Bucking the CW on Immigration Reform
Published July 14, 2009 @ 07:20PM PT
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Comments (4)
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David is an attorney in Philadelphia, PA, where he helps immigrants to the U.S. navigate the complex immigration legal system. Views he expresses at change.org are his alone and don't represent the views or opinions of his employer, Nationalities Service Center. The information contained on this site is intended for educational and advocacy purposes only.
Excellent posts! Great observation by Perna. Kai and Duke touch on an important point about the current approach to CIR that Roberto Lovato has touched on many times before. Check his piece, The Immigration Reform Debate Must Regain a Moral Compass":
While laudable in its intent, the legalization-centered approach of Mahoney and others may not be the best way to deal with the tragic legacy of failed immigration reform: spikes in anti-immigrant, anti-Latino hate crimes, deaths in decrepit immigrant prisons, thousands of families separated, children and families terrorized by heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raiding their homes.
These efforts are inadequate because, contrary to the new Washington consensus on immigration, the greatest single need in immigration reform is not legalization. Rather, what is most needed is moral imagination.
Posted by a d on 07/15/2009 @ 06:32PM PT
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Here's the link:
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=f4c6687549e8418e3343581de62b3ecd
Roberto was referring to this quote by Archbishop Mahoney:
Immigrants must be brought out of the shadows so they can fully contribute to our nation's future economic and social well-being," declared Archbishop Mahoney during a recent teleconference with the National Immigration Forum.
Lovato goes on to clarify what he means by "moral imagination":
The predominance of the "practical" considerations – "immigrants are good for the economy," "we need tough and smart enforcement," etc.— framing the arguments in favor of comprehensive reform should be balanced by a simple, but now elusive fact that smashes any of the discursive frames prevailing on either side of the immigration debate: undocumented immigrants are first and foremost human beings whose lives are as sacred as that of any other being.
Although all advocates surely believe this, not all voice it as much as they used to.
Posted by a d on 07/15/2009 @ 06:41PM PT
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Kai's blog is just phenomenal. I encourage everyone to read it in full. I hope you won't mind if I repost the part at the end (where he quotes Nezua).
As I see it, a fundamental starting point for embarking upon the path to CIR is rejecting the racially-coded enforcement rhetoric which has characterized a great deal of the xenophobic hysteria and racial hatred of our country's reactionary anti-immigrant forces. I describe this rhetoric as the language of the Leviathan, in reference to HYPERLINK " " political theory, because it reduces the rule of law to the most base human impulses of domination and subjugation, promulgating the submission of individual liberty to the draconian sovereignty of ruler and state by means of a unilateral monopoly on coercive violence.
...
As HYPERLINK " " wrote in an op-ed for HYPERLINK " " Commonweal Institute entitled "The Power of Truth and The Weakness of Tough Talk":
"When Democrats concede that the proper starting point is fear and revulsion of the Alien Other, they adopt the lens of xenophobia and feed the toxic environment in which race-based violence is bred. This stance is not productive nor is it rooted in truth. [...]
Even if rationalized as standard political posturing, any validation of language and ideas promoted by fringe elements that HYPERLINK " " violently to HYPERLINK " " a “disappearing culture” from “illegals” cannot be excused. [...] Who will give the Democrats a tough talk? Who will tell them that in order to rise above the well-entrenched practices of the Right, they will need to be daring, intelligent, and original? Who will assure them they possess the ability to be both honest and victorious?
Indeed those who spout the language of the Leviathan can never serve the cause of social progress, because their tongues are tied to the rigid despotism of the state rather than the rising aspirations of downtrodden communities.
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, he was disobeying a federal court injunction; his mainstream critics decried this "illegal" march and a majority of US public opinion disapproved of the action. But something strange happened after that march. The winds shifted. Hardened positions became more fluid. Even in white America, a flicker of self-doubt flashed across social consciousness. Openings appeared in the fabric of society and the impossible suddenly became possible. Addressing a nationally televised joint session of Congress two days after the first Selma march, President Lyndon Johnson famously declared:
What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause, too, because it is not just Negroes but really it is all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.
It is said that a single tear rolled down Dr. King's cheek when he heard that line on TV.
The Voting Rights Act passed 5 months later, not because Washington insiders hatched the right marketing scheme with the correct compromises, but because people grounded in a moral vision of social justice stood up, walked forward with heads held high, and didn't back down in the face of the Leviathan.
Posted by a d on 07/15/2009 @ 06:48PM PT
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oops, sorry about those tags! Best to read the original article. Anyway, here's my favorite quote:
Who will give the Democrats a tough talk? Who will tell them that in order to rise above the well-entrenched practices of the Right, they will need to be daring, intelligent, and original? Who will assure them they possess the ability to be both honest and victorious?
Posted by a d on 07/15/2009 @ 06:53PM PT
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