Migration, Politics and Commentary Essays-Five Articles
Source: Molly Molloy
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/opinion/04massey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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April 4, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
The Wall That Keeps Illegal Workers In
By DOUGLAS S. MASSEY
Princeton, N.J.
THE Mexican-American border is not now and never has been out of
control. The rate of undocumented migration, adjusted for population
growth, to the United States has not increased in 20 years. That is,
from 1980 to 2004 the annual likelihood that a Mexican will make his
first illegal trip to the United States has remained at about 1 in
100.
What has changed are the locations and visibility of border crossings.
And that shift, more than anything, has given the public undue fears
about waves of Mexican workers trying to flood into America.
Until the 1990's, the vast majority of undocumented Mexicans entered
through either El Paso or San Diego. El Paso has around 700,000
residents and is 78 percent Hispanic, whereas San Diego County has
three million residents and is 27 percent Hispanic. Thus the daily
passage of even thousands of Mexicans through these metropolitan areas
was not very visible or disruptive.
This all changed in 1992 when the Border Patrol built a steel fence
south of San Diego from the Pacific Ocean to the port of entry at San
Ysidro, Calif., where Interstate 5 crosses into Mexico. This fence,
and the stationing of officers and equipment behind it, blocked one of
the busiest illicit crossing routes and channeled migrants toward the
San Ysidro entry station, where their numbers rapidly built up to
impossible levels.
Every day the same episode unfolded: the crowd swelled to a critical
threshold, whereupon many migrants made what the local press called
"banzai runs" into the United States, darting through traffic on the
Interstate and clambering over cars.
Waiting nearby were Border Patrol officers, there not to arrest the
migrants but to capture the mayhem on video, which was later edited
into an agency documentary. Although nothing had changed except the
site of border crossings, the video gave the impression that the
border was overwhelmed by a rising tide of undocumented migrants.
In response to the ensuing public uproar, the policy of tougher border
enforcement was expanded to all of the San Diego and El Paso area in
1993 and 1994. So migrants began going to more remote locations along
the border in Arizona. In 1989, two thirds of undocumented migrants
came in through El Paso or San Diego; but by 2004 two-thirds crossed
somewhere else. (My statistics on Mexican immigration come from a
study I have been undertaking with financing from the National
Institutes of Health since 1982.)
Unlike the old crossing sites, these new locations were sparsely
settled, so the sudden appearance of thousands of Mexicans attracted
considerable attention and understandably generated much agitation
locally. Perceptions of a breakdown at the border were heightened by
news reports of rising deaths among migrants; by redirecting flows
into harsh, remote terrain the United States tripled the death rate
during border crossing.
Less well known is that American policies also reduced the rate of
apprehension, because those remote sectors of the border had fewer
Border Patrol officers. My research found that during the 1980's, the
probability that an undocumented migrant would be apprehended while
crossing stood at around 33 percent; by 2000 it was at 10 percent,
despite increases in federal spending on border enforcement.
Naturally, public perceptions of chaos on the border prompted more
calls for enforcement and the hardening strategy was extended to other
sectors. The number of Border Patrol officers increased from around
2,500 in the early 1980's to around 12,000 today, and the agency's
annual budget rose to $1.6 billion from $200 million. The boundary
between Mexico and the United States has become perhaps the most
militarized frontier between two nations at peace anywhere in the
world.
Although border militarization had little effect on the probability of
Mexicans migrating illegally, it did reduce the likelihood that they
would return to their homeland. America's tougher line roughly tripled
the average cost of getting across the border illegally; thus Mexicans
who had run the gantlet at the border were more likely to hunker down
and stay in the United States. My study has shown that in the early
1980's, about half of all undocumented Mexicans returned home within
12 months of entry, but by 2000 the rate of return migration stood at
just 25 percent.
The United States is now locked into a perverse cycle whereby
additional border enforcement further decreases the rate of return
migration, which accelerates undocumented population growth, which
brings calls for harsher enforcement.
The only thing we have to show for two decades of border
militarization is a larger undocumented population than we would
otherwise have, a rising number of Mexicans dying while trying to
cross, and a growing burden on taxpayers for enforcement that is
counterproductive.
We need an immigration policy that seeks to manage the cross-border
flows of people that are inevitable in a global economy, not to
repress them through unilateral police actions.
Douglas S. Massey, a professor of sociology at Princeton's Woodrow
Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, is the author of
"Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Age of Economic
Integration."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/opinion/l06immig.html
April 6, 2006
Immigrants, Woven Into America (6 Letters)
To the Editor:
I am a proud United States citizen of Honduran background and would
like to express my support to the various immigrant communities of
this wonderful nation of ours.
I am a full supporter and advocate for the legalization of hard-working people.
The United States has always been a leader of social rights worldwide.
This issue is about the future of our country.
It is also an issue that affects some of our closest allies and friends.
Many of us immigrants don't want to feel that our country and our
fellow Americans are leaving us in the shadows of American society.
The best way to solidify the social and economic structure of a strong
nation is by including millions of its hard-working, contributing
participants into the civic life of their adopted country.
My family and I vote on this issue. It is among the most important
issues that we and millions of Americans identify with.
The world is watching for the next revolutionary idea of the United States.
Show leadership and compassion. Show American ingenuity. Demonstrate
how American society is accepting and welcoming.
Put our values to the test, and uphold them firmly.
Jose L. Flores
Miami, April 2, 2006
*
To the Editor:
In "The Amnesty Trap" (editorial, April 5), you talked about
immigration as if our problem was immigration; it isn't.
This whole issue isn't about immigration at all (we are a nation built
by immigrants); it's about enforcing the law.
Faced with a seemingly large problem, that of about 12 million illegal
immigrants in America, Congress is seeking a way to reward them for
illegally entering the country rather than removing them from America.
No, all 12 million would never be successfully deported to their
native countries, because law enforcement is always imperfect. But
that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to enforce our laws.
You ended your editorial by saying, "We need to get it right this
time, once and for all."
I agree, although not in the way you meant it.
We claim to be a nation of laws, and it's time that we started
actively enforcing our laws on illegal immigration.
