William Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” What’s in a name? Plenty, when the lives of millions of immigrants of color are at stake. Here, Shakespeare and subjects like love are not applicable. Here, the name game attains far greater importance than in besotted Romeo’s speeches.

Endgame is a term used in chess; it is the last stage of the game after a series of moves and are ready to use your remaining primary pieces to take advantage of the weaknesses that you created in your opponent’s defense. The new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that are paralyzing immigrant communities of color across the US are part of Operation Endgame, the massive immigration enforcement operation launched by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003. The obvious question, what does chess have to do with immigration? The appropriate response to this question, a lot.

Image making is one of the new weapons of modern warfare; it used to construct the governments rationalization for their military practices. Since the first Gulf War, major US operations have been nicknamed with an eye toward shaping domestic and international perceptions about the copious undertakings they describe. When it comes to the game of chess, there is more to mere game than meets the eye. For those who do not play chess, it may seem like a standard game; pieces moving back and forth on a square checkered chessboard with the aim to checkmate the opponent’s king; but to the strategist it is all about intimidating their opponent by toying with fears and illusions that eerily mirrors the outside world of the human condition. In chess, the pieces are limited in their movement on the board. Worse, as in the real world, the white pieces have the upper hand because it always has the first opening moves of a game, in essence, the goal is to create a dynamic imbalance between the two sides by continuing and increasing the advantage conferred by moving first. And like the real world, there are times when the black pieces has an opportunity to be in control, however, the white pieces will eventually have no other alternative but to respond to the situation.

If major US operations are nicknamed to reveal the logic behind their strategic goals, then it safe to assume that the current named operations being used under Endgame was meant to dehumanize and criminalize undocumented migrants working in the US. The table below is short a list of immigration raids conducted by ICE since Endgame began, however, I also included two significant raids that were conducted by the old Immigration and Naturalization Services (Pre-ICE) that were conducted right after 9/11.

The ongoing Operation “Return to Sender” does nothing but dehumanize them, so it can remove their likeness to us, our ability of identify with them. As history repeats itself, there are now instances in this country where the majority are now desensitized, void of humanity, and are now using derogatory words towards minority groups to perpetuate the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance (“coons,” “wetbacks,” “ragheads,” “chinks”). And like George Orwell’s Oceania, new words are created to debase or dehumanize the enemy (“gooks,” “japs,” “krauts,” “pinkos”) enabling a speedy transition to bypass the instinctive moral apprehension to do harm against another. This is a comment left here by one of today’s compassionate patriotic American.

Proud Anglo | angloandproudofit@hotmail.com | Nov 25, 8:54 PM

Spanish yet ANOTHER reason to hate the Beaners

Patriotic Americans can rattle off any number of reasons to demonstrate how our Spic! oh sorry, “Latino” infestation is the worst plague our country’s had since AIDS. Here’s another one! Beaners have truly the worst, stupidest, lamest, laziest, most incompetent, ugliest, most useless f***ed-up language ever made. Spanish is a cultural abbomination that only the Spics could love.

And in Spanish, what do the Beaners have to match up to English? They’ve got, oh, uh, lemme see here! oh yeah, that’s right, Julio Iglesias. Since they have such a brilliant-o great-o singer like Julio, this clearly goes to show the great artistic heights of Spanish and Spic culture. NOT.

I can think of nothing better than to dedicate myslef to eradicating this verbal diarrhea known as Spanish from the US, as should any patriotic Gringo. The sooner we can rid ourselves of Hispanic stench in all its forms, the better off we’ll all be. Have a nice day and don’t choke on your tacos, Beaners.

Funny how such terms to describe foreigners have not evolved so much over the years. Part of the reason has to do with our mainstream media. Journalists know how imagery plays a crucial role in what deeply affect people’s emotions and subsequent actions/reactions (just ask CNN, MTV, psychiatrists, etc.). In today’s “age of imagery,” Latinas ARE dehumanized as they are defined in to two categories: the virginal señorita or the hot tempered and oversexed unhinged Latina spitfire; while Latinos are often portrayed as “Latin lovers” or your typical janitor, drug lord and gang banger. It’s incredulous that people like Lou Dobbs are unaware of such nuances and effect that their words they use to “editorialize” their “immigration news.”

At this time Operation “Return to Sender” has resulted in the indiscriminate roundup of over 18,000 immigrants, which over one-third of them were not even the people being targeted. According to the figures reported by a Lawton, OK news station, KSWO, since the time ICE’s “Operation Return to Sender” began in May 06, roughly “37% of the cases were ‘collateral’ captives – people who happened to be present when agents arrived.”

Couched in pro-worker terms, Endgame is just a piece that is part of a neo-liberal strategy to exploit mainly millions of Mexican and Central American laborers as transient servants through a national guest worker program. Endgame began in 2003 and is scheduled for completion by 2012. Their is an ongoing debate to pass legislation for a national guest worker program. The project clearly establishes proof of the developing the strategy to exploit Latin American labor. Endgame is an expanded version of “Operation Wetback.” The economic goals of both operations is the same – exploit the desirable workers in servitude and mass removal of undocumented Latin American migrants from the US. The scope of Endgame, however, includes the short-term deportation project of 1954:

The DRO strategic plan sets in motion a cohesive enforcement program with a ten-year time horizon that will build the capacity to “remove all removable aliens,” eliminate the backlog of unexecuted final order removal cases, and realize its vision.

