By ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ
Column of the Americas – Spring 2006
A march and caravan of justice departs from San Diego this week. It’s destination: the nation’s capital. It’s goal: To bring about a humane solution to immigration. Not a moment too soon. In close to 35 years of writing on immigration related issues, it’s difficult to recall a time when the nation’s anti-immigrant hysteria was at a higher peak.
The operative word is hysteria.
The tough issues resulting from immigration are difficult, but resolvable, yet the nation’s politicians have never had the will to confront their political skinhead colleagues who traffic in fear and hate. It has become fashionable to nowadays link immigration with terrorism, with some even suggesting a 2000-mile militarized wall along the U.S./Mexico border.
The actual issue has been studied to death, literally. Thousands of migrants continue to unnecessarily die on the border. For big business and for the convenience of middle class America, it is desirable to maintain a large, exploitable, unorganized and expendable work force. This guarantees maximum exploitation and cheap consumer prices.
It has long been recognized that the problems related to immigration are primarily of an economic, not criminal nature. As such, that was the promise of the highly flawed NAFTA… that an immigration agreement would be immediately hammered out after it went into effect in 1994.
That nothing has happened is no surprise. It fits the nation’s pattern of how it has historically viewed and treated its southern neighbors: goods and capital are welcome, but not human beings.
The truth is, the nation is in a crisis, yet, very little of it has to do with immigration. At the beginning of the year, Howard Dean prognosticated correctly that in 2006, the Republican Party would turn to immigrant scapegoating as a way to distract the nation from the Constitutional crises we face as a result of a myriad of abuse of power and corruption scandals. Most of them from the administration’s clearly illegal and immoral war against Iraq.
That’s where the brown hordes come in; without Mexicans, who else could these scoundrels scapegoat?
A generation ago, the anti-Mexican hate was very vicious, but mostly private. Today, we have CNN’s Lou Dobbs daily anti-immigrant tirades and right-wing radio. All of this is within the context of the administration’s constant drumbeat of fear. In the War on Terror, apparently the only two things to fear: Mexicans and Central Americans.
This false terrorism/immigration equation is permitting amoral politicians to push blatantly anti-immigrant and dehumanizing bills throughout the nation. In Arizona alone, aside from the Minutemen militias, there are some 30 anti-immigrant bills pending. In the House, Republican Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin has shepherded a draconian anti-immigrant bill that would criminalize migrants, amongst other things.
Other proposals even include measures to overturn the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees birthright citizenship.
There was a time when these attitudes were restricted to white supremacists who feared an invasion of brown hordes. But the drumbeat nowadays is so intense that it has spread to virtually all sectors of society, including other people of color. Several weeks ago, while driving to an event in Los Angeles, an African American doctor on “progressive” talk radio was ranting about how Mexicans were not only displacing African Americans from society’s worst jobs, but that also, Mexican illegal aliens could effortlessly buy homes anywhere they choose.
It was heart-breaking to hear the rationale. Apparently, he couldn’t hear the echoes.
It’s all part of the politics of blame. All subterfuge. All a distraction, proving that no one is immune. Even Mexican Americans routinely blame Mexicans for the nation’s problems.
Perhaps what the nation needs is a giant mirror to be able to see that it is not Mexicans who are threatening the economic well-being, the security, the rights, freedoms and Constitutional rights of Americans.
One such mirror will be that migrant caravan which seeks to bring consciousness to the nation regarding those anti-immigrant bills.
A solution to immigration is actually attainable, but it must begin with the acknowledgment that all human beings deserve to be treated with full dignity and respect. An agreement – which both nations can easily hammer out – can go a long way towards quelling that hysteria. It’s time we insist that both governments act upon this crisis, but with the understanding that indeed, no human being is illegal.
