Speaking Truth To Power
July 17th, 2008 by Sonja

I’ve wanted to post a photo of this sign for months now.  It appeared late last summer in my town.  Some consider it an eyesore.  Others call it “The Liberty Wall.”  I’m in the latter group.  Suddenly now it’s getting national attention.  That’s a good thing.  I’ll tell you why in a minute.  First read the sign.

There’s a battle taking place in my town.  I did not even know about this battle until the first skirmish had been won last summer by local xenophobes.  They managed to pass the most restrictive, invasive, fearful anti-immigrant laws in the country.  It was such a horrible law that we managed to come under the scrutiny of the United Nations.  Not the US … not my state … my COUNTY!!!

The bare bones of the law are that the police may ask for anyone’s papers that they consider to be suspicious.  So … if anyone gets stopped for any traffic violation, the police may question them about their immigration status.  It amounts to a Fourth Amendment violation of our Constitution.  But who among the immigrant population has the wherewithall to take this fight to the Supreme Court?  Or who among them knows that this is possible?

For the first several months, the nativists strutted around waving their flags considering themselves the victors.  What protectors of the castle they!  Houses began to go vacant.  Families began to disappear.  Stores locked their doors.  Teachers in our schools lost their jobs.  Mortgages were defaulted upon.

The law of unintended consequences began to make itself felt.

As more and more of our population fled the county, our economic substructure has begun to crumble. Our housing market is in the toilet and while real estate prices have fallen around the region, they have fallen so dramatically in my county to have made national news … on PBS! Or so my mother reports.  While the number of children attending ESOL classes has fallen in our county, it has gone up in neighboring counties.  So these families are not going “home” (where ever that might have once been), which is the law’s express intent.  But they are merely shuffling their place within this country.  This has become a high stakes game of NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) where we are using human beings for game pieces and the federal government as our hostage.

So, my question is … how’s that working out?

From what I can see no one is gaining from this foolish law … our local jail is overcrowded with people awaiting deportation because the federal facility has not yet been built.  Our economic structures are beginning a sad crumble because whether we like or not we depend upon these people for support and assistance, just as they depend upon us.  We all live in a system together and when you remove part of it, the ripples cause problems …

So … how’s that working out for ya?


17 Responses  
  • Jamie Arpin-Ricci writes:
    July 17th, 20088:26 amat

    This grieves me…

           
  • Maria writes:
    July 17th, 20089:24 amat

    This is a recurrent issue here in Calif. I always wonder where the xenophobes are going to go for basic services — who will bus the tables in their restaurants, mow their lawns, etc. For that matter, who will pick their fruits and vegetables? Who will fund their retirement — won’t be their kids and grandkids because there aren’t enough of them.

           
  • K.W. Leslie writes:
    July 17th, 20089:39 amat

    Yeesh, I thought my county was stupid for banning Styrofoam. You win.

    Though like Maria said, this is indeed a regular and stupid issue in California. I have to keep reminding people: California used to be Mexico. Telling people whose families have been in California centuries longer than yours to “speak English,” and demanding proof of citizenship whenever they seek community services just because they’re brown… does it sound like fascism to anyone?

           
  • Sonja writes:
    July 17th, 20089:44 amat

    I think that’s what I love most and find most provocative about the sign … the fact that the writer calls Hispanics, “Native Americans.” Because, well, they are! And what a poke in the eye to most of us pale-faces who are really the immigrants.

           
  • Sonja writes:
    July 17th, 20089:48 amat

    @Maria … I wonder the same thing. My brother runs a small business in Massachusetts and he makes a point of hiring workers from Guatemala every summer who are dependable, hard working and a pleasure to work with. He does this now after years of struggling with “Americans” who were not dependable, drug and/or alcohol impaired, and snotty to boot.

           
  • Patrick writes:
    July 17th, 200810:08 amat

    “who will bus the tables in their restaurants, mow their lawns, etc. For that matter, who will pick their fruits and vegetables?”

