The US has resorted to fairly extreme state action in order to control undocumented immigrants. This is a long history, with ups and downs. The current phase of strong-state action began in the 1990s with Clinton. The US is not alone. Some of the most powerful states in the world -- the US, the UK, France, Italy -- have increasingly reoriented large parts of their state bureaucracy to control, detect, stop, detain, and deport basically vulnerable and powerless migrants. These states have been willing to sacrifice major and minor laws, and more generally the spirit of the law -- one of the most valued achievements of our collective history in the west. They have sacrificed the civil liberties of their citizenry in order (supposedly) to control foreigners.
In the US, the Patriot Act authorizes the immediate deportation of any alien (both documented and not), without hearings or evidence, if the Attorney General considers him/her possibly dangerous. Further, and decisive in terms of what is happening in Arizona as I write, after 2001 the Federal government authorized states to pass immigration legislation: by 2007 there were 240 laws and around 1,700 bills, and the numbers have increased since then. Twenty-three states in the US have signed agreements with the federal government to collaborate in arrests.
This means that what is happening in Arizona's over the last few months, and culminating with today's initiative to criminalize unauthorized residence, is not anomalous. It is part of a larger landscape that enables governments and police forces to engage in actions that we used to think of as extreme and unacceptable.
In many ways, border control has not worked. No matter how big their guns and border-control budgets, these states have lost credibility -- not only with their citizens, but also with traffickers, who have, if anything, vastly increased their operations. According to the International Labor Office, criminal syndicates made US$29 billion dollars in 2006 on human trafficking for the sex industry, evidently a sharp increase over prior years.
In this process, powerful states have also made visible the limits of their power, no matter how weaponized their borders. For instance, the US government has been raising its Mexico-US border budget every year, going from about $250 million dollars a year in the early 1990s to $1.6 billion a year in the early 2000s, and at the same time there was a doubling of the undocumented population, from an estimated 6 to 12 million (for more information see borderbattles.ssrc.org/Sassen/). By 2008, the INS budget stood at $35 billion -- the INS is now part of Homeland Security. From 1986 to 2008, the border patrol increased from 3,700 to 18,000, and its budget went from $151,000 million to 7.9 billion. And still, the gains, if any, were ambiguous.
In the long run the economic and ethical costs are a high price for "liberal democracies" to pay -- and all in order to control extremely powerless and vulnerable people who mostly only want a chance to work. For instance, in the US, as of 2007-08 fiscal year, 320,000 immigrants not suspected of felonies, are incarcerated without having had their trials, because they are considered as probably illegal residents. In other words, among these 320,000 there are likely to be citizens -- in fact, we know there are. When a state extends arbitrary powers to governors and police forces, sooner or later they will reach citizens. Will it take this in order for those in charge to shift from the drive to control to the art of governing these flows.
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Axel W. Caballero: No Brownies Welcome: the Arizona Persecution
Without a doubt the law will eventually be stricken down as unconstitutional, but not before many families and lives are broken. This is a direct attack to the Latino community. We must tell Gov. Brewer, she is the one no longer welcome.
Then the terrorists have won more then they could have ever imagined in the free world. Thier cheap and easy way of 'winning the hearts and minds' of free people through fear of 'the other' was not done by billions of dollars, expensive equipment, sending soldiers into foriegn lands to 'nation build'.
They have, through fear quieted opposistion, pitting neighbour against neighbour, giving police undefined powers hidden in cleaver, undefined phrases, that will be interpreted based on biases by law enforcers, in essence making everyone an agent of the immigration authorities under penalty of law, and most of all...giving up the rights and freedoms of regular citizens in order to solve a problem.
Usama bin Laden (if he still is alive) is kicking back laughing, and applauding his unwitting minions.
This is a turning point in free society...and a hard lesson. We have seen through history what it means to alienate by statue a group of people, and to give law enforcement unfetterd powers to judge people by thier ethnicity. We can change this now, or have another horrid mark to tell our next generation about our world.
Our southern neighbor is not shy about expressing its intention to conquer the
American Southwest, which Mexico regards as territory lost in the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hildalgo in 1846. Mexican children are taught in school that the
United States stole that land, which they call “Aztlan.” Absurd rantings of
political extremists? Consider…
In 1997, then-President Zedillo proclaimed that “I have proudly affirmed
that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders.”
Mexican American Legal Defense Fund founder Mario Obledo stated, “California
is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn't like it should leave.
Every constitutional office in California is going to be held by Hispanics
in the next 20 years.” People who don't like such demographic changes “should
go back to Europe.” (Incidentally, Mr. Obledo was also the California Secretary
of Health, Education and Welfare under Gov. Jerry Brown.)
Mr. Obledo was once the California of Secretary Health, Education and Welfare
under Gov. Jerry Brown, so one might expect that he would have learned a little
more American respect for free speech, but evidently not. “I'm going to deface
the billboard or burn it,” stated Mr. Obledo. (The billboard in question read,
“Welcome to California, the Illegal Immigration State. Don't let this happen
to your state.”)
http://www.limitstogrowth.org/WEB-text/aztlan.html
On the other hand, population trends mean that the American Southwest will certainly be largely Hispanic some years from now. However, Hispanics living here don't want the region to fall under Mexican governance. They would see that as a definite step backward. Responding to this notion perhaps 20 years ago, a local Hispanic politician in San Diego said, "I don't want California to go back to Mexico. They do things different down there!"
