Immigration Uproar

An editorial on CNN Opinion purports to explain why the uproar over immigration has gone nationwide, but the authors, Audrey Singer and Jill H. Wilson, both at the Brookings Institution, left out some key factors. The factors they cite are the economic downturn and the increase of immigrant populations in urban and suburban areas from 2000 to 2010. "The friction in places unaccustomed to or unprepared for new inflows of foreigners, particularly those who are assumed to be present illegally, manifests itself in different ways."

Scapegoating is common when there's an economic downturn, because those who are actually to blame for the country's economic woes want to divert attention away from themselves. Fanning the flames of racism and xenophobia is a time-honored method of deflecting blame toward those who have the least power:

History is full of irrefutable evidence that when the economy gets bad, scapegoats are targeted, and the worst instincts of humanity reveal themselves. Alabama has asked its citizens to cross invisible boundaries of humanity—waging political battles on the backs of school children, cutting access to the most basic human needs, like water. —Ilyse Hogue.

Although most Americans favor reasonable, comprehensive immigration reform, the small percentage of those who don't are the ones who are the most vocal. They believe they have a personal, vested interest in driving people of color out of their communities. Their fear and hatred compels them. That hatred is validated and reinforced by the terrorizing raids of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On the other hand, few of those who favor reasonable reform are as compelled or as vocal. Because they may not feel that they personally have a vested interest in the outcome, they keep silent while the xenophobes freely and prolifically spew their hatred.

Another reason anti-immigrant uproar has gone nationwide is that there's a lot of money being funneled into it. And capitalism, whose great golden calf is the bottom line unhindered by any moral compunctions, is always in favor of cheap, exploitable labor with no legal protections. Just ask the booming prisons-for-profit industry.

The Immigration Policy Center dispels the notion that immigrants are the cause of unemployment:

Immigrants are not the cause of unemployment in the United States. Empirical research has demonstrated repeatedly that there is no correlation between immigration and unemployment. In fact, immigrants—including the unauthorized—create jobs through their purchasing power and their entrepreneurship, buying goods and services from U.S. businesses and creating their own businesses, both of which sustain U.S. jobs. The presence of new immigrant workers and consumers in an area also spurs the expansion of businesses, which creates new jobs.

We have to realize that we do indeed, all of us, have a stake in what happens to the immigrants in our midst. We must raise our voices above the uproar and advocate for common sense and compassion. The immigrants among us are our brothers and sisters, and in answer to a very old question, we are indeed their keepers.

We Are All Immigrants

If you missed it last night, or you've turned your television off like we have, you can watch Frontline: Lost in Detention online (54 minutes). Not for the faint of heart, it shows the abusiveness and insanity of US immigration enforcement.

Because of the likelihood of abuse, a few things should never be privatized. Prisons, health care, and education are at the top of that list. Capitalism is fine. But when it morphs into unbridled greed, as it clearly has done, it can only lead to human suffering, gross injustice, and economic collapse.

Alabama's new anti-immigrant law is already hurting its farmers, because much to the surprise of Governor Bentley, most U.S. citizens really don't want to do farm work. "Jobless resident Americans lack the physical stamina and the mental toughness to see the job through," says Alabama farmer Jerry Spencer. There's a certain measure of desperation, determination, and fortitude required to do that kind of work. Most of us aren't that desperate, determined, or tough. But if the economy and our elected officials continue on their current path, it's likely that our children will be.

All human beings are migrants. We are born into this life, we stay for a while, and then we move on. None of us are permanent residents. In the meantime, we go where we believe we have the best chance to provide for our families. Those who are desperate, determined, and strong enough to do the work that U.S. citizens do not want to do, who see grueling farm work as their best chance to provide for their families, pose no threat to anyone. We need them. And our well-being is tied to theirs.

--TomRW & MaryRW

More from HuffPost: After Alabama Immigration Law, Few Americans Taking Immigrants' Work

And more from the Washington Post/Associated Press: Few Americans Take Immigrants' Jobs in Alabama

Stop the ICE Raids

Fair, equitable, and comprehensive immigration reform should be a high priority for the new administration and the new Congress. First and foremost the raids must stop. This should be right up there with stopping the military commissions at Guantanamo, which President Obama did even before his first full day in office.

• The horrific Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids have terrorized communities all over the United States. The terrorizing isn't (and couldn't be) limited to unauthorized immigrants; it affects whole communities, children and families, many of whom are U.S. citizens.
• The raids leave devastated communities in their wake and ruin local economies. For proof of how much immigrants do to strengthen our local economies, look at what happened in the small community of Postville, Iowa. Before the May 12, 2008, ICE raid, this was a thriving paragon of integration and cross-cultural cooperation with a population of more than 2,200. The community of Postville is now a ghost town, a shadow of its former self, having lost approximately a quarter of its population. Every single member of the community has been deeply affected by the raid. (Go here for more information about the Postville raid.)
• Families are torn apart by the raids, and fear runs rampant throughout the community, not only among Latinos and immigrants, but especially among children, who fear that their parents will be taken away from them as the parents of their friends and classmates have been. The raids establish a climate of fear for everyone in the affected communities.
• Workers caught up in the ICE raids have been denied due process. The cases involving the workers from Postville were not reviewed individually, nor were individual circumstances taken into account. All the cases were treated exactly alike and were railroaded through court ten at a time. The system was designed for the wholesale imposition of guilt. It is unlikely that the workers understood the charges against them.
• Enforcement-only policies encourage profiling. Many Latinos, regardless of their immigration status, are harassed and frightened. Friends and relatives occasionally just disappear, presumably picked up by ICE, but no one knows for sure. For many, this experience is eerily familiar, as they come from countries where friends and family were once regularly "disappeared" by regional death squads.

