Vigilantes in Arizona hunt immigrants
Published Apr 6, 2005 7:38 PM
On March 31, at the U.S./Mexico border in
Arizona, an anti-immigrant group calling itself the Minuteman Project gathered.
It made big news.
The project is described as a “volunteer patrol
group in search of furtive immigrants” who cross the desert into the
United States in Arizona. One volunteer called it the “biggest
neighborhood watch ever.”
According to news reports, the Minuteman
Project will “post 1,000 volunteers across 23 miles of border.” They
are reported to plan to stay there for at least the month of April.
The
gathering took place on the same day as Cesar Chavez’s birthday, in the
same state where he was born. Was the timing just a coincidence? Chavez was a
Chicano labor leader who devoted his life to fighting for the rights of
immigrants and farm workers.
Vigilantes interviewed on CNN on March 31
looked as if their average age was 75. It was hard to imagine them chasing
anyone down. But they are armed and dangerous.
An 82-year-old retired
Marine sergeant told reporters he was looking for adventure. He had a
.38-caliber pistol strapped to his leg.
Another Minuteman, a former
kindergarten teacher from Los Angeles, said the project was in response to the
failure of the government to stop the flow of immigrants.
The Minutemen
have attracted the support of groups such as the Aryan Nation and other white
supremacist organizations.
In the first few days that the Minutemen were
on the border, they claimed to have participated in the capture of 146
undocumented workers.
On the border
Arizona for the last few
years has been the scene of a growing and racist anti-immigrant attack. The
federal government in Washington has also focused attention on Arizona.
In 2004, the Department of Homeland Security obtained an initial $10
million for its Arizona Border Control Initiative. It is adding 200 new border
patrol agents, 350 helicopters and an unknown number of aircraft to patrol the
remotest parts of the border, further militarizing the U.S./Mexico
border.
This will result in increased repression for
immigrants.
Already, as a result of the Minutemen, the U.S. Border Patrol
has sent 500 more agents to Arizona. The patrol alleges that 51 percent of all
undocumented immigrants cross into the U.S. in that state.
The Public
Policy Institute of California reports that these new measures will force
workers crossing the border to go to more remote areas that are even more
dangerous. The number of people who drowned crossing the border rose from 48 in
1994 to 92 in 2000.
At least 151 immigrants are reported to have died in
the Arizona desert last year alone. The actual numbers could be much higher.
The movement in Arizona in solidarity with immigrants has responded to
this new offensive. The Border Action Network is calling on supporters to
“end vigilante hate crimes and impunity on the border” by calling
authorities to protest the Minutemen. To find out more about this campaign,
visit borderaction.org.
BAN says about the Minutemen: “An ugly
movement of armed, militia-style civilian groups has begun patrolling the
Arizona border for immigrants. Men, women and children are held at gunpoint,
chased by dogs, and in some cases beaten or shot.”
Supporters of
immigrant rights can also join advocates and immigrants in D.C. on April 27,
when a National Day of Action will take place in Washington. For more
information, see floc.com.
Behind the right wing
The
Minuteman Project is a very dangerous example of the extra-legal measures the
capitalist state historically utilizes to get the job done for the bosses and
corporations.
The Minutemen criticized President George W. Bush last week
when even he labeled them a vigilante group. Despite the public rift, Bush and
the Minutemen are on the same side of the class camp.
Both advocate
tactics that ultimately will continue the super exploitation of immigrant
workers. Two years ago, despite mass pressure for amnesty and legalization of
undocumented workers, for example, Bush was opposed to legalization.
An
anti-immigrant climate has been whipped up in the media. Criminalizing workers
whose sole goal is to work and sur vive has become common on the
“news” channels. So has propaganda blaming immigrants for the
layoffs and low pay decided on in corporate boardrooms.
However, when many
unions in Oct o ber 2003 supported a national march for immigrant rights, ending
in a rally of 100,000 workers of all nationalities in Queens, N.Y., the
capitalist media played it down.
The anti-immigrant vigilantism is
calculated to drive immigrants further and further underground. Capitalism would
not last a day without the labor of immigrants. The hysteria is calculated to
help the capitalists make more profits and have a freer hand to exploit and
manipulate workers.
The right wing calculates this backlash to put a chill
on the growing organizing efforts carried out by immigrants and their
advocates.
In the post-9/11 climate, from the Bush administration to the
Minuteman Project to the Federation for American Immi gration Reform, efforts
are made to link immigrants to the so-called war on terror.
Calls for
“closing the border” to “secure our country,” and
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s statement that al-Qaeda networks
may be operating in Mexico, all aim to criminalize and terrorize
immigrants.
As long as strawberries need picking, meat needs butchering
and groceries need delivering, bosses will continue to demand immigrant labor.
At the same time, they want to control them by denying them legal
status.
But in the fine tradition of Cesar Chavez, immigrants will
continue to organize to fight for their rights.
The tensions between
these two class forces will inevitably erupt into more glorious labor struggles
like those of the 1930s and 1960s.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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