Fair Immigration Reform Now!!!

This page is dedicated to furthering the cause of fair immigration reform that is free of the legacy of racism that has been embedded in immigration policies of the past. Europeans historically were allowed to come here to work and gain citizenship, but Mexicans and other darker people have been exploited for their labor without having the same path towards citizenship afforded their European brothers had during the settlement of thsi nation. The status quo which forces current immigrants to come over without documentation is a direct result of racist immigration policies. Darker people are further demonized and marginalized by those who fall victim to emotional rhetoric rather than explore the complexities that create the current immigration situation. WHAT PART OF ILLEGAL DO I NOT UNDERSTAND? I do not understand the part that limits the numbers of darker migrants to have a path for citizenship, yet, hypocritically hires them as cheap labor. George Bush's plan to create a temporary work force is a perpetuation of racist immigration policy that prohibits a pathway towards citizenship. Why have Mexicans, and other darker migrants, never been able to enjoy the full opportunities that prior White immigrants enjoyed? Allowing those undocumented workers who are honest and hard-working a chance for citizenship is not AMNESTY for them. It is a MORAL PARDON for those who perpetuated the racist policies that keep them out yet exploits them at will.
This is not an “us” versus “them” battle. Currently, I see good White people caught up in the emotional and hateful rhetoric concerning immigration. I hear them chant the mantra “What part of illegal do you not understand?” Ironically, many of these good White people are against the current drug laws. Many current drug laws should be revised. They are bad laws. Our nation’s history is full of examples of bad laws like the law prohibiting woman from having the right to vote, the laws that legalized Slavery,the laws prohibiting Blacks from having the right to learn to read or write,the laws that made it illegal to aid a run-away slave-similar to the laws that limit humanitarian aid for undocumented migrants; and I can go on for pages. The laws that perpetuate illegal immigration are bad laws and racist immigration policy. Rather than return hostility towards my White brothers/sisters who are against undocumented migrants, I chose to disseminate the truth about racist immigration policy and bad laws that perpetuate a system that marginalizes, and ends up demonizing, the migrants. Slowly, I believe many of the good people who have been exploited by emotional tirades will explore the complexities and the racism that create the current political realities of immigration and shed the emotional and hateful rhetoric and embrace a brother/sisterhood that extends beyond borders.
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9-12-2007:PILSEN MARCH

Photo by Leila Mendez-GonzalezElvira protests in Tijuana

NAMES OF 700+ MIGRANTS WHO HAVE DIED SINCE 2004 CROSSING THE ARIZONA DESERT.

NEW LINKS

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VOCES DE LA FRONTERA
PEW HISPANIC CENTERIF YOU NEED FURTHER PROOF THAT TANCREDO IS AN EXTREMIST XENOPHOBE

THE HISTORY OF RACIAL EXCLUSION IN US IMMIGRATION LAWSIMMIGRATION: COLOR DOES NOT MIX IN THIS MELTING POT