In fits and starts, I’ve come late to the debate on immigration reform. For seven months, I housed a political refugee who had been arrested and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Because he had legal asylum, ICE released him with nowhere to go. A local organization that works with detained immigrants asked if I could house him while they worked on more permanent housing. Housing him caused me to give more thought to immigration and immigration reform.
We allow businesses and corporations to cross borders in search of higher profit without regard to damage done when they shut down existing work sites. Any job loss and community problems their border crossings create are irrelevant.
When enacted, trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) benefit certain segments of the population. Other groups, Mexican farmers working traditional communal lands for example, see their communities destroyed. What are they to do when we promote and enact laws that ruin their lives?
If it’s acceptable for corporations to cross borders in search of increased profit, why is it illegal for individual human beings to seek better lives by doing the same?
A bipartisan “gang of eight” U.S. Senators crafted an immigration reform bill that made it to the floor of the Senate. This bill has support — to a lesser or greater degree — from individuals and groups I respect. But what I read looks awful.
The bill is known as the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.” According to a January 2013 report by the Migration Policy Institute, our government spends more on federal immigration enforcement than on all other principal federal criminal law enforcement agencies combined, with nearly $18 billion spent in fiscal 2012.
The current bill will increase the militarization of our southern border by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to put 3,500 more agents along our border with Mexico. Our southern border states have been authorized to utilize their National Guard units. The bill calls for more unmanned drones, more judges and more prosecutors.
Oddly, tribal governments are required to comply with this bill. Perhaps the original residents of this continent should demand the same militarization of our northern border? Maybe they could engage in the racial profiling that occurs on our southern border.
The proposed path to citizenship favors people with money and those who possess particular skills. The poor and unskilled are penalized. This reinforces the idea that some lives have more value than others. Same-sex families are excluded and siblings will no longer be considered as eligible family members.
Immigration reform centered on human beings should immediately halt deportations and grant permanent resident status to all undocumented workers, their spouses and their children.
It must also recognize how international trade agreements create the need to migrate.
Tom Broderick is a resident of Oak Park.
