to ‘resource nationalism’ as foreign powers hoard their own scarce resources.

‘This imperils future national security as well as destroying the environment,’ it says.

The trust is demanding a Royal Commission to establish ‘an environmentally sustainable level of population’.

The Home Office said its new points-based immigration system would help manage immigration, ‘which will contribute to future population projections and control’.

Gov. Bill Richardson lets slip that “Obama is an immigrant”

“Obama es un inmigrante.”

“Barack Obama is the best candidate for the Hispanic community because our community wants a united country. Obama is an immigrant. When he speaks to Latinos, he doesn’t just speak about immigration and civil rights. . . .”

Obama’s own Cabinet member: He’s ‘an immigrant’

WorldNet Daily | Dec 9, 2008

By Janet Porter

Don’t believe Barack Obama’s grandmother? Don’t believe the ambassador to Kenya? How about Barack Obama’s own Cabinet member?

That’s right – former presidential candidate and Obama’s choice for secretary of commerce, Gov. Bill Richardson, slipped up. In an effort to reach out to the Hispanic community, he admitted what Barack Obama has been trying to hide all these months: “Barack Obama is an immigrant.” See it for yourself:

You don’t need a translator to understand what Richardson admitted: Barack Obama is NOT a natural born citizen. That means we have a guy who’s planning to take over the White House who is in direct violation of the Constitution. And his own Cabinet member says so. That’s pretty big news, one would think. But the media has refused to cover it with anything more than a blurb laced with a “this is ridiculous” tone. It is ridiculous – ridiculous that the Constitution means so little that we can’t even ensure that it’s being followed. It’s ridiculous that the story of the century is being ignored by those whose job it is to report it.

But now there’s something even more ridiculous: Not only will Fox not report the news regarding Obama’s citizenship, now we can’t even buy an ad on Fox to allow others to hear about the constitutional crisis we’re facing.

Full Story

Related

Obama’s true colors: Black, white … or neither?
Many people insist that ‘the first black president’ is actually not black

Police state Britain: This MP’s crime was to reveal truths Labour didn’t want you to know

A police officer removes items from Damian Green’s constituency office in Bethersden, Kent, after his arrest

The tactics of Scotland Yard investigating a series of leaks that had no bearing on national security and served only to embarrass Labour were compared to those used in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

Telegraph | Nov 28, 2008

By Benedict Brogan, James Chapman and Stephen Wright

MPs demanded protection from a ‘police state’ last night after the heavy-handed arrest of a Tory frontbencher shocked Westminster.

Extraordinary details of four simultaneous raids on immigration spokesman Damian Green’s homes and offices raised urgent questions about the independence of Parliament.

The Oxford-educated father of two girls, who denies any wrongdoing, was fingerprinted and required to give a DNA sample before being released on bail after nine hours.

Police seized his mobile phone, his Black-Berry, bank statements, computers containing confidential details of constituents, and were only prevented from carrying off legal documents by his wife, a barrister. Officers even leafed through the couple’s love letters.

The tactics of Scotland Yard investigating a series of leaks that had no bearing on national security and served only to embarrass Labour were compared to those used in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

Last night the row between police and Parliament was turning into a political crisis for Gordon Brown, who faced accusations of standing by while the rights of MPs were being trampled.

Ministers struggled to dispel suspicions that they knew in advance about the plan to arrest Mr Green, amid MPs’ fears that the case marked another step towards the politicisation of the police.

The Tories issued a series of questions about the role of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said there were huge question marks over the claim that Mr Brown and Miss Smith had not been informed the arrest was about to take place.

He said: ‘It would be an astounding breakdown in the system of governance, and the linchpin doctrine of Ministerial responsibility, if Ministers were not, at the bare minimum, kept informed.’

MPs also demanded assurances from Speaker Michael Martin that he would defend their interests after it emerged that he authorised an unprecedented police search of Mr Green’s office on Commons property. One called on Mr Martin to quit.

Publicly the Prime Minister said only that his chief objective was to uphold the independence of the police.

But his supporters accused the Tories of ‘playing politics’ with a routine police matter, and even suggested the Yard had undisclosed reasons to seize Mr Green.

Thursday’s raids, involving some 20 officers, were carried out on Mr Green’s homes in west London and Kent, and his Commons and constituency offices.

