A cowardly and anonymous group in Utah sent a list of 1,300 names to immigration offices and media outlets yesterday. It included detailed information, including Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and even names of children and family members. Almost all of the people on the list are Latinos. The group demanded that the persons on the list be deported immediately.
This egregious act of vigilantism is only the latest example of divisive policies and action targeting immigrant communities because of the failure to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform at the national level.
Consider:
William Gheen, president of the anti-immigrant political action committee, Americans for Legal Immigration, said the people behind the list are "heroes". Seriously? I can't imagine an action more un-American and cowardly than violating privacy and scaring hardworking families under a cloak of anonymonity. What kind of a society are we building if one of its ethical imperatives is to report on your neighbors?
The climate of fear in immigrant communities is growing by the day. The hostility many feel from their leaders and even neighbors is being stoked by hate mongers who can thrive only because Washington is so broken that it's incapable of addressing a problem that the majority of Americans agrees needs to be fixed: our broken immigration system (70% of Americans want comprehensive immigration reform.) But instead of practical action, what dominates the stage are the demagogues - those who would rather make political hay by playing on the fears of Americans.
Treating people as objects for political fodder rather than as human beings is possible only when we dehumanize them. That is what the aforementioned efforts have in common. Immigrants are not names on a list to be targeted by vigilantes, not in fair and just society. Our answer to these zealots must be that American values aren't rooted in exclusion and hate. America is about inclusion and moving forward together.
If you doubt that, listen to any of the stories on this website: WeAreAmericaStories.org.
Follow Deepak Bhargava on Twitter: www.twitter.com/communitychange
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I have never heard of this. I have heard that there are a lot of American Citizens who are tired of the 14th Amendment being abused by illegals. I have heard that there are a lot of American Citizens, myself included, that would prefer that restrictions be put on the 14th Amendment such as;
For the child of an illegal immigrant to receive benefits of a US Citizen, one of the parents has to be either a US Citizen or a Legal Immigrant who has been in this country in good standing for no less than 5 years.
That which is "right" and that which is "just" do not always overlap and we, as humans, must make the appropriate decisions. Which one will you make?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsHi6_l1XzA
Some of SB 1070 Legal Defense Fund's biggest contributors share his core views:
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2010/07/13/hate-groups-donate-to-arizona-laws-defense/
The long term strategy of the ghost writers of SB 1070 to bring back "whites only immigration":
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2010/07/14/the-fair-files-attacks-on-multiculturalism-will-help-us/
We are about inclusion and moving forward together with LEGAL immigrants. We need to support laws like SB1070 that punish those who hire ILLEGAL ALIENS. If we HEAVILY fine and suspend the business license of those who hire ILLEGAL ALIENS the jobs for them would dry up and they would self-deport. This would free up jobs for CITIZENS and LEGAL immigrants who want and NEED them. It would also free up BILLIONS of tax dollars that we are currently spening on ILLEGALS. It would also lessen the burden on our educational and health care systems.
100% wrong! It forces action on a national problem that otherwise would not be dealt with. We have the proof in the pudding that inaction magnifies the problem a million times over.
Some of us have been doing that since the first ill conceived amnesty. It shouldn't be, but it takes a bunch of these bad situations to get enough voters off their butts to force the representatives to address these issues that obscure the party lines.
My point is that the author is wrong. National leadership is acting but very quietly.
The complaint of the Right is usually that nothing is being done to correct the situation of immigration and unregistered foriegners. Does the Left not want to give our president credit for his action?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/us/10enforce.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
It is what I have seen called for. And it has far more effect than that ridiculous list. Get over the list. Nobody on it will be deported. Law enforcement is looking for who made it to prosecute them.
Just don't get a tan this summer, or you'll end up on someones special "list".
This is not one of them.
My point is that instead of looking for people on the list they caught the turkeys that wrote it.
The people on the list were in no danger of any kind except perhaps embarassment.
My further point is that this basic non-issue is a distraction for something bigger and of more import happening in immigration news.
I believe the term is "red herring".
And Obama cannot make Immigration reform a priority even if he wants to. This nation has many more important issues to deal with. Republicans are not going to let any reform of immigration laws happen without more assurance that we will not be talking about the issue again in another 20 years.