Immigration and Racism

This land is your land, this land is my land
This land was made for you and me
— Woody Guthrie

I emigrated to the United States in 1988. Like millions of people over the centuries, I came to this country—and brought my family with me—to find a place in which to fulfill my dreams, develop my potential, become a better person, and make a significant contribution to society. At that time, I was not able to see how much this society was prone to reject the newcomers. On the contrary, I felt welcome, but now, shamefully, I cannot say the same. I can see now that immigrants are not welcome anymore. But, I still have hope that Americans can understand better the current immigration phenomenon—understand it with their minds and hearts —and go back to the fundamentals that made this country a land of opportunities for people of all races, ideas, and educational levels.

Land of immigrants
We have heard that this is a land of immigrants many times; but reality shows us now that immigrants are no longer welcome. The justification for rejecting the new wave of immigrants is that they have been categorized as “illegal”.

Human beings have always migrated, from the beginning of time until the present. English colonists invaded and occupied this part of the continent more than 500 years ago, displacing its inhabitants: the American Indians. Those English settlers were immigrants. Was that immigration legal? Were the pioneers that came in the Mayflower legal? Did they have the permission of the Native Americans to immigrate and occupy their lands? Did they carry any passport? The answer is no. One can say that the Native Americans didn’t have any law. The truth is that they did not have the European judicial system, but they had their own law. Nobody consulted them about coming to their territory occupying it, and making their living here in America. English in the north, as well as Spaniards in the south, did not carry any permission to immigrate into the new world. They just showed up and stayed.

Until some decades ago, any person that came to the US just showed up. Many of the great grand parents, grand parents, and even parents of contemporary Americans just showed up and settled here. They did not ask for permission, nor did they bring legal documents that accredited them as immigrants. They were just immigrants; they just came to this land to improve their lives. They just showed up, they just immigrated. The so called “illegal immigration” is a relatively new social invention; immigration has always existed.

A bit on semantics
When someone steals $100 dollars in clothing from a department store or someone else leaves the country to go to war, we don't call the former “illegal costumer” or the latter “illegal resident”, or both of them “illegal citizens.” We say that they committed a crime, that they did something illegal, but we don’t tag them as “illegal persons.” The same thing happens when someone drives at 70 mph in a 55 speed limit highway; we don't call her or him an “illegal driver.” The implication of labeling the person “illegal” instead of the action drives us to condemn the whole person as undesirable and affects all the deeds that this person might perform. This labeling diminishes the person instead of the behavior. This type of categorization punishes and disqualifies not only the action, but also the entire person indefinitely, no matter how well s/he could perform in other realms of private and public life.

From another viewpoint, when we call someone an “illegal immigrant,” we should be aware that the substantial point is that, in the first place, that person is an immigrant, and secondly that s/he does not count in terms of the proper documentation. As we can see, “immigrant” is the noun and “illegal” is the adjective. This means that the main point here is that the individual is an immigrant—a person—and the subordinate point is that s/he is undocumented. The legality of the immigration status is incidental; it just adds supplementary information to the status. It does not define the person; what does actually define him or her is the term “immigrant.” And an immigrant is a person; a person cannot be illegal.  A human being cannot be illegal.

When I read and hear about “illegal immigration” and witness the immense anti-immigrant sentiment that has grown and spread in American society lately, I can’t avoid being astonished by the low level of awareness that people have on this matter. They think that they are talking only about a portion of immigrants—the illegal ones. They think that adding the adjective is enough to reject, segregate, and discriminate against this portion. The truth is that, in essence, they are rejecting and discriminating against immigrants in general and, secondarily, against the undocumented ones. All this is taking place in the so- called land of immigrants.

Some numbers
The studies reveal that the estimated number of immigrants in the US is about 38 million people. The estimated population of undocumented immigrants is about 12 million; 81 percent of these come from Latin America. They are mostly non-whites, of a variety of races, ethnically Hispanic. So, in the end, what Americans are expressing by their merciless obsession with undocumented immigrants is their profound contempt for almost 10 million people of different race, language and culture.

A country with centuries of slavery, racial segregation and discrimination, accustomed to keeping a sector of the population as second class, now has the perfect excuse to continue its racist practices as well as its derogatory treatment of a social group: this time the undocumented immigrants. And the justification for exerting racism is that they are “illegal immigrants.”  

It’s the law
In the past, it was illegal for blacks to be seated in a bus, and to educate their children in white schools. It was illegal for a black person to marry a white, as well as to live in certain neighborhoods, and so on. The system justified racism on the basis of legality. In other words, white Americans had a green light to discriminate against blacks openly because it was illegal for blacks to send their children to a white school. When white Americans in the first half of the past century banned black kids from white schools, the black people thought the white people were doing this to them not because they were black, but because it was illegal for blacks to enter into a white school. In other words, making the life of a million human beings miserable was legal. This means that the law can be a perfect reason to practice intolerance without even thinking that one is a racist.

The new target
Nowadays in many counties it is illegal for undocumented immigrants to obtain health services, to register their children in school, to get a driver’s license, to get an ID. Now it is illegal for undocumented newcomers to get a job, some states want to ban undocumented residents from going to college, renting an apartment, and reading a book in a public library. And this trend is rising. America, the land of immigrants wants to suffocate those who, like most of their ancestors, came to this land to improve their lives in this part of the world. Racial hatred has now transferred its target to undocumented immigrants, who are mostly Hispanics. The excuse: they are illegal. History repeats itself: making the life of millions of people miserable is now allowed, fostered, and legal.

