In an effort to address these problems, the Senate hit a roadblock on June 7, when the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill that was being considered in the Senate was defeated. Senators failed to close off the debate and move toward a final vote. Just when you thought that immigration was over for the year, President George Bush would have none of that. However, George Bush and the Senate backers of the bill are pushing really hard to resurrect it.

A new immigration bill Senate Bill 1639 was introduced by Senators Ted Kennedy and Arlen Specter earlier this week. The new bill is the same as the failed Senate bill Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill that was put together by a small group of bipartisan senators working with Bush. This time around, oddly enough, the same Senators who were instrumental in defeating the bill are giving life back to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill by attaching a series of amendments. It seems there was a change of heart soon after Bush met with the Republican senators who voted against the bill. The text for Senate Bill 1639 was made available to the public today, which can be viewed on GovTrack, the information clearinghouse that indexes all bills and roll call votes in the Congress. I have obtained a hard copy of this legislation that was available by the Heritage Foundation, a DC-based conservative think tank. You can also download a copy of the bill here. A copy of the proposed bill could be found at the bottom of this post.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the plan is to submit a series of amendments to the bill to appease their angry critics. The bipartisan group is secretly meeting again and once again are withholding information of the proposed changes from the American public in order to fast track this bill before the Fourth of July recess. How ironic, isn’t it? More alarming, is how the Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid bamboozled the Latino and the immigrant community by devising an “elaborate series of procedural maneuvers to allow a test-vote” today, June 21.

Once again, the Democrats proved themselves to be hypocritical, they are no better than the Republicans they just ousted. Reid’s procedural maneuvering will give lawmakers even less time for consideration and deliberation than they had before, which means they literally will forgo various procedures that are associated in the lawmaking process – hearings, testimony, committee debate and amendments, floor debate, and the possibility of further amendments. Instead, this bill will be fast tracked through the Senate without a true debate and without providing us a chance to voice our opinions.

This bill is not a clash pitting nativist forces against big business “pro-immigrant’ forces. At the heart of this Senate proposal are: (1) further militarization of the border and the expansion of immigrant detention camps; (2) a “guest worker” program that will keep immigrants in slave-like conditions; (3) a “legalization” scheme to force undocumented immigrants to jump through many hoops to attain permanent residency; and (4) major restrictions on US Citizens and permanent residents to bring family members legally into the US, which would result in splitting families apart.

The proposal calls for new levels in the deployment of border patrol, hi-tech surveillance equipment, and detention of immigrants at the border. One of the key changes is to create of $4.4 billion to a newly created general fund, “Immigration Security Account,” (Section 2 IMMIGRATION SECURITY ACCOUNT) that would the authorize Homeland Security to increase the militarization of the border. The $4.4 billion would come out of the fines and back taxes these undocumented immigrants are required to pay in order to apply for a temporary visa (Title VI, Section 611 AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS). The funds would be used to construct more walls, build more Concentration Camps, provide more surveillance equipment, develop an employment eligibility verification system, increase the number of armed agents on the border and the recruitment of former military troops from “the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard who have elected to separate from active duty” (Title I, Section 101 ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL).

(a) The first $4,400,000,000 of such penalties shall be deposited into the general fund of the Treasury as repayment of funds transferred into the Immigration Security Account under section 286(z)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The proposed bill would construct 20 new concentration camps that will have the capacity to detain a total of 20,000 individuals at any time. Currently, there 22,000 immigrants being detained by the Homeland Security. This would increase the number of beds to 6,700 beds, which would make the gain since 1994 virtually fourfold. These detention centers are meant to cage people up in an immigration human zoo and categorize them as criminals without trials, “aliens” not deserving of basic human rights.

It is ironic every immigrant (legal and undocumented) migrating into the US will be forced to foot the bill to increase the militarization at our border that is meant to keep them out. Today, thousands of immigrants who have the desired to have better life but do not have means to go through the process are forced to cross through dangerous desert and mountain areas that have already lead to hundreds of deaths each year.

Undocumented immigrants have been made into scapegoats for the insecurities and problems arising out of the workings of the capitalist system itself that are hitting most people. Through the reactionary media, the working class and those in the middle-class are constantly bombarded with the message that “illegal” immigrants are to blame for low wages, messed-up schools, cuts in social services, and so on. This is an ugly game, intended to keep people from standing together against their common oppressor – it has to be seen for what it is and opposed, yet, it is being defied and is once again being pushed with very little notice.

All this underscores the urgency for immigrants and those who stand with them to resist this fascist offensive. Those who are behind the bill apparently hoped to push it through “under the radar” and pass it without anybody noticing, need to be held accountable. We must unite as a united front that goes beyond the immigrant communities in an effort to take on and defeat the anti-immigrant attacks.

