Last year, the country saw the unfolding of one of the most powerful waves of demonstrations in US history. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Latinos, along with other immigrants and their supporters took to the streets in protest of an anti-immigration bill that was on floor of Congress. On May 1 2006, an estimated 1 million protesters poured into the streets in cities across the United States for the largest May Day protests in more than 50 years. These protests were taking place in more than in two dozen cities from major metropolitan cities like Boston to Los Angeles to small cities around the country like Brownsville, TX and Asheville. At one point, many were calling this upsurge in protests a “new civil rights movement.” However, the immigration issue is once again a hot topic in Washington and this year’s agenda is broader and more diffuse compared to the restrictive House bill (HR 4437) authored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner of WI that would have made illegal immigrants felons and mandated 700 miles of border fence.

The immigration legislation, the STRIVE Act (The Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act, HR 1645, also known as the Gutierrez-Flake bill), that is now being debated in Congress that was introduced last month by Congressmen Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) will force lawmakers to make a moral decision. The bi-partisan bill is being compared to last years Senate bill senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain introduced that advocated for a large-scale guestworker program. The bill that would bring back the old Bracero Program witch doesn’t even come close to meeting the human rights standards set forth by the international community.

Last week, President Bush unveils his own immigration proposal that is very comparable to the Gutierrez-Flake bill. While both advocate for providing a “pathway” to citizenship it would require them to return to home and pay hefty fines to become legal US residents, they would also need to go though a very a tough background check by the government. Background checks not even the ordinary American could pass. As for the “lucky” ones who do qualify for this “pathway to citizenship” – it will be extremely long, expensive and hazardous. It will cost thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in fees and fines, and it will take years – most likely much longer, considering that close to 200,000 immigrants, who applied under the last “reform” 20 years ago, are still waiting.

It is funny how Congress played everybody for a fool. It is not coincidental that the debates ended abruptly last year. This is not some conspiracy plot it was strategic move. It was to ensure that the seething cauldron that is filled with hate and violence would eventually reach a boiling point and explode into a frenzy of the almost suppressed rage much of this country feel towards Latinos and immigrants. It is not surprising that these bills are being introduced again. A year has passed by, and not a peep has been made about this so-called “new civil rights movement.” However, the anti-immigrant forces have stepped up their policies of repression and aggression against the hard-working people. The difference between this year and the last, we have new bosses in Congress, and they are proving to be the same as the old bosses. So intent are Democratic leaders on avoiding of being perceived as “the party of Blacks and Latinos,” they become very undependable allies. Make no mistake; the “immigration problem” is their “go to” issue when the halls of Congress have come to impasse. The truth is, it is a political fight between Democrats and the Republicans in a fight for quen es el mas chignon.

Race is a very convenient one when you want to seize someone else’s property, or kill them, or enslave them. It is this construct that animates the American debate domestic policy – or even foreign policy - when it comes to “aliens” of one kind or another. It not only swarms the country, it consumes cities. Under Operation Reservation Guaranteed, over 18,000 immigrants have already been picked up in the last five months has already flown “detainees” to wherever in the country a bed is available. I cite that number because that is actually the number of beds funded by the Department of Homeland Security. Funny, how their figures repeatedly exclude detention bed space funded by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and Health and Human Services (HHS). The truth is, according to the Office of Inspector General’s report, “Detention and Removal of Illegal Aliens,” there are over 230,000 people a year – more than triple the number of people in detention just nine years ago. Those who are being held include the sick and elderly, pregnant women, families, green card holders, and people escaping torture abroad.

Lies come in different forms and colors. It is no surprise that people are having a difficult time recognizing the essential truth in the ongoing immigration debate; we are constantly assaulted by nondescript facts. This country’s leadership is determined not to frame this debate in racial terms; therefore, the argument will constantly be framed in a comparison between those who have entered the country “the right way” versus “those who have chosen to break the law.” Last year, Migra Matters linked to a leaked Republican document, “Respect for the Law & Economic Fairness: Illegal Immigration Prevention,” which is the cheat-sheet for the immigration issue. Those talking points are nothing more but force-fed shadows on the wall of Plato’s Cave - a fabricated collective illusion generated by official rhetoric and amplified by mass media.