The MP was detained in Kent on suspicion of ‘conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office’ and taken to London by Yard detectives ten days after a Home Office official was arrested on suspicion of leaking sensitive documents.

Police are investigating Mr Green’s role in four leaks to the media over the past year  -  two of them to the Mail  -  that embarrassed the Home Office.

The operation was authorised by Met Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer.

The Crown Prosecution Service was also consulted.

Sources said Mr Green is suspected of actively seeking leaked information, not just receiving it.

Met Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, who has effectively being running the Met since Sir Ian Blair announced his resignation two months ago, was briefed by Mr Quick in advance.

Sir Ian, who officially stepped down yesterday, was not aware of the operation.

In the 30 minutes leading up to the raids, Sir Paul rang London Mayor Boris Johnson and Tory leader David Cameron.

He also notified Sir David Normington, the Home Office permanent secretary, who claimed he deliberately did not tell Home Secretary Jacqui Smith until after the arrest. The news was relayed to Mr Brown about an hour later.

By last night Mr Green’s ordeal had provoked outrage across the political spectrum, with all parties rallying to his defence.

Tory MPs threatened to disrupt Wednesday’s Queen’s Speech debate. Veteran former Labour MP Tony Benn said the arrest of an MP amounted to a contempt of Parliament. ‘Once the police can interfere with Parliament, we are into the police state,’ he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: ‘This is something you might expect from a tin-pot dictatorship, not in a modern democracy.’

Tory MPs contrasted the case with that of leaks of sensitive information to BBC business editor Robert Peston.

They raised suspicions that a ‘mole’ inside Downing Street or the Treasury had passed Mr Peston a string of market-moving banking ’scoops’.

Former Tory leader Michael Howard pointed to Mr Brown’s reputation for obtaining Government leaks when he was an Opposition MP.

‘If this approach had been in place when Gordon Brown was in opposition, he’d have spent half his time under arrest,’ he said.

Miss Smith denied that ministers had been involved in any way in the arrest of Mr Green.

‘Economic benefits of mass immigration are close to zero’, Lords told

‘Serious flaws’: The benefits of immigration have been ‘wildly overstated by the Government, according to a damning Lords’ report

Lord Wakeham: No evidence that large-scale immigration has widespread economic benefits

Daily Mail | Nov 15, 2008

By  Ian Drury

Claims that mass immigration has benefited the economy have been ‘wildly overstated’ by the Government, experts said yesterday.

Record levels of migration have brought virtually no economic benefit to Britain, the House of Lords was told.

Ministers have repeatedly insisted that newcomers contribute £6billion a year to the country’s balance sheet.

But an authoritative report by the Lords Economic Affairs Committee, debated yesterday, blew apart Labour’s claims that the wave of  immigration from Eastern

Europe had enormous benefits.

Instead, it was worth just 58p each week on the living standards of the native population – about the price of a Mars bar.

Last night the authors of the report – including former Chancellors Nigel Lawson and Norman Lamont, Bank of England directors and captains of industry – were embroiled in a race row.

Labour peers said it hinted at ‘racist views’ and did not recognise the contribution of immigrants to the UK. More than 700,000 have arrived since 2004, when former Soviet Bloc countries joined the European Union.

Critics have warned that public services, including schools, hospitals and transport, have struggled to cope with the influx.

But the Government has insisted the immigrants had filled jobs that British people were unwilling to do and paid more taxes than native workers – because they earned more on average. It was also claimed that the extra workers would defuse the pensions timebomb.

Lord Wakeham, the Tory former Cabinet minister who chaired the inquiry, said: ‘We found no evidence of these large economic benefits.

‘What we did find was serious flaws in the Government’s arguments and we concluded that on average the economic benefits of immigration were small and close to zero.’

Any benefits had been ‘wildly overstated’ by ministers, he said in a highly-charged debate. He also reiterated the report’s finding that those on low pay, some ethnic minorities and young people looking for employment had lost out. Some had seen incomes fall because immigrants forced down wage levels.

Lord Wakeham stressed that Britain ‘as a whole’ was not worse off because of immigration.

But academics have calculated that almost £8.8billion has had to be found to bolster the asylum system, teach English to new arrivals and treat illnesses. The report urged ministers to set an ‘explicit target range’ for immigration – and stick to it.

