A jumble of thoughts and emotions have been running through my head for days now on this immigration issue and I had hoped to be able to sit down and compose a thoughtful essay on the topic. Alas, my emotions have gotten the best of me and they are all coming out now in pretty much of a rant.
First off, let’s get the terminology correct. They are “undocumented workers” not illegal aliens. The overwhelming majority of foreign nationals that come here, do so to work, not freeload, and they lack proper documentation to get in.
Why? Because the U.S. government has placed restrictions on the number of immigrants that can come in from certain countries. Which countries? Primarily nations in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Hmmm…anything look suspicious to you? If we were talking about immigrants from, say WHITE COUNTRIES, would anyone be using the term “illegal aliens?” I think not. And this is the underlying point of this debate.
White America is afraid of all those Black, Brown and Yellow-skinned people taking over the nation. Plain and simple. “Illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien” is this year’s code word for “those other people we need to fear” just the way “urban” and “inner city” have always been code words for “those US born Black people we need to fear.”
What pisses me off are the number of Black folks who just don’t seem to get this. WAKE THE FUCK UP! The draconian immigration reforms being proposed in Congress are not ones we need to embrace. They were not proposed for our benefit at all. Don’t be suckered into thinking you will be at all protected if they become law. It’s just another way to divide and conquer the “colored” people.
The other very obvious truth about the timing of this debate is that it is yet another strategy by the Right to divert people’s attention from the failed policies of the Bush administration. This is an election year. This president has a 36% approval rating. The Republican controlled Congress has a 30% approval rating. Indications are the Democrats may actually win back control in this November’s elections.
Having made a shambles of Iraq with no exit plan, driven up the federal deficit to record heights, and had scandal after scandal after scandal plague this administration, THEY DON’T WANT US TO TALK ABOUT ANY OF THAT! So, they created a bill and an unnecessary debate about immigration. This is a smokescreen issue, a ploy to divide the country along racial and ideological lines, galvanize their conservative voting base and maintain control of Congress. CAN’T YOU SEE THIS!?!?
The ONLY illegal immigrants who have ever come to these shores came when Europeans arrived. The same folks who claimed to “discover” a land that already had indigenous people living and thriving on it, drove those same indigenous people off the land by waging war and spreading disease, then created governments and a system of laws to justify their illegal land grab. Did Columbus or the Pilgrims get Green Cards? How dare their descendents call anybody illegal!
This country would close up tighter than an asshole on a cold toilet seat if all the undocumented workers were sent back to their home countries. The food we eat from the time it is picked to the time it reaches either our grocery store or our dinner table at a restaurant, has been touched many times by immigrant hands. Remove those folks and you starve. As a result of whatever is left of the domestic textile industry in America, we have clothes on our back. A plethora of necessary and largely unseen tasks are done by undocumented workers that are essential to the daily functioning of this country.
But the argument that “these people are stealing jobs from Americans” is pure bullshit. They are mostly doing jobs native born Americans have long ago decided they no longer want to do. Immigrants are willing to take on the work Americans deem beneath them. How many Americans do you know willing to pick vegetables in the hot sun or bus tables at restaurants for minimum wage?
Corporate America has shipped the good-paying low skilled jobs overseas. Blame them for the loss of your jobs.
Undocumented workers have come to this country for the same reason as every other ethnic group that didn’t arrive in shackles, to make a better living for themselves and their families. Plain and simple.
IF unbalanced US trade policies and World Bank debt service didn’t keep most Latin, Asian and African nations well below the poverty level, perhaps these folks would have something to look forward to in their home countries. But the US is the richest nation on the planet and the jobs are here. How well could you live on $100 a year?
The level of overt racism and abject stupidity being expressed by those in favor of building fences and shipping people back has me ready to kill. OPEN YOUR FUCKING BRAINS PEOPLE!
Rant not quite off. Approach carefully.
9 comments ↓
I’m co-signing your truth (rant)! What gets me is hearing US Congress members talk about “illegal immigrants” changing our culture, which means not speaking English?
Dayum, boy!! Tear it up! You got directly to the point. Although you didn’t mention it, Jasmyne’s post was titled “Gays First, Then Illegals.” That is just one of the many problems with her editorial.