David Moorshead
Chicago, April 5, 2006
*
To the Editor:
My family of immigrants, legal and illegal, their children and
grandchildren, differ from current Hispanic immigrants in one
important respect.
On arrival, the newcomers of generations past were fierce in their
determination to learn English, the bond that gave America its motto,
"Out of many, one."
Unfortunately, even as English became the lingua franca of the world,
much of the Hispanic migration speaks only Spanish at home, depriving
their children and themselves of easy assimilation and economic
advancement.
To make matters worse, we have pushed Spanish as an alternative to
English in commerce, on product instructions, in libraries, and worst
of all, in schools, unlacing the bond of a common language.
For those immigrants who propose to stay and become citizens,
shouldn't we focus their attention on the language that bound us as a
nation rather than provide them with an easy and disabling out not
given to earlier immigrants who had to learn English quickly to
succeed and prosper?
Sol Stein
Tarrytown, N.Y., April 4, 2006
*
To the Editor:
Re "An Immigration Debate Shaped by Family Ties" (front page, April 4):
I write to add my family story to those of the senators debating
immigration legislation. I, too, am a first-generation American, but
of Hungarian-Czechoslovak parentage. My father arrived in (God bless)
America - as a child I always heard those words whenever "America" was
mentioned - shortly before World War II on a visitor's visa.
He was making his way to Palestine, but his two brothers, already
American citizens, could not let him go. So he became an illegal
alien. When he was able to legitimize his status, he applied for and
became an American citizen. He was a productive, taxpaying citizen who
never missed casting his vote until the day he died at age 90. My
mother, according to family lore, arrived here on the final voyage of
the Normandy before it became a troopship.
But for America, my brothers and I would have probably perished, as my
grandparents and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins did at Auschwitz
and other death camps.
In my view, immigrants and their progeny have been the backbone of our
free society. "God bless America" are not empty words for me.
Stella Schindler
New York, April 4, 2006
The writer is a retired judge in the New York City family courts.
*
To the Editor:
Douglas S. Massey writes that "the Mexican-American border is not now
and never has been out of control" ("The Wall That Keeps Illegal
Workers In," Op-Ed, April 4).
A conservative estimate is that 500,000 illegally crossed that border
in 2005. So roughly 10,000 undocumented people are entering the United
States every week.
Who are these people? Mostly hard-working people in search of jobs, we
assume, but the honest answer is we don't know.
Only 10 percent of them are apprehended.
The total absence of any concern about national security in Mr.
Massey's article is notable. His discussion of border policy ranges
from 1980 to the present, with no recognition that the threats to
national security today are more serious than in previous decades.
Is it far-fetched to assume that among the 10,000 to cross that border
this week, there may well be a few intent on doing this country harm?
On some issues, the Bush administration has shamelessly exploited the
post-9/11 danger. But it has shown no alarm over this broken border.
Donald E. Smith
Wayne, Pa., April 4, 2006
*
To the Editor:
Question for all those geniuses on Capitol Hill discussing a five-year
waiver for illegal immigrants:
If they're illegal and undocumented, how will you know if they've been
here five years or five minutes?
David Strickland
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., April 4, 2006
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More numbers from PEW Hispanic Center
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: info@pewhispanic.org
Date: 6 Apr 2006 22:48:17 -0000
Subject: Pew Hispanic Center Release
To: mollymolloy@gmail.com
[image: Pew Hispanic Center a project of the Pew Research
Center]
Advisory *URGENT ADVISORY UNAUTHORIZED POPULATION NUMBERS*
In response to numerous media inquiries the Pew Hispanic Center has produced
estimates of the unauthorized population according to the categories
established in the legislation now before the Senate. These estimates are
based on the March 2005 Current Population Survey. For a full report based
on that data please go to:
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=61
Time in the US
Five years or more: 6.7 million
Two to five years: 2.8 million
Less than two years: 1.6 million
Total: 11.1 million
Based on analysis of other data sources that offer indications of the pace
of growth in the foreign-born population, the Center developed an estimate
of 11.5 to 12 million for the unauthorized population as of March 2006.
To see a fact sheet on recently arrived unauthorized migrants (in the US
five years or less) go to: http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/15.pdf
------------------------------
To remove yourself from this list, visit
http://pewhispanic.org/emails/remove.php
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Source: Rosalio Munoz
Legislation & Politics April 7, 2006
Be Part of the April 10 Movement for Immigrant Justice Nearly 1 million people have taken to the streets in the past few weeks to demand comprehensive immigration reform and to protest legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would build a "Berlin Wall" along the U.S.-Mexican border, jail humanitarians who help undocumented workers and threaten the civil rights of every American.
Those protests will continue April 10 with a National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. From New York to Los Angeles, AFL-CIO affiliates and members are coming together with immigration advocates, student, civil rights and religious groups to organize massive rallies and protests to help make the case for protecting immigrant rights.
The U.S. Senate is expected to go home for the Easter recess without voting on an immigration reform bill. Senators have been debating the controversial Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, H.R. 4437, which the House passed in a last-minute power play just before the past holiday recess last December.
Events are scheduled in at least 72 cities, including Washington, D.C., where AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will join a massive rally on the National Mall between 7th and 14th streets, N.W., at 4 p.m. to call on Congress to end the criminalization and abuse of immigrant workers and to defeat the draconian anti-immigrant legislation passed by the House in December. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson will join Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Laborers President Terence O'Sullivan and Transport Workers Local 100 President Roger Toussaint for a rally at New York's City Hall (Broadway, Park Roe Chambers Street) at 3 p.m. for a huge demonstration of ethnic and immigrant solidarity.
Other events on April 10 where union members will be very active include:
Houston: March begins at 1 p.m. at Guadalupe Plaza and ends at Allen's Landing, located at the corner of Commerce and Main. Contact: Angela Mejia, 832-524-6158, Marisol Rodriguez ,713-550-7712, or Alain Cisneros 713-868-7015.
