Legislating Hate: Injustice, Immigration, the Census and Fear
posted by: Cynthia Samuels 32 days ago
By Nezua, Media Consortium
Anti-immigration groups and pundits cling to phrases like “Illegal Alien” because they only focus on foreignness and danger. These extreme factions are all about casting immigrants as what ails our society, conjuring up demons upon which to focus national ire, and perpetuating a subhuman category of being. It’s a convenient distraction from things that are actually endangering our nation. A new web-only series from ColorLines called “Torn Apart by Deportation“ is the perfect antidote to people like CNN’s Lou Dobbs.
The stories in this series are thoroughly investigated, not sensationalized, and haunting. “Torn Apart” reveals how the push against immigrants in the U.S. is, once all the pieces come together, a cultural death wish on families of color. “Torn Apart” gives faces and feelings to the results of the nation’s post-1996 immigration policies, which made it easier deport undocumented people for any criminal infraction. Two articles are currently available:
- “Home in Name Only” follows Calvin James, who was deported after living in the US since the age of 12, back to Kingston, Jamaica. James is percieved as an undesirable and unwanted part of Jamaican society, which pins its crime rates on deportees. James was uprooted from a loving, productive life in the US and cast into a criminal class spanning two nations.
- “Double Punishment” explores the nexus that people like James find themselves in, where they suffer under a clash of laws that target immigrants and criminals in a justice system already slanted against people of color.
Wiretap tackles the issue of the upcoming census count slated for Spring 2010. The census has become a point of political contention and moved abruptly away from its very practical purpose of counting all people in the country. Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) are trying to add an amendment to an appropriations bill that would include a question about citizenship status to the census form, disrupting the entire well-established process of the census. The move would also cement growing fear in immigrant communities that the census is not to be trusted.
Further, it’s simply too late to raise questions like this. As M. Junaid Levesque-Alam writes, “two congressionally mandated deadlines for registering objections [to the census form as it stands] have already passed.” Surely Vitter and Bennet are quite aware of this. Then again, as Levesque-Alam makes clear, the intended effect of the amendment is primarily “to dissuade undocumented residents from participating in the census out of fear that the information will be shared with other government agencies and lead to deportation.” It is, yet again, one more Republican political maneuver has no consideration for the damage such legislation causes.
Misguided and troublesome attempts to legislate hate are rippling out and hurting other communities. America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, H.R. 3200, negatively impacts the African American community in it’s attempts to deny immigrants access to health care, as TPM reports. And Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) anti-immigrant agenda hurts the working class, according to The Washington Independent. A new report released Tuesday by “three labor and employment advocacy organizations,” points the finger squarely at the Bush administration policies that leave undocumented and legal workers alike open to exploitation.
When workers are afraid to report their employers for abusive practices, they are exploited further. When there is a labor conflict, abusive employers will summon ICE and simply provoke a raid before the dispute is resolved. It adds up to a situation that keeps wages artificially suppressed and many workers voiceless. As Daphne Eviatar writes, “labor complaints are not supposed to lead to retaliation against illegal immigrants.”
Even LA police chief Willam J. Bratton writes that “a person reporting a crime should never fear being deported.” Yet they have good reason to. As the Colorado Independent reported last Wednesday, the 287(g) agreement “has resulted in a ’sweep of terror,” according to a floor speech given by 2nd Rep. Jared Polis on the same day. His speech came as a reaction to the announcement by ICE last Friday that it was signing 67 more 287(g) agreements.
Irresponsible pundits, racist legislation and exploitative labor conditions are all the symptoms of a nation wrestling with a fundamental truth: United, we stand. Divided, we fall. The healing we need lies not in harsher means to divide or separate, but in a new body of laws that exemplifies that age-old and beloved maxim.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by membersof The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.
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comments
Ch Hardy, first of all my response was directed to Mr. Roberto C. I was responding to what Roberto said in the beginning of his statement, as quoted: “I'm am just sick and tire of all this racism and hate why? is it always hispanics who always get attacked why not target the african american community ect...”. This has in no way been “twisted” into an “African American” thing. My point was…African Americans are, still is, and probably will always be “targets” in this country. As an African American in this country, I feel the pain and hardship that the Hispanics and Mexicans and other races that have been labeled as either “minority” or “illegal aliens” are going through. Being labeled as an illegal alien or a minority or any other degrading name is never any good for human moral. I am married to a Hispanic and we have heard some of the worse, lived through some of the worse and survived it, but it doesn’t get any easier. We are Americans but the treatment we have received as Americans isn’t always pretty or easy, and it sometimes feel as if you are being stripped of your pride as an American. I commented on this site because a lot of what I have read is downright ugly and vicious toward Hispanics and Mexicans, not because I want to turn this into an “African American” thing.
