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The Catch & Release Program
What is catch and release fishing?
It is more of a sportsmen’s way of fishing. Instead of keeping one’s catch, a fisherman will release it back to the river. […] There are several reasons for using this method. First, with our increasing population, it gives fisherman an opportunity to catch more another day. It also helps to preserve fish populations that are challenged by numerous outside factors. When females are released they are given another chance to spawn and lay their eggs. This is vital to maintaining fish populations because the cycle of life is not interrupted. It preserves wild species of fish.
Hopefully you were lucky enough to miss Bush’s immigration reform speech last night, and you were out living your life instead. Since we’re all gathered together here now though, there is one passage in it especially that I’d like to have a look at and maybe start a conversation around:
For many years, the government did not have enough space in our detention facilities to hold them while the legal process unfolded. So most were released back into our society and asked to return for a court date. When the date arrived, the vast majority did not show up. This practice, called “catch and release,” is unacceptable and we will end it.
We’re taking several important steps to meet this goal. We’ve have expanded the number of beds in our detention facilities, and we will continue to add more. We’ve have expedited the legal process to cut the average deportation time. And we are making it clear to foreign governments that they must accept back their citizens who violate our immigration laws. As a result of these actions, we’ve have ended “catch and release” for illegal immigrants from some countries. And I will ask Congress for additional funding and legal authority, so we can end “catch and release” at the southern border once and for all.
All the super-creepy references to “detention camps” (see JP for links to follow that up) are likely to distract from the other more sinister language game he’s playing here. He uses the term “catch and release” as a euphemism for how the government deals with immigrants. Except, it’s not just a neat nickname. It’s completely and utterly loaded with implied meaning.
What are the implications? Well, that immigrants are animals. That we should hunt them for sport and enjoyment. That they should be “managed” like we manage wildlife, because they can’t control themselves. It’s a call to dehumanization right out in the open…
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May 16th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
tim, there can be some inference in what bush said about “catch and release of humans”, but you are the one who contaminated the process by including the bit about fish ladders. the metaphor can be run some distance to suggest that illegal immigrants should be allowed to be “free” from industrialised barriers like borders. that moral position runs up against the dilution of resources within our borders that are taxed by allowing catch and release protocols.
difficult moral and ethical situation. just wait.
May 16th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Coded language is used to communicate with a certain demographic while obscuring the message to the unintended audience.
Assuming that the anti-immigrant base has a higher proportion of hunters and fisherman (an assumption that may be incorrect but I’ll go with it for the moment), this would be a way of communicating exactly that message: immigrants are animals.
Racist messages are often coded this way, especially by Republicans. For example:
And yes, I realize the Republican/Democrat dichotomy is a false construction; nevertheless, during the last 30 years it has almost exclusively a Republican phenomenon to pander to racism.
May 16th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
First of all I think the name Detention Centers is bad PR. I suggest giving them a name change to American Freedom Centers where lucky guests can watch FOX tv, listen to country music, and practice their English grammar. (God knows my gramma is less desirable than a deformed clown on acid.)
One next to last note, I don’t mean to be a very big dick, but if reincarnation is true, and it might be, in the next life wealthy republicans are probally going to be reincarnate as downtrodden beings.
Lastly, I truly hope Mad doctors like Dr.Moreau do not work for the federal government, imagine a world of half-human half-fish people? Imagine if they reproduced and had simease twins?
May 16th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
1) “Catch and Release” is an older term, probably started by park rangers who had to deal with illegal immigrants coming over the border. The Administration may be using it for it’s own purposes, but it didn’t invent the term.
2) Vox Day had an interesting solution to the illegal immigrant problem: Start enforcing the laws on the books, and pay out a bounty for information leading to a conviction/deportation. He argues that once it’s propogated among the illegal immigrant community, many who are here illegally will return to their original company.