The ICE raids have made the United States resemble an autocratic police state with no regard for individual rights or the well-being of children, families, and communities. They must stop so that we as a nation can focus instead on creating reasonable, equitable immigration reform.

Today our friends from the Fair Immigration Reform Movement are demonstrating in Washington, DC, to ask the new administration to work for fair and comprehensive immigration reform. If you would like to support their work, please join the Fair Immigration Reform Movement cause on Facebook, support the New Day for Immigration, and sign the pledge at Building America Together:

I commit to stand for America's finest ideals and core community values and publicly reject the politics of division and isolation that fan anger and hate against any person or community. I will work towards just, workable and humane immigration reform.

We can do this. Yes we can! ¡Sí, se puede!

What Happened in Postville?

This is an information sheet I prepared on what happened in Postville, Iowa, on May 12, 2008, what was then the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. More information can be found at http://whathappenedinpostville.info.

On May 12, 2008, hundreds of agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, raided Agriprocessors Inc., the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the United States, in Postville, Iowa (population 2,273).

At the time of the raid, Agriprocessors employed 968 workers, about 75 percent of whom were thought to be unauthorized immigrants, the majority of them from rural regions of Guatemala, a country known for human rights abuses and beset by crippling poverty. The raid took place at 10 a.m.; 390 workers were arrested (314 men and 76 women). Only five of the 390 arrested had a prior criminal record. Warrants had been issued for 697 workers.

The raid instantly turned Postville into what resembled a ghost town and continues to have a devastating impact on the local economy. The community has lost more than a quarter of its population. Many Latinos who were not caught in the raid fled or went into hiding. In the wake of the raid, many other U.S. communities with similar demographics have experienced rumors of raids and widespread fear that their community would be next.

Those arrested “were frisked and told to remove any sweaters or heavy garments. Handcuffs were placed on their wrists and attached to their waists. Their feet were also cuffed.” According to one eyewitness, workers were lined up “like cattle” (Des Moines Register, May 14–15, 2008).

Investigations of worker abuse, employment of underage workers, and violations of labor laws at the plant were interrupted if not altogether halted by the raid. Immigrant workers were generally underpaid, according to the Des Moines Register: “Another plant worker told federal officials that undocumented workers were paid $5 an hour for their first few months before receiving a pay increase to $6 per hour. The minimum wage in Iowa is $7.25 an hour.”

Since the raid, a low-level manager at Agriprocessors, Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to hire illegal immigrants and one count of aiding and abetting the hiring of illegal immigrants. He faces a possible ten-year prison sentence and a maximum $500,000 fine. A second supervisor, Martin De La Rosa-Loera, pleaded guilty under an agreement with prosecutors to aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented immigrants. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. In August, the Iowa Division of Labor Services cited Agriprocessors for 31 safety violations and proposed fining the company $101,000.

In the wake of the raid, rumors circulated that federal agents were going door-to-door in Postville in search of illegal immigrants. With helicopters prowling overhead, many of the workers’ families, frightened that ICE would come for them next, took refuge at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church. By evening nearly four hundred people had gathered there; they stayed for the next six days because they were afraid to go home.

Hundreds of families were torn apart by the raid, and fear was rampant in the community. Postville’s school superintendent said that about a third of the elementary and middle school students were absent the day after the raid: “We had 10 percent of our entire community arrested in 12 hours. . . . It’s just like having a tornado that wiped out an entire part of town.”

Parents and teachers struggled to answer children’s questions: “Are the black helicopters going to come back and kill us, too?” Others feared that their parents would be taken away as well. Panic broke out in the high school as news of the raid arrived via text messages on students’ cell phones.

Of those arrested, 56 mothers were released on humanitarian grounds, to care for unattended children. Those released were fitted with GPS ankle bracelets that serve as tracking devices so that ICE can monitor their whereabouts while they await prosecution. The bracelets, which are tight and dig into the ankle and irritate the skin, must be worn 24 hours a day. While they wait in legal limbo, not allowed to work or to return to their home countries, the mothers have no means of supporting their families other than accepting charity. According to one mother, “Before, we tolerated everything they did to us at the plant. We worked very hard, but we lived free. Now, we have no work. We are not free. And we have no idea what will happen to us.”