Las Cruces, N.M.: Rally starts at 4:30 p.m. at Harold Runnels Federal Building. Contact: Josie Marrujo, 505-250-4041, or Paul Martinez, 505-312-6327.
Los Angeles: 5 p.m. Vigil and procession leaves from La Placita Church, 535 N. Main St. to Fletcher Brown Square. Contact: Xiomara Corpeno, 213-201-4451, or the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, 202-508-6919.
Phoenix: March begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Arizona State Fairgrounds, 1826 W. McDowell Rd., to Wesley Bolin Plaza. Please bring an American flag.
Contact to volunteer or distribute water, etc.: David Hernandez, 602-631-4488, ext. 230.
San Antonio: March begins at 5 p.m. at Milam Plaza (Plaza del Zacate), located at Santa Rosa and Commerce across from Market Square. The march will continue to the Federal Building on Durango Street. Contact: Jaime Martinez, 210-842-9339, or Claudia Sanchez, 210-355-4050.
San Diego: March begins at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 9 at Balboa Park and will end at the County Administration Building. Contact: San Diego and South Bay, 619-255-6986; North County, 760-672-7419; East County, 619-593-7338 or 760-877-0277.
Check here for other events. Please note we cannot verify details of all the events.
by James Parks
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David Bacon | Congress Must Face Reality - Immigrants Want Equality
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040706A.shtml
Senators will pat themselves on the back this week for agreeing to their most pro-corporate, anti-immigrant bill in decades. Tens of thousands of people may be forced to leave the US as a result. Millions more would have to become braceros - guest workers on temporary visas - just to continue to labor in the jobs they've had for years.
Congress Must Face Reality: Immigrants Want Equality
By David Bacon
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 07 April 2006
Oakland, California - Senators will pat themselves on the back this week for agreeing to their most pro-corporate, anti-immigrant bill in decades. Tens of thousands of people may be forced to leave the US as a result. Millions more would have to become braceros - guest workers on temporary visas - just to continue to labor in the jobs they've had for years.
More workplace enforcement will result in firing thousands of others, creating a climate of fear that will make defending workplace rights and joining unions riskier than ever. And a border like an armed camp will continue costing the lives of hundreds of humble farmers and workers every year, crossing toward a shattered dream of a better life.
No wonder people have been in the streets for weeks, with even bigger demonstrations and marches yet to come. These are ordinary people, not activists, come out of working-class homes all over the country. A million in Los Angeles. Half a million in Chicago. Tens of thousands crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. Hunger strikers in San Francisco. Demonstrations in states where the immigrant community has been virtually invisible until now, like North Carolina, Tennessee. Border towns like Tucson. Cities from Santa Rosa to Omaha.
Everywhere, immigrants and people who support them are condemning the draconian measures passed by the House of Representatives in December, especially the provision that would make undocumented people federal felons.
But the demonstrations have a positive demand as well, one that shames especially the Senate's sleight-of-hand by which second-class guest worker programs are called "a path to legalization," and the only way families can gain legal status for their undocumented members is to spend a decade or more working as braceros. Contrary to Senate proposals for deportations and bracero visas, people carry signs demanding amnesty. These myriad marchers - families with children and grandparents in tow - have a simple alternative.
Equality.
Many unions support them. Among the most outspoken are the Teamsters in Orange County, heart of the anti-immigrant offensive, where the mayor of Costa Mesa told his police department to begin picking up immigrants who lack visas. Teamsters Local 952 says people need real legal status, not a guest worker program. A recently passed resolution condemns both Congressional proposals, because they "do nothing to remove the economic incentives that unscrupulous employers have to hire and exploit immigrant workers, and fail to really address the fact that we have 11 million undocumented workers in this country contributing to our communities."
The union "opposes any form of employer sanctions because they have historically resulted in 'employee sanctions' in the form of firings of workers for union organizing and discrimination practices on the job," and "opposes guest worker legislative proposals because such modern day 'bracero programs,' create an indentured servitude status for workers."
The AFL-CIO says the same, pointing out that if there are jobs for 400,000 braceros a year (the goal of the Senate reform bill), those immigrants should be given 400,000 green cards, or residence visas, instead, which would guarantee them equal status in their workplaces and communities. The Senate bill, the AFL-CIO says, "tears at the heart of true reform and will drive millions of hard-working immigrants further into the shadows of American society." Instead, "we should recognize immigrant workers as full members of society - as permanent residents with full rights and full mobility that employers may not exploit."
When Senator John McCain, co-sponsor of the Senate's main guest worker plan, tried to defend it to a building trades union audience in his home state this week, he was booed. He told the construction workers that even at $50 an hour they wouldn't be willing to pick lettuce, implying that only Mexicans were willing to do farm labor. For some in the audience, McCain's remarks recalled former California Senator George Murphy, who infamously declared in the 1960s that only Mexicans would perform stoop labor because "they're built so close to the ground." Needless to say, McCain didn't actually include in his bill any wage guarantee for guestworkers, much less $50/hour (about 5 times what lettuce cutters make today.)
A concerted effort by some lobbyists is under way in Washington, however, to convince legislators that guest worker status, while unpleasant, is something immigrants themselves are prepared to accept. But outside the beltway, their proposal is meeting a rising tide of rejection. In New York City, Desis Rising Up & Moving and 20 other grassroots groups formed Immigrant Communities In Action, and condemned both House and Senate bills for not halting the wave of detentions and deportations visited on Muslim communities since 9/11.
Another coalition, which includes the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, the Chinese Staff and Workers' Association, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, also rejects guestworker programs. Like the Teamsters, these groups say Congress should abolish employer sanctions instead, since they're often used to retaliate against undocumented workers who demand labor rights.
The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights criticizes both the Senate and House bills because they hold "no promise of fairness in immigration policy and would undermine the rights, economic health and safety of all immigrants and their children. Congress needs to go back to the drawing board to come up with genuine, positive and fair proposals."
Are there any such proposals before Congress?
