An immigration reform bill has gone into the U.S. Senate and now travels to the House of Representatives. The initiative has created many illusions in the immigrant community that has been, at the same time, under a siege of raids, deportations and discrimination for all these years.
Unfortunately, the ones who are proposing the immigration reform are the same people that have been at the head of the government, authorizing and leading the nightmare that immigrants have had to live until today. In that sense, we warn the community to not have false illusions that these same politicians, Democrats and Republicans, are able to elaborate a just and humane immigration reform, because so much hate and contempt cannot disappear overnight.
That entire political maneuver is disguising itself as an “immigration reform” so that the public falls once again into a trap, and they intend to take economic advantage for another 10, 15, or 20 years. This is despite all who manage to qualify and the supposedly 4 or 5 million eligible people. Nonetheless, this will create a division amongst immigrants. In reality, this new immigration bill is a plan to sharpen the repression, to have more control, & to legalize discrimination. It is not solely an attack against immigrants, but it is also a repressive plan against the American people, particularly people of color and the vast mass of the working poor.
27 years later, we remain stagnant in the same point!
When these politicians refer to the problem of immigration, they have never been honest; they’ve always used lies and blackmail. When Democrats and Republicans propelled and approved the immigration bill Simpson-Rodino in 86’, they did so feeling obligated by the mass mobilizations that not only demanded a solution to the immigration issue but also sympathized with the Central-American revolution that was heated/sizzling in those years. Also, because there existed the possibility that such process would influence the Mexican public to also confront their own crisis- that is why they approved the immigration trap to appease and silence their spirits. What the immigration community did not see in that immigration bill was the trap- that through means of that bill helped hide it’s harm and its inability to solve the real problems of the immense majority of immigrants.
The immigration bill, Simpson-Rodino, was a Democrat-Republican bill (like that of today), & was presented and approved to supposedly solve the immigration crisis of 20 million immigrants, of whom only approximately 4 to 5 million benefited from. In reality, what happened was that the government, once again, disguised the immigration bill, the implementation of more repressive laws, more discrimination and attacks against immigrants; this is the origin of the ban of work to whoever did not have a work permit, criminalizing those who would work in the country, incidentally called “the most free and democratic country in the world”. In that sense, we must be very careful so that we don’t fall in the political trap that the Democrats and Republicans are creating in the new immigration bill. We must realize that there are many more obstacles than opportunities to qualify, and that the sentiment expressed in this bill is of hatred, and blame, without content of justice or humanism.
Who benefits from the “new immigration reform?
We must always remember that when Democrats and Republicans talk about solving a determine problem, they are speaking for private corporations and always look for what benefits them; they don’t speak at all on how to really help those affected, in this case, immigrant workers. By raising military funds to militarize the border, what is being created is the consolidation of the already existing war zone- where many immigrants are assassinated- & it is a new war zone, now in American soil, where there will be given more strength to the guerilla mentality that has made so much damage. We can now see this with the increase of people killed by the police, the sheriff and the border patroland the intensification of the police state, that is not only aimed at immigrants, but also to anyone whom the government considers to be a dangerous political element.
This immigration proposal is also favoring the private corporations of prisons, of documentation and data, & also the legal defense industry, like lawyer corporations, and agencies of legal services, the construction industry, the weapons industry with drones, and other sophisticated war teams and surveillance. Of course, this would all be made possible with money that their supporters contributed with their taxes and once again will be given an inappropriate use, and will all be in favor of private corporations that have a lot of influence in the government. This is why it is a repressive law against all, and not only immigrants. It is a repressive plan disguised as an immigration reform and it is the disguised excuse for a reform that economically favors a diverse number of private corporations, that Democrats and Republicans represent in the government, and we must oppose it and all corporate corruption.
