The No Latino Left Behind Act

Last One Out of Mexico Turn-Off the Lights

By Lloyd Williams

Make no mistake about it, the President’s proposed “Guest Worker” plan of amnesty for illegal immigrants is not designed with the best interests of either undocumented aliens or bona fide United States citizens in mind. If Bush is behind it, you can be sure that the bill has more to do with ensuring an uninterrupted supply of cheap labor to big business than with securing our borders.

All you have to do is remember how he granted Halliburton and other mega-corporations billion-dollar no-bid contracts to rebuild Iraq and New Orleans to figure out what’s going on here. And he has the nerve to call those of us questioning his motives as racist. In this regard, he’s resorting to the age-old ploy of divide-and-conquer, trying to pit the decimated unions and other suffering, underemployed segments of society against this marginalized sector of unfortunates made up mostly of Latinos.

The Bush scheme relies on the specious argument that illegals are only taking jobs that nobody else wants, conveniently ignoring the fact that the only reason nobody wants those jobs is because they pay so little. But they pay so little simply because employers are able to make an end run around existing state and federal regulations by hiring folks too afraid of deportation to assert any expectations of enjoying a living wage, medical benefits and contributions to Social Security.

As a consequence of this dire, domestic economic development, along with the unfortunate outsourcing of so many factory and skilled positions overseas, the rich are getting richer, the poor, poorer, and the American middle class continues to evaporate. The solution to the problem, however, does not lie in pitting blacks and others stuck at the bottom against the newcomers, and it’s just as silly to speak of jailing illegals or of sending them back to their respective homelands when so many Latinos are already deeply entrenched in thousands of communities on this side of the Rio Grande . 

Politicians ought to think twice before passing an ex post facto (i.e., after the fact) law declaring over 8,000,000 aliens already living here anything but full-fledged citizens, especially when every child born in the U.S., (even to a foreigner) automatically qualifies for that coveted status. Any judge will tell you that it makes no sense to place an unenforceable statute on the books, because that only exposes the legal system as a powerless paper tiger.

Plus, if America is too damn broke to build a fence or lay land mines along the Mexican border, there’s no way we could find the cash for the legal expense of millions of individual deportation hearings. Therefore, like it or not, 99% of the illegal aliens are not going anywhere, so the focus ought to be on how to incorporate them into this culture as equals, not on how to demonize and criminalize them.

They deserve to be educated and uplifted, not marginalized and exploited, lest their degradation serve to encourage further erosion of all our rights and benefits in the face of an avaricious corporate onslaught which by design is indifferent to the fundamental human concern for the quality, sanctity and appreciation of life.   

Lloyd Williams is an attorney and a member of the bar in NJ, NY, CT, PA, MA & US Supreme Court bars.

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Other Comments on Immigration Policies

Rudy: Our present immigration policy in some sense serves us all—in lowering the cost of goods and services and thus taxes. And, as with most things economic, there are those who receive more benefits from these policies than others, much more so than common workers like you and me. I am not sure how it balances out for illegal aliens (Hispanics) and American citizens. I was told by the white fellow who put up my satellite dish that a study was done in Texas of the amount that illegal aliens contributed to the Texas economy and how much tax payers contributed to their being in Texas. The satellite technician, a person that listens to Rush Limbaugh and conservative radio, said that the figures did not add up in favor of the Hispanics. That is, they were a social burden. And he was pissed off that they are talking about "rights."

I have never trusted statistics. They are so easily manipulated to say what the researcher wants them to say, to sustain whatever political perspective is your slice of cake. My fear is that too much of public opinion is riding on prejudice more than anything else. We have always had a hatred of negroes and Indians. And since "Remember the Alamo," a historic hatred of Mexicans. That is, we all black and white. Personally, I am not troubled by the presence of Hispanics in this country. It is not a major issue for me. I say all we Americanos should become one people, not merely in trade relations.

What is a major issue for me is how legislators manipulate the laws to serve a few and limited interests. For instance, everyone has concluded that Hispanics do a better job on Virginia highways, keeping them clean and the grass and bushes cut, than has ever been done. It is commonly known that such workers are often paid below the minimum wage and without any benefits without any legal protections if hurt or injured.

We know that legislatures all over the country do subcontracting to the lowest bidder—to avoid hiring workers for the state directly to avoid benefits and other demands of American workers, like minimum wage and health coverage. Our enemies are thus American politicians rather than the poor peasants who cross the border to sustain their families. So for me all this business about Hispanics and illegal aliens is so much racist scapegoating.