This segment of the Hispanic population is now the new target for racist practices and their members are victims of all the consequences and miseries of racial discrimination. Let’s do an exercise of the imagination. Imagine that there is a country, out there, in which a wall is being built along its border in order to impede the access of immigrants. Let’s say that every year, about 500 people die—with the consent of the host country—trying to cross the border to enter in. Let’s suppose that in that country, social services like health, education and legal representation are refused to undocumented immigrants. In addition to this, in that remote country, immigrants cannot open a bank account, get a driver’s license, rent an apartment, and they are discouraged from speaking their own language. Let’s imagine that that country has profited from immigrant labor for generations by paying the lowest wages and salaries to those who are undocumented and cannot find a job. Let’s say too that in that country, undocumented immigrants are incarcerated, cut off and deprived of legal assistance. Let’s add also that this country has militarized its border, and that systematic deportations have broken thousands of families. What would the US say about that country in which the human rights of millions are daily and systematically violated? Probably it would complain to the United Nations about the inhuman treatment those people receive, and demand the authorities of such a country to change their immigration policies for good. The US would probably accuse that country of systematic violation of human rights and impose economic and diplomatic sanctions, right? But this time, that imaginary villain is not out there, it is the US itself. We are behaving in a way that we would criticize if we knew that a foreign country were the perpetrator of these kinds of abuses. Does the old proverb about seeing the feather on another’s eyes but not the stick in one’s own apply here?

A long tradition on racism
There was a time in which racism was focused on North American Indians. Their population was reduced from about 12 million to 237,000 in four centuries (1).  They were almost wiped out in a long-term genocide. They were not considered citizens until 1924. There was another time, 1882, in which the Chinese were not allowed to immigrate into the US for many years, and another time, in 1942, when 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were interned in camps for about 3 years. There was another time when blacks were segregated and deprived of their rights. In the current time there is racial discrimination against Hispanics. Americans have a new target, racism is still alive.

It seems that centuries of racism, since the beginning of the British occupation of North America until the present, were not ended by the laws given under the civil rights movement a few decades ago. On the contrary, it seems that racial discrimination and intolerance are again on the rise. It seems that Americans feel comfortable fighting against Hispanics, because they have disguised them with the costume of a terrible illegal alien, but inside those costumes there are human beings with families, dreams and aspirations who came to this land like the first settlers to make their lives better. It seems that Americans are in their comfort zone when they demand enforcement of the law but, at bottom, they are exerting bigotry against millions of people of a different race, language and culture.  

Free flow of commodities
It is amazing to see how our society values things more than people. Everyone agrees that we are living the era of globalization; in these times we cherish free trade of commodities, capital, technology, and information, but not of people. Society and governments have given bold steps toward the exchange of commodities, capital, technology and information but have refrained from giving people the opportunity to move freely and settle around the planet.

Are we being compassionate?
Another paradox is that the US praises itself as a religious country, their leaders call themselves compassionate, and value the importance of family unity; nevertheless, in practice, they show neither religious nor family values. America is not hosting foreigners nor treating them compassionately. On the contrary, it is denying social services, making the life of undocumented immigrants miserable, and following abrupt deportation practices. 

Let’s revisit some passages in the Book of Matthew 25:34-40, and see if Americans—mostly Christians— are following what Jesus said about the treatment of foreigners.

“Then [Jesus] will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

[Jesus] will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

It is sad to see how the anti-immigrant sentiment has grown in American society stirred by Republicans during these Bush years. It is sad to see that immigration is an excuse to practice sheer racism against Hispanics, and make their lives miserable. It is sad to see how all the measures that are being taken against immigrants are creating and perpetuating an impoverished population, marginalized, uneducated, and put on the verge of committing crime. Nevertheless, there are still great numbers of people of good will in the US who make me think that there is still hope. Hope that this can be a country that cherishes lawfulness but resists cruelty. Hope that we can feel and sing again like Woody Guthrie: “This land was made for you and me.”

Back to the core values
The United States of America does not welcome immigrants anymore and has become hostile to millions of people that come to this land to better their lives. The justification to unwelcome foreigners is that they are “illegal.” But being undocumented is an anecdotal and secondary aspect of the immigration issue; the essential issue is that the unwelcome are immigrants.

The vast majority of the undocumented immigrants are Hispanic -- an ethnic group formed by various kinds of races. By labeling this ethnic group “illegal,” society has justification for making effective and expressing its racism over that segment of the population. The term “illegal” condemns, margins, and alienates the victim. It is immoral and opposes human rights and the US Constitution.

The rise of the anti-immigrant sentiment in recent years in the US is an expression of a latent racism that had been attenuated in the decades after the civil rights movement, but it has shown itself during the current Republican administration. This racism against the Hispanic ethnic group is being openly expressed, as long as the racists can currently justify their racism by labeling their target “illegal.”  

America should go back to the core values stated in its foundation, stop using the term “illegal” to label undocumented immigrants and start over accepting and welcoming immigrants regardless of their race. America should keep in mind that the immigrants’ ultimate goal is to improve their lives. By doing so, Hispanics will be able to improve their education, comply with the law and adopt the American core values. This way, they will integrate fully into this culture and make significant contributions to the country that received them.

October 2007