Download S.1639: The Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (PDF, 20 MB)

Every state uses violence to enforce its rule against its enemies, but we must recognize that a major change has occurred. At the heart of today’s repression has to do with America’s addiction of mass incarceration, especially young African-American men. In today’s age of globalization, the basis for mass out-migration is clear. Since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the US, Mexico and Canada, Mexico has been flooded with cheap subsidized US agricultural products that displaced millions of Mexican farmers. Between 2000 and 2005, Mexico lost 900,000 rural jobs and 700,000 industrial jobs, resulting in serious unemployment throughout the country. Desperate poverty has forced millions of Mexican workers to look for jobs elsewhere in order to feed their families.

The existence of the American Gulag – the mass caging of people of color – took place through a cultivation of fear with the goal of destroying the Constitution through Bush’s bogus War on Terror. If there was ever a clear indication Alberto Gonzales was in it for himself to acquire power and prestige rather than improving the Latino community, it was his first act as Attorney General. Soon after Gonzales’ confirmation by the Senate, his first act as Attorney General was to carry out a massive clandestine dragnet operation with fellow Mexican-American Ben Reyna, former US Marshal Direction. Under the code-name Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally), Falcon Operation FALCON is a nationwide fugitive apprehension operation involving hundreds of state, federal and local law-enforcement agencies. Between April 2005 and October 2006, Operation Falcon carried out three unprecedented federally coordinated mass arrests. More than 30,000 fugitives, including immigrants, were arrested in the largest dragnets in the nation’s history and, according to US Marshall chief Ben Reyna. That is just the beginning; just recently, Gonzales announced he was going to increase similar type operations at the Washington headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Through the Violent Crime Impact Team, or VCIT, initiative, ATF uses innovative technology, and an integrated federal, state, and local strategy to identify, investigate, arrest and prosecute the most violent criminals in the 25 cities where we have VCIT teams. This program has been tremendously successful, thanks in part to the support of your local law enforcement partners, and your federal partners in the DEA, FBI and the Marshals Service – and we’re going to be expanding it to more cities soon. … They are: Orlando, Florida; Mesa, Arizona; San Bernardino, California; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

And as an important step in making sure that we have the tools needed to get the job done, we are sending to Congress comprehensive crime legislation. … First, it will improve a number of existing criminal laws to close gaps and strengthen the penalties and tools we have already. That means extending the statute of limitations for violent crimes and establishing enhanced penalties for violent crimes committed by illegal aliens.

The groundwork has been laid with newly predictable identified “threats” which are now firmly embedded in the collective unconscious of America. Fear attempts to silence dissenters from speaking out about the truth regarding the subjugation of a power-crazed, dictatorial administration whose control continues to expand exponentially with each passing rumor of imminent peril.

Creating An Immigration Human Zoo
The binding force of society, largely, is a web of symbols that enables individuals to control and make sense out of experience in patterned ways. Here in the US, we are are the pioneers of the public relations industry. The the whole purpose of the PR industry is to aggressively shape a consumer desire and create value in commodities by imbuing them with the power to transform the consumer into a more desirable person. Symbols instill beliefs and shape attitudes that underpin social structures. Today’s menacing symbol that is dominating our newspapers, flood broadcast channels, and fuel political campaigns – the barbarian Brown hordes threatening to crash the gates and destroy the foundations of civilization – are the undocumented immigrants. What hard to escape are concentration camp-like images of “caging” practices: people behind fences, hands clutching wires, guards.

With an ever-increasing racist and repressive system, the restriction of our freedom of movement with detention centers serving as an immigration human zoo. The primary use of these detention centers serves as the symbolic taming of the “ethnic other,” which only reinforces a sense of “Anglo superiority” that is based on a Western binary opposition that considers all non-conforming forces as almost non-existent, and if existent then it is branded as evil and must be destroyed. The history of colonial extermination in the process of territorial and political domination is evidence of this behavior.

One can even make the argument that detention camps can be compared to the relationship between pets and farm animals to humans according to Ghassan Hage in his book White Nation. The only difference between a farm animal and pet is that a farm animal is still too wild to be able to wander freely in the home. Now just substitute “nation” for “home” and “ethnic other” for “animal” it is hard to escape the fact that this is the exact thing that is occurring here in the US. “Guest workers” are considered to be somewhere between a trusted pet and a wild beast who needs to be tamed in order to wander freely. And like the duties and responsibilities of a work horse on a farm, “guest workers” are used as a tool for other peoples advantage, never to roam around free.

What is Anglo superiority? According to Samuel Huntington, author of Clash of Civilizations and The Hispanic Challenge, in his latest article, Dead Souls: The Denationalization of the American Elite he writes:

America’s Anglo-Protestant culture has combined political and social institutions and practices inherited from England, including most notably the English language, together with the concepts and values of dissenting Protestantism, which faded in England but which the settlers brought with them and which took on new life on the new continent.

