The War Against Immigrants
Whatever immigrant rights activists have been saying about a war against the undocumented have been proven right.
President Bush on May 15 made a speech to the country proposing the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops on the US-Mexico border (which will include units serving two-week stints before being “rotated out” and replaced by other units—a total of around 150,000 troops will be deployed in a year’s time).
While Bush says this is not “militarization of the border” (a foregone conclusion, unfortunately) these probably include battle-weary units in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as units that may end up there. Catering to the most conservatives elements in the Republic Party and to groups like the Minutemen, Bush ignored millions of people who peaceably took to the streets for amnesty and a fair & equitable border policy. He ignored the largest social mobilization in the history of this country.
Even Nixon, one of this country’s worst presidents, couldn’t entirely ignore the Civil Rights Movement (despite doing all he could to derail it), which at its heights did not produce the numbers of demonstrators that came out on this past May 1 for immigrant rights.
The Senate is presently debating new immigration policies that will probably include a guest worker program (which immigrant rights activist are largely against), some level of amnesty, and greater border enforcement. The government, led by Republicans, has diverted the rising anger toward war, high gasoline prices, and eroding economic realities into “secure our borders” demagoguery that has further divided the country.
The backlash against the past several weeks’ national marches, walkouts, and boycotts has taken the form of death threats to Latino politicians; a Mexican restaurant burned to the ground with anti-immigrant graffiti on the walls; a Mexican teenager beaten, sodomized, and left for dead by other teenagers yelling out anti-Mexican epithets; and renewed activities by the Minutemen, including in a largely Black LA neighborhood that got booed by a counter demonstration of Blacks and Browns.
Now the government has joined in with the vigilantes. The only solution the government has is war and war propaganda. History will judge the Bush Administration and the Republicans as one of the most racist and corrosive elements in US history.
While Iraq has proven to be a failure—with growing casualty counts on both sides—and Hurricane Katrina dramatized the failure of this government to respond with men and resources to protect the poor and defenseless, they’re going to go all out to send armed troops to the border??
Failure after failure should tell us that we shouldn’t go along with anything Bush or the Republicans say or do.
Mexico and the rest of the Americas (and other countries of the world for that matter) should decry this development. Most of all, every American should be outraged. We cannot better our lives, our futures, our economy, or social standing by attacking other workers whether from Mexico or Iraq. That is the Bush way. That is the Republican way. That is the way of failure.
Mexicans and Central Americans are not immigrants. They are indigenous people (more so than many people who claim to be Native American) who have been following these migrants trails for tens of thousands of years.
Conservatives think by declaring the brown-skinned native people to be foreigners and “illegals” they can turn history and truth on its head. Now the white-skinned invaders who only have 225 years as a country (and only 500 years of existence on this land) are now the true “natives.”
Borders are a relatively new phenomena, created by rich and powerful men that no worker—whether they are White, Brown, Black, Native, or Asian—should recognize if other workers are hungry and in need of a decent existence.
Now is the time to expand the mobilization of millions for immigrant rights to include the rest of the poor, the disempowered, and abandoned—citizens, legal residents, and the undocumented. The divisions and diversions are to undermine any level of unity people attain; our aim should be to increase this unity and truly pressure this government to change course or be replaced by one in tune with the real aspirations and needs of everyone.
Placing National Guard troops on the border is a sign of the most moral ineptitude—as is the war in Iraq. The ground has widened for us to truly push back the Empire-building strategies of this global capitalist class to a vision of a new America that makes sure the highest levels of health, housing, education, and work needs can be obtained for all.
President Bush on May 15 made a speech to the country proposing the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops on the US-Mexico border (which will include units serving two-week stints before being “rotated out” and replaced by other units—a total of around 150,000 troops will be deployed in a year’s time).
While Bush says this is not “militarization of the border” (a foregone conclusion, unfortunately) these probably include battle-weary units in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as units that may end up there. Catering to the most conservatives elements in the Republic Party and to groups like the Minutemen, Bush ignored millions of people who peaceably took to the streets for amnesty and a fair & equitable border policy. He ignored the largest social mobilization in the history of this country.
Even Nixon, one of this country’s worst presidents, couldn’t entirely ignore the Civil Rights Movement (despite doing all he could to derail it), which at its heights did not produce the numbers of demonstrators that came out on this past May 1 for immigrant rights.
The Senate is presently debating new immigration policies that will probably include a guest worker program (which immigrant rights activist are largely against), some level of amnesty, and greater border enforcement. The government, led by Republicans, has diverted the rising anger toward war, high gasoline prices, and eroding economic realities into “secure our borders” demagoguery that has further divided the country.
The backlash against the past several weeks’ national marches, walkouts, and boycotts has taken the form of death threats to Latino politicians; a Mexican restaurant burned to the ground with anti-immigrant graffiti on the walls; a Mexican teenager beaten, sodomized, and left for dead by other teenagers yelling out anti-Mexican epithets; and renewed activities by the Minutemen, including in a largely Black LA neighborhood that got booed by a counter demonstration of Blacks and Browns.
Now the government has joined in with the vigilantes. The only solution the government has is war and war propaganda. History will judge the Bush Administration and the Republicans as one of the most racist and corrosive elements in US history.
While Iraq has proven to be a failure—with growing casualty counts on both sides—and Hurricane Katrina dramatized the failure of this government to respond with men and resources to protect the poor and defenseless, they’re going to go all out to send armed troops to the border??
Failure after failure should tell us that we shouldn’t go along with anything Bush or the Republicans say or do.
Mexico and the rest of the Americas (and other countries of the world for that matter) should decry this development. Most of all, every American should be outraged. We cannot better our lives, our futures, our economy, or social standing by attacking other workers whether from Mexico or Iraq. That is the Bush way. That is the Republican way. That is the way of failure.
Mexicans and Central Americans are not immigrants. They are indigenous people (more so than many people who claim to be Native American) who have been following these migrants trails for tens of thousands of years.
Conservatives think by declaring the brown-skinned native people to be foreigners and “illegals” they can turn history and truth on its head. Now the white-skinned invaders who only have 225 years as a country (and only 500 years of existence on this land) are now the true “natives.”
Borders are a relatively new phenomena, created by rich and powerful men that no worker—whether they are White, Brown, Black, Native, or Asian—should recognize if other workers are hungry and in need of a decent existence.
Now is the time to expand the mobilization of millions for immigrant rights to include the rest of the poor, the disempowered, and abandoned—citizens, legal residents, and the undocumented. The divisions and diversions are to undermine any level of unity people attain; our aim should be to increase this unity and truly pressure this government to change course or be replaced by one in tune with the real aspirations and needs of everyone.
Placing National Guard troops on the border is a sign of the most moral ineptitude—as is the war in Iraq. The ground has widened for us to truly push back the Empire-building strategies of this global capitalist class to a vision of a new America that makes sure the highest levels of health, housing, education, and work needs can be obtained for all.
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