It comes as no epiphany that the whole “immigration crisis” is for the most part a fabrication of the right intended to distract the American electorate from their growing disenchantment with Republican and conservative policy. Luntz’s polling shows that thus far the campaign has been quite effective in misdirecting the American people’s wrath. According to Luntz, “While a majority of Americans believe it is the economic consequences of illegal immigration that is doing the most damage, it’s the “principle of prevention” that the public sees as the most important solution.” But if we look at exactly what the “economic consequences of illegal immigration” are, we see a series of failures of conservative policy.

The only reality we know are the shadows we are allowed to see, if the reality is unknown, or what you perceive is supposed to be the truth; then what is there to question or worry about? As one of the characters in the movie The Matrix said, “ignorance is bliss.”

Entering the Morass
Distinguishing between better or worse perceptions of realities is an extraordinarily difficult. In today’s society, questioning the status quo carries the threat of ostracism, possibly persecution. While the status quo exists, those who are doing well under the existing system will fight to protect it, for them there is no reason for discovering the truth. The reasons for continued migration go beyond “blaming the victim.” It is an understanding of the economic and social situations between Mexico and the United States. To grasp this relationship, we must develop a firm historical perspective on events that have occurred a long time ago. Although many would regard to believe this is a non-issue, we simply cannot do this because the consequences of such actions are with us every day. You can’t move forward as friends if you were enemies in the past and you do nothing about past situations.

The driving force behind Western imperialism has always been the pursuit of economic gain. The rhetoric of empire involving wars, however, has always been about other things - the White Man’s Burden, bringing true religion to the heathens, Manifest Destiny, defeating the Yellow Peril or the Hun, seeking lebensraum, or making the world safe for democracy. As long as the collective consciousness shuts its eyes to truth, any fabricated motivation for war or empire would do.

A report published in 1975, the Report of the Trilateral Task Force on Governability of Democracies, provides a glimpse into the thinking of elite circles. In this report Harvard professor Samuel P. Huntington, author of The Hispanic Challenge, contributed an essay to that report entitled, “The Crisis of Democracy.” In this essay, Huntington clearly states that democratic societies “cannot work” unless the citizenry is “passive.” Huntington wrote:

In addition to increased campaign activity, there was “a marked upswing in other forms of citizen participation, in the form of marches, demonstrations, protest movements, and ’cause’ organizations…” (61). There were “markedly higher levels of self-consciousness on the part of blacks, Indians, Chicanos, white ethnic groups, students, and women,” all seeking “their appropriate share of the action and of the rewards” (61).

“Al Smith once remarked that ‘the only cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.’ Our analysis suggests that applying that cure at the present time could well be adding fuel to the flames. Instead, some of the problems of the governance in the United States today stem from an excess of democracy - an ‘excess of democracy’ in much the same sense in which David Donald used the term to refer to the consequences of the Jacksonian revolution which helped to precipitate the Civil War. Needed instead is a greater degree of moderation in democracy” (113).

“Second, the effective operation of a democratic political system usually requires some measure of apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups. In the past, every democratic society has had a marginal population, of greater or lesser size, which has not actively participated in politics. In itself, this marginality on the part of some groups is inherently undemocratic, but it has also been one of the factors which has enabled democracy to function effectively.” Now, with the marginal groups participating more, “the danger of overloading the political system with demands which extend its functions and undermine its authority still remains. Less marginality on the part of some groups thus needs to be replaced by more self-restraint on the part of all groups” (114).

Huntington clearly spells the agenda how America will be run, and the kind of people who will be included within the elite planning community. So it should not come as a shock when Huntington wrote that “the cultural division between Hispanics and Anglos will replace the racial division between blacks and whites as the most serious cleavage in American society.”

