(Name-mce) ListServ City Vents Anger at Illegal Immigrants

[Barbara Acosta]

The elephant in the room that has barely been addressed in this discussion
so far is STRUCTURAL INEQUITIES.

But before I go into that, let's start with the human story. Imagine that
you and your spouse and children were dropped off in one of the Central
American countries with no money, no passports, no income or savings, and no
way to put food on your table. You look everywhere, but there are no jobs,
and even the few people who find jobs do not earn enough to feed their
families. Desperate, you apply for a visa at the U.S. embassy, hoping that
you can obtain legal permission to move somewhere with more opportunities.
But they take one look at your empty bank account and throw your application
in the trash. 

Will you stay and face sure starvation, watching your children waste away
from preventable diseases? Or will you make the decision to seek a way to
survive anywhere you can, in a place where your kids will have a chance at
an education, clean running water, and enough to eat, even if it entails
great risks? Would you consider violating the law if it were the only way
for your family to survive? Would you perhaps even risk losing an arm or a
leg and making your way across a desert with nothing more than a liter of
water and no map if you knew it was your only chance to save your children's
lives?
 
The burning question is, then, WHY do people risk all of this? Do they
really CHOOSE to break the law? Is this "choice" morally more repugnant than
what the U.S. government has done to create the conditions that led to this
horrible predicament for millions of people? And how are these conditions
related to our own issues of job insecurity, lack of healthcare, and decent
living conditions for workers here in the U.S. -- the same ones who tend to
get so angry about illegal immigration?
 
The illegal immigration problem would not exist if workers were treated
fairly around the world. Imagine if there were a global living wage -- what
if Walmart had to pay everyone fairly no matter whether they lived in
Decatur Georgia or the People's Republic of China. Imagine if everyone
earned enough to support their families and had decent healthcare,
education, and nutrition. Would they still feel obliged to come here? And --
wait a minute -- then there would be decent-paying jobs for our own working
families and they would no longer feel threatened by outsourcing. Nor would
they  need to blame "illegals" for taking their jobs. Why is this question
never addressed in any of the congressional debates?

The U.S. government and the great economic powers like the World Bank and
the IMF have a great deal of power to fix this. But they won't unless enough
of us demand it. The power structures will always be more interested in
maintaining structural inequities so there will be sources of cheap labor
and ever increasing profits for big business. It is all of the rest of us
who are victimized by these policies. In fact, it is in the interests of big
business to let the underclasses continue fighting amongst themselves.
That's one of the oldest tricks of domination in history.

Let's not blame the victim, folks. Let's get out there and speak the truth.

bda