The imperialist relation with the countries of origin of immigrants
The government’s proposal is to completely ignore its foreign policy – one that is creating mass migration and illegal interference in developing countries, and one that continues to deepen the unbearable economic crisis they are facing. They’re stealing oil in Mexico (among many other things) and are trying to implement control of sectors of transportation like airports, ports, water, health and education in El Salvador and Central America by transnational corporations. That is, in advance to what the Obama government knows- that with the continuation of the foreign policy of unlawful interference, looting and privatization of resources in our countries of origin- the massive migration stream continues and deepens, and does so by preparing to toughen immigration laws and border militarization. It is totally unacceptable to treat any human being that way just for the sake of being immigrants and needing to work, particularly when multinational corporations arrive in the countries of origin of immigrants.
There they are given many privileges, like working hands to help them install their companies, they live in privileged areas of the country, they provide cheap labor, a whole army of workers have no guarantee or union organization, and they even have the right to abuse the workers and also to save costs and increase profits. They pay no taxes, have no obligation to invest part of their earnings in the country they are exploiting, & all their pay is the ‘bite’ that gives corrupt governments that allow them to do all this. These same corrupt governments persecute, torture and kill captured workers, whom, tired from abuse and starvation wages, organize and fight. Though, when they get tired or fear for their lives, they choose to emigrate. The other much more obscure part of the foreign policy of the United States has been the imposition of corrupt governments, incapable and submissive to it, that were and still are unable to resolve the most urgent needs of the people.
The government, along with the CIA, the Pentagon, and different types of organizations, have implemented government coups on governments that have tried to do something different than what is imposed by the imperialist master. The United States of North America supported, financed and provided all kinds of support for military dictatorships throughout Latin America, causing repression, disappearances, torture, massacres and assassinations and even sold children and girls who were prisoners in captivity. In a separate article, we will be giving more detail of all that this country has done to foreign policy against all these nations, violating the sovereignty and the most fundamental human elements, for whom today we point to such genocide & that immigrants should immediately receive full rights and without any cost.
What to do before the new Democratic and Republican Party lie?
If Obama had a little dignity, he would begin by apologizing to the immigrant community for having suppressed them much more than the Bush administration. This is because his attacks have involved more human hunting, more surprise operations in workplaces and homes, with a large number of agents and extreme violence. This is as if it were terrorist raids, in which not only people without documents were arrested, but also anyone they wanted, including people with legal or resolved status. Given that reality, we call upon the immigrant community, in particular, and the working class, in general, to increase their level of independence, and political formation, to better cope with the current situation and what is to come, in regards to migration policy, among other things, and as we see, to understand and respond to the new government’s immigration proposal, in spite of not being sure when it will even be approved.
These days, immigrants are the modern slaves that the masters have sent, to bring them by force and be chained. But this time, the chains are not metal, but are made of poverty, unemployment, humiliation, repression and death, and have the Democratic and Republican foremen, Obama in particular, to impose all kinds of abuse and ensure that more slaves are produced for multinational corporate masters. These multinational corporate masters, with their millions, dominate at will, in this country and abroad. And so we have to fight, we have to raise our voices, and demand to not only give them full rights, but give them immediately, without cost and without restrictions! This is because we’re dealing with human beings that are forced to emigrate, and the least that the government should do is to receive and guarantee their rights- that is what is just and humane.
Our demands to the United States!
1.Full rights, immediately and free of cost for all immigrants, including the family members of deportees.
2.A law that promotes, explains, and guarantees a national level of respect and dignity for all immigrants. Not one human being is illegal!
3. No more raids, no more persecution, it is a harm to all. That the government give a public apology for all the atrocities committed against immigrants.
4.We demand that the government prioritize real solutions to human needs and not for the necessities of corporate businesses. Solutions for education, health, better wages, housing issue, respect to all people of color, reinforce union rights, a stop to wars and an immediate solution to immigrant demands.
For the just fight of immigrants in the U.S and worldwide!
● Unity of struggle of immigrants with the struggles of other workers at a national and international level!
● Workers’ struggles do not have borders!
● No to the political trap that is being proposed as an immigration reform because it does not solve immigrant problems & only favors corporate business!
● Don’t let yourself be fooled, join the struggle!