The Illusion of Us vs Them
After the 2006 November elections, the Democrats has been asserting itself but not to the extent human rights activists, true progressives, and minorities would have wanted. One expected it to be more articulate and more critical of the existing Administration, particularly concerning the security forces. It is still a political party licking its wounds and often giving the impression that it does not want to be viewed with the image being “too radical,” “boat rockers” with the Administration. In other words, they are evoking hope among those who find themselves helpless by repeating the same lies Dudya said during the 2000 Presidential campaign - “I’m a uniter, not a divider;” “A reformer with results.” The fact is, the Democratic Party is either too timid or too divided. Either way, it is harming its status and stature. At times, it appears to be riding two horses at the same time.

Sadly, a group you will never hear much about, the Hispanic Caucus continues to enter its own morass. Instead of saving itself from embarrassment, the Coconut Caucus continues to not weighing in on the forms of social stratification that continues to plague this country. Although the overt caste systems the Spanish established that rule is gone, that does not mean that social prejudices and economic exploitation are not present. The problem is the way “social race” is defined today’s American societies. When it comes to “social race” in today’s societies, groups are defined socially much more than biologically. Meaning, a person in one society will be classified differently in another. Each of these social systems produces a very different structural situation and have different consequences for race relations - in one society they may be classifications based on real or imaginary physical characteristics, in another they may refer more to criteria of social status such as education, wealth, language and custom, or in yet another society they may show near or distant ancestry.

The problem here in the US, is the continued presence of the self-perpetuating caste-like social races provides a situation conducive to continued competition and conflict. True, caste is not race but the fallout from our caste-like system is more discriminating and divesting. It is also true, that an argument can be made that there is no common interest that unities native-born Latinos from foreign born Latinos except for our historical background of colonization. The argument being made, why would an eighth-generation New Mexican, who considers himself a Spaniard, have anything in common with the white Republican Cuban. Or a third-generation Mexican-American with the black Puerto-Rican or with newly arrived Latino immigrant who has just arrived yesterday? They are worlds apart. The fact is, some Latinos speak Spanish. Some do not. Some are Catholic. Some are white. Some are brown. Some are black. We truly are la raza cosmica!

For the past couple of weeks I have been very troubled by this argument. How could this reality exist? However to do really answer that question, I would have to look at my own faults. I do admit, America seduced me, enchanted by the ideas of “making it” if I worked hard. I will also admit how much of a neophyte I was during the Olympics or how my first job after graduate which provided me my middle class income allowed me feel I was different, yet, there was ache in my heart that told me it was not true. The more I thought about it, more I saw past the shadows and the Matrix of illusions.

Once we see past these illusions, the common thread that truly unites us all - we are all Americanos - Latinoamericanos. No matter how much we try to set ourselves apart from them, we will always be seen as being impure. Because my skin is brown, to people like Samuel Huntington, my brownness will always be seen as an impurity. The only adjective that attaches to the Mexican more easily, more frequently, in the American lexicon is “dirty” - dirty Mexican. So image being born in Texas, required to learn Texas history, and being told that the only reason the Mexicans were so easy to defeat in battle is because we had diluted the strength of being either pure Indian or pure Conquistador, pure Spaniard, by mixing. As I too fight the struggles of racism, discrimination and the status quo these are the struggles many immigrants face.

Do immigrants not go through the same humiliation, the same harassment and the same horrors of living we do? Do immigrants not concern themselves with concerned with wages and working conditions, health care, education and other issues as we do? Borrowing words from Shakespeare, they can say: If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

No democratic system should be ashamed of discussing at any forum its practices, which disable its own people. A free society owes it existence to the tenets of freedom. The people of color have never had a breath of freedom in this suffocating society.

On May 1, 2007, we will once against strike fear in the hearts of our common neo-colonial oppressor.

Quoting from last line from The Matrix - “I know that you’re afraid… you’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin.”

¡Ahorra Actuamos y Manana Votamos!

Technorati Tags: colonization, Americanos, Latinoamericanos, immigrants

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Tags: Bracero Program, Democrats, Gutierrez-Flake bill, ICE, Immigration, immigration bill, Latinos/as, Operation Endgame, Raza, undocumented immigrants |  Print This Post |
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