For Huntington, America is thus the battleground for the heart and soul of Western civilization. Anyone who wants to become successful and wealthy in America must conform to Anglo-American cultural values and take English as their language. To which Huntington, Latinos pose as a threat to liberal democracy. In other words, Latinos are not willing to be tamed and should be locked up.

The current detention population is in response to a backlash against undocumented immigration that actually began in the mid-1990s and that is now out of control since 9/11. According to Detention Watch Network, a D.C.-based advocacy group, in 1994, the number of detained immigrants by the federal government on any given day was 7,444. Currently, the government is able detain 22,000 immigrants on any given day. This year, President Bush intends to provide new funding for another 6,700 beds, which would make the gain since 1994 virtually fourfold. The number of removals every year from the U.S. – whether formal or “voluntary” – is even greater. In 2004, they totaled 1,238,319, according to the Office of Immigration Statistics.

Rising inequality can result in an increase in racial bias for scapegoating or advancing xenophobic and nationalistic tendencies. By this fall, the ICE will already have already spent an estimated $1 billion per year to detain over 27,500 immigrants in eight ICE operated Service Processing Centers (SPCs) and seven contract detention facilities. In addition to those facilities, detainees are also being held in local jails and privately run prisons across the US. According to ICE, the average time a detainee spends in one of America’s concentration camp is approximately one month, although some detainees have reported that have been held for several years.

As the “New World Order” marches on, one’s outlook in life will continue to look not so bright and cheerful as most people would have planned, or hoped, it to be. What is not often told in the corporate media are the American families who are broken up because of our ineffective system. As US lawmakers grapple with a long awaited immigration bill, families are being separated by the many mistakes in the exceedingly complicated process to obtain visas and permanent residency which leads to life-changing consequences for foreign spouses of American citizens and their family members. The number of people barred from the United States under this draconian policy is increasing. Since 2000, 21,500 have been prevented from returning for a decade. In 2006, the annual tally nearly doubled over the year before to 13,209. Many American nuclear families are shattered because families are forced to make one of the hardest decisions of their lives – remain estranged from their spouses and minor children or leave the US and become an American exile.

The brutal immigration human zoos throughout this country US – the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, TX, the Willacy County Detention Center in Raymondville and the numerous deportation prisons – represents nothing more than reminder of the empty promises of liberty, justice and democracy made by the neo-colonial power structure that brought them here. In truth, their abused and hollow meanings behind their supposed help and goodwill continue to be unmasked and being replaced by terror, hunger and injustice! No matter how much they seek to live a modest life, fend for their families, enjoy a decent education or even struggle for the right to live, they are demonized, imprisoned and sent to their deaths through hunger and repression brought on by the very same societies that benefit from their devastation and misery. It is the bureaucratic machine of oppression that works tirelessly to strip them of their human rights and to keep them faceless so they can simply remain as objects to be stared at and talked about – just as it was envisioned by P.T. Barnum with his own personal human zoo.

To reflect on these realities could help us to better understand the tragedy. We have a crisis that is threatening our existence. Nevertheless, that does not mean that we have to accept this inept government, which allows this to happen. We can do something about it instead of being forced to decide to either leave this country or accept the authoritarianism that has developed. A true democracy should not consist only of secret police and domestic espionage operations and generals and admirals with their approach to justice – meaning, they will let you know what justice is. When it come to the issue of humanity as opposed to power – I have chosen humanity. A free society owes it existence to the tenets of freedom. People of color have never had a breath of freedom in this suffocating society.

Today, in America, too much emphasis is given to secrecy and not enough emphasis is given to the question of justice and to the question of humanity. These dignified deceptions will not suffice. We have had enough of power without truth. I intend to fight for the truth. I suggest that not only is this not un-American, but it is the most American thing we can do – because if the truth does not endure, then our country will not endure.

With the 2008 election approaching fast, the fact is, if we do not wake up quick, we can hope for little substantive change in the next administration if we don’t pressure any of the current Democratic Party candidates for justice. The current “GOP Lite” formula that the Democratic Party is adhering to is a bankrupt centrist ideology with no principles, and which inspires far too few to go out and vote the decadent neocon murderers out of office.

In our country the worst of all crimes occurs when the government murders truth. If it can murder truth, it can murder freedom. Once this occurs, they can do away with anybody if they should dare to fight for freedom.

I call on every refugees, migrant and anti-racist progressive-minded people to come together in order to demonstrate that another world is possible and that solidarity, justice, brother- sisterhood and liberty are more than empty words. Now is the time not to back down. We are fighting for our lives!

