"He [King George] has erected a multitude of new offices and set hither swarms of officers to harass out people and eat out their subsistence." The Declaration of Independence, 1776
I. Building Up the Domestic Security Apparatus
Most explanations of the relentless pursuit of undocumented immigrants since 9/11 view it as a response to the continuing pressures of angry, mostly white, citizens. The "anti-immigrant climate" created by civic groups like the Minutemen, politicos like (name the Republican candidate of your choice) and media personalities like CNN's Lou Dobbs, we are told, has led directly to the massive - and growing - government bureaucracy for policing immigrants.
The Washington Post, for example, told us in 2006 that "the Minutemen rose to prominence last year when they began organizing armed citizen patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border, a move credited with helping to ignite the debate that has dominated Washington in recent months."
Along the way to allegedly responding to "grassroots" calls about "real immigration reform" and "doing something about illegals," the Bush administration dismantled the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and created the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, whose more than 15,000 employees and $5.6 billion budget make it the largest investigative component of the Department of Homeland Security and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government after the FBI. In the process of restructuring, national security concerns regarding threats from external terrorist enemies got mixed in with domestic concerns about immigrant "invaders" denounced by a growing galaxy of anti-immigrant interests.
Implicit in daily media reports about "immigration reform" is the idea that bottom-up pressure led to the decision to dismantle the former INS and then place the immigration bureaucracy under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Citizen activism contributed significantly to the most massive, most important government restructuring since the end of World War II. Nor do press accounts mention Boeing and other aerospace and surveillance companies, which, for example, will benefit as government contractors to the federal Secure Border Initiative (SBI) that is scheduled to receive more than $2 billion in funding for fencing, electronic surveillance and other equipment required for the new physical and virtual fence being built at the border.
Nowhere in the more popular explanations of this historic and massive government restructuring of immigration and other government functions do the raisons d'etat -- the reasons of the state, the logic of government -- enter the picture. When talking about immigration reform, what little, if any, agency ascribed to the Bush administration usually includes such mantra-like phrases like "protecting the homeland," "securing the border," and others. And even in the immigrant rights community few, for example, are asking why the Bush administration decided to move the citizenship processing and immigration enforcement functions of government from the more domestic, policing-oriented Department of Justice (DOJ) to the more militarized, anti-terrorist bureaucracy of the Department of Homeland Security.
Little, if any, consideration is given to the possibility that immigrants and immigration policy serve other interests that have nothing to do with chasing down maids, poultry workers, and landscapers.
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We must stop the travesty of our immigration laws, if only the majority of Democrats would co-sign the SAVE ACT. With only 18 more votes to go, we could bring this enforcement only bill to a vote. However, the Democrats want to attaches an addendum to the bill.
Tell your representatives to co-author THE SAVE ACT?
Congress is currently on recess through March 31st, so your representative will likely be in the home constituency and available to meet with its citizens.
FREE FAXES FOUND HERE. Keep calling your Congressmen today, toll free numbers include 1-877-851-6437 and 1-866-220-0044, or call toll 1-202-224-3121 AND REGISTER YOUR OUTRAGE at ongoing efforts to keep our country from enforcing its immigration laws!
Great essay. I found it very informative. I was wondering if you think there is a corollary with what you see as a rapidly growing police state, and what Naomi Wolf is observing with our national spiral towards an authoritarian regime? My history isn't that great, but isn't the DHS/ICE scenario in conjunction with our depressing economy, similar in many ways to 1930's Germany? are we at a similar precipice?
I would be very interested in your opinions on the matter.
Thanks.
http://am4lib.blogspot.com
Similar to how you ignore the permanent underclass and slave conditions that illegal immigration creates here for Latinos, and that fosters the same racial divisiveness you attribute to Bush. I find that strange, given the unrepentant nature of your associates in the "immigration" movement. But this quote from another of your pieces: "this is not just a civil rights movement - this is the northernmost expression of a continental rights movement." shines more light on what your strategic thinking is about.
You can Ivory tower this thing all you want. Of Hispanic people I know and work with--who are always forgotten about in this debate--the feeling is 70-75% "Hell No!" to illegals. These are folks who are here legally, some first generation, others for many generations. These are working class people, for the most part and they live like most of us, on the cusp of this disintegrating economy. It's no wonder they are ignored. Their insights and problems are accurate and real! They are not interested in Reconquista, "Open Borders," or any failed political experiments that you and your fellow ivory tower radicals want to import from South or Central America.
You seem to be another privileged academic, too far removed from the street or the fields to know what it is that The People want, but you will work your hardest to inflict upon them another System that you believe would be their salvation. Meet the new boss, same as the old jefe!
He is talking about the security apparatus of the US and how DHS is creating a police state. this is happening by SCAPEGOATING, the people you are defending. If you aren't going to take the time to read the whole thing..
As a Nation, we are tired of people, any people, breaking the law and getting away with it! And when you avoid that reality, you start to sound like the Reconquista advocates being interviewed on Public Radio where you are a fixture, a few days ago, ranting about how they were going to "take it all back!" They seemed as averse to the right and wrong of it as you are. They also had no remorse or conscience about the Native Americans that their forbears had slaughtered and enslaved on their original genocidal road to conquest. The tone of their justification was a bright echo of yours here!
Your second move, the "humanitarian" pose regarding the poor treatment of illegal immigrants, would carry more weight if I ever heard you address crimes against humanity in Mexico, or Guatemala etc, your activism to redress those wrongs there; your efforts to help those people improve their counties! But that would be dangerous, wouldn't it. America is so much safer for this sort of, umm, exercise, and the distance makes it easier for you to ignore the root causes of this dilemma.
The word "illegal" is more present in your piece by your very unwillingness to use it. If you are not able to make That basic distinction between illegal and legal, right and wrong, then you are going to lose your audience; especially in these times when our National Leaders seem incapable of the same sorts of fine judgment, but quite capable of the same sorts of crimes.
Speaking of the "Domestic Security Apparatus", have you heard about the new fun going on in my neck of the woods?
A private corporation is planning on building a private mega-prison, with a capacity of over 3,000 to hold people with immigration violations:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080320/news_1n20cca1.html
Yup, you and I, the tax payers, are going to be paying a private for-profit corporation to lock up Mexican grandmothers. And the real kicker-in-the-pants? The ICE didn't even request this. They are building it IN ANTICIPATION of a need for more immigrant jailings....
For example: (from http://pollingreport.com/immigration.htm)
1) An ABC News/Facebook poll. conducted Dec. 16-19, 2007 showed 49% to 46% favored their right to live here legally if they pay a fine and meet other requirements.
2) A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll. conducted Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 2007 showed 60% favored a start on a path to citizenship after some benchmarks were met as opposed to 15% against and 25% unsure.
3) In response to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted June 8-11, 2007 that asked "Regardless of how you feel about it personally, do you think that deporting all illegal immigrants who are currently in the United States back to their native countries is a realistic and achievable goal, or not?" fully 85% said this was not a realistic and achievable goal.
What seems clear from recent polling is an emerging consensus that draconian measures are unpopular and most Americans favor some path toward citizenship for undocumented workers now in the country. The American public is clearly well ahead of their political leaders on this issue and show a far greater acceptance and welcoming attitude than is generally understood.