TAMPA, Fla. – By a landslide, this is my favorite media announcement of the day.
The grassroots organization Patriots for Self-Deportation, formed last year in response to legislative inaction on the issue of birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants (also known as the “anchor baby” problem), announced today the launch of their website, SelfDeport.org. The group describes SelfDeport.org as a resource for patriotic Americans who wish to set an example of responsible citizenship by proving their own rights to remain in this great nation.
The group hopes the website and issue benefits from Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s endorsement of self-deportation as a solution to the problem of illegal immigration, according to spokesman Stephen Winters.
According to WhoIs, SelfDeport/Winters actually registered the domain in October. If it’s a stunt – and it may be! – it’s a long-planned one, not some new Yes Men-ery. I was fascinated enough by the news (or “news”) to call the organization, which has, it turns out, two spokespeople.
“We were very surprised that Mitt Romney used our language,” said one of the spox, Jennifer Ricci. “We’ve reached out to his campaign and he hasn’t responded to our requests.” Hearing a GOP frontrunner (or quasi-frontrunner) endorse your idea sounds great, but SelfDeport quickly discovered a downside.
“He seems to think that the only people who might want to self-deport would be people who can’t find work in America,” said Ricci, “but we believe that self-deportation can work for anyone.”