My larger difficulty is that Negroes and Negroes that should know better from their own history (of course, negroes are only interested in history in February and then only as a species of hero worship) are fueling this racist hysteria. But how could it be otherwise—they are American; and everybody knows that race baiting has been America's favorite pastime for centuries. They do it better than any people on God's good earth and the more educated the better they practice the art. Can we turn the corner on such a nightmare? I doubt it because there has always been money to niggerizing the vulnerable, of spitting down on the helpless.

Have not nationalism and national borders exhausted their usefulness? Are we not yet tired of all these national and racial arguments? Can we really learn from centuries of historical errors? Or are we doomed to repeat all of the race and class prejudices that have undermined creating an American civilization worthy of note and emulation? From my view stupidity usually wins out when it is supported by dollars.

Wilson: I envy your new state of mind.   The change seems to be agreeing with you.  Your observations on immigration are keen, witty, and acerbic.

A world without national boundaries and without borders?  Well, many of the borders exist only in the mind.  Witness the old testament, when Abraham traveled around the Middle East without a passport, pimping his sister to at least two kings.  The presence or absence of borders (or walls) made little difference to Joshua.  The more things change; the more they remain the same. 

Here in Paris, I think people of Blackafrican blood seem to fall into three categories.  The Europeanized people, like myself who have assimilated bourgeois international culture.  People who still have distinctive African cultural traits and often wear Islamic or other "native costumes."  People who are assimilated into the hip-hop culture, like last autumn's rioters.   

I have met an Egyptian, who is darker than myself, but has "good hair," so most people would think he was a Pakistani.  But many Pakistanis are much more European in appearance than he is.  Some of the Brazillians look more like Vietnamese, because they have some Japanese ancestry which gives their features an "Asiatic" cast.  We already are a "world without borders" in the biogenetic sense.  Always have been. 

Linda: Rudolph, I don't see this as a racist issue because the ethnic group in focus is Hispanics/Latinos. I do know that large contracts are making it possible for this group to be gainfully employed in institutions such as Howard (albeit in menial positions) with no requirement to speak English. How can you operate in an American work setting without being able to speak English.

Staff has to make signs to communicate thoughts and ideas to them. Depending on the setting, this is not only a hindrance to productivity but it can be unsafe or dangerous in certain situations, i.e science labs, hospital settings, etc. I guarantee you,if I landed a job in France I'd damn well better be able to speak French.

I have been writing my congressmen for over 20 years about the inconsistent and biased U.S. immigration laws (starting with Cong. Parren Mitchell). You must know that these laws are skewed when it comes to the hue of one's skin or the level of education the foreigner has. THAT IS ISSUE #1 for me. All of the goodwill being suggested now on granting citizenship to illegal aliens (by the way they broke the law) MUST be extended to Africans, Haitians and other melanin-bearing folks.

ISSUE #2 for me is that employers who have been knowingly hiring and benefiting from these illegal workers are also lawbreakers. They should be charged with breaking the law.

Did you notice the massive amount of news coverage given to the Latino marches as compared to the dearth of news coverage on the many, many antiwar marches and protests during Bush's tenure? Did it occur to you that a few years ago the anti-monopoly law was changed to allow a only a few individuals to own several media outlets?  Americans are now among the least informed people in the western world!

Did it occur to you that the business owners allowed their illegal workers the day off to make the case for legalizing these low wage earners? Ha!  For me, it is not about being against one race or another. For me it is about being consistent in your laws and enforcing the law as it exists. GET OFF THE RACIST SING SONG, RUDY. YOU'RE PREACHING TO THE CHOIR.

My solution to this mess is 1. Bring charges and jail time for employers who are breaking the law (I have 2 friends who are illegal aliens working for peanuts and their employers work them like animals.)

2. So let's be generous and let them become citizens. But charge them $5,000 each to help defray tax payer moneys which they have benefitted from. Until the government pays African Americans reparations for our free labor, I'm not necessarily in a generous, giving mood.

Whatever the heck the Republicans push through for the Latinos, make it across the board for Africans, Haitians, and other Caribes.

