We are all criminals
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In the U.S., the issue is framed as “Immigration”
The face of the issue is framed as a brown skinned Mexican man.
And yet, all you have to do is scrape just a little under the surface to know what immigration really means and who it effects.
750+ Immigrants Detained in “Operation Return To Sender” Raids
Immigrant youth shelter won’t reopen
Judge tells immigrant woman seeking restraining order to leave court or she will be deported.
Immigrant woman dragged a mile to her death.
Immigrant women afraid to seek health care.
Immigrant woman denied cancer treatment for lack of Medicaid.
Palestinian man held on immigration charges held indefinitely in the name of “war on terror”
Rape is the price you pay for crossing the border.
Border patrol agents rape immigrant women: Supervisor watches.
INS holds immigrant children in prison like conditions–they are forbidden from speaking their own languages, told not to laugh, forced to ask for permission to scratch their noses.
Defense attorney demands of rape victim: You’ve been in this country a long time, why don’t you speak English yet?(pdf file page 5)
Immigrants can be held indefinitely without trail.
Clearly, some unpacking of the “immigration debate” is in order. What is really being debated here? And why has this “debate” been framed in the way it has?
For all it’s rhetoric stating otherwise, historically, the U.S. has never been all that welcoming to immigrants. The Irish, Chinese, Mexican, Polish, Haitian, Japanese have all been on the brunt end of anti-immigrant rhetoric. And that list is not exhaustive by any means. In most cases, economics pushed anti-immigrant aggression. That is, the dirty Wops/Chinks/Spics/Poles etc. stole jobs from those who deserved them–”real” Americans aka white middle class men.
But right now, things are different. Right now, although anti-immigrant aggression still centers on economics (the dirty spics are stealing jobs/making us pay for their welfare), the driving force behind the debate, the issue that really triggers the debate, is the “war on terror.”
Some of the first anti-immigrant organizations in the U.S. to capitalize on anti-Arab “war on terror” policies were the hate organizations the Minutemen Project and the American Patrol Report. Both organizations were classified as hate groups by the U.S. government pre 9-11. They are known for their terror antics on the border–hunting human beings down while armed and on horseback, forcibly detaining and pistol whipping captured border crossers, and destroying water stations put up to prevent deaths. The American Border Report even went so far as to raise money to buy a plane that they could use to “monitor” the border with.
But all of this was conveniently forgotten by politicians, government officials, and universities in a post 9-11 world. “Liberal” John Kerry and Columbia University played host to Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist. Media personalities like Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs openly supported each group. And eventually a national debate ensued–are the Minutemen’s tactics justifiable?
Almost nobody recognized or talked about the reason why these organizations gained such instant popularity. In a post 9-11 world, they had both taken the time to restructure their campaigns significantly–choosing to focus on the “desperate” situation at the border. The “desperate” situation being, of course, that thousands of Mexicans were crossing through unprotected parts of the border every year–thousands of Mexicans that could really be terrorists. The false desperation of the war on terror leaked into the border, creating a false desperation on the border that has justified everything from increased violence by border patrol agents against border crossers and the building of our own wall.
Similar anti-Arab/immigrant sentiment played out recently in the fallout of the V-Tech shootings. Before it was discovered that the shooter was a Korean born legal immigrant in the U.S., various media pundents were doing their best to connect the shooting to the the Muslim community (which by default, of course, means Arabs). Ray Hanania rightly wonders, “What would have happened to us Arab Americans if that Virginia Tech student had been Arab and not South Korean?”
Nothing good, that we can all be sure of that.
The Mexican community has picked up on this anti-Arab sentiment in their organizing. Unfortunately, this has often led to some of us doing our best to distance ourselves from the rhetoric rather than confront it. For example, at immigration rallies, signs declaring, “somos trabajadores no terroristas” are common. We are workers not terrorists. We are in the U.S. to work hard, we want to be citizens, we’re as American as apple pie, we want to be just like you. We are uncritical to the idea of who, exactly, is “you” and what is this history of violence “you” has participated in through the course of U.S. history?