Last week, after having a secret meeting, key senators from both parties along with the White House reached a compromise on a comprehensive [tag]immigration reform[/tag] bill. What is interesting about this bill, is the way this bill is being fast tracked through the Senate and how it is being shoved down our throats regardless of our opinions. The 300 + page text was cut-n-pasted from last year’s failed legislation with some revision done last Saturday by Senate staff. Key sections continue to be changed throughout the Senate’s debate of the bill, this is one reason it is hard to find detailed analysis of the legislation on the Internet, especially on the progressive side of the blogosphere. For those on the right, it is a simple regurgitation of the ole xenophobic rhetoric.

[tag]George Lakoff[/tag] was correct on how we metaphorically describe this nation as a family because the way everything is handled, it feels like this nation is one big dysfunctional family, where the politicos in office are the parents and we – the people – are its children. And like any family, we are being told what to do, regardless if we like it or not. However, it seems the parents are not seeing eye-to-eye on this bill; both parties are very intent in preventing this bill from reaching the president’s desk. Even though the media describes the bill as “comprehensive immigration reform,” the fact is, this bill is anything but “comprehensive.”

The bill has four major provisions which eventually transform the present family-based immigration system into a “Rich man’s immigration system” that would curb future immigration only to those who can afford the high visa cost and those with college degrees, while at the same time creating a new bracero program and adding more border cops to the Southern border. The proposed bill primary focus is ending the so-called “chain migration” by creating a point system where high skill, income, and education levels determine eligibility for immigration are valued more than a person’s family; however, there are some who state this is not true and that the system would reward those who are less educated.

The proposed bill also gives priority to “enforcement” to such measures as doubling the size of the Border Patrol, vastly expanding the military-style barriers along the US-Mexico border, increasing the number and size of detention facilities for undocumented workers, and establishing a new police-state technology for workplace checks the legal status of every worker in the United States.

The proposal would establish a temporary worker program (the old [tag]bracero[/tag] program, just renamed) that would bring in new immigrants to the US while creating a separate program for seasonal migrant workers. Skills and education-level would be weighted over family connections in deciding whether prospective immigrants should get permanent legal status. In other words, the comprehensive immigration reform bill is reverting to the 1917 Immigration bill that forced everybody over sixteen years of age to take a literacy test. Those who were considered ignorant were not allowed to come in. This time around, it is being called a merit system – a system that is being used in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The bill would allow 400,000 temporary workers to enter the country each year on “[tag]Y visas[/tag]” to fill the multitude high skills jobs that Americans can do, but cost too much and would let employers have the option to cut cost and hire immigrants to do those jobs. The visa is renewable; however, it is limited to a total of three two-year-periods, thereby ensuring a truly “temporary” worker program. As immigrants toil under conditions of thinly disguised slavery, they are effectively denied the right to bring family members with them by making them them jump through unreasonable hurdles – such as providing evidence that their spouses and children have private health insurance coverage.

It is interesting to see the how the media and the more hysterical anti-immigrant demagogues claim that this bill is offering “[tag]amnesty[/tag]“ to 12 million undocumented immigrants, when the simple fact is, the Senate bill is not an amnesty program. The comprehensive reform bill is simply another smoke and mirrors ploy, in which millions of undocumented immigrants would face various conditions making it difficult “path” to earned citizenship, such as passing background checks, paying fines, and “getting in line.” Under the proposed legislation, in order for the undocumented workers to qualify for this new “path” to citizenship, they would have to apply for a four-year renewable temporary “[tag]Z visa[/tag]“, which would mean they would have to cough up $5,000 in fees and penalties and pay an additional $1,500 processing fee for each person applying for a Z visa. Even though this visa can be renewable indefinitely, the bill does not mention if the $5,000 a one-time penalty or that they would continue coughing up that amount each time they were to renew their visa. Once this is done, the visa holder can then be qualified to convert their visa to permanent residency if the head of household applies within 8 years and RETURNS to their home country to collect the visa at a consulate. However, they must remain there for 6 to 8 months before they can begin their “path” to citizenship. This would also include paying another $4,000 fine along with a $3,500 visa fee. Permanent status would only be granted after the Department of Homeland Security has cleared its backlog of the four million applications by legal immigrants who are waiting for their visas to bring relatives into the country. The process can take about eight or plus years to clear. The “legalization” process abounds with provisions described as “triggers,” that would determine if they can stay or not. It would not be surprising to see hundreds of thousands of immigrants be denied legal status and exposed to immediate deportation.

