GRASSROOTS IMMIGRANT RIGHTS
ORGANIZATIONS CALL FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH TO OUR COMMUNITIES AND
ADVANCING IMMIGRATION POLICIES THAT PROMOTE HEALTHY COMMUNITIES & PROTECT OUR
RIGHTS
Grassroots immigrant organizations throughout Los Angeles are relieved and alarmed by the defeat of the Senate’s “comprehensive immigration reform” bill. The stalemate in the Congressional immigration legislative debate presents a significant moment to re-assert our vision for socially just legalization that is based on expanding and protecting the rights of all immigrants, communities of color and working people. We also call for accountability from advocacy groups and coalitions who supported the Senate bill in various and sundry ways.
Furthermore, we call on all immigrants rights community groups and advocates to join together in firmly opposing the very framework upon which the Senate proposal and others in the House were built. Based on advancing corporate business interests and “free” trade policies at home and abroad, this framework would ensure that more generations of communities will be forcibly displaced. It dismantles family reunification, the longstanding cornerstone of immigration policy, while undermining civil and labor rights as it implements a skills-based guest worker program to narrowly serve the corporate economic interests of the U.S.
As we move forward, the voices of those who refuse to stand by these racist and unjust immigration proposals aimed at further criminalizing immigrants and communities of color must be included in the debate. We oppose the introduction of any new immigration bills in the current climate of misinformation, heavy-handed enforcement, and one-sided “compromises” aimed at promoting a pro-business agenda at the expense of immigrant families and other U.S. workers. Instead, we call for:
Rollback the Hate, Speak the Truth
We are alarmed by the right-wing grassroots efforts influenced by White Supremacist ideology that contributed to the failure of the Senate immigration bill, but more so by the divisive strategies and misleading messages which led to ill-informed support for this compromising and shameful bill by some immigrant advocacy groups. The claim that there was widespread support for the Senate bill among immigrants ignored the many voices opposed to it, and was based largely on the failure to honestly inform impacted communities of the details of the bill.
The rapid increase in raids, detentions, deportations, local, county and state anti-immigrant laws and the unrelenting tragedy of migrant deaths at the border has created enormous pressure on immigrants to accept the idea that “something is better than nothing.” However, even when confronted by these pressures and the false promises provided by the media and some Washington D.C.-based groups and local coalitions, many immigrant communities and their supporters rejected the proposed immigration bill. Rebuffed in numerous discussions with immigrants, this bill would have exemplified our generation’s worst possible immigration reform legacy. Politicians wanted to lay claim to this legacy at any cost, and too many immigrant advocacy groups shared and gave credence to those interests. Many immigrant communities, even in crisis, say “not on our backs.”
Senate Bill Merely a Report-to-Deport Program
While the anti immigrant forces that are rampant in the U.S. denounced the bill as too “generous” and called for even stronger enforcement provisions, many immigrants viewed this so-called amnesty as a deportation program. It claimed to provide “a path to citizenship” but upon closer inspection, set massive traps of ineligibility that would result in the detention and deportation of millions of immigrants.
This sham legalization program was being promoted as the good news for immigrants for which a price, not visible on the surface, must be paid. That price began with the elimination of family immigration provisions, which was a direct attack on the core principle of family unity. The price included the replacement of this principle with a merit-based point system that blatantly discriminated in favor of English-speaking, highly skilled and educated immigrants who are perceived as more “useful” to U.S. economic interests. Immigrant youth would pay the price included in the DREAM Act, which allows undocumented immigrant students to gain legal status by either serving in the military or attending college for two years. We fully support the principle of providing status to immigrant youth, but oppose sending more young people of color into the U.S. war machine. At a time when strong non-racist reform is needed, this bill would have taken us in the opposite direction.
Policing of Workers and Exploitative Working Conditions Expanded
The price also included the massive expansion of a “guest” worker program to more than 200,000 a year. The elimination of any path to legalization for these workers revealed this program’s true nature: to provide U.S. corporations with a steady stream of vulnerable and disposable workers who would have no true rights to unionize or demand fair working conditions. The Senate bill would have created a massive database to track all workers and stepped up employer sanctions. Instead of drafting legislation that tramples on the rights of workers, Congress should be addressing high unemployment especially in African-American and indigenous communities, the nearly abandoned public education system that is failing to prepare our youth, a shrinking middle class that has lost hard-earned jobs to the greed of US-corporations on a “fast track” to exploiting workers around the globe, and historic levels of income inequality. This, indeed, was a “Grand Bargain” for those seeking to profit off the exploitation of immigrants, workers, and their families.
More Prisons and Raids, Not Less
The other enforcement provisions of the bill were equally detrimental to immigrant communities around the nation, resulting in the separation of families as family members are deported and leave behind partners and children. They increased the excessive criminalization that immigrants and many others already face in the U.S., further feeding the massive prison system. Anti-gang enforcement provisions based on racial profiling and a total lack of evidentiary standards harshly targeted immigrant youth and youth of color.