Rudy: Linda, when I was in Baltimore, there was a Korean store around the corner. The lady learned English on the job, at least, enough to sell the goods in her store. There was no language requirement for her to enter the country and work and make a living. I am willing to bet that in much of American history (19th century onward) there was no language requirement for immigrants (Italians & Sicilians, East and North Europeans). To make such a demand now in the 21st century indeed smacks of racism. And if language was indeed such a problem the Mexicans would not be as valuable as they are as employees. So the language thing is such a red herring.

If you want to say that American whites deal with Haitians and Africans differently than they do Hispanics, you have no argument with me. Colorism is nothing new in America. It has always been a companion of racism. But that seems besides the point and to be altogether another issue. That is not the fault of the Hispanics but a fault of we Americans (black and white). Many of these so-called Hispanics have both an African and a Native American background and were in the Americas before we blacks and whites even reached these shores.

There indeed seems to be a racial angst among American Negroes against Hispanics. It seemed couched in your comments: "Did you notice the massive amount of news coverage given to the Latino marches as compared to the dearth of news coverage on the many, many antiwar marches and protests during Bush's tenure?" The event was indeed newsworthy and deserved the attention it received. If you want blacks to receive such coverage then all you have to do is something that is deserving of such attention. As they say don't hate the player hate the game. 

For the Hispanics in America, much like the Asians, were viewed as much more passive than blacks. So it was indeed extraordinary that they decided to stand up and flex their political muscle. I am glad for them and I think we should applaud them for their courage, which is so much lacking among the black middle-classes today, though they find it very easy to rail against the Hispanics in the same tones and rhetoric as the most conservative and racist of Americans.

Unlike you I am not into punishing the Hispanics for attempting to feed their families. I am more into punishing the politicians and corporations who have most benefited from opening the borders to this mass migration of population south to north. Not that I am against this migration, for I am not; the problem is that it has caused so much disruption in our national life that it has been hurtful in resolving the devastating crises in our urban centers and it has created a much more broader culture of exploiting those who are least able to fight back.

As I said before I am against all forms of jingoism and nationalism. The Hispanics are our brothers and sisters and I think that we should extend them as much love as we would our own blood. I am quite disappointed when I hear these black criticisms deriding Hispanics for trying to make a better life for their families. It is not just you in fault here, I have such people in my family (my cousin and my aunt) and I rail against their attitudes this past Wednesday as I rode in a car to Baltimore . My cousin on seeing a bus load of Hispanics he too raised the question of his 40 acres and a mule only moments after boasting about the money he will have at retirement from his job and the military. So it is indeed not I but too many negroes who are tossing racist sentiments against another people struggling to be treated decently as fellow human beings.

It seems to me that your angst should not be directed at the Hispanics but rather at Howard administrators who made a decision to subcontract rather than hire employees directly and pay them a decent salary and benefits. I suspect these black administrators would argue that their exploitation of Hispanics helps to provide you your salary and benefits. But I suspect you and other Howard employees will not be writing letters to your bosses or picketing outside the administration building demanding an account of Howard U's employment practices. But of course it is not just Howard but black institutions throughout Maryland and Virginia are into the same deceitful bottom line practices.

It is always easy to kick the dog that doesn't have teeth. 

Instead of speaking about dead issues like reparations, why not speak of and push for raising minimum wages (locally and federally), guaranteed universal health care, the elimination of government subcontracting. These kinds of policies would eliminate at least illegal aliens working for state and federal governments

Wilson: Rudy, even if I disagreed with you I would be forced to accept your logic and the moral propositions that you draw from it.

Latorial:  I agree with you Rudy.  I stand with Immigrants. To be honest, I think that every immigrant who is already here and has been working here should be allowed to stay here.  If we must create laws, let's create laws for the future, not laws that will hurt people who have already come to America.    I say let's make a place for those who are already here.

I'm teaching in Chicago, and all of my students are immigrants from somewhere:  Mexico, Peru, Poland, Syria, India and even Belize.  You name the country, it's represented at Oakton Community College.  But I was most stunned by my students responses to the immigration issues that we are facing. Mostly all of these students feel that they and their families struggled to get here legally, and they think that it's unfair for illegal immigrants to be allowed to stay here. Besides, they have their own family members back in their homelands who they would love to have come and join them here in the US, but that is not possible.

Here I am, a Black woman in America, siding with the immigrants feeling their pain and need to come to America for stability, work, to provide for their children and escape poverty.  I guess I'm likening the immigrants to the cause of Blacks in America and Haitians needing to escape to a better life. 