I agree with your focus on directly challenging the memes which go along with the current imigration debate. Have you seen the “open letter from LGBT Community” published yesterday?
Ms. World: “Changing our culture” indeed. Totally ignoring how the US exports its culture around the world and makes its acceptance part of foreign trade policy.
MadProfessah: I saw the letter when it was first released. I know several of the folks who were signers.
Despite the immigration being a smoke screen issue for the Replubican to divert attention away from their many failures that doesn’t lessen the significance of the debate.
This country may have been built by immigrants but that doesn’t mean we can continue have an open door policy for any and all persons that want to set up shop in the US. This country can not house everyone that feels they’re entitled to a better life.
I still take great offense to offering amnesty to ‘undocumented’ persons.
I’ll be back…
Yes, but Shawn doesn’t it strike you as odd that the only time this country wants to talk about an immigration “problem” is when immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia want to move here? Folks are still allowed in from Europe, with no “problems” at all.
And take 11 million people out of the US economy and see what THAT does to the country.
Finally, if the US weren’t so heavy handed in their foreign trade and lending policies, and other nations had a chance to develop their own economies, people would stay where they are. Do you think they really *want* to leave their homelands and face all this blatant racism and discrimination?
And Black folks need to stop mouthing the words of their oppressors and gain a deeper understanding of this issue. In this country, we may be minorities, but in worldwide terms, we–people of color–are the majority. Think about it.
**clap, clap, clap** thank you Bernie. Not a rant, just the plain and simple truth. We live here in the Hypocritical States of America… selective in who comes in, who gets help and who gets credit.
Actually, I’d like to see what THAT does to the country. At least then I’ll know and not wonder.
The logic “let’s not send them home because OUR way of life will be altered” sounds very much like the argument the american south used to continue the slave trade.
Keep in mind, I want all undocumented persons to be sent home not just Latin Americans.
I was quite disgusted when I heard about the policy for Cubans: if they set foot on US soil they can stay. Whereas, Haitians are sent back as soon as they’re caught.
For a minute there i was acting like i was in church. i couldn’t have said this better. am i the only one disturbed by the rather large headline on newsweek’s cover - “illegal?”
Tell it like it is Bernie! Tell it like it is!
I believe it’s Shawn, who stated, the US has an “open door” policy regarding immigration. I don’t believe this is so. It might appear to be, but in reality, it’s not.
Canada, Australia, and the UK are 3 “industralized” nations I believe actually have an open door policy because in those countries an “immigrant” can lawfully sponsor himself/herself for permanent residence. In the US, self-sponsorship is not as easy to come by. In fact, I know of only one person - a white boy on this season’s Apprentice television show, who is a UK citizen who qualified for a green card under this “employment-based” category. Self-sponsorship in the US calls for being “highly qualified, highly skilled, with exceptional ability in the arts and sciences, and having about $1,000,000 to invest in the US economy”. Most, if not all, of the 11,000,000 undocumented don’t fit the bill.
Mind you, the US is the only country that hosts an annual diversity visa lottery, aka, the infamous “green card” lottery, which applicants from most countries in the World - Latin America, Caribbean, Africa, and “industrialized nations” (UK, Australia etc.)can apply for a chance to win a green card, but here’s the trick. 1. About 5 million people apply during the open enrollment period, but only 50,000 green cards are awarded. 2. Green cards are awarded based on “pattern of migratory experience” to the US, i.e., of the 50,000, people who win, most come from countries that have had a historically low migratory pattern to the US. Department of State “sells” the lottery as part of US open door policy, but the majority of those who qualify come from countries with low US-migration rates, i.e., countries whose citizens have hardly migrated to the States, which are definitely not your African, Caribbean, Latin American nationals.
Having limited viable options to remain in the States, your “brown” undocumented workers then engage in activities such as illegal green card marriages, or paying someone a huge amount of $$, who promises a green card, but never delivers.
The reason most “undocumented” engage in green card marriages is because the US with its family values agenda, has organized permanent residence applications by preference. Marriage is under the first preference category, which is the fastest category to obtain the green card.