It called on ministers to cut the number of family members allowed to settle in Britain with a relative. Peers also warned the much-trumpeted points-based system carried a ‘clear danger of inconsistencies and overlap’.

Last month the Tories said the Government’s policy was in ‘chaos’ after Immigration Minister Phil Woolas suggested a population cap of 70million.

He was later forced into a humiliating climbdown.

A Commons cross-party group on balanced migration has also said immigration rules should be tightened during the economic downturn.

Liberal Democrat Lord Vallance, the former BT chairman, said the economic ’shoe will begin to pinch’ when large numbers of immigrants arrived in the same location.

Labour’s Lord Haskel said ‘racist views’ could be detected in the report.

‘While I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, the impression is that the politics of the committee is antiimmigration,’ he said. ‘And, if they want, a reader can detect racist views in the paper.’

Home Office minister Lord West said the report had been ‘flawed’.

He said the Government believed the benefits of immigration had made a positive contribution to economic growth, with no ’significant evidence of negative employment effects’.

1,350 ILLEGALS CLEARED TO WORK

Another 1,350 illegal immigrants have been cleared for sensitive jobs by a Home Office agency.

Last week the Security Industry Authority, which licenses security guards, was found to be employing staff who were not properly vetted.

Now it has emerged that thousands of three-year licences have been issued to applicants – even though their right to work was due to expire within months.

The oversight is likely to have misled businesses over the status of employees, allowing them to hold on to jobs by showing valid licences.

Previously, the Authority cleared 7,000 illegal immigrants for security jobs – including one man charged with guarding the Prime Minister’s car. The Authority’s systems were meant to have been overhauled last year after it was disclosed that applicants’ right to work was not being checked.

But last week its chief executive was forced to quit after confirming that his own staff had not been properly vetted.

The latest loophole was identified by officials last month. A spokesman said 2,000 licences currently in force, where the right to work may have expired, had been identified. Some 1,350 have had their licences revoked. The Tories said it was more evidence of ’systematic incompetence’.

U.S. border police arrest Mexican troops

Reuters | Oct 31, 2008

PHOENIX (Reuters) – U.S. border police arrested seven Mexican soldiers after they accidentally strayed over the international boundary into Arizona, authorities said.

The U.S. Border Patrol said agents encountered the troops in a Humvee a short distance north of the border near Yuma, in far west Arizona, early on Friday.

“The Border Patrol agents on scene established a dialogue with the subjects, who identified themselves as members of the Mexican military,” the Border Patrol said in a news release.

“The … agents informed them of their presence within the United States. Upon notification, the subjects were peaceably taken into custody,” it added.

The soldiers, who were assigned to the 23rd Regiment Motorized Cavalry of the Mexican Army, said they had become disoriented while on patrol and had accidentally crossed the international boundary, the Border Patrol said.

After relieving them of their arms, agents took the soldiers to the San Luis, Arizona, port of entry where they were processed and repatriated to Mexico, along with their weapons and vehicle.

The incursion was the second by Mexican troops in recent months.

In August, a group of four Mexican soldiers briefly held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint in a remote stretch of the Arizona desert after they mistakenly strayed north across the border.

Mexico clamps down on illegal immigration from Cuba

Reuters | Oct 20, 2008

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico agreed to tighten immigration rules on Monday in an effort to cut off the main smuggling route for thousands of Cubans headed to the United States.

“We believe now there will be fewer attempts to use Mexico as an illegal corridor for Cuban immigrants trying to get to the United States,” said Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque at a news conference with Mexican officials.

More than 11,000 Cubans slipped into the United States via Mexico last year, according to U.S. authorities.

Most sneak off the island without exit permits from the Cuban government and travel in small speedboats to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Paying smugglers up to $15,000, they then make their way overland to the United States where, unlike other Latin American immigrants, they only have to step on U.S. soil and request political asylum to be allowed to stay.

If arrested in Mexico, the Cubans are often released and continue their journey north.

The lax enforcement will change under the new agreement, with Mexico pledging to send all Cubans caught without proper documents home.

The move is an effort by President Felipe Calderon to smooth the ties between the two countries strained under his predecessor, Vicente Fox.

Fox and Fidel Castro feuded publicly, with the Cuban leader calling Mexico a U.S. pawn, and Fox voting to condemn Cuba at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 2002.