    Yes. Where will we get our slaves to serve us, out of sight and out of mind? We need a servile class that has darker skin! What would we do without them?

    A little hyperbole there, I know. But that’s my curious stance on this. Of course, we have to do right by those who are in need. At the same time our materialistic demands put the burden on such people to go through massive struggle to just feed their families.

    They are coming from purportedly Christian nations. Why should we demand that such countries alienate their own poor and make them go through that? Where is the demand for economic reform that helps a man find a job where his family lives?

    That is the issue to me, and places me against both sides of most folks on this. We can’t just say Jesus is important in America. We have to also argue for economic conditions that change other countries, which might ideally actually end immigrant labor. Not ideally for us, ideally for immigrant laborers who really are often good people who love their own countries and would rather not make the travel.

    But we want our slaves. We want our servile class we can identify by color. To help ourselves feel better and to help ourselves continue to pay lower prices we will argue against police interference.

    By the by, California was parceled out to very wealthy, upper class men. There wasn’t a lot of population and not much interest because of the ownership issues. So, those who were in California were often the very people who were the most corrupt and most brutal towards underclasses, with some notable exceptions. It was the very epitome of the class bias that continues to plague Mexico, and leads to their social services policy of making their poor move far away from home.

           
  • Sonja writes:
    July 17th, 200810:28 amat

    @Patrick … you make an excellent point. I’ve limited the scope of what I was talking about to once people are here, how should we treat them? Should we pay them good wages, get them decent health care, etc.? Or should they be a slave class? I would argue for the former …

    However, as a nation, I would hope our foreign policy would be such that we would be helping and encouraging other nations to have domestic policies that help folks stay home and earn a decent wage, health care, etc. At the moment we do neither.

           
  • Tracy Simmons writes:
    July 17th, 20083:25 pmat

    Infuriating, Sonja–thanks for posting this. My husband will be going through the roof shortly when I show this to him. It’s so hard to believe stuff like this keeps happening. Disheartening. And, the big question: What can we do about this? Any ideas for us?

           
  • Mike writes:
    July 18th, 200812:56 amat

    Sonja ~ I was outraged when I saw this on two different levels.

    First of all, it’s a complete and utter violation of the 4th Amendment rights of those people being contacted. As a police officer who holds the Bill of Rights in high regard, I would not be working for that department very long. I am also amazed that you have not had an influx of ACLU lawyers flocking there in droves over this one. Secondly, I think that the police have better things to do than to contact people and identify them simply on the basis of their skin color; even if it was legal. I have to believe that if I feel this way, I’m sure there are some there that do as well.

    I have made it a point in my career that I will not make contact with someone specifically with the intent of checking on their immigration status. As a matter of fact, our department now has a policy in place that says that unless there is a criminal violation by the person, immigration status is a “non-issue” and we won’t even notify I.C.E. I love this policy for no other reason than that I have a great amount of respect for anyone who wants to make their life and the lives of their families better and actually does something tangible to make that happen.

    It really should be very clear to everyone now that racism starts at the top of our government. Maybe it always has.

           
  • Adam G. writes:
    July 18th, 20083:24 pmat

    We had a city in New Jersey, Riverside, do this in 2005 (I think that’s the year, the same year we moved to NJ). The city almost died, and the immigrant population has not returned.

    Some take this as an argument in favor of restrictive national laws. Is that a good idea? The impact on our economy would be ruinous. Besides, it isn’t very neighborly.

           
  • Beth Patterson writes:
    July 22nd, 200812:14 amat

    Learners inheriting the earth: the politics of God…

    In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully…

           
  • Vanderleun writes:
    July 26th, 20081:24 pmat

    “So … if anyone gets stopped for any traffic violation, the police may question them about their immigration status. It amounts to a Fourth Amendment violation of our Constitution.”

    Actually, it’s not. This has been settled numerous times.