What’s more, our elected leaders, tried to fast track this bill without having a true dialogue. Clearly, both Republicans and Democrats were catering to both conservative and liberal voters, in hopes of winning their votes in the upcoming 2008 presidential elections rather than the lives and suffering of the immigrants who do not have a vote. If passed, it would have truly demoralized millions of people and their families into feeling like unwelcome guests, this also goes for the non-brown immigrants. The bill would have put everything just slightly out of reach for them. It will make them feel like they are on some treadmill being told pay a little more and all your dreams will be met just over the horizon. What they don’t realize it is just a carrot dangling on a stick just inches out of their reach, and no matter how far they think they have gone, they are still on the same treadmill and the carrot is still there, still just out of reach. The only ones who benefit for this are the corporation with their cheap labor.

If there is a reason causing the large influx of immigration from Mexico into the US, it is NAFTA. For the past 13 years, North American Free Trade Agreement ([tag]NAFTA[/tag]) has provided cover for our imperialistic march for power and profit. Predatory multinational corporations have prospered from their economic conquest as they allied themselves with friendly governments at the expense of ordinary working people who ultimately paid the price. The result – mass and growing poverty, human misery, and ecological destruction great enough to threaten the ability of the planet to sustain life.

The Senate bill could not help but reflect who would benefit from this bill – the business sector. Even though the business sector spoke against the bill, in reality, it was the elite capitalist from major corporate players in agriculture, construction, and other sectors of the economy who drafted the bill. Both parties want to assure businesses have a large exploitable documented temporary worker pool they can use as needed, abuse as they wish, underpay, deny benefits and above all use as a wedge to destroy organized labor and the rights of all working people in the country. We must remain astute that it is our [tag]neoliberal agenda[/tag] that is driving millions of people to abandon their home. They are here to seek a better life, only to find themselves to be exploited in the workplace and terrorized by Homeland Security ICE storm troopers.

We must be aware of the hypocritical nature of wanting to benefit economically from the Mexican migration; but at the same time, create a hostile environment driven by fear against immigrants to control migration flows. It is time for human, civil rights, and other progressive organizations to mount a combined effort to fight back! We can no longer sit back and watch this country be destroyed itself at the expense of society’s most vulnerable while the capitalist continue to get wealthier on the backs of the immigrant people, while they receive nothing in return.

It is, time to end this racist war on immigrants.

This type of nativism has slowly infected the US like a cancer. It has pitted Americans against one another. And why not, this is not new, this type of baiting has worked in the past, and therefore, is being used again.

America has a long history when it comes to mass deportation. In fact, American capitalism has used Mexican workers as a reserve army of labor since the conquest of the Southwest.

History has shown the Mexican labor pool is heavily utilized during times of economic boom and repatriation during economic downturns. To American capitalist the border does not exist when it comes to exploitation.

Latinos are not the only group. Yet, this nation continues its tradition to bury almost four centuries worth of historical truths. History continues to point out this country is full of contradictions that resonate in America – the tension between freedom and authority, between public purpose and private initiative. It also has shown there has always been hostility felt towards African Americans, Latinos, and practically all Asians – which included South Asia from Arabia to Indochina, including India, Burma, Siam, the Malay states, the East Indian islands, Asiatic Russia, the Polynesian islands, and parts of Arabia and Afghanistan. And until this day, we all have been persecuted by American nativist.

Make no mistake; the present anti-immigration group will proceed in their race-baiting tactics to divide the country. They will criminalize the undocumented by calling them illegal; they dehumanize them by calling them aliens. They play on the fears of white narcissistic Americans. Their violent diatribes fed off their greed, by providing an illusion that the “WE” have our hand in their pockets and stealing the food from their child’s mouth. Their racist and fascist attacks against the “Mexicans” demonstrate their bloodthirsty capitalist essence. They don’t care about the millions of impoverished masses while they can meet the bottom line, the big house, the latest gadget, the big car – all to keep up with the American “Jones.”

The problem is that society has no moral dimension. If a deer shit in the forest, no one looks at the pile of droppings and thinks bad deer. However if you come across a pile of beer bottles in the forest, you think asshole. Our leaders already know NAFTA and neo-liberalism ideology do not work which is playing a role in fueling the mass exodus to the United States and yet keep on pushing it, in fact, Congress approved CAFTA. That makes every supporter, and our leaders, morally and politically culpable, as if we had passed a Constitutional Amendment allowing segregation based on race to exist. We have yet to learn how to live within our means because we are deeply devoted to the idea that we should do what we want to do. We have abandoned a sense of common purpose for a sense of hyperindividualism, which is caused and reinforced by two social evils in our country – capitalism and imperialism.

Could it possibly be that THEY can’t stand to see those who THEY strongly think THEY have “conquered” make a life for OURSELVES? Do THEY really expect US to be at THEIR beck and call? To cut THEIR grass, mop THEIR floors, cook THEIR tacos, take care of THEIR children, and just say “Si, senor” every time? Why do THEY get paranoid when THEY hear Spanish? Are THEY afraid that the “conquered” are plotting against their oppressors? Could it be in their delusional thinking, if they forced US to stop speaking Spanish, THEY will be able to hear exactly what the details of OUR revolutionary plans?