The two countries temporarily withdrew their ambassadors in May 2004. Fox left office in December 2006 and Castro, sidelined by illness, was replaced by his brother Raul Castro this year as Cuba’s first new leader in 49 years.

Cubans seeking to get to the United States traditionally packed into boats and motored across the Florida Straits, but U.S. drug patrols in the area have made it harder to get through. Now the preferred route is by boat to Mexico and then overland to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Human traffickers are believed to be working with drug smuggling gangs that control organized crime and police protection rackets in Mexico.

Several Cubans have been murdered in Mexico in recent months with police pointing fingers at smugglers with suspected ties to drug cartels.

A joint declaration by the two governments said the preferential treatment given by the United States to Cuban migrants encourages their illegal entry into Mexico.

“The U.S. immigration policy toward Cuba … complicates efforts to effectively combat criminal organizations that profit from the illegal trafficking of Cubans,” the declaration said.

England most crowded country in Europe due to immigration

Population growth: Official figures show England has overtaken the Netherlands to become the most crowded country in Europe

Daily Mail | Sep 15, 2008

By  Steve Doughty

England has become the most crowded major country in Europe, official figures show.

The number of people crammed in has overtaken those in Holland, long the most densely-populated major nation on the continent.

A count released to MPs showed England now has 395 people per square kilometre.

Crowding has increased because of high immigration into England while the Dutch population has fallen or remained steady.

Last night MPs who are campaigning for ‘balanced migration’ said the figures were a milestone in the immigration debate.

Beyond Europe, England’s population density is among the highest in the world. Of countries with a population of at least 10million, England ranks third in density after Bangladesh (1,045 per sq km) and South Korea (498 per sq km).

The English figures were in a Commons written answer from National Statistician Karen Dunnell.

Miss Dunnell said that in 2008 the number of people in every square kilometre in Britain was 253 with 395 in England. Latest figures from Holland show that its population density was 395 a square kilometre in 2002 and 393 in 2005.

The only country in the European Union with greater crowding is Malta. The Mediterranean island is a special case because it has only 400,000 people, most of whom live around the port of Valletta.

Increasing crowding in England is largely concentrated in the South and East, where in recent years the greatest number of migrants have headed to provide labour for agriculture, construction and service industries.

Official projections say the population will become even more concentrated in the future.

Miss Dunnell’s department, the Office for National Statistics, has estimated that English population density will rise to 464 people for every square kilometre by 2031.

The new estimates were made public just a week after an unprecedented alliance of all-party public figures called for balanced migration.

The campaigners, led by Labour former minister Frank Field and Tory MP Nicholas Soames, have called for the number of foreigners allowed to settle in the country to be held at around the same level as the number who leave.

The two MPs said yesterday: ‘The Government have now been obliged to recognise that England is projected to catch up with Holland this year as the most crowded country in Europe.

‘This is a milestone in the immigration debate as immigration accounts for 70 per cent of our population growth.

‘The Government’s points-based system places no limit on the number of people who are allowed to settle in the UK. If ever there was a case for balanced migration, it is now.’

The campaigners estimate current immigration into Britain at around 300,000 a year – although not all will stay permanently – and calculate that a balanced migration policy would result in a British population of around 65million by 2050. Current Government policies would mean a British population of nearly 80 million by then.

England has taken its position as the most crowded country in Europe at a point when the risk of economic recession has led to growing concern over diminishing numbers of jobs and pressure on public services.

A spokesman for the UK Border Agency, the organisation set up by the Home Office to tighten immigration by admitting only those with skills, said: ‘Our tough new points system plus our plans for newcomers to earn their citizenship will reduce overall numbers of economic migrants coming to Britain, and the numbers awarded permanent settlement.’

Illegal Immigrants Returning to Mexico in Record Numbers

Reports are already out in Mexico that the large number of illegal immigrants returning home could drive down wages and put pressure on social services — the same concerns many Americans have with illegals living and working in the U.S.

Fox News | Aug 22, 2008

By Kris Gutierrez

DALLAS —  Illegal immigrants are returning home to Mexico in numbers not seen for decades — and the Mexican government may have to deal with a crush on its social services and lower wages once the immigrants arrive.