Immigration proceedings usually involve civil, not criminal, statutes; but 260 of the workers from Postville were charged with the felony of “aggravated identity theft” and “Social Security fraud,” charges that apply to the use of someone else’s identification in order to commit a crime, not in order to procure employment.

“Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said the organization has gathered information indicating that detainees [were not] given adequate time to meet with attorneys ‘and that defense attorneys [were] being overwhelmed (with) requests to represent far more clients than is advisable—or perhaps even ethical’ ” (Des Moines Register, May 14, 2008).

Many of those charged are the sole support for their families, not only family members living here in the United States but also those living in their home countries. Their primary concern throughout the proceedings was the well-being of those depending on them for their survival.

Federal officials set up temporary courtrooms in the National Cattle Congress fairground in nearby Waterloo, where those arrested were held, processed, tried, and sentenced with unprecedented speed.

The workers were denied meetings with immigration attorneys and were fast-tracked through criminal court proceedings that took only four days for all 269 of them.

Criminal defense attorneys warned of violations of due process. Cases were not reviewed individually, and no individual circumstances were taken into account. All the cases were treated exactly alike. The system was designed for the wholesale imposition of guilt. It is unlikely that the workers understood the charges against them.

Each of those charged was offered a deal: If you plead guilty to “knowingly using a false Social Security number,” the more serious charge of “aggravated identify theft” will be withdrawn and you will be sentenced to five months in jail followed by deportation without a hearing.

The workers had no choice but to accept the plea agreement and to waive their right to have their case reviewed by an immigration court before deportation, thereby losing whatever chance they may have had to gain authorization to live and work in the United States.

The deal also ensured that the workers would have little chance of legally reentering the United States.

Sources

Nigel Duara, Grant Schulte, and William Petroski. “ID Fraud Claims Bring State’s Largest Raid.” Des Moines Register, May 13, 2008.

Susan Saulny. “Hundreds Are Arrested in U.S. Sweep of Meat Plant.” New York Times, May 13, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/us/13immig.html?ex=1368417600&en=c0cca97c61723a29&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink).

Ben Stone, “Statement Concerning Due Process after ICE Raid in Postville, Iowa.” ACLU of Iowa, May 13, 2008 (http://www.aclu-ia.org/news.asp?ID=39).

Grant Schulte, Jennifer Jacobs, and Jared Strong. “Day After Churns Up Charges, Emotions.” Des Moines Register, May 14, 2008.

Nigel Duara. “Informed about Raid, Many Employees Hid.” Des Moines Register, May 14, 2008.

“Raid Prompts Questions about Government Actions.” Des Moines Register, May 15, 2008.

William Petroski and Grant Schulte, “Detainees Charged, Shuffled to Jails.” Des Moines Register, May 16, 2008.

Grant Schulte. “Detainees to Be Jailed, Then Deported in Deal.” Des Moines Register, May 20, 2008.

Jane Norman. “Immigrants Feel Distress, Shock, Nun Says.” Des Moines Register, May 21, 2008.

“270 Illegal Immigrants Sent to Prison in Federal Push.” New York Times, May 24, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/us/24immig.html?ex=1370923200&en=07a84e90a2d80527&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink).

Erik Camayd-Freixas, “Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History: A Personal Account.” June 13, 2008 (http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20080711IMMIG.pdf).

Julia Preston. “An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants.” New York Times, July 11, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/11immig.html?ex=1373774400&en=a61e89f6abaf9608&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink).

Editorial: “The Shame of Postville,” New York Times, July 13, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13sun2.html?ex=1373688000&en=3f1e4e2fa73070a8&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink).

“Court Interpreter Breaks Confidentiality Code to Speak Out for Workers Rounded Up in Largest Immigration Raid in U.S. History.” Democracy Now! July 14, 2008 (http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/14/court_interpreter_for_workers_rounded_up#).

Editorial: “‘The Jungle’ Again.” New York Times, August 2, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/opinion/01fri1.html?ex=1375243200&en=e5093b56f9b23623&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink).

Monica Rohr. “A Small Town Struggles after Immigration Raid.” My Way, August 16, 2008 (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080816/D92JGJ8G2.html).

Lynda Waddington. “Agriprocessors Cited for 31 Safety Violations.” Iowa Independent, August 22, 2008 (http://iowaindependent.com/4464/agriprocessors-cited-for-31-safety-violations).

Bekah Porter. “Religious Groups Provide Shelter from the Storm.” Dubuque Telegraph Herald, August 24, 2008.

Tony Leys. “Culver Wins Praise for Rebuking Meat Plant.” Des Moines Register, August 25, 2008.

Henry C. Jackson. “Town Wonders If It’s Next to Face Immigration Raid.” Associated Press, August 26, 2008 (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hEDkwmO0OBqZ38rnoETWb05eEIewD92QCCUG0).

Susan Donaldson James. “Immigration Raids Cripple Small Towns.” ABC News Online, August 29, 2008 (http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=5679696&page=4).

Associated Press. “Iowa: Defendant Wants Judge Removed.” Dubuque Telegraph Herald, September 4, 2008.