May Day is our day to celebrate our history, our struggle and our power. WE will reject our colonizer; their day has come when it is the colonized who is speaking up. The Movement is too strong and now gringo nativist will stop at nothing to cause a DIVIDE between the African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. Who are they trying to fool? They have, seem to have forgotten their past crimes against humanity – slavery, whippings, lynching, black-white water fountains, burning crosses and so on. They will try to poison the mind of the few to make this us vs them – native vs foreign.

Follow me, as I shine the light in our time of darkness. I am neither pontificator nor a soothsayer; I am just a person who is willing to bring a little fire in this cold world of ours. I understand the pain of not knowing what tomorrow will bring. I have seen behind the FACADE, the pretty flowers, the manicured lawns, and the massive wealth. My eyes are opened to the truth to the ills of this country – the corruption, the hatred, the violence, the racism, the ignorance, and the greed BEHIND this pretty facade. I am on to THEIR trick on how I should be GRATEFUL to live here, or how GOOD I should feel about licking the masters’ boots as the chalice of independence is being held before me, while at the same time it was just out of reach. I have seen THEM roll up into neighborhoods with their tricked-up Hummers forcing “Our” people to fight in THEIR murderous wars of exploitation and profit; killing people they don’t even know just to steal THEIR land and their resources!

I refuse to give in to the propaganda and I will raise my fist and stand up for my roots con MUCHO CORAZON.

On May Day, this Nation will once again witness the unstopable movement, no matter how much they will try to strike fear to the voiceless. Like last year, I will live blog through out the day on the events that took place on May 1, 2007. It is time we say:

No to anti-immigrant legislation, and the criminalization of the immigrant communities.

No to militarization of the border.

No to the immigrant detention and deportation.

No to the guest worker program.

No to employer sanction and “no match” letters.

The choice is YOURS on May 1 – Wear White T-Shirt and support the cause.

The choice is YOURS on May 1 – to take a stand on unfair attacks by gringo nativists – blinded by their ignorance, hate, bigotry and racism.

The choice is YOURS on May 1- to send a message to every jackbooted neo-nazi nativists – WE ARE STRONG … UNITED … ORGANIZED!

Nosotros vamos a permannecer Unidos Contra el Racismo y la Injusticia Siempre!

Locations of May 1st Immigration Rallies can be found at Migra Matters.

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.

Soon after the Mexico’s Electoral Tribunal declared Felipe Calderón President-elect on Sept 5, three of his advisers met secretly with Cabinet ministers, top military brass and North America’s top corporate executives in Canada. The meeting focused on the national security, borders, immigration, military production and the control over North America’s energy reserves.

Tres de los principales asesores del presidente electo, Felipe Calderón, participaron hace menos de dos semanas en un encuentro secreto realizado en Canadá, donde representantes de grandes corporaciones y del estamento militar estadunidense plantearon “profundizar la integración de América del Norte” y crear una “zona segura” de abasto de petróleo para la economía de Washington.

Just to name a few of those who attended the meeting; they were US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld; Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security, Eduardo Medina Mora; and General Rick Hilliers, Chief of Canadian Forces and representing the business sector were executives of Lockheed Martin, Chevron, Petroleos Mexicanos, Suncor Energy, according to Michel Chossudovsky.

In past few months there has been a lot of talk about how there is a secret plan to create a North American Union by dismantling of the borders between Canada, Mexico and the United States, and creating a deeper North American economic integration other wise known as “[tag]Deep Integration[/tag].”

Deep integration is the dismantling of the border between Canada and the United States. It will affect everything – the economy, social structures, social programs, resources and the environment. It is the harmonization of policies and regulations that govern the foods we eat, the items we buy, and how we live. It is the formation of a new North America that effectively erases the border between Canada and the United States in the interest of trade north of the border and security concerns south of the border.

The idea behind “deep integration” originated from the current North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada and Mexico, which came into effect on January 1, 1994. Since the inception NAFTA, the three countries have been on an irreversible path to economic integration.

Before last months meeting between the business and political leaders, the Council on Foreign Relations ([tag]CFR[/tag]) had already taken steps with its counterparts in Canada ([tag]Council of Chief Executives[/tag]) and Mexico (Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales (Mexican Council of International Affairs – [tag]COMEXI[/tag]) to study the possibility of integrating the three nations. Laying the foundation for the “deep integration,” the CFR produced a report entitled Building a North American Community.