DRO VISION
“Within ten years, the Detention and Removal Program will be able to meet all of our commitments to and mandates from the President, Congress, and the American people.”

The Detention and Removal Operation (DRO) facilities operated by ICE under DHS is the infrastructure needed to monitor and enforce the national guest worker program in the US will eventually be the largest mass deportation in world history. To strategy behind the “remove all removable aliens” logic is designed to locate, arrest, detain, and deport an excess of twelve million people. The expansion of these facilities that will be needed to detain and remove tens of millions of undocumented migrants is already in place or under development. In short, Endgame is the widespread assault on established communities of undocumented migrants already living and working in the US.

One of the arguments sycophant nativists accuses undocumented workers of doing is crossing the border and stealing jobs from hard-working Americans. However, the order of events is demonstrably the reverse. Politics by definition is about compromises and tactical alliances, and one such alliance involves Corporate America. Something is clearly not right when unions, progressives, and liberals are in bed with Corporate America.

At a time of growing concern about the economic, environmental, and social costs of immigration, as well as new concerns about threats to national security, their arguments is that is that immigrants are good for the economy because they expand the domestic consumer market, increase business productivity, and keep the US economy competitive in the worldwide market. The relentless demand for cheap labor by transnational corporations is the root of our problem. The innocuous term, “guest worker,” obscures the true nature of transient servitude because the term suggests the person is here for a limited time, but this labor program will offer no kindness or generosity to workers caught in the trap.

According to Richard D. Vogel, the program will be conducted primarily by private corporations that are only interested in the bottom line of profits for their stockholders and huge salaries and bonuses for their managers and executives, and it will be enforced by the unprecedented power of the US government.

However, more troubling is when we have our own “leaders” urging us, begging us, to entrust the very people who are exploiting the millions of Mexican and Central American laborers. Arguing for a National “guest worker” program will not eliminate the “immigration problem,” it will only further undercut the value of all labor in the US. By failing to distinguish the difference between immigration reform motivated by a desire for cheap labor and immigration reform advocated to attain a just society does not help our cause.

The Gutierrez-Flake bill being proposed is similar to the old Bracero Program. The Bracero Program was an indentured servitude program which allowed for the temporary migration of Mexican agricultural workers to the United States from 1942 to 1964. is important because of its impact on the lives of millions of Mexican workers.

The bracero contracts were controlled by independent farmers associations and the “Farm Bureau.” The contracts were in English and the braceros would sign them without understanding their full rights and the conditions of employment. When the contracts expired, the braceros were required to turn in their permits and return to Mexico. The braceros could return to their native lands in case of an emergency, only with written permission from their boss.

Ultimately, over 4.6 million Mexican citizens entered the United States under the Bracero Agreement, providing an abundant supply of cheap workers for US agriculture as long as it was needed. Though the program provided desperately needed jobs to Mexican workers, the bracero experience was characterized by poverty wages, substandard working conditions, social discrimination, and lack of even the most basic social services for braceros and their families. Calling the Bracero Program by another name – Gutierrez-Flake bill – does not make it different.

That reality is, we are living in a post-industrial society where our corporate and government leaders have abandoned US-based production in field after field, including civilian shipbuilding, railways, computers, and other capital goods, as well as apparel, consumer electronics, and myriad other consumer goods. The expectant quest for “opportunity” has retreated to an angry claim to “entitlement.” America has become the Land of Entitlement. Now that we have fallen on hard economic times and looking to see the root cause of this problem. It is not surprising to find most Americans who selfishly believe that they have the right to maintain living in a lifestyle rich in material comforts, and to do so, many want to displace other families not just for their pursuit of happiness, but its guarantee to continue in their illusion.

We are living in one of the most ideological epochs in the history of humankind. Few people in America genuinely believe, despite the astute observations of millions of individuals around the world, is that we are living in an empire, and we are no longer living in a democracy. Every last semblance of democracy in our country that, in our desperate denial, we leave our claw marks on, is vanishing with each tick of the clock. Despite the clamor in Congress from both conservatives and liberals for a national guest worker program, it is a reactionary policy with catastrophic economic, social, and political ramifications.

Deporting all those without residency papers and walling the US in just to retain the present standard of living would only isolate us from the rest of the world by creating a Fortress America. Doing this would create an ironic consequence, the economy would not only crash by turn itself into type of third world country that is so despised by the nativists.

Related posts

• Keepers of the Gate In the Land of Lost Hope (4)
• The Immigration Human Zoo (11)
• Striking Back (2)
• Privatized Prisons for Immigrants (25)
• Decoding Dudya’s Speech (3)

Tags: Bracero Program, Fortress America, guest worker, Gutierrez-Flake bill, ICE, Immigration, Latinos/as, nativists, Operation Endgame, Operation Wetback, Return to Sender, undocumented immigrants |  Print This Post |
functional