The price included handing over billions of our tax dollars to the largest private prison and private security corporations in the world to further militarize the border and lock up people of color. Corporations such as Boeing and Halliburton that already reap huge profits from servicing the war in Iraq would have received additional contracts to further develop land and aerial surveillance at the border and expand private prisons’ capacity to incarcerate almost 32,000 immigrants per day. The war abroad is clearly linked to the domestic war on immigrants, including the mass incarceration of people of color in both the prison and immigration systems.
Extension of Border Enforcement to the Entire Country
The increased border enforcement proposals would have reinforced the ongoing militarization of border and immigration control that is being extended into the U.S. interior. These are deliberate policies that make immigrant workers vulnerable to abuse and violence and that have caused the deaths of thousands of migrants who are forced to cross through the most desolate and dangerous desert and mountainous regions of the border. This border control and security has been extended into the U.S. interior through police and immigration collaboration, heightened surveillance, increased policing, gang injunctions, and other practices that generate insecurity and divisions within our communities. For example, more state and county police throughout the country are being trained in immigration enforcement, copying the long standing practice of police-ICE cooperation at the border. This year alone, 65,000 new names of “deportable aliens” have been added to the database used by local police as part of their routine enforcement practices. And the unconstitutional use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles used to patrol the border are now used in districts like South Central L.A. This inward creep has resulted in a record 195,000 immigrants deported last year alone.
More Migrant Deaths at the Border, Not Less
Because we’ve seen that such increases in enforcement have little impact on migration patterns, these expedient and punitive measures merely provide an appearance of the government taking action and control. The price for a heightened militarization of the border would surely be an increase in criminalization and rights violations in border communities, as well as a steady rise in migrant deaths, which are a direct result of militarization policies.
The illusion of the “American Dream” has been used to draw people to the U.S. for exploitation. Migrants who have walked through deserts, stowed themselves away on ships for weeks or crossed oceans on dilapidated boats quickly learn that they are part of an “American nightmare” where they are held hostage by traffickers or abusive employers, work long hours, are unpaid or underpaid, under constant threat of deportation and soon finding themselves less healthy than when they arrived.
Dehumanization, Root Causes Ignored
This bill would have cemented the dehumanizing pattern of linking immigration to national security by requiring that these enforcement measures be implemented before legalization could even begin. The term “terrorist” has been applied to different groups – from South Asians to alleged immigrant gang members – to justify the government’s heavy handed policing tactics and erosion of civil liberties.
The real “crisis” in immigration is a crisis in human rights and our government’s refusal to address the root causes of migration as a legitimate part of our policy debate, as has been recommended time and again by Congressional Commissions, academic institutions and migrant rights organizations worldwide. It is naïve and disingenuous to think that the U.S. does not share blame and even responsibility for creating circumstances that lead to involuntary displacement and migration: “free” trade policies, international expansion of U.S. military, global economic policies, support for corrupt governments, undermining people’s struggles around the world. To be truly comprehensive, any immigration reform must include sustainable economic, social and political development aimed at eliminating economic inequity, social injustice, and civil strife – the root causes of migration, and promote policies, such as job development and economic security, that make a positive difference in the lives of U.S. immigrants, workers, and their families.
Where We Go From Here
As grassroots organizations that work to organize immigrant communities, we call for the following position on immigration reform:
We condemn the Administration, mainstream media and certain D.C.-based advocacy groups and are disappointed with some statewide and local coalitions for misleading immigrant communities into believing that this was “amnesty” or a fair legalization program. Some local and statewide groups and coalitions have received money from D.C. groups that has shaped their political positions. They are driven by corporate and foundation agendas rather than by an analysis of community needs. Thus groups and coalitions find themselves stuck by the funding collaboratives that they are part of and sacrifice a long term vision for short term compromises and money. Our position differs not only from right-wing groups but also from many groups willing to compromise -- our voices must be heard. Although we have been communicating our concerns with many of these groups and coalitions for years, we invite further dialogue about our position and strategies.
We oppose all enforcement-based bills and we will not compromise for “something is better than nothing,” when that “something” actually worsens the status quo for immigrants and people of color in this country. There must be unbending opposition to deceptive “comprehensive immigration reform” bills which maintain a racist framework. We call on the government to end militarization at the border and in the interior, and to end all detentions and deportations. We also call on all allies to reject compromises that trade the rights of our communities and to challenge the system that exploits and oppresses our communities.
This statement was written and endorsed by the following organizations:
South Asian Network – www.southasiannetwork.org
Garment Workers Center – www.garmentworkercenter.org
Homies Unidos – www.homiesunidos.org
Youth Justice Coalition – www.youth4justice.org
Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California – www.idepsca.org
Khmer Girls in Action – www.kgalb.org
Coalicion de Derechos Humanos – www.derechoshumanosaz.net
For more information:
Contact Hamid Khan or Shiu-Ming Cheer from SAN at (562) 403-0488