The document called for the creation a single economic space that expands economic opportunity for all people in the region, and the establishment of a security zone that protects the region from external threats while facilitating the legitimate passage of goods, people, and capital.

The task force was lead by former Canadian Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister John P. Manley; Mexican former Minister of the Treasury Pedro Aspe; and of former Governor of Massachusetts and US Attorney General assistant William F. Weld.

On March 23, 2005, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America ([tag]SPP[/tag]) agreement was signed formally by President Bush, President Vicente Fox of Mexico, and Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada. Hass, notes:

The Task Force offers a detailed and ambitious set of proposals that build on the recommendations adopted by the three governments at the Texas summit of March 2005. The Task Force’s central recommendation is establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community, the boundaries of which would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter.

One year late, on March 31, 2006, the three heads of state, Bush, Vicente Fox and Steven Harper, the new Prime Minister of [tag]Canada[tag], resigned the agreement in Cancun.

The point of this accord was a safety measure to bind Mexico legally regardless whoever became president of Mexico in the upcoming elections. Included in the “security and prosperity of North America” was a guarantee that Mexico’s energy industry will meet the needs of the US market, as well as measures toward forging “a common theory of security,” which means that Mexico will allow any of US Homeland Security measures to be implemented in Mexico.

On Nov 2005, in Mexico City, before members of the US Chamber of Commerce, [tag]Felipe Calderón[/tag] had won over the Bush administration when he told the Chamber of Commerce members that he was in favor of private investment in Pemex, and of weakening the labor unions. He also stated that he supported George Bush’s guest worker program and that he agreed the border needed to be secured or militarized.

One serious effect of the globalization of the economy is the rise of new governing institutions that undeniably serves the interests of private transnational economic power. When truth is mixed in with disinformation, it is becoming hard to decipher who is actually telling the truth or who is spreading misinformation about the future of the [tag]North American Union[/tag] (NAU).

The rationales made against the NAU by Nationalist are filled with extreme, reactionary anti-immigration rhetoric, particularly focusing on jobs taken away by immigrants and national security. What makes it worse; there are sprinklings of conspiracy theories from far right pundits like Lou Dobbs, Alex Jones, Phyllis Schlafly, and [tag]Jerome R. Corsi[/tag] among others.

Their rhetoric against the NAU ranges from paranoia to loosely base arguments. One of the most outspoken and often cited by progressives is Jerome R. Corsi, who happens to be the co-author of the book Unfit for Command with John E. O’Neill. It is hard to take Corsi seriously particularly when he was helpful in keeping the current Administration in power. To make matters worse, Corsi is currently writing a book on the Minutemen Project with Jim Gilchrist as coauthor. Corsi’s argument against the SPP is based on his antagonistic attitude towards undocumented immigrants.

Corsi and his ilk worry about the North American Union is about is the possibility that this country will be integrated with the very people they dislike, therefore, deflecting the legitimate problem of having these type of secret meetings – free-trade.

If there is an invasion, the invasion will come the US and not Mexico. There is specific evidence in National Archives that clearly indicate that the US had an eye for Mexico. In 1904, Brig Gen Tasker Bliss, commander of the U.S. War College, had issued some directives to Admiral George Dewey and the Joint Board; Bliss explained that the wars would likely be aggression masked as defense:

I do not think that when the United States comes to fight it will be for the declared purpose of extension of trade, although that may be the real cause of war and its real object, concealed under an appeal to the Monroe Doctrine.

The fundamental issue, for Bliss, was how to go about this without little the risk of involving another great power from entering into the conflict. Given his options, he deduced that Mexico would be the best place for this:

That the intervention of the United States in Mexico may become necessary, with the least chance of any other foreign complication connected therewith.

Bliss also recommended that the US prepare five contingency plans, the fifth one was the plan for the intervention of Mexico. In April 1912, a Joint Board plan for military intervention in Mexico was approved by the Secretary of Navy. In the next month, President Taft counter-signed the plan. An amended version specifically recommending the “Seizure and temporary occupancy of Vera Cruz and Tampico by the naval forces of the United States” was approved on February 13, 1913, by Acting Secretary of the Navy Winthrop, with counter-signature by President Taft.

One year later, on April 1914, naval forces seized and occupied Tampico and Vera Cruz. The American public was fed and continues to be fed that the Tampico invasion was a response to the Mexican federal forces for not apologizing to Marines who were detained because they landed in Tampico without permission. The excuse given for the invasion of Vera Cruz was to prevent a German ship violating the Monroe Doctrine by delivering military supplies purchased by the Mexican government.