Yes, although beltway advocates have tried to smother the most progressive of those alternatives with silence. A year ago, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Congressional Black Caucus members introduced HR 2092, which would give permanent residence visas to undocumented people already here, and outlaw discrimination based on migrant status. Jackson Lee believes Federal policy should not pit migrants against native-born, as do guestworker programs. Her legislation would instead fund job training and creation in communities with high unemployment, so that both immigrants and non-immigrants can find work.
In the House's mad December rush to pass the Sensenbrenner bill, criminalizing the undocumented instead of legalizing them, Jackson Lee's bill couldn't even get a hearing. The Congresswoman is the ranking Democrat on the House Immigration Subcommittee. In the Senate her proposal received no more consideration, from either Democrats or Republicans. Yet her bill is the only real effort to find common ground between immigrants and the working communities of citizens and long time residents that they seek to join.
In their predictable beltway logic, guestworker advocates are counseling the huge demonstrations to feature US flags, and carry signs saying, "We are America." But covering a corporate labor scheme with patriotic rhetoric won't convince marchers to support it. Immigrants do want to be part of US society, and do want to work, but they're not likely to start holding signs saying, "I want to be a guestworker," or chanting "Braceros si! Migra no!"
Hundreds of thousands of people are saying no to Washington's repressive bills, but Congress and its coterie of beltway lobbyists clearly aren't listening. It's time for Washington to face reality. A huge outpouring of people is demanding real equality. They won't be satisfied with second-class status.
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David Bacon, Photographs and Stories.
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David Bacon is a California photojournalist who documents labor, migration and globalization. His book The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the US/Mexico Border was published last year by University of California Press.
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Source: Rosalio Munoz
Compas,
The Republican leadership are pressuring to weaken and
booby trap the already seriously compromised
immigration legislation while more support for
immigrant rights is growing. On April 10 a Nationa
Day of Protest is being held in over 50 cities and
President Bush is pressuring the Senate to pass bad
legislation today! The right wing pressure is intense.
Californias Senator Feinstein is hinting she may make
horrible concessions. Call your Senators Immediately
and tell Protect All Our People and oppose the Frist
Compromise! The Senate Switchboard is 202-224-3121.
Below is a wonderful alert to the same effect by the
National Organization for Women, Rosalio Munoz
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Support NOW's Work April 6, 2006
| Tell a Friend
Action Needed
Background
NOW's Work Promoting Diversity
Immediate Action Needed on Senate Immigration
Proposals
NOW supports the legalization of undocumented
immigrants and a humane policy that leads to a path of
lawful residency and citizenship in the United States.
Anything less is unacceptable. The Senate is debating
the immigration bill today and the measure before them
is a bogus "compromise" being pushed by Senators Frist
(R-TN), Martinez (R-FL) and Hagel (R-NE).
Action Needed:
Contact your senators NOW! Urge them to oppose the
Frist "Compromise". There is no time for emails. Our
voices must be heard within the next few hours. Call
the capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for
your senator or get your senator's direct phone
number.
NOW is very concerned about the whole debate on
immigration "reform." It is racist and isolationist
and fails to recognize the humanity and value of
immigrant workers and families who contribute to our
nation's productivity. The recently-passed House bill
(H.R. 4437) is downright cruel. The bill passed last
week by the Senate Judiciary Committee (S. 1033) makes
only slight improvements to the House bill, lacking
provisions that will properly address the immigration
issues facing our nation.
In an attempt to get 60 votes and shut down debate,
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is promoting
a version authored by Senators Martinez (R-FL) and
Hagel (R-NE).
Senators should oppose this bill because it attempts
to create a path toward lawful residency and
citizenship by placing heavy burdens on current
undocumented immigrants, demanding a $2,000 fee and
requiring the ability to speak English and pass a
civics test. An undocumented immigrant could not,
under this bill, become a citizen until 11 years after
the application has been filed.
The Martinez-Hagel bill requires an undocumented
immigrant to leave the country at their port of entry
and re-apply for entry. Immigrants without
documentation will fear arrest, as well they should.
It would also deputize untrained local police to act
as immigration agents and limit judicial review and
due process for non-citizens. Moreover, it contains an
uncapped guest workers program that has no path to
permanent residency or citizenship and thus could
create a permanent underclass that may never get to
participate in the U.S. democratic system.
Our country deserves comprehensive immigration reform
that makes sense not only for the undocumented
residents of the United States and the workers who may
come to our country in the future, but also for the
resident families and citizen workers who have been
negatively impacted by the current immigration system.
The current system is not sensitive to the needs of
both the immigrant community and the U.S. economy.
Let's send a strong vocal message to the Senate that
the women and immigrant communities of the U.S. want
comprehensive immigration reform that is compassionate
and fair. Urge them to support comprehensive
immigration reform:
* that is fair and just for the immigrant community,
* that recognizes the value of immigrants living in
this country and
* provides a path to full citizenship and
participation in this society as citizens.
Senators must oppose any proposal that undermines this
effort. Call today!
Background:
Since 1996 the government has consistently taken an
enforcement-only approach to immigration. Barriers,
more agents and more civilian militia operations at
the border have not stopped illegal immigration, but
have instead shifted the path of migrants to ever more
remote and dangerous areas of the border, resulting in
the deaths of thousands of people from exposure and
dehydration. This issue must be dealt with fairly in
order to end these inhumane conditions.
Precious families are affected. Now some politicians
are pushing measures in immigration "reform" bills
that infringe on civil liberties.
Immigrant women are among the most vulnerable to
exploitation, abuse and human rights violations in the
United States. They face particular challenges due to
inequalities that exist between men and women but also
due to the additional responsibilities of family and
home. In the workplace, immigrant women may be
subjected to gender discrimination as well as
prejudice based on their ethnicity or country of
birth. Some women come to the U.S. to be domestic
workers or caregivers, sometimes having to leaving
leave their own children in their native country to be
raised by relatives.
Take Action Now! Tell your senators that no bill
should be passed out of the Senate that doesn't
address these unresolved issues or ease the punitive
barriers. Serious immigration reform legislation must
address the reasons why people come to the U.S.
illegally. The Senate needs to pass a reasonable bill
and must not allow the House bill to be combined with
any immigration bill passed by the Senate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/opinion/04massey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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April 4, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
The Wall That Keeps Illegal Workers In
By DOUGLAS S. MASSEY
Princeton, N.J.