And because we are uncritically demanding to adopt into U.S. citizenship, our “smaller rocks” type movement does very little, if anything, to really challenge larger forms of structural violence and oppressions against any of our communities, much less challenge the working conditions of many migrant workers/undocumented workers.
Perhaps another way to look at this would be to remember that Mexicans are not the only ones whose families are being destroyed and imprisoned. In prison, there is no distinction between terrorist and worker–and ironically, whether terrorist or illegal worker, we all are imprisoned for the same thing: visa issues. If it’s ok to imprison a “terrorist”on immigration issues, why wouldn’t it be ok to imprison a “worker” on immigration issues?
The issue is framed as “immigration” and the face of the immigration debate is a Mexican male. But it’s time for all of us to force open this tiny little box they have squeezed us all into . The United States owes its current existence to the violence it inflicts on each of our communities. If there were no threat of violence to keep workers inline, would we be a model of capitalistic prosperity for corporations world wide? If the workers had any sort of power or influence over decisions made by the government, would corporations have been able to convince the U.S. government to invade Afghanistan or Iraq? If there was no corporate sponsered war on terror, would anti-Arab aggression flourish in the U.S. the way it does? Would children still be seperated from their families? Would immigrant women still be too frightened to report interpersonal violence and abuse?
We are all interconnected. It’s time to embrace our differences rather than hide from them. We are all criminals in this country–our assimilation process starts with jails and violence rather than open arms and melting pots. It’s time to love each other more than we love the American dream. Our love for each other will be what saves us.
i have always loved criminals
i tell people who try to shame
me into silencewith words like television conjugal
college libraries they say
can you imagine a library in a nigerian chinese a
columbian prison do you know what happens
in the world americans are so spoiled no idea
how lucky we are hereeven you often write how
your time has offered reflection
meditation deepened your faith
but you 27 and have 10
years to go nowhere how much deeper
you going to get until a system based
on money deems you rehabilitatedi have always loved criminals
and the way you bomb my tag
butterphoenix all across your letters
reminds me our affirmation is considered vandalismi have always loved
criminals and not only the thugged
out bravado of rap videos and champagne
popping hustlers but my father
born an arab baby boy
on the forced way out
of his homeland his mother exiled
and pregnant gave birth in a campthe world pointed and said
palestinians do not exist palestinians
are roaches palestinians are two legged dogs
and israel built jails and weapons and
a history based on the absence of a people
israel made itself holy and chosen
and my existence a crimeso i have always loved criminals
it is a love of self
and i will not cut off any part of
me and place it behind fences and bars
and the fake ass belief
that there is a difference between
the inside and the outsidethere is no outside anywhere
anymore just where we are and
what we do while we are hereand there
are people anthony who make a connection
between you puerto rican ryme slayer beautiful man and
young girls twisted into sex work and these
people nazim they are working to stop prisons
from being economically beneficial to depressed
communities and these people
bronx bomber they imagine a world
where money can’t be made off the hurt
of the young the poor the colored the
sexualized the different and these people
nymflow they never heard you
spit lyrics and they won’t
see the cut of your brilliance
from these mere words
but these people
42851-054 5812
they beleive human
beings can never be reduced
to numbers not in concentration
camps or reservations not in
refugee camps not in schools
and not in jailsthese people
brother they resisti will share these words
with them and i will
in your name and in the names
of all who imaginestay well
and safe
reisist
and love
suheirexcerpted from the poem “letter to anthony (critical resistance) by suheir hammad “
~En Lucha~
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17 Comments on “We are all criminals”
brownfemipower,
I’m really grateful for this insightful, rich and educating post of yours. Honestly speaking, I never knew it is that bad out there.
Off topic: Haitham, you covered the earlier Doha Debate on the right of return. The most recent debate was also interesting. It discussed the power of the Zionist lobby and took place at Oxford University.
MAJORITY OF OXFORD UNION STUDENTS SAY PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY STIFLING DEBATE
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3395057,00.html
The video should be available at the Doha site some time after this weekend (when it airs on the BBC).
trouvere,
Thanks for the head up. I’m looking forward to watch it.
Thank you so much haitham–I appreciate the space you’ve made available to me–it’s the beginning of coming together, don’t you think?