FYI, Vox Day is also in a shitstorm at the moment, because he took issue with President Bush’s statement that we cannot deport 12 million illegal aliens. He used the historic example of Nazi Germany, who relocated 6 million jewish people. Everyone has drawn the inference that he’s advocating a ‘final solution’ for illegal immigration, but that isn’t the case. He’s drawing a parallel showing that a great number of people can be removed from an area with proper planning. He’s also not advocating such planning, but rather the enforcement/bounty idea I mentioned above.
Of course, once you mention the Nazi’s in any favorable sense, you’re automatically a fascist.
May 16th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
It’s bad form to use Nazi Germany as an example for anything involving immigrants or racially defined subpopulations. If you want to talk about efficient immigration policy, use a different example. Otherwise, it’s reasonable to assume that you’re sending a coded message that supports racism.
May 16th, 2006 at 4:24 pm
… and by racism I mean eliminationism. See David Neiwert for details.
May 16th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
ALSO, apparently Mr. Vox has some disclosure issues.
Additional commentary on Mr. Vox here, by Digby.
May 16th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
what a rhetorical cesspool. like indivdual people can be classified “illegal.”
mr. vox pretty much *is* a fascist. the last bit of controversy surrounding this wanker was when he wrote an essay about how great rape is.
i want 100% open borders all around the world. nothing difficult about it. free market types should especially have no problem with it. all this ‘anti-illegal immigrant’ stuff comes down to is xenophobia and racism, pure and simple.
May 17th, 2006 at 2:48 am
What a crock of shit. When people don’t have an argument they trot out the old “racism” play. Its old. Its stupid. Its no longer effective.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:19 am
So if it’s not racism, then what is it when you compare a human to an animal - whether or not you invented the terminology?
I do, on the other hand, agree that racism is probably not the heart of the issue for somebody like George W. Bush or his handlers. That type of thinking is probably rather simplistic for them. But I do believe it is intended to foment racist feelings among people who culturally would catch the reference to sport fishing…
May 17th, 2006 at 4:42 am
racist……..or racially seprate? one has suggestions of violence, the other is more nuanced. was ghandi racist? martin luther king? gwb has been juxtaposed in the media with some of the most vile images available and this has forged an image into people`s subconscious that alllows little flexibility in htinking. it may be that the president is making some attempt at begining to deal with a situation that will continue to become more chaotic.
racial issues have become so hot that they literally jump off the page at you when you read them. the trance induced by the word racist is deep. words are powerful. they create our reality. language is the dna of our consciousness. the code.
May 17th, 2006 at 7:06 am
aaah, the “separate but equal” b.s. The problem is that it is never equal.
I accept that there is a basic will to survival and survival of ones progeny (and the progeny that are most “like” ones own). But you can hardly expect to import a cheap source of labor from somewhere else, then discard the unlucky souls once you’re done with them, and not have consequences. The “inflexibility” you detect is really just nonwhite people fighting for a piece of a pie: one that you would deny them/us in the interest of “racially separate” ideology.
If you want to start advocating a brutal form of social darwinism (whether or not is wrapped in sweet words), fine: but don’t assume your group will be the last one standing when the debris clears.
May 18th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
I saw a clip of GW on a southern area fishing show (he was the show’s guest for that episode) during the period leading up to the last election. They went out fishing, and GW caught a little fish. He did release it, but not back into the water - he dropped the fish down to his dog Barney who was on the boat with them. The dog then proceeded to “play” ie. paw and bite at the released fish. Didn’t get to see what became of the fish after all, but GW helicoptered out of there while the show’s yokel host informed the viewing audience that “the president is off to other important business”….
May 18th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Wow that story is great. I wish there were a clip of that which we could link to in conjunction with this discussion. Thanks!
May 19th, 2006 at 7:03 am
I searched around a bit for the video online, no luck.
This is the guy - www.fishingwithrolandmartin.com - whose show W was on.
There were some text sites returned on search talking about Bush being on the show but alas no vid…