Then, in April 1914, a group of U.S. Marines landed at Tampico to pick up supplies and were arrested by Mexican officials. Although the marines were soon released, Admiral Henry Ti Mayo demanded that the Mexican government apologize formally and honor the American flag with a twenty-one gun salute. President Wilson, who had not been consulted, felt compelled to back Admiral Mayo as a representative of the government. When Mexico’s president, Victoriano Huerta, refused to salute the flag, Wilson ordered the fleet to Veracruz (the marines seized the city) and the army to march overland from Texas to join it.

The invasions had been pre-planned and pre-authorized. The invocation of the Monroe Doctrine was a prepared lie: the munitions carried by the German ship had been loaded in New York City. To provide some insight into on the state of affairs, in 1914, Frederick Starr notes:

It is impossible for us to march to Mexico City, seize it, appoint a provisional president, and withdraw. There is no use of trying to deceive ourselves and others. If we go to Mexico, we must occupy the whole republic. There is no possible alternative. To enter Mexico and occupy will take time, money and frightful toll of human life. It would be unjust aggression. Its final result would involve land grabbing. We would either hold the whole of the republic, or we would cut off the northern states and add them to our area. There are of course plenty who look upon this as our manifest destiny. It is unfortunate if it should prove manifest destiny, because it would spell our ruin.

To add Mexico to our republic or to add the northern tier of states would be infinitely bad for us. It would be the greatest of misfortunes for Mexico and the Mexicans. We are fond of talking of assimilation. We have never assimilated anything. We have not assimilated Arizona and New Mexico after sixty-five years of ownership. We have not assimilated the millions of negroes in the South. We have not assimilated the Filipino, nor the Hawaiian, nor the Puerto Rican. We have not only not assimilated them, we are nationally today the weaker for their presence.

The war for the conquest of Mexico has been much discussed. Some claim that it would require 600,000 soldiers and a period of ten years; others claim that it could be done with 150,000 men and two years’ time. This is not the actual question, but only selfish and commercial features of the problem. It is not the size of the army, nor the expense, nor the time involved which are significant. Far more important is the fact that such a war of conquest is unjust in itself. There is nothing in the conditions of the moment to excuse it. The price of war is not a mere question of dollars and time, — it is more seriously a question of blood and brutalizing. A nation which issues from a war of conquest against a smaller, poorer nation suffers far more than it inflicts. Its ideals, its character, its life are lowered. How heavily has our nation paid for its inglorious war with Spain. Not only did it cost money and time and blood. Its toll of disease and weakened moral fiber is a far more serious matter; and by it we lost those ideals for which our nation stood through more than a century of independent life. This last was the heaviest part of the price.

Between 1918 and 1939 – the US had developed and approved as official national policy three major war plans: a War Plan ORANGE against Japan, War Plan GREEN against Mexico, and a War Plan RED against Canada.

The plan for invading Mexico shows the US attitude towards Mexico with a focus on their oil. The plan states:

“The oil fields of Tampico and Tuxpan are important not only to the commerce of the United States and of the world, but to that of Mexico… The fields are largely owned by American and British interests and are susceptible to great damage by the Mexicans. It is therefore important to seize these fields at once….”.

“The period of active operations will be short, as compared to the period of guerilla operations. The early disbandment of temporary [U.S.] troops is highly desirable. It is the testimony of all well acquainted with Mexican character that any number of Mexicans can be hired to fight against anyone and for any one who will regularly pay and feed them. The Mexican soldier will be cheaper and more efficient against banditry than the American and the cost can be more easily charged against the Mexican government”.

“In addition, an Army can be established that will not be anti-American and which may, for many years in the future, exercise on the Mexican government an influence favorable to the United States”.

George Orwell once wrote, “He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.” Many do not realize how history can influence our thinking and our behavior, especially political behavior. Since we identify ourselves through history, many governments find it important to control school history curriculum and textbooks. Knowing that psychological methods are used overtly to alter what is known about our history, it does provide insight as to the psychological development of certain individuals or groups of people. The relation between the US and Mexico has never been stable, especially between it comes to migration. In the US history books, Mexico is always displayed as the villain and the reasons for westward expansion have always been romanticized.

Many may now consider this as a moot point since Mexico has entered into a trade agreement, but a conquest does not have to be accomplished through conventional warfare. Three years before [tag]NAFTA[/tag] took effect, José Luis Calva of the National University of Mexico, predicted:

“If the governments and legislatures of the three countries agree to liberalize trade in agricultural goods, U.S. citizens should be prepared to receive some 15 million Mexican migrants. The Border Patrol will be unable to detain them, and even a new iron curtain, rising on the border at a moment when the Cold War has given way to economic warfare among nations, will buckle under the weight of millions of Mexicans thrown off their lands by free trade.”

The essence of the American empire is not territorial control but wresting of economic control from another country and dominating that nation economically. How long will this “peaceful conquest” of [tag]Mexico[/tag] continue to go unnoticed?