The Mexican Consulate’s office in Dallas is seeing increasing numbers of Mexican nationals requesting paperwork to go home for good, especially parents who want to know what documentation they’ll need to enroll their children in Mexican schools.

“Those numbers have increased percentage-wise tremendously,” said Enrique Hubbard, the Mexican consul general in Dallas. “In fact, it’s almost 100 percent more this year than it was the previous two years.”

The illegal immigrant population in the U.S. has dropped 11 percent since August of last year, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Its research shows 1.3 million illegal immigrants have returned to their home countries.

Some say illegal immigrants are leaving because a soft economy has led to fewer jobs, causing many laborers to seek work elsewhere.

Others argue that a tough stance on immigration through law enforcement has spread fear throughout the illegal population.

“There’s no question there’s a variety of suggestions that people are in fact returning,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “Remittances, which is the money immigrants send home to Mexico, have gone down dramatically over the past year. Again, probably part the economy, but also part enforcement, leading to fewer people being here.”

Advocates for immigrants are disturbed by the trend. Albert Ruiz, an organizer for the League of United Latin American Citizens, agrees that more undocumented immigrants are going home — but says families are being torn apart in the process.

If a father is deported, Ruiz says, his family members in America are forced either to fend for themselves or follow him to a country where they’ve never even lived.

“So the mother is saying we should return home with the breadwinner of the family to Mexico, and the children are saying, I don’t want to leave, I’m a U.S. citizen, I don’t know that country,” said Ruiz.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon plans to help returning nationals by providing food, medical care and temporary shelter if needed. But reports are already out in Mexico that the large number of illegal immigrants returning home could drive down wages and put pressure on social services — the same concerns many Americans have with illegals living and working in the U.S.

By 2042 Hispanics in US to triple making Whites a minority group

Hispanics projected to triple by 2050, when they’ll be nearly a third (133 million) of the population

Noting a recent poll in which half of whites opposed federal aid to minorities, Cardenas’ colleague John Koval joked that they should think twice. “Pretty soon they’re going to be the minority,” he said.

McClatchy Newspapers | Aug 13, 2008

By KAT GLASS

WASHINGTON — In a few decades, all Americans will be minorities, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections to be released Thursday.

Non-Hispanic whites will drop below half of the population as early as 2042, the projections show. That’s about 10 years earlier than demographers previously had predicted, said Grayson Vincent, a demographer for the Census Bureau.

Here’s what’s expected:

•Non-Hispanic whites, who are two-thirds of the population today, are older, dying off faster and producing fewer children than other groups, Vincent said. By 2050, they’ll number 203 million in a nation of 439 million.

•Hispanics are projected to triple by 2050, when they’ll be nearly a third (133 million) of the population. Spurring Hispanic growth is the group’s large natural increase — birth rate minus death rate — which Vincent attributed mainly to its youth and fertility. Immigration is an important factor, she said.

•The black population is projected to increase by just 1 percentage point, from 14% this year to 15% (66 million) in 2050. At that point, Hispanics will outnumber blacks by 2-to-1, the report said.

•The Asian population will grow from 5% to 9% of the population (41 million) by 2050, according to the projections.

•American Indians and Alaska Natives are projected to rise from 1.6% to 2% (9 million) of the population.

All the changes will show up first and fastest among children, less than half of whom will be non-Hispanic whites by 2023.

Policymakers need to start adapting now, demographers and race scholars said, especially in education.

“It’s a different kind of student body than we’ve known during the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s, when a lot of our education policies were shaped,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington research center.

“If we don’t invest in educating and training African-American kids, immigrants and Latino kids, we won’t have a middle class,” said Mark Sawyer, the director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics at the University of California at Los Angeles. “We’ll have a very, very poor disposable class that’s largely black or brown.”

The face of America will look different, too.

“I think the American complexion will be a multiplicity of complexions rather than one complexion,” said Gilberto Cardenas, director of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

The study predicts that the number of Americans who say they’re biracial or multiracial will more than triple from 5 million to 16 million people by 2050.

Some sociologists already have scrapped “minority” for terms such as “dominant” and “nondominant group” to discuss race and ethnicity, Sawyer said.

Noting a recent poll in which half of whites opposed federal aid to minorities, Cardenas’ colleague John Koval joked that they should think twice. “Pretty soon they’re going to be the minority,” he said.