THE Mexican-American border is not now and never has been out of
control. The rate of undocumented migration, adjusted for population
growth, to the United States has not increased in 20 years. That is,
from 1980 to 2004 the annual likelihood that a Mexican will make his
first illegal trip to the United States has remained at about 1 in
100.
What has changed are the locations and visibility of border crossings.
And that shift, more than anything, has given the public undue fears
about waves of Mexican workers trying to flood into America.
Until the 1990's, the vast majority of undocumented Mexicans entered
through either El Paso or San Diego. El Paso has around 700,000
residents and is 78 percent Hispanic, whereas San Diego County has
three million residents and is 27 percent Hispanic. Thus the daily
passage of even thousands of Mexicans through these metropolitan areas
was not very visible or disruptive.
This all changed in 1992 when the Border Patrol built a steel fence
south of San Diego from the Pacific Ocean to the port of entry at San
Ysidro, Calif., where Interstate 5 crosses into Mexico. This fence,
and the stationing of officers and equipment behind it, blocked one of
the busiest illicit crossing routes and channeled migrants toward the
San Ysidro entry station, where their numbers rapidly built up to
impossible levels.
Every day the same episode unfolded: the crowd swelled to a critical
threshold, whereupon many migrants made what the local press called
"banzai runs" into the United States, darting through traffic on the
Interstate and clambering over cars.
Waiting nearby were Border Patrol officers, there not to arrest the
migrants but to capture the mayhem on video, which was later edited
into an agency documentary. Although nothing had changed except the
site of border crossings, the video gave the impression that the
border was overwhelmed by a rising tide of undocumented migrants.
In response to the ensuing public uproar, the policy of tougher border
enforcement was expanded to all of the San Diego and El Paso area in
1993 and 1994. So migrants began going to more remote locations along
the border in Arizona. In 1989, two thirds of undocumented migrants
came in through El Paso or San Diego; but by 2004 two-thirds crossed
somewhere else. (My statistics on Mexican immigration come from a
study I have been undertaking with financing from the National
Institutes of Health since 1982.)
Unlike the old crossing sites, these new locations were sparsely
settled, so the sudden appearance of thousands of Mexicans attracted
considerable attention and understandably generated much agitation
locally. Perceptions of a breakdown at the border were heightened by
news reports of rising deaths among migrants; by redirecting flows
into harsh, remote terrain the United States tripled the death rate
during border crossing.
Less well known is that American policies also reduced the rate of
apprehension, because those remote sectors of the border had fewer
Border Patrol officers. My research found that during the 1980's, the
probability that an undocumented migrant would be apprehended while
crossing stood at around 33 percent; by 2000 it was at 10 percent,
despite increases in federal spending on border enforcement.
Naturally, public perceptions of chaos on the border prompted more
calls for enforcement and the hardening strategy was extended to other
sectors. The number of Border Patrol officers increased from around
2,500 in the early 1980's to around 12,000 today, and the agency's
annual budget rose to $1.6 billion from $200 million. The boundary
between Mexico and the United States has become perhaps the most
militarized frontier between two nations at peace anywhere in the
world.
Although border militarization had little effect on the probability of
Mexicans migrating illegally, it did reduce the likelihood that they
would return to their homeland. America's tougher line roughly tripled
the average cost of getting across the border illegally; thus Mexicans
who had run the gantlet at the border were more likely to hunker down
and stay in the United States. My study has shown that in the early
1980's, about half of all undocumented Mexicans returned home within
12 months of entry, but by 2000 the rate of return migration stood at
just 25 percent.
The United States is now locked into a perverse cycle whereby
additional border enforcement further decreases the rate of return
migration, which accelerates undocumented population growth, which
brings calls for harsher enforcement.
The only thing we have to show for two decades of border
militarization is a larger undocumented population than we would
otherwise have, a rising number of Mexicans dying while trying to
cross, and a growing burden on taxpayers for enforcement that is
counterproductive.
We need an immigration policy that seeks to manage the cross-border
flows of people that are inevitable in a global economy, not to
repress them through unilateral police actions.
Douglas S. Massey, a professor of sociology at Princeton's Woodrow
Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, is the author of
"Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Age of Economic
Integration."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/opinion/l06immig.html
April 6, 2006
Immigrants, Woven Into America (6 Letters)
To the Editor:
I am a proud United States citizen of Honduran background and would
like to express my support to the various immigrant communities of
this wonderful nation of ours.
I am a full supporter and advocate for the legalization of hard-working people.
The United States has always been a leader of social rights worldwide.
This issue is about the future of our country.
It is also an issue that affects some of our closest allies and friends.
Many of us immigrants don't want to feel that our country and our
fellow Americans are leaving us in the shadows of American society.
The best way to solidify the social and economic structure of a strong
nation is by including millions of its hard-working, contributing
participants into the civic life of their adopted country.
My family and I vote on this issue. It is among the most important
issues that we and millions of Americans identify with.
The world is watching for the next revolutionary idea of the United States.
Show leadership and compassion. Show American ingenuity. Demonstrate
how American society is accepting and welcoming.
Put our values to the test, and uphold them firmly.
Jose L. Flores
Miami, April 2, 2006
*
To the Editor:
In "The Amnesty Trap" (editorial, April 5), you talked about
immigration as if our problem was immigration; it isn't.
This whole issue isn't about immigration at all (we are a nation built
by immigrants); it's about enforcing the law.
Faced with a seemingly large problem, that of about 12 million illegal
immigrants in America, Congress is seeking a way to reward them for
illegally entering the country rather than removing them from America.
No, all 12 million would never be successfully deported to their
native countries, because law enforcement is always imperfect. But
that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to enforce our laws.
You ended your editorial by saying, "We need to get it right this
time, once and for all."
I agree, although not in the way you meant it.
We claim to be a nation of laws, and it's time that we started
actively enforcing our laws on illegal immigration.