I teach online, and I surprisingly found that one of my Mexican students who lives in a border town is also immigration.  Her reasoning was for the schools' sake in her area. She shared that their schools received a certain amount of funding from the government to provide for the students legally registered there.  But immigrants are crossing the border and enrolling their kids in the schools which is causing crowding, lack of resources, etc.  But they need the Mexican immigrants because if they press for their removal, their businesses suffer. For these same immigrant families are crossing the border to shop.  So, here's a Mexican woman against illegal Mexican immigrants in her border town, but her underlying reasoning goes right back to government funding.

America knows that this is a border town being weighed down by illegal immigrants.  Rather than let our children suffer, why not just pour more money into the school, even if it does spill over and help illegal immigrants?  I know that just goes back to the issue of tax paying Americans not wanting to support illegal aliens. So we're back where we started.

I was shocked to find that the opinions of immigrants who are legal here are so much against who I thought would be there "comrades" or fellow immigrants.  This issue is multilayered.  Here in Chicago in the Highland Park area most of the laborers are Mexican.  It has been interesting for me to see, and it's been hard for me not to make an analysis or a comparison between the immigrants I see here and African Americans.

I believe that the answers to these issues lie in real government with a passion for helping people.  I disagree with work permits that would allow America to take advantage of people and use them only to send them back in a few years.  I think there's a better solution.  Again, I say let everyone who is here stay here, and create and carry out more progressive, positive and equal laws for immigration in America.

We have so many things that need fixing in America. It's a wonder we can get anything done at all.  How does a country broken in so many places stay on the shelf?

Claire: Buenos Dias and CONGRATULATIONS. Rudy for SPEAKING THE TRUTH. "Kicking the dog without any teeth." The American rich benefits from hiring undocumented workers.

I was just in México for 6 months and it pained me to walk through the streets of San Miguel de Allende (colonial of the wealthy mostly Americans and Canadians and the poor of course Mexicans)  as often there would be several older women INDIAN INDIGENOUS brown thin  sitting on the sidewalk begging for a little money. Now when I offered food you should see the look on their faces they would be so happy that I knew these women were genuine in their need. So often people become cynical.  In the state of Guanajuato many many many of the Mexican men are in the USA trying to make a living. As people of the African diaspora we know what that does to families children and women left alone selling goods on street corners. Women sitting on sidewalks trying to sell a few fruits and so on.  The money that comes back into México from these men is astounding.

One thing though I hope and pray that reparations is not a dead issue. Maybe it just needs a new approach.

However Rudy you are right on target. Our brothers and sisters come in all shades and colours and it is dangerous and risky business to declare some one is or not your brother or sister base on skin colour and country of origin.

When you get time please do take a look at my new website www.clairecarew.com I think you will like it. Please free to pass it on to others and to let me know of anyone in the art business.

Thank You and keep the emails coming you made my Saturday morning. Muchas Gracias.

Claire: Dear Rudy, I am getting goose bumps as I try not to cry on reading your words.

The Family Thing

It's the Family Thing -- for you & me

It's the Family Thing (I say) -- for you & me

It's the Family Thing -- for all of we

Thank you so much for your support. Many blessings to you. I know we have to support each other in all ways and yes Spanish is definitely a language that needs to be taught to all in public schools. I met a woman African American in San Miguel de Allende who is now living there. She moved to New Orleans 8 days before .... and lost everything including valuable archival documents. She like all of us is still shell shocked but her more so as she has to keep going to straighten out business and so on.

I recall years ago when Ben Johnson a track and field star from Canada was caught using steriods how everyone turned on him. He ran against Carl Lewis. Well let me tell you I am not a big fan of sports but when they turned on him. I wrote a poem and put up banners saying " Taking care of our own we still love you Ben" It was kind of funny as I was on the kitchen floor of a shared home with two young Portuguese women and here I was with a hair dryer trying to dry the banner fast enough for a gala event that night where Ben would be. I decided it was best not to ask permission and simply went and taped it on the side of the stairs going up to the stage. Well it was in the main newspapers the next day. I think you are the first person outside of my family that know what I did.

Peace and Love to you  and keep on speaking the truth.

Ben: Dear Rudy, a little historic insight: Sarnoff, Baliban, Goldenson, Shubert, and Hurok were all poor Russian Jews who could barely speak English. And all spoke with very heavy accents.

