Activists protest the deportation of immigrants outside a federal detention center in Broadview, Ill., on April 27. (Photo by: Yana Kunichoff)
News » May 14, 2010
This Land Is Our Land
Nativists in Arizona jump-start the immigration reform movement.
CHICAGO–On April 23, shortly after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed into law one of the most stringent bills against undocumented immigrants in American history, 24 religious and community leaders sat down in front of a van containing immigrants being deported to their home countries as it exited a detention center in the Chicago suburb of Broadview. Chanting, “Illinois is not Arizona,” the group condemned SB 1070 and demanded a moratorium on raids and deportations.
Sitting in the street a few feet from the idling van was Father Brendan Curran from Pilsen, a Mexican-American neighborhood in Chicago. He estimates that half his congregation is undocumented, including the father of a high schooler with leukemia. “He risks being deported at the most important moment of his daughter’s life,” Curran said before his arrest. “There are thousands more like them. Families are being torn apart. We must stop these deportations.”
The action was an escalation for the movement nationally, as civil disobedience has not been a widely used tactic by immigrant rights advocates in the past.
Tania Unzueta, a 26-year-old undocumented student who moved to Chicago from Mexico City with her parents at the age of 10, snapped photos of the arrestees as they were detained.
Six weeks earlier, Unzueta and other immigrant youth led a march in Chicago behind a banner that read “Undocumented and Unafraid” and then “came out” to the world as lacking legal status in the United States. She explains the difficulties of life without legal status. “You have to keep a huge part of your life secret because it’s ‘criminal.’ It’s very liberating to say, ‘I’m undocumented, I didn’t do anything wrong, and I shouldn’t be punished.’ “
Days after the Broadview arrests, on May 1, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D) of Chicago was arrested with 34 others in front of the White House while hundreds of thousands rallied for comprehensive immigration reform around the country. Activists promised to continue ratcheting up the pressure on lawmakers until a satisfactory federal reform bill is passed.
Pushed by Arizona Republicans, SB 1070 allows police officers to inquire about a person’s citizenship if they have reasonable suspicion a person lacks proper status–a mandate, opponents say, for racial profiling. After the law’s signing, several states began considering similar bills.
The new law, which makes the failure to carry immigration documents a crime, has jump-started the immigration reform movement. With President Barack Obama castigating the state’s actions, saying the law could “undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans,” his administration has now set its sights on enacting immigration reform this year.
Following the law’s passage, activists called for a boycott of Arizona, causing several large organizations to pull their conventions out of the state. Protests of the bill have been widespread; condemnation of SB 1070 has been particularly strong in Chicago, the site of the 2006 immigrant rights marches that sparked massive organizing efforts throughout the country.
The country’s polarized mood is reminiscent of 2006, when Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) introduced a similarly tough anti-immigration bill in the House. Immigrants organized quickly and massively, flooding small towns and city streets around the country. The bill was defeated in the Senate, but the political will for comprehensive immigration reform was absent.
With a friendlier president in office and a Democratic majority in Congress, activists are hopeful for reform, but aren’t counting on Democrats to deliver it without a fight. Many protesters saved their harshest words for the Democratic politicians they helped elect. “Legalization or no reelection” was a recurring chant in Broadview and at Chicago’s May Day march.
Jenny Dale, coordinator for the Chicago New Sanctuary Coalition and an organizer of the Broadview action, said Democrats are nervous about upcoming elections. “And they should be,” says Dale. “Activists are saying, ‘The stalling needs to stop. We put you into power. Now you need to deliver.’ “
Immigration reform legislation of some sort is inevitable. Whether lawmakers follow Arizona’s lead or heed increasingly loud demands from the streets remains to be seen.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Micah Uetricht is a labor organizer in Chicago. He is a former staff writer for Campus Progress, and his work has appeared in ThinkProgress, TheNation.com, Alternet, Yes!, and Labor Notes. Most importantly, he is also a former In These Times editorial intern. He lives in Chicago, and can be contacted at micah [dot] uetricht [at] gmail [dot] com.
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Reader Comments
“The country’s polarized mood is reminiscent of 2006, when Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) introduced a similarly tough anti-immigration bill in the House.”
This guy is evil incarnate. His 2005 sponsership of the House Bankruptcy Bill really screwed the middle class.
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on May 14, 2010 at 11:02 AM
SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS?
We do NOT need immigration reform. We need immigration ENFORCEMENT! I have to show my ID when I board a plane and I am paying. Don’t you think people looking for government handouts should show ID proving they are here legally?