           
  • Jeff Lewis writes:
    July 27th, 20081:36 amat

    Your bias is astounding. It seems obvious that the “rule of law” and our Constitution don’t matter to you at all. You lambaste the ICE 287(g) program, yet haven’t taken the time to even read the law. You throw around words like xenophobe and nativist as if they have any relation to the laws on the books. At what point did “race” enter into the enforcement of the laws, and where did you develop your paranoia? I see you and others who commented here quick to throw up the 4th Amendment as a rebuttal for law enforcement enforcing the law, but I don’t see you suggesting they enforce Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution. In case you haven’t read it, it guarantees us protection against invasion. Should we just enforce the laws and uphold certain parts of the Constitution? You feel sympathies for the abused immigrant, which is admirable, but you also clump together the illegal alien as well. Alarmist, ill-informed fear-mongering is a strategy you seem to employ. Get your facts straight. 287(g) saves lives! Our elected officials take an oath that ends in “so help me God.” You claim to be a God-fearing person. Are you suggesting elected officials break their promise to God? You can’t have it both ways. I’m not letting the corrupt businessman, or corrupt politician off the hook, but if you want to send your “personal” money to other countries, that is wonderful, but to encourage ignoring the Constitution, and the laws written from it is not just irresponsible, it is an act of sedition and betrayal. What are you thinking?

           
  • Jeff Lewis writes:
    July 27th, 20081:49 amat

    Also, illegal alien invaders who steal identities are NOT immigrants. They are foreign national illegal aliens who have no right to be here. Anyone who knowingly hires illegal aliens is STEALING from law-abiding citizens and from legal immigrants. Exactly how is that a Christian thing to do? You speak about the “truth” yet your blog is riddled with lies and deceptions. Is the cheap labor that illegal aliens provide worth the 25 American lives that are taken each day by illegal aliens? Does it justify the 50+ children that are sexually molested by illegal alien perverts each day? Aiding and abetting illegal aliens is a felony. Encouraging breaking the law is also immoral. How do you justify that? When employers hire illegal aliens at a cheap rate you can’t say they are doing jobs Americans won’t do with any credibility. You can say they are doing jobs Americans won’t do for slave wages. The United States is not a 3rd World country. Is that what you want it to be? Do you want the rich to get richer, the poor to get poorer, and the middle class to disappear? I don’t understand your mindset at all.

           
  • Sharon writes:
    July 30th, 200812:10 pmat

    for those of you who think this country can keep taking in an endless supply of illegal aliens with out it affecting your future, your job, your family, or your town, I can not wait for it to hit you….the ones who don’t care what is happening to this country are probably here illegally, it means naught to them that they are dragging our country down into a 3rd world cess pool like the one they are fleeing….but please if you are a citizen, we want no crying from you when your wages fall so low (from competition of cheap labor) you can not feed your family, pay your mortgage, etc. you will be getting what you deserve for not doing your civic duty and protecting your country.

    “Jobs Americans won’t do” what a joke just an excuse for breaking into our country, yes our country( Learn your history) I don’t have time to explain it! but what the H do you think we did until you entered our country illegally, NO you did not build this country, our ancestors did…look at the country you left that is the one your ancestors built.

           
  • Christine Sine writes:
    August 11th, 20086:24 pmat

    Sonja,
    thanks for making me aware of this post. It really is very sad isn’t it particularly when my understanding is that one of the reasons America has grown and prospered as well as it has is because of the influx of immigrants with diversity of ideas and understanding that has so enriched the society and the culture

           
  • Sonja writes:
    August 12th, 200812:46 pmat

    Christine … it really is sad … we are all essentially immigrants or the descendants of immigrants here. It’s that melting pot (or as I prefer to look at it, the stewpot) theory of our culture. In either case, if it were not for waves of immigrants coming to our shores time after time through out the centuries, we would not have our culture today. My 14 yo daughter did a really neat study on this at the end of the school year that I want to post when we get home from our vacation as a response to these commenters. She looked at the history of immigration and the trends of how immigrants have been treated throughout history. She came to some interesting conclusions.

           


»  Substance:WordPress   »  Style:Ahren Ahimsa