Views » March 22, 2006

Theyve Come for Us All

By Brian Cook

First they came for the Communists,” runs the opening of the famous poem about the Nazis’ incremental persecution of minorities. So perhaps we should admire the efficiency of Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) in sponsoring “immigration reform” legislation that revokes the rights of both undocumented immigrants and the rest of us, all at once.

In December, the House passed the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act by a vote of 239 to 182, thanks to the complicity of 36 Democrats. Reading as if it was penned in a vacuum—wholly removed from the 12 million undocumented immigrants toiling in the dark underbelly of our glistening, service-oriented New Economy—the 257-page bill is an affront to reality. Among other monstrosities, it would classify these workers as felons subject to imprisonment, permanently bar them from legal status, put numerous roadblocks in the way of legal immigrants and political refugees, and authorize construction of a giant fence along a third of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Given the perverse glee our culture takes in penalizing its marginalized, the act’s solely punitive measures toward undocumented immigrants should come as no surprise. What might be more surprising—although it’s become increasingly less so—is that the bill also tramples the rights of U.S. citizens. The act defines “smugglers” of immigrants so broadly that it would include a counselor helping victims of domestic violence, a church volunteer providing them with food or clothing, or a worker driving a fellow employee to the bus stop. Such senseless acts of kindness could be rewarded with up to five years in prison.

Of course, enforcing this law and imprisoning the millions of doctors, teachers and workers who deal with immigrants on a daily basis is patently absurd, as well as rife with the potential to be selectively used. As Josh Bernstein, director of federal policy for the L.A.-based National Immigration Law Center, says, “Anti-immigration groups often talk about the rule of law, but here we are passing laws that nobody believes are going to be enforced.”

The good news is that the House bill won’t become law as is. The bad news is that the immigration reform bill of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), being marked up in committee as In These Times went to press, is only marginally better. If given enough time to work, however, the committee appears likely to incorporate many of the provisions of the bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). While far from perfect, it would put undocumented immigrants on the path to citizenship.

Unfortunately, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has threatened to undercut the committee and introduce his own bill, focused solely on border control measures, to the Senate floor on March 27. Frist is rushing this important legislation for the same reason the House bill got passed in the first place: political grandstanding.

Despite the split on immigration between the GOP’s business faction and its culturally conservative base, many Republicans would love to show voters how “tough” they are on immigrants, regardless of how ill-thought-out the legislation may be. In a cynical attempt to fire up their base, they are willing to destroy the slowly emerging, bipartisan consensus on real immigration reform.

In a beautiful irony, however, the strategy may well backfire. On March 10, activists organized a march in Chicago to protest the House legislation. They expected 10,000 people, at most; instead, more than 100,000 showed up. The divisive legislation awoke what Bernstein calls a “sleeping giant”: the growing political power of Latinos. “If I was a Republican,” says Bernstein, “I would be scared. I would be really scared.”

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• Reader Comments

  What Cook fails to grasp by writing of a “split on immigration between the GOP’s business faction and its culturally conservative base” is the potential political genius that could underlie this latest legislation.  This is typical of so-called progressives to be so politically blind and unimaginative.

  By allowing for illegal immigrants to be arrested, rather than merely deported, would enable us to expand prison labor projects by outsourcing these prisoners - we could call them ‘special prisoners’, i.e. not really dangerous and good at unskilled labor - to the very jobs they were previously performing.  Prison labor has a long and rich precedent in our great country, but we have previously been loath to have them in our homes, our yards, our kitchens, and our construction yards.  These special prisoners can fill that void.

  Business owners and corporations could then legally take advantage of this labor force (no more looking themselves in the mirror in shame!), and at costs beyond - or below - their wildest dreams.  More prisons will have to built, naturally by the prisoners themselves. 

  At any rate, the fears of both ends of the conservative spectrum will be allayed, and our economy will soar.  The only X factor would of course be the 13th amendment, but I’m confident our current Supreme Court will review this series of legislation favorably.

  Good luck in ‘06, hippies!  Yeehaw! (guns a-poppin’)

  Posted by rocco on Mar 22, 2006 at 9:18 PM

  Wow,

  Are we reduced to slavery?

  Posted by Vanella on Mar 23, 2006 at 8:18 PM

  Deporting illegal aliens is reasonable, I suppose (It doesn’t really solve the problem. More will be coming over the border the next day), but arresting them is ridiculous. Would you lock a kid up who just came into your yard to retrieve a baseball, or something? Of course not.

  And then Rocco’s idea of arresting them and making the illegal aliens work for us is even worse. Vanella said it earlier. It’s slavery. Wouldn’t giving jobs to the unemployed be a bit more helpful for everyone involved?

  This country was founded on the belief that all men were created equal, right? Then we should start acting like it was.

  Posted by Jack Novak on Mar 24, 2006 at 1:07 AM

  We need to just built the wall and keep out anyone from crossing the border.  Very simple….

  Posted by tina1 on Mar 24, 2006 at 5:50 AM

  What Rocco is advocating would be a form of slavery. It’s reminiscent of a time when the poor were arrested for debt and forced to work for substandard wages until they paid off their debts or died. Deportation isn’t helping, arresting illegal immigrants is immoral and illogical, and building a wall is obviously impractical.

  The only real way to discourage illegal immigration is to fight global poverty. If people could find jobs, justice, safety, and freedom in their own countries, they wouldn’t have to come here, to the land of the hypocritical and the home of the corrupt republican party.

  Of course, when we say that the country was founed on the idea that all men were created equally, they really meant all white, male landowners. They weren’t talking about racial minorities, sexual minorities, women, the disabled, the poor, or any other group that we’re so fond of marginalizing and exploiting for our own financial gain. We’ve never been interested in real solutions to problems, just more ways to make a quick buck.

  Posted by kelliepowell on Mar 24, 2006 at 6:10 AM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 85 posts.

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