Of the many things that struck me, looking over this remarkable post, was the way that the law functions as a permanent and deceptive form of exclusion. Because of the way that legal vs. illegal immigration is represented — which is very much like the difference between terrorists and those Arab-Americans & Muslims we love and accept — immigrants are encouraged to believe that if they are good enough, and work hard enough, and are sufficiently distinguished from the troublemakers, they will get to cross over and become part of the “real America.” But it’s illusory. That America doesn’t exist, since the real America is constituted by these very same relationships of oppression. The law asks assimilation and disempowerment from those people who are in truth already on its right side, and inspires a chilling and divisive hatred for those who are not.
Hi brownfemipower,
You have hit the nail on the head but good. The racism in the immigration debate here is outrageous and you are 100% correct in saying our country was founded on immigration. That really SHOULD be a sort of “duh” thing but far too many times those settling down here or living here their entire lives take a zenophobic attitude that does NOT take fact into account. All it takes is looking back on the history of our country to see how manipulating immigration has worked. Back in the 1860’s it was the Chinese who were targeted who were brought here to build the railroads, and then later Europeans of different countries were targeted, quotas were established and in some cases immigration closed it’s doors completely to certain peoples.
So who is the biggest and easiest target now? Those coming from south of our border, but do we take into account that the horrendous economic situations in those countries are very much due to US policies concerning trade and our multinationals in many cases pressuring them into agreements that are good for the US, but CERTAINLY not good for them. Heck, we haven’t even had any problem with overthrowing Latin American countries when it suited “our” purposes. (ie Monroe Doctrine declaring US hegemony over the Americas) Then when they cross the US borders, driven here by “prosperity” relative to their own countries because OUR country is responsible for so much of their hardship, what do we do? We use and abuse them, in many cases pay them illegally under the table so that “OUR” own people can throw hayseed at people whom they see as “lesser”. The hypocracy is just unbelievable.
I live in LA and just two days ago the police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and used batons on people who were PEACEFULLY congregated in McArthur Park at the end of a long immigration march. When you say “it’s the beginning of coming together” there is SO much truth to that. The LAPD received training in Israeli tactics http://www.aztlan.net/brattonisrael.htm and
http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1340&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Democracy
and then used those very tactics on an immigrant’s march. ABSOLUTELY disgusting-yes-there is a coming together.
I found this poem and Telemundo footage of what went on there
http://www.lataco.com/taco/riot-cops-in-macarthur-park-videos
Jun Velez wrote:
Macarthur Park
They were in the park like you and me
They don’t have the same rights though you see
Their fingers are in our mouths
When you are eating your breakfast drinking your drinks
The sweat of their brow on the ice that you clink
They go to our schools say the pledge of allegiance
Do we listen to reason?
Or just fire the rubber bullets, their all in season
The stick does the talking
See the blood on their brows
Their fingers are in our mouths
When you sip your fruit drink
When you have time to stop and think
Look out at your manicured lawn
From the tiled veranda you sit on
We will use their skills
Cross their border to buy cheap pills
See the heads bent and stooped to ground
Lower than the dirt they that they found
The land was theirs but that doesn’t matter
As long as their tears keeps making us fatter
The gas clouds blind and choke
Over there you can see the smoke
Eyes sprayed with poison and hate
Made from the plants that they traditionally ate
Their fingers are in our mouths
Taste the soil under their nails
Taste the sweat from their brows
Taste the fear in their hearts
And know that one way or another
We all took part
Just another day in the park
Jun Velez, May 3 2007
An illegal alien is not an “immigrant” - the word “immigrant” implies the consent of the host society, which illegals do not have.
Haitham, shouldn’t you be more concerned with the fact that Egypt will not let Palestinians in from the Gaza border?
And Brownfemipower, do you think you are doing yourself some favors as an advocate for amnesty for illegals when you hop into bed with a Palestinian activist? You couldn’t paint the nightmare scenario with illegal entry any more clearly.