David Moorshead
Chicago, April 5, 2006
*
To the Editor:
My family of immigrants, legal and illegal, their children and
grandchildren, differ from current Hispanic immigrants in one
important respect.
On arrival, the newcomers of generations past were fierce in their
determination to learn English, the bond that gave America its motto,
"Out of many, one."
Unfortunately, even as English became the lingua franca of the world,
much of the Hispanic migration speaks only Spanish at home, depriving
their children and themselves of easy assimilation and economic
advancement.
To make matters worse, we have pushed Spanish as an alternative to
English in commerce, on product instructions, in libraries, and worst
of all, in schools, unlacing the bond of a common language.
For those immigrants who propose to stay and become citizens,
shouldn't we focus their attention on the language that bound us as a
nation rather than provide them with an easy and disabling out not
given to earlier immigrants who had to learn English quickly to
succeed and prosper?
Sol Stein
Tarrytown, N.Y., April 4, 2006
*
To the Editor:
Re "An Immigration Debate Shaped by Family Ties" (front page, April 4):
I write to add my family story to those of the senators debating
immigration legislation. I, too, am a first-generation American, but
of Hungarian-Czechoslovak parentage. My father arrived in (God bless)
America - as a child I always heard those words whenever "America" was
mentioned - shortly before World War II on a visitor's visa.
He was making his way to Palestine, but his two brothers, already
American citizens, could not let him go. So he became an illegal
alien. When he was able to legitimize his status, he applied for and
became an American citizen. He was a productive, taxpaying citizen who
never missed casting his vote until the day he died at age 90. My
mother, according to family lore, arrived here on the final voyage of
the Normandy before it became a troopship.
But for America, my brothers and I would have probably perished, as my
grandparents and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins did at Auschwitz
and other death camps.
In my view, immigrants and their progeny have been the backbone of our
free society. "God bless America" are not empty words for me.
Stella Schindler
New York, April 4, 2006
The writer is a retired judge in the New York City family courts.
*
To the Editor:
Douglas S. Massey writes that "the Mexican-American border is not now
and never has been out of control" ("The Wall That Keeps Illegal
Workers In," Op-Ed, April 4).
A conservative estimate is that 500,000 illegally crossed that border
in 2005. So roughly 10,000 undocumented people are entering the United
States every week.
Who are these people? Mostly hard-working people in search of jobs, we
assume, but the honest answer is we don't know.
Only 10 percent of them are apprehended.
The total absence of any concern about national security in Mr.
Massey's article is notable. His discussion of border policy ranges
from 1980 to the present, with no recognition that the threats to
national security today are more serious than in previous decades.
Is it far-fetched to assume that among the 10,000 to cross that border
this week, there may well be a few intent on doing this country harm?
On some issues, the Bush administration has shamelessly exploited the
post-9/11 danger. But it has shown no alarm over this broken border.
Donald E. Smith
Wayne, Pa., April 4, 2006
*
To the Editor:
Question for all those geniuses on Capitol Hill discussing a five-year
waiver for illegal immigrants:
If they're illegal and undocumented, how will you know if they've been
here five years or five minutes?
David Strickland
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., April 4, 2006
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More numbers from PEW Hispanic Center
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: info@pewhispanic.org
Date: 6 Apr 2006 22:48:17 -0000
Subject: Pew Hispanic Center Release
To: mollymolloy@gmail.com
[image: Pew Hispanic Center a project of the Pew Research
Center]
Advisory *URGENT ADVISORY UNAUTHORIZED POPULATION NUMBERS*
In response to numerous media inquiries the Pew Hispanic Center has produced
estimates of the unauthorized population according to the categories
established in the legislation now before the Senate. These estimates are
based on the March 2005 Current Population Survey. For a full report based
on that data please go to:
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=61
Time in the US
Five years or more: 6.7 million
Two to five years: 2.8 million
Less than two years: 1.6 million
Total: 11.1 million
Based on analysis of other data sources that offer indications of the pace
of growth in the foreign-born population, the Center developed an estimate
of 11.5 to 12 million for the unauthorized population as of March 2006.
To see a fact sheet on recently arrived unauthorized migrants (in the US
five years or less) go to: http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/15.pdf
------------------------------
To remove yourself from this list, visit
http://pewhispanic.org/emails/remove.php
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Source: Rosalio Munoz
Legislation & Politics April 7, 2006
Be Part of the April 10 Movement for Immigrant Justice Nearly 1 million people have taken to the streets in the past few weeks to demand comprehensive immigration reform and to protest legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would build a "Berlin Wall" along the U.S.-Mexican border, jail humanitarians who help undocumented workers and threaten the civil rights of every American.
Those protests will continue April 10 with a National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. From New York to Los Angeles, AFL-CIO affiliates and members are coming together with immigration advocates, student, civil rights and religious groups to organize massive rallies and protests to help make the case for protecting immigrant rights.
The U.S. Senate is expected to go home for the Easter recess without voting on an immigration reform bill. Senators have been debating the controversial Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, H.R. 4437, which the House passed in a last-minute power play just before the past holiday recess last December.
Events are scheduled in at least 72 cities, including Washington, D.C., where AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will join a massive rally on the National Mall between 7th and 14th streets, N.W., at 4 p.m. to call on Congress to end the criminalization and abuse of immigrant workers and to defeat the draconian anti-immigrant legislation passed by the House in December. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson will join Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Laborers President Terence O'Sullivan and Transport Workers Local 100 President Roger Toussaint for a rally at New York's City Hall (Broadway, Park Roe Chambers Street) at 3 p.m. for a huge demonstration of ethnic and immigrant solidarity.
Other events on April 10 where union members will be very active include:
Houston: March begins at 1 p.m. at Guadalupe Plaza and ends at Allen's Landing, located at the corner of Commerce and Main. Contact: Angela Mejia, 832-524-6158, Marisol Rodriguez ,713-550-7712, or Alain Cisneros 713-868-7015.
Las Cruces, N.M.: Rally starts at 4:30 p.m. at Harold Runnels Federal Building. Contact: Josie Marrujo, 505-250-4041, or Paul Martinez, 505-312-6327.