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Gina G. when you mention that these illegal aliens are draining our economy actually you need to do some research i've done it my self and they have proven that these people are actually helping our economy if they were all to go out this country this country would be nothing and who will take those jobs Gina who will wash the dirty toilets, wash the dirty dishes back in the restaurants, working as almost slaves in farms, children picking the grapes to cell for cheap ect... when you find all this citizens to take this Jobs will talk and you mentioned also Free health care, schooling, food stamps, housing aid. free health care wrong they get nohing, food stamps wrong only if they are legal, housing aid and schooling yes but i bet you get all those benefits whats the difference you can get everithing why? complain your children if you have some can get all these stuff free i guess you just want to have everithing for you and talking about the money they send out of state they have all the right to do what they please with it thats why they enslaved in this country and work hard to earn it same as you and me we can do what we please with our mney we work hard to earn it no one should tell us what we can do or not do with it....
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Amber " have said this before, and will say it again. Anyone who's acestors where not 100% First Nation, their ancestors
were illegal immigrants."
Amber I think you need to do some more research before you call our ancestors illegial immigrants - but I did it for you - here is the definition of an illegial immigrant..."Illegal immigration is immigration across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Illegal immigrants are also known as illegal aliens to differentiate them from legal aliens."
I have said this before when you stated your above comment - my ancestors came from Lebanon and I have copies of their signature at Ellis Island & they became US Citizens!!
So please do a little bit of research before you call our ancestors illegial immigrants b/c that statement is wrong.
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I have said this before, and will say it again. Anyone who's acestors where not 100% First Nation, their ancestors
were illegal immigrants.
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It's not racist to want people who are here illegally to be deported. They are a real drain on our economy and I am sick of it. Free health care, schooling, food stamps, housing aid. Enough. Racist is the catch phrase used to make other feel sympathetic for those who are here and shouldn't be. No, they should go home and apply to come here through the correct LEGAL process. End of story. No amnesty, more border control, less drain on our economy. Did everyone forget that approximately 40 million dollars are regularly sent OUT of the US? That money does not come back into our economy, but serves to boost another country. My taxes are not meant for any one else than deserving AMERICANS.
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@Vernette - Yes lets! I never said those you mentioned were innocent. I want it all stopped from A to Z...I have said it before, bring our Troops home and put them on the Border - trust me we wont have that many getting across. Let the K-9 dogs loose - trust me we wont have that many getting across and IM NOT just talking about Mexico - Im talking about both our borders. I think every border station should have K-9 dogs and each car should be sniffed and go through an x-ray machine...spend the money there.
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"is it always hispanics who always get attacked why not target the african american community"
It's Hispanics who are targeted, most of the time, because the majority of illegal immigrants who come here are Hispanic.
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Hey "Ch Hardy", let's talk about the "Legal" White Contractor who hires the "Illegal" because he doesn't want to have to pay full wadges or Social Security Benefits and Sub-standard Health Insurance etc. and hide the fact that he's cheating the government by not claiming ALL of his employees on his taxes and still taking advantage of all the rest of the"Tax Breaks" and loop holes the past White House conveniently laid out for him. When you STOP these a_ _ holes from stealing from all of us then we can start comparing the yearly wadges we all make and how much is taken out to pay for those of us who DO have Social Security and Health Insurance who are Citizens of this country and still can't afford to pay our bills and buy food for our families because the "Contractor" doesn't want to pay his employees an adequate living wadge and doesn't want to be responsible enough to put that person, legal or not, on his payroll. Let's put the BLAME where the BLAME is really due here "Ch Hardy" and start nailing the "Contractors" who have been perpetuating this practice for way too long. AND, let's talk about all of those Illegals who are working over a sink full of dirty dishes in that high end restaurant up-town or the ones picking grapes for the millionaire vintner and the 11 yr. old picking Blueberries to supply Walmart with the blueberries they sell for "cheap". Who's scratching Who's back here "Ch Hardy"? When you find the Citizens of this country to take these jobs we'll talk.
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Jan vega you didn't exactly understand my point im not a racist like a bunch of people i love every culture and as someone said we are a melting pot my point was that why? not target other races why? does it always have to be hispanics i hardly ever see issues about other races like this im just sick and tire and i want justice and equality thats all and for all those people that think hispanics are criminals ect... well i take law enforcement classes and its suprising that most of the sex offenders and rapist are white and from other nationalities im not saying there is no hispanics involved but the higher % is white so don't get me started because i have the contrary
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Good points Sarah D. I'd like to see the illegal immigrants sent back to their own countries and come here legally, through the proper channels. Then when the get here, they can learn English, get jobs and contribute to the system they had been living freely off of before they became legal. Also, here in CA where we have so many of them incarcerated - Gov. A.S. should grow a set and present the bill to the Federal Goverment with interest and punitive damages for bankrupting this State.
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