World

By Thiago Mattos
TheSequitur.com Contributor
May 1, 2006
[Image - Andy Marlette]

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The frequent manifestations and protests against an immigration bill currently tied up in the U.S. Senate demonstrate the importance of an issue that directly impacts the lives of more than 11 million people in the United States. The majority of those affected by HR 4437 – the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 – are Latin Americans, including more than 2 million Brazilians who leave their country seeking better living conditions and the possibility of faster social ascension.

Immigrants’ earning and spending correspond to an enormous piece of the American economic pie. And, at the same time, their political influence has increased in recent years. This influence could threaten the electoral chances of those who pick fights with the immigrants. More than 60 protests have demonstrated this already.

In December, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a law that says, among other things, that all illegal immigrants should be deported and their employers punished. In addition, House Republicans secured funds to construct a 1,116-kilometer (693-mile) wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Welcome to the new Salem witch trials.

Rowing against the current of "citizens" who want to free themselves from the "non-citizens" who are there to do the country's dirty work – turning the gears of the world's biggest economy – is the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).  That organization led a boycott against the Miller Brewing Co. after it donated to Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the author of the legislation that almost caused a riot among the immigrants.

The real truth – no longer a secret to the mainstream – is that immigrants who work in the country, legally or illegally, are the arms and legs of the United States, and the country would stop without them.  Question: Without these "undesired" people, which of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants would build houses, work in domestic services or pick tomatoes on farms? In the end, who does the dirty work? It is obvious that this is a generalization, but let´em take out the "illegals" and see how it works out. One documentary, A Day without Mexicans, already tried to show this situation, but maybe we’ll visualize it in practice soon.

The proposed House bill would criminalize not only unauthorized immigrants who sell their work for a price that few would sell, but also those who offer the workers humanitarian assistance. We can notice the wrath – contaminated by the fear of terrorists – promoted by politicians in order to increase the fear of outsiders. With the passing of this law, to be an immigrant would not be just a civil offense, it would be a crime.

And we all know how criminals are treated, don't we?

Journalist Juan Williams, who has written extensively about the Civil Rights Movement, has alerted society about the importance and expansion of protests against the legislation. Like the Civil Rights demonstrations, these protests are gaining the power to transform.

The protesters promise to lead strikes and boycotts today. Using these tactics, they will demonstrate their worth and their existence, as many "citizens" pretend they do not exist. One way or another, something good needs to come from this situation.

Americans have championed books that become bestsellers by blaming immigrants for the country's problems and lauded publications that support closing the border. Now more than ever, we need to broaden public debate and question the immense anti-immigrant clamor taking over a country built on 400 years of immigration.

Thiago Mattos has a bachelor's degree in social sciences from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He writes about Brazilian and world issues in his blog Sangue de Barata, and is a founding member of Poesia & Cia, a Brazilian alternative magazine.

Translated from the Portuguese with the assistance of Megan Seery, TheSequitur.com Contributor.