This birth certificate that has everyone in such an uproar is the same one you must present to have the privilege of getting a drivers' license (in many states). So we use it to control who drives legally.
This birth certificate is the same one you must present to have the privilege of getting married. So we use it to control who marries legally.
This birth certificate is required to have the privilege of getting a federal job. So we use it to control who gets a federal job legally.
This birth certificate is required to have the privilege of getting a U.S, passport. We use to control who gets a U.S. passport legally.
This birth certificate is required to have the privilege of living in the U.S. We use it to control who lives here legally. So now it's suddenly a problem? When we so willingly fork it over for many far less reasons then that of proving legal residency?
"with today's initiative to criminalize unauthorized residence."
Sorry, they are already criminals under federal law, but nice try.
"They have sacrificed the civil liberties of their citizenry in order (supposedly) to control foreigners."
Such as those civil liberties to prove legal residency? Isn't that exactly what the governments' job is? Or what specifically?
It has 0% chance of standing up in Court
Unless the following issues are tackled, we will be stuck with illegal immigrants forever:
1. ID: we are one of the few countries that has no standard form of identification.
Because both far left and far right feel that a uniform, secure ID for all citizens is against privacy or liberty laws. So, once you make it across the border, it is relatively easy to stay 'under the radar'.
2. Birthright citizenship: thousands of pregnant illegal aliens walk into our public hospitals every day, knowing that nobody can ask them anything. Not even money. And the baby will be a US citizen. Again, most other countries never had "jus soli" or have restricted it over the past decades.
3. Employers: although employers can be fined for hiring illegal workers, these laws are seldom enforced. Why? Employers whine that they will no longer be competitive, the local press will print horror stories of kids left parentless, law enforcement has other priorities, ...
4. USCIS (previously INS) is antiquated. One department doesn't know what the other one is doing, their IT system is outdated and hopelessly backlogged.
Meanwhile, millions live here in sorry conditions, employers abuse them, none pay taxes, and most of the (little) money they make is wired out of the country.
We all lose.
The only positive factor? The US is the only large industrialized nation whose population is slated for growth in the next 30 years.
Thanks for the much needed input of sobriety, in a theme which tends to attract a lot of hysteria and fear mongering.
Our Southwest Border
In the last 23 years, since the 1986, Reagan, one-time amnesty, over 27 million illegals have been apprehended, as they crossed the border into our United States.
UNITED STATES BORDER APPREHENSIONS (Source DHS/CBP)
1987--1,190,488------1995--1,394,554------2003----931,557
1988--1,008,145------1996--1,649,986------2004--1,160,395
1989----954,243------1997--1,412,953------2005--1,189,075
1990--1,169,939------1998--1,555,776------2006--1,089,902
1991--1,197,875------1999--1,579,010------2007----876,704
1992--1,258,482------2000--1,676,438------2008----723,825
1993--1,327,259------2001--1,266,213------2009----556,041
1994--1,094,717------2002----955,310------2010----beg. 10/01/09
UNFORTUNATELY, far less than half of illegals are apprehended at the border. Before the recent addition (over the last two years) of 10,000 Border Patrol agents, and 322 miles of fence, and 304 miles of vehicle barriers, only 32 miles double-layered, it was estimated, by the border patrol agents, that less than 1, out of 7, illegals, were apprehended at the border. Some border patrol agents said less than 1, out of 10.
Now, they say they catch more than half of the ones they know about. How many don't they know about.
According to the U.S. Immigration Service another 6 million illegals in our country are visa overstays.
Anchor babies are now being born at a rate of 400,000 per year http://bit.ly/7vCkH6
No jobs? "They" took them.
High health costs? "They" are swamping our hospitals for free care.
Crime? "They" are lawless.
Illegal immigration? "They" are swarming over here for... for... the fun of it? For the challenge of living a life where everyone thinks they're skum?
I'll give you the last one for free: They're coming because US citizens are finding them and giving them low wage jobs to fill the demands of US consumers for CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP NOW NOW NOW.
Want someone to blame for illegal immigration? Take a long look in the mirror.
Legalize Marijuana to eliminate the crime associated with prohibition of the drug. Shift agriculture to Mexico to drive jobs back there for that industry. We are already using migrant farm workers, so it would benefit for American Farmers to buy land in Mexico and hire locals to work helping to raise cost of living there.
Construction companies working at the border should link to a computer where requests for "day laborors" can be made and that number of Laboreres allowed into the country each day back and forth with temporary visas. Of course paying them, legal American wages. That is if there aren't already American Workers to fulfill the job.
Shift our dependency from oil to things like Bio-fuels. American/Mexican farmers can grow lots of corn for that. And MExican land can also be utilized for huge areas of Solar and wind energy. By transferring our dependency on oil, there won't be a need for terrorists in the Mid-east to come after us. And there will be no money for them to as well.
Think how much of the money spent in Iraq which could have improved security,infrastructure, education and economy in areas of the US where there are Domestic Gangs and at the border in Mexico.
Prohibition has NOT worked, not with drugs and certainly not with illegal immigrants.
this. But when people decide that breaking the law should be winked at it becomes an epidemic that
overwhelms schools,police,hospitals etc.Mexico's southern border is extremely tight. It does not allow
illegal immigrants into mexico. However it does not do the same on the northern war zone border.
Why?? One reason is because control of that was given to the drug lords.
Legal Immigration is the way.