Los Angeles: 5 p.m. Vigil and procession leaves from La Placita Church, 535 N. Main St. to Fletcher Brown Square. Contact: Xiomara Corpeno, 213-201-4451, or the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, 202-508-6919.
Phoenix: March begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Arizona State Fairgrounds, 1826 W. McDowell Rd., to Wesley Bolin Plaza. Please bring an American flag.
Contact to volunteer or distribute water, etc.: David Hernandez, 602-631-4488, ext. 230.
San Antonio: March begins at 5 p.m. at Milam Plaza (Plaza del Zacate), located at Santa Rosa and Commerce across from Market Square. The march will continue to the Federal Building on Durango Street. Contact: Jaime Martinez, 210-842-9339, or Claudia Sanchez, 210-355-4050.
San Diego: March begins at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 9 at Balboa Park and will end at the County Administration Building. Contact: San Diego and South Bay, 619-255-6986; North County, 760-672-7419; East County, 619-593-7338 or 760-877-0277.
Check here for other events. Please note we cannot verify details of all the events.
by James Parks
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David Bacon | Congress Must Face Reality - Immigrants Want Equality
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040706A.shtml
Senators will pat themselves on the back this week for agreeing to their most pro-corporate, anti-immigrant bill in decades. Tens of thousands of people may be forced to leave the US as a result. Millions more would have to become braceros - guest workers on temporary visas - just to continue to labor in the jobs they've had for years.
Congress Must Face Reality: Immigrants Want Equality
By David Bacon
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 07 April 2006
Oakland, California - Senators will pat themselves on the back this week for agreeing to their most pro-corporate, anti-immigrant bill in decades. Tens of thousands of people may be forced to leave the US as a result. Millions more would have to become braceros - guest workers on temporary visas - just to continue to labor in the jobs they've had for years.
More workplace enforcement will result in firing thousands of others, creating a climate of fear that will make defending workplace rights and joining unions riskier than ever. And a border like an armed camp will continue costing the lives of hundreds of humble farmers and workers every year, crossing toward a shattered dream of a better life.
No wonder people have been in the streets for weeks, with even bigger demonstrations and marches yet to come. These are ordinary people, not activists, come out of working-class homes all over the country. A million in Los Angeles. Half a million in Chicago. Tens of thousands crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. Hunger strikers in San Francisco. Demonstrations in states where the immigrant community has been virtually invisible until now, like North Carolina, Tennessee. Border towns like Tucson. Cities from Santa Rosa to Omaha.
Everywhere, immigrants and people who support them are condemning the draconian measures passed by the House of Representatives in December, especially the provision that would make undocumented people federal felons.
But the demonstrations have a positive demand as well, one that shames especially the Senate's sleight-of-hand by which second-class guest worker programs are called "a path to legalization," and the only way families can gain legal status for their undocumented members is to spend a decade or more working as braceros. Contrary to Senate proposals for deportations and bracero visas, people carry signs demanding amnesty. These myriad marchers - families with children and grandparents in tow - have a simple alternative.
Equality.
Many unions support them. Among the most outspoken are the Teamsters in Orange County, heart of the anti-immigrant offensive, where the mayor of Costa Mesa told his police department to begin picking up immigrants who lack visas. Teamsters Local 952 says people need real legal status, not a guest worker program. A recently passed resolution condemns both Congressional proposals, because they "do nothing to remove the economic incentives that unscrupulous employers have to hire and exploit immigrant workers, and fail to really address the fact that we have 11 million undocumented workers in this country contributing to our communities."
The union "opposes any form of employer sanctions because they have historically resulted in 'employee sanctions' in the form of firings of workers for union organizing and discrimination practices on the job," and "opposes guest worker legislative proposals because such modern day 'bracero programs,' create an indentured servitude status for workers."
The AFL-CIO says the same, pointing out that if there are jobs for 400,000 braceros a year (the goal of the Senate reform bill), those immigrants should be given 400,000 green cards, or residence visas, instead, which would guarantee them equal status in their workplaces and communities. The Senate bill, the AFL-CIO says, "tears at the heart of true reform and will drive millions of hard-working immigrants further into the shadows of American society." Instead, "we should recognize immigrant workers as full members of society - as permanent residents with full rights and full mobility that employers may not exploit."
When Senator John McCain, co-sponsor of the Senate's main guest worker plan, tried to defend it to a building trades union audience in his home state this week, he was booed. He told the construction workers that even at $50 an hour they wouldn't be willing to pick lettuce, implying that only Mexicans were willing to do farm labor. For some in the audience, McCain's remarks recalled former California Senator George Murphy, who infamously declared in the 1960s that only Mexicans would perform stoop labor because "they're built so close to the ground." Needless to say, McCain didn't actually include in his bill any wage guarantee for guestworkers, much less $50/hour (about 5 times what lettuce cutters make today.)
A concerted effort by some lobbyists is under way in Washington, however, to convince legislators that guest worker status, while unpleasant, is something immigrants themselves are prepared to accept. But outside the beltway, their proposal is meeting a rising tide of rejection. In New York City, Desis Rising Up & Moving and 20 other grassroots groups formed Immigrant Communities In Action, and condemned both House and Senate bills for not halting the wave of detentions and deportations visited on Muslim communities since 9/11.
Another coalition, which includes the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, the Chinese Staff and Workers' Association, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, also rejects guestworker programs. Like the Teamsters, these groups say Congress should abolish employer sanctions instead, since they're often used to retaliate against undocumented workers who demand labor rights.
The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights criticizes both the Senate and House bills because they hold "no promise of fairness in immigration policy and would undermine the rights, economic health and safety of all immigrants and their children. Congress needs to go back to the drawing board to come up with genuine, positive and fair proposals."
Are there any such proposals before Congress?
Yes, although beltway advocates have tried to smother the most progressive of those alternatives with silence. A year ago, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Congressional Black Caucus members introduced HR 2092, which would give permanent residence visas to undocumented people already here, and outlaw discrimination based on migrant status. Jackson Lee believes Federal policy should not pit migrants against native-born, as do guestworker programs. Her legislation would instead fund job training and creation in communities with high unemployment, so that both immigrants and non-immigrants can find work.