Sabbah, very good article. Let this be the beginning of your investigations into this. The crime of not being “white” is also the crime of the Palestinians, muslims and many others in the world. And one can be “white” without being “white”, and not be “white” while being “white”. You are steering into the territory of monumental truth here. Keep steering towards it. Read Derrick Jensen’s “The Culture of Make Believe”.
illegal alien
an alien is something that comes from outer space. and illegal alien is something that comes from outer space “illegally”. Human beings are not illegal or aliens.
Haitham, shouldn’t you be more concerned with the fact that Egypt will not let Palestinians in from the Gaza border?
why do you think that is tho? And what do you think happens to palestinians who can’t cross over those borders? Hutto prison in the U.S. was holding a family from palestine that couldn’t cross any of the borders into palestine because isreal refused to give them travel papers. The u.s. has got it’s finger in border crossing issues all over the world–Palestine as well.
And Brownfemipower, do you think you are doing yourself some favors as an advocate for amnesty for illegals when you hop into bed with a Palestinian activist? You couldn’t paint the nightmare scenario with illegal entry any more clearly.
as long as it’s legal to imprison palestinian families indefinitely in the u.s. because israel refuses the right to return, it will ok for mexican families to be held indefinitely because they wanted a job.
Haitham,
Though I don’t agree with Craig completely I think he provides a valuable point that is merely glossed over, mainly that Palestinian refugees are limited in the countries in which they are currently resided. In Egypt, Syria, Jordan and other nations Palestians are treated as second-class citizens, unable to work and travel freely or get equal government services or even permant or temporary resident status. Why is this issue never addressed? It seems it is the most similar to that of the current Mexican immigrants to the US, those forced to flee a situation because of hostile forces and the promise of peace and a better life.
Also, another issue glossed over in the current debate is the discriminatory practices of Mexico to more southern immigrants, i.e. Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, etc. These individuals are treated worse then Mexicans in the US but their plight is never mentioned in the media. Just a couple of quick points that I thought of while reading this post.
Sean,
I’ll tell you the reason in very simple and short words:
1. Palestinian and Arab in all the countries that host them, never considered and will ever consider that Palestinians will end up living in these Arab host countries. Arabs were kind enough to support Palestinians for more than 40 years now, and every morning since the occupation began, Arabs and Palestinians wake up to fulfil one dream, which is returning home, Palestine.
2. Palestinians in host countries are not citizens of these countries and they will never be. Not because they can’t, but because they both don’t want to. If Palestinians and Arab accepted that refugees are fully considered as citizens and they practice all the rights of the original citizen, then Palestinians would have dissolved by now and Israel would not have had any problem now.
On the other hand, Palestinians in many Arab countries practice and enjoy more rights than those living as citizen of Israel (a.k.a. Arab Israel).
3. Last but not least, true, focusing on some issues that Palestinians face in Arab countries might be good to improve their lives, but the truth is, the major focus should always be on the roots of the problem, which is the occupation. If and when the occupations ends and all Palestinians take their full rights, then, neither the Palestinians nor the Arabs will have to face any of the issues that we see now. The problem is in the Israeli occupation, not how Palestinians are treated in Arab countries.
I have linked this Excellent blog to my page because it was just that, Excellent. there is so much that the great Immigration “debate” encopases….so,so much.
Brilliant post BFP. I really like the way you link anti-immigration and Islamophobia together. We are all interconnected and the sooner we all recognise this the stronger we become.
Illegal alien Mexicans are ruining the best country on Earth. The insanity of illegal immigration must stop now. They didn’t found this country. They didn’t build this country. They didn’t make this country great. “Cheap Labor” isn’t worth the 3rd World crimewave they’ve brought.
True, some illegals just come here to work and are decent people. However far, far too many illegal alien Mexicans are punk assed little criminal scumbags who do nothing but commit violent crime upon innocent US citizens, thereby destroying the fabric of this formerly great country. If I had my way, I’d put a bullet in the head of every rat assed Mexican criminal alien who dares trespass the southern border.
Wow, that was some comment American “Patriot”, makes me PROUD to be an American along side the likes of vigelanties like you, offering to shoot people in the head. Lord have mercy, you ARE a MACHO MAN-uh oh, macho is a Spanish word, I meant ente homar kabir!