Simple question:
What happens if someone jumps the fence and wanders around a gated community without an ID? I am sure a resident of the community calls the cops saying someone that doesn’t look like they belong here is roaming the streets. The cops arrive. They would ask the wanderer a few questions. And since the wanderer does not have a valid reason for being inside the gated community, the cops would escort them out, wouldn’t they? Isn’t a country, like the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, a “gated community”, too?
We should treat immigrants like Mexico does:
At present, Article 67 of Mexico’s Population Law says, “Authorities, whether federal, state or municipal ... are required to demand that foreigners prove their legal presence in the country, before attending to any issues.” That would simplify things. We do NOT need immigration reform. We need immigration ENFORCEMENT!
WAKE UP AMERICA AND SMELL THE HYPOCRISY
Posted by Avery T. Horton, Jr. on May 14, 2010 at 5:13 PM
What we all have to remember is that California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas were all part of Mexico until we forcefully stole their land not so very long ago, by geologic standards. Mexicans belong there. That is their land! Why are we so worried about them being there? They are helping white Americans by doing the dirty work no one wants to do. Farming, golf courses, our children, our hotels, our restaurants, our construction sites, all will be without workers if Mexicans and other brown people from Central America and beyond, weren’t there to performs those jobs. If these people weren’t brown we would not have our panties in a bunch. Canadian and European undocumented workers are here too, but we are not building a wall with Canada nor are we making any laws against them. Think people! Those brown folks are paying taxes, if the bosses are ethical. But I suspect that there is the problem.
Posted by jbherrera on May 15, 2010 at 4:53 AM
“California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas were all part of Mexico until we forcefully stole their land not so very long ago, by geologic standards. Mexicans belong there.”
————————————-
What generally-accepted principle says that geologic standards are the ones to use?
The people coming up from Mexico and points south today are *not* descended from the people who lived in what are now the US states of California, etc. They have a smaller claim to the land than anyone whose family has lived there 10 years.
Mexicans have no claim to anything but Mexico (and few can even make that claim, if we want to talk about aboriginal rights: too much European in their bloodline and culture).
Making claims based on a handwaved “not so very long ago, by geologic standards” is as self-serving and repulsive as “this land is ours because God said so in our mythology (even though we haven’t lived here for 1700 years, have only a thin, male-line genetic connection that our own religion doesn’t recognise as valid, and there’s no archaeological evidence that our mythology is even vaguely accurate anyway)”.
Posted by Mairead on May 15, 2010 at 8:54 AM
Illegal immigrants america’s unspoken slaves. The slave plantations of the old south are alive and well in the fertile farmlands, and industry of the United States.
Every year the US government turns a blind eye and allows a mass migration of illegals or slave labor into the United States, to work the farms and other industries in the US, including working in a Kosher food plant. They are paid less than minimum wage, no OSHA safety regulations, live in cardboard shacks and are at the mercy of the “slave boss”.
The government of the United States allows this mass slave migration with the blessing of corporate America. Corporate America needs the slaves in order to make obscene profits off the backs of slavery.
To keep the average American from learning the truth of today’s slave labor, they cloak the activity with “Illegals take the work that the average Americans would not”. Not true. The average American would gladly take the job, if it paid the prevailing wage rate and also had OSHA safety regulations. All of which are not granted to the slave labor.
At the end of the week the “slaves” are paid in cash, with deductions for water, towels, shade, transportation, etc. They have little to nothing to show for their work and are then told to go to the nearest welfare office and food bank. The “slaves” then begin another journey of bleeding the average American dry from taxation and over burdening Social Services.
Edward McKinney, of McKinney Research states, “Coyotes or illegal traffickers are told by the US Border Patrol, what dates are best to cross the border, and again when the US Border Patrol will crack down on illegals”.
Says McKinney, “One hand washes the other”.
“The slave industry, and it is a business, goes as far the CEO of major corporations, to the President of the United States”. Says McKinney.
McKinney will be talking more on the subject of illegal immigration, on Sunday, May 16, 2010, at 11:30pm (EDT). Callers are welcome to call in with their comments at 347-326-9518, or listen at www.blogtalkradio.com/edward-mckinney
McKinney is an author, expert on government and world affairs. He has appeared on the History Channel. His most recent book “From Nebuchadnezzar to Gorbachev, the Story of Babylon” can be obtained at www.lulu.com/edwardmckinney, McKinney also has a website www.twoprophets.org.
Posted by Mercedes Bain on May 15, 2010 at 11:30 AM
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