Miriam: Rudy, I agree with you totally.  It upsets me so much that some Black people, especially those in the middle class, have taken an anti-immigration stance.  Racism and classism are at the basis of this issue;  Mexicans and Chicanos (Mexican Americans) are people of color, descendants of Africans, Natives, and Europeans.  We need to study history, not just of Africans in the U. S., but of Africans in Latin America and the Caribbean.  Your friend supports an open policy toward Africans, Haitians and other Caribbeans, but many African Americans are prejudiced against these groups as well.  With our complicity, this country has promoted a policy of monoligualism and monoculturalism that too often pits black and brown people against each other.

Bush's insistence that immigrants learn English is just another example of racism and cultural myopia.  Was the same requirement imposed on non-English-speaking Europeans?  Shouldn't the Amerendians, Caribes, and Arawaks have insisted that the European conquerors learn their languages? Isn't it embarrassing that every foreign leader, from Pakistan and Indonesia and France to Poland, can speak English, but our leaders are monolingual?  Don't even get me started on the language question because language is a tool of political dominance.  It is no accident that the Catholic Kings imposed the Castilian language on the other Iberian nations;  language and religion were the instruments of political homogenization, and the conquistadors carried those instruments with them to the New World.

Rudy, although you have not learned a language or traveled widely, your mind and heart are open to people of different cultures and that is the main thing.

Claire has got it right about the Mexican people.  I have traveled often in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and other countries in the Caribbean and Caribbean Rimland where the people, particularly the poor, indigenous and African-descended people, are suffering so much.  How can we close our hearts and our borders to those who want to come here to support their families, to send their children to school, to buy homes and live decent lives? 

Many of these poor people are willing to sleep in cars, work two or three jobs, do anything (clean bedpans in nursing homes, repair roofs in 95-degree weather, and scrub pots in hotel kitchens) to scrape together a few pennies.  Yes, they're exploited by the wealthy--just as the Chinese were who came here in the 1870s to build the railroads;  just as the Jews were who came here in the 1890s to escape the pogroms in Central Europe;  just as the Vietnamese and Cambodians were who came here in the 1970s to escape the Communists;  just as the Haitian boat people were;  just as the Cuban Marielitos were; and so on and so forth--and the capitalist exploitation needs to stop!

So for me all this business about Hispanics and illegal aliens is so much racist scapegoating.

As usual, Rudy, you make some very good points.  What we have here in this whole debate over undocumented workers (illegal aliens is a derogatory term) is the White capitalist game of "divide and conquer." 

Herbert: Rudy and Linda, Your discourse revolves around very complex issues. Having lived in Mexico for eight years, perhaps I can shed some light on these very complex issues. Who are the newest immigrants coming into the country? 

If one was to judge by phenotype, one would immediately noticed that these new immigrants are not white, and will never be able to pass for white.  They are brown or chocolate.  They are Indians in their countries.

The Indians are at the bottom of the social class structure in Latin America. Evo Morales of Bolivia became recently his country's first indigenous head of state in over 250 years since the Spanish Conquest.

These immigrants are not only exploited and discriminated in their respective countries, but also face similar problems after entering in the U.S. in hopes of finding a brighter future.

I think in Baltimore, the majority of the new immigrants are coming from El Salvador, a country that has had a great deal of civil unrest for years now. A good number of Mexicans are coming to B-more, and many others from Latin American countries. All are coming in hopes of a brighter future and opportunities unavailable or difficult to obtain in their countries. I believe we share a lot more in common with many of these new immigrants. 

Rudy, their is something also called the African Diaspora.  Rudy, have you ever heard of santeria, vodun, candomble?  Our ancestor believe in the spirit world?  Think of the Holiness Church...

Rudy: Herbert, yeah, you right. I am glad I have friends who are much more even tempered than I, less I find myself totally intolerable. Thanks for your even-handedness. You know I have nothing personal against Linda. I am fond of her and you know she made a contribution to ChickenBones. She must think I am a son of a bitch.

You must know, too, I am a freethinker, in the best spirit of the word. That I have been trained at the university to be skeptical toward all that which is not scientific and smacks of demagoguery and sleight of hand. I do my best to be never uncritical. I hold to no party position. I openly disagree with what I think is wrong and with that which is intended to hoodwink, bamboozle, okey-doke the uninformed, whatever the cost. That is, I try to make the best uses of free speech.

posted 13 May 2006