In the House's mad December rush to pass the Sensenbrenner bill, criminalizing the undocumented instead of legalizing them, Jackson Lee's bill couldn't even get a hearing. The Congresswoman is the ranking Democrat on the House Immigration Subcommittee. In the Senate her proposal received no more consideration, from either Democrats or Republicans. Yet her bill is the only real effort to find common ground between immigrants and the working communities of citizens and long time residents that they seek to join.
In their predictable beltway logic, guestworker advocates are counseling the huge demonstrations to feature US flags, and carry signs saying, "We are America." But covering a corporate labor scheme with patriotic rhetoric won't convince marchers to support it. Immigrants do want to be part of US society, and do want to work, but they're not likely to start holding signs saying, "I want to be a guestworker," or chanting "Braceros si! Migra no!"
Hundreds of thousands of people are saying no to Washington's repressive bills, but Congress and its coterie of beltway lobbyists clearly aren't listening. It's time for Washington to face reality. A huge outpouring of people is demanding real equality. They won't be satisfied with second-class status.
--------
David Bacon, Photographs and Stories.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Bacon is a California photojournalist who documents labor, migration and globalization. His book The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the US/Mexico Border was published last year by University of California Press.
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Source: Rosalio Munoz
Compas,
The Republican leadership are pressuring to weaken and
booby trap the already seriously compromised
immigration legislation while more support for
immigrant rights is growing. On April 10 a Nationa
Day of Protest is being held in over 50 cities and
President Bush is pressuring the Senate to pass bad
legislation today! The right wing pressure is intense.
Californias Senator Feinstein is hinting she may make
horrible concessions. Call your Senators Immediately
and tell Protect All Our People and oppose the Frist
Compromise! The Senate Switchboard is 202-224-3121.
Below is a wonderful alert to the same effect by the
National Organization for Women, Rosalio Munoz
-----
Support NOW's Work April 6, 2006
| Tell a Friend
Action Needed
Background
NOW's Work Promoting Diversity
Immediate Action Needed on Senate Immigration
Proposals
NOW supports the legalization of undocumented
immigrants and a humane policy that leads to a path of
lawful residency and citizenship in the United States.
Anything less is unacceptable. The Senate is debating
the immigration bill today and the measure before them
is a bogus "compromise" being pushed by Senators Frist
(R-TN), Martinez (R-FL) and Hagel (R-NE).
Action Needed:
Contact your senators NOW! Urge them to oppose the
Frist "Compromise". There is no time for emails. Our
voices must be heard within the next few hours. Call
the capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for
your senator or get your senator's direct phone
number.
NOW is very concerned about the whole debate on
immigration "reform." It is racist and isolationist
and fails to recognize the humanity and value of
immigrant workers and families who contribute to our
nation's productivity. The recently-passed House bill
(H.R. 4437) is downright cruel. The bill passed last
week by the Senate Judiciary Committee (S. 1033) makes
only slight improvements to the House bill, lacking
provisions that will properly address the immigration
issues facing our nation.
In an attempt to get 60 votes and shut down debate,
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is promoting
a version authored by Senators Martinez (R-FL) and
Hagel (R-NE).
Senators should oppose this bill because it attempts
to create a path toward lawful residency and
citizenship by placing heavy burdens on current
undocumented immigrants, demanding a $2,000 fee and
requiring the ability to speak English and pass a
civics test. An undocumented immigrant could not,
under this bill, become a citizen until 11 years after
the application has been filed.
The Martinez-Hagel bill requires an undocumented
immigrant to leave the country at their port of entry
and re-apply for entry. Immigrants without
documentation will fear arrest, as well they should.
It would also deputize untrained local police to act
as immigration agents and limit judicial review and
due process for non-citizens. Moreover, it contains an
uncapped guest workers program that has no path to
permanent residency or citizenship and thus could
create a permanent underclass that may never get to
participate in the U.S. democratic system.
Our country deserves comprehensive immigration reform
that makes sense not only for the undocumented
residents of the United States and the workers who may
come to our country in the future, but also for the
resident families and citizen workers who have been
negatively impacted by the current immigration system.
The current system is not sensitive to the needs of
both the immigrant community and the U.S. economy.
Let's send a strong vocal message to the Senate that
the women and immigrant communities of the U.S. want
comprehensive immigration reform that is compassionate
and fair. Urge them to support comprehensive
immigration reform:
* that is fair and just for the immigrant community,
* that recognizes the value of immigrants living in
this country and
* provides a path to full citizenship and
participation in this society as citizens.
Senators must oppose any proposal that undermines this
effort. Call today!
Background:
Since 1996 the government has consistently taken an
enforcement-only approach to immigration. Barriers,
more agents and more civilian militia operations at
the border have not stopped illegal immigration, but
have instead shifted the path of migrants to ever more
remote and dangerous areas of the border, resulting in
the deaths of thousands of people from exposure and
dehydration. This issue must be dealt with fairly in
order to end these inhumane conditions.
Precious families are affected. Now some politicians
are pushing measures in immigration "reform" bills
that infringe on civil liberties.
Immigrant women are among the most vulnerable to
exploitation, abuse and human rights violations in the
United States. They face particular challenges due to
inequalities that exist between men and women but also
due to the additional responsibilities of family and
home. In the workplace, immigrant women may be
subjected to gender discrimination as well as
prejudice based on their ethnicity or country of
birth. Some women come to the U.S. to be domestic
workers or caregivers, sometimes having to leaving
leave their own children in their native country to be
raised by relatives.
Take Action Now! Tell your senators that no bill
should be passed out of the Senate that doesn't
address these unresolved issues or ease the punitive
barriers. Serious immigration reform legislation must
address the reasons why people come to the U.S.
illegally. The Senate needs to pass a reasonable bill
and must not allow the House bill to be combined with
any immigration bill passed by the Senate.
posted by miguel @ 5:33 AM
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