Immigration debate stalls in Washington

In Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill, the debate on immigration reform is at a standstill.

Elvira Arellano

In spite of extensive bills presented in the Senate and the House of Representatives in the last year, and despite several policy proclamations by President George W. Bush, no major immigration legislation has been passed.

One bill was outrageously reactionary, attempting to criminalize immigrants and even anyone who assists an undocumented immigrant, including providing them water to drink.

What stopped the legislation in its tracks? The massive demonstrations of immigrants and their supporters that reflected a major sea change in this country. In the shadows no longer, immigrants—documented and undocumented—demanded their right to legalization.

No policy, lots of execution

Bill or no bill, however, immigration policy is being hotly debated across the country.

Immigration hearings that Republican officials called for in lieu of legislation have received a lot of media attention. Most of these hearings have been held behind closed doors. Few if any pro-immigrant activists have been allowed to speak.

What is most glaring, however, is that while immigration policy is at a standstill in Congress, throughout the country a massive wave of repression against immigrants is being carried out. From Hazelton, Pa., to Tucson, Ariz., a vicious and cruel immigration policy is being avidly implemented despite the stalemate in Congress.

The Dallas Morning News wrote on Aug. 26, “Efforts by cities and states to crack down on illegal immigration are gaining traction across the country as an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws stalls in Congress.”

This demonstrates that one of the goals of the current immigration debate spurred on by the ruling class is unquestionably being accomplished.

That goal is to target immigrants, to turn them into scapegoats for every ill of this society, to drive them further underground, in hopes of making them too afraid to fight for their rights. And the goal is to create conditions that allow the appalling practice of racial profiling of immigrants of color that especially targets Latino, Muslim, South Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants.

In addition, the debate on immigration is baselessly and cynically turned into a debate about terrorism. One man at a Boston hearing told the media: “My son died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. We have to close the borders.”

This kind of view dominates the airwaves, contributing to the criminalization of workers who merely come here in search of work.

Local ordinances target immigrants

In several cities throughout the country, local officials are passing or attempting to pass legislation that would wreak havoc on immigrants’ lives. The Aug. 26 Dallas Morning News reported: “This year, municipalities have made at least three dozen attempts and state legislatures more than 550 to enact immigration policy on a patchwork basis.”

Many of these ordinances—such as one that passed in Hazelton,Pa., on July 13 or legislation proposed in Farmers Branch, Texas—prohibit landlords from leasing housing to undocumented workers, and make English a city’s official language. The Hazelton ordinance takes effect Sept. 11.

In Farmers Branch, city officials want to eliminate subsidies for children of the undocumented who participate in summer youth programs.

Other ordinances target day laborers and ban workers’ gathering sites. Such ordinances are always accompanied by a racist campaign blaming day laborers for all the ills of society, including unhealthy conditions and a rise in crime, although there is no evidence of the connection.

In Cornelius, Ore., such racist efforts were met with protests by U.S.-born workers as well as many of the day laborers.

The immigration debate has been so whipped up against immigrants that many local law officials are now acting as immigration agents themselves. In Rhode Island, a state trooper turned in 14 immigrants to federal immigration authorities after stopping them merely for failing to signal for a lane change. (Aug. 21 Westerly Sun) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed an objection stating that the state trooper overstepped his bounds, and that he may have been racial profiling.

In El Paso, Texas, protesters defeated a resolution that would have authorized county employees, including the sheriff’s office, to ask people their immigration status. Mexican/Chicano community leaders pointed out that if such measures pass, families experiencing domestic violence, for example, would be afraid to call for help if anyone in the family was undocumented. (The El Paso Times, Aug. 23)

The backlash against immigrants has worsened their living conditions.

For fear of being deported, many immigrants who are robbed, beaten or victimized by landlords are not reporting these crimes. In southern Florida, because many immigrants get paid in cash, there are so many robberies of these workers that they are referred to as “walking ATM machines” in the press.

Immigrant-rights activists across the country are reporting a rise in fear of deportations.

The Immigration and Customs Enforce ment agency of the Department of Home land Security states: “Nearly 600,000 immigration fugitives are in the U.S., most of whom simply disappear when their deportation orders come.”

The deportation issue is intimately tied to children’s rights. The case of Arkade phia, Ark., highlights the cruel effect deportation has on immigrant families.

In 2005, immigration officials raided a poultry plant near Arkadelphia. They arrested over 115 immigrants, leaving many children stranded at schools or in daycare centers, including a 1-month old baby, and deported the parents of 30 children.

The Pew Hispanic Center states on their website that of the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the United States, 1.8 million are children. The center also estimates that 3.1 million children born in the United States—who are thus U.S. citizens—have undocumented parents.

Imagine if anti-immigrant legislation passes around the country making it illegal for landlords to rent to undocumented people. There would be a wave of homeless families and thousands, including many children, forced to live in substandard housing.

The case
of Elvira Arellano

No wonder then that the struggle for immigrant rights has produced an Elvira Arellano. Her case has become a symbol for all the families that could be deported.

Arellano was taken into custody by immi gration agents in Chicago while working as a janitor at O’Hare Air port with a false Social Security number.

Due to the intervention of supporters as well as some legislators, including Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Arellano was granted a stay of departure because of the medical needs of her 7-year old son, Saul, who has health problems. Saul is a U.S. citizen.

Elvira Arellano is currently taking sanctuary at Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago. She took shelter there rather than surrender to immigration authorities to be deported back to Mexico, her native country.

The Aug. 27 Christian Science Monitor wrote: “The Rev. Walter Coleman, the pastor who took Arellano in, estimates that nearly 6,000 supporters have come to the church in the past two weeks.” Her support committee reports that not only Latinos have come by; Korean and Polish people and Muslims have stopped by to show support.

On Aug. 24, a group of prominent African-American church leaders who are part of the broad coalition called Clergy Speaks Interdenominational, held a news conference at the church in Chicago on Arellano’s behalf and said she is contesting an immoral government policy as Rosa Parks did. (Chicago Tribune, Aug. 25)

The case of Elvira Arellano highlights that a major demand of the immigrant-rights movement must be a moratorium on all deportations now.