When it comes to scapegoating immigrants for America’s woes, the Deep South takes the cake. From slavery to Jim Crow—legalized, racial segregation—to the recent wave of anti-immigration rhetoric and policies, the South has taken the lead, once again, in passing the harshest, racist laws against los de abajo / those on the bottom.
Not wanting to be outdone by other xenophobic states, such as Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed HB 56 into law on June 6, 2011. This draconian law targets undocumented immigrants in numerous areas, such as public benefits, employment, housing, public education and law enforcement.
It also promotes racial profiling against all Latinos, with or without legal status in this country, since the law requires that police officers inquire into the citizenship status of all individuals under the guise of “reasonable suspicion.” It doesn’t take a scientific study to predict that those most likely to be targeted will be brown-skinned individuals.In addition to making police officers take on the role of immigration agents or la migra, as Mexican immigrants “fondly” refer to them, HB 56 also transforms teachers and school officials into feared immigration agents by requiring them to check the legal status of all K -12 children.
If instilling fear onto innocent, Spanish-speaking children isn’t cruel and unusual punishment, I don’t know what is.
There are other racist elements to this law. For instance, a U.S. citizen can be arrested for so-called “harboring” an undocumented immigrant by simply having him or her over for a family celebration. Landlords will also be legally liable for renting to someone who lacks legal status in this country, prompting landowners to avoid renting to anyone named Jose, Jesus or Maria. In addition, single-mothers or the elderly can run afoul of the law by simply hiring a day laborer from the street corner or home improvement centers like Home Depot for moving heavy furniture or clearing dangerous brush from the front yard that may cause fires.
For those of us who believe in equality and social justice for all individuals, especially the most vulnerable among us, we need to re-frame the issue of immigration as a human rights issue. If we limit the national debate on immigration reform, for instance, as a false dichotomy between “law-abiding citizens” versus “law-breaking immigrants,” then those who advocate for fear and hate win.
The anti-immigration leaders in this country, especially the Republican leaders who are spearheading these xenophobic efforts, constantly preach about freedom, liberty and justice for all. They especially warn us about government intrusion into our lives. Don’t these principles also apply to Latinos who will also be the victims of big government in the form of immigration laws that promote racial profiling?
While I can understand that many Americans face uncertain and fearful times in this Great Recession, however, I find it unacceptable for them to constantly blame undocumented immigrants for America’s economic downfall. Like the previous millions of Europeans who abandoned their homelands due to religious persecution, war and economic upheaval in their home countries, so too do these newcomers from Latin American and beyond arrive in this country to seek a better life for themselves and their families.
It’s clear that Republican leaders know that these draconian state laws, such as the case of Arizona’s SB 1070 and Alabama’s HB 56, will be contested in the courts on constitutional grounds. They are well aware that the federal government—not the states—has jurisdiction over immigration law. Why then do they pursue this state-by-state, anti-immigration law strategy? Simply put, Republican leaders are counting that these state laws will inevitably go to the conservative-dominated Supreme Court with the hopes of legalizing xenophobia in this country.
At the end of the day, if the Republican leaders inevitably prevail at the Supreme Court, it will not be the first time the highest court of the land ruled in favor of legalized racism, as we can clearly see in the cases of slavery and Jim Crow era, where racial segregation prevailed for many years throughout American neighborhoods, public schools, public places, transportation, private business, government programs and the military.
If the majority of Americans don’t act now and demand that their elected officials seek a humane immigration policy throughout the country, we should not be surprised if Juan Crow soon replaces the odious Jim Crow.
Originally published for CounterPunch.
I just want to comment to those who think that illegal immigrants are “breaking the law and need to go to jail, or be deported.” How can you have so much hate towards these people who are here to better themselves and provide for their family’s? If you have a family, then you know you want do whatever possible to provide for them if that is leaving to join the army or leaving to another country.
Citizens break the law everyday, so if your doing 65 in a 60, your breaking the law! Right? Nobody is perfect so if your going to follow the rule that law breakers deserve to go to jail, they you yourself deserve to go to jail because EVERYONE has broken a law. Speeding, stealing, jaywalking, not fully stopping at a stop sign. It’s the little things.
What major crime are they committing being here? breathing your air? ugh. I saw a video of a white man yelling “go home and stop taking my land” and then he burned the Mexican flag. What a disgrace of a man. First of all, nobody is taking his land, because he has no land, he doesn’t own America he just resides here, and sure you can say if he owns a home it’s his land, but stop paying your mortgage and they will take that back from you so quick it’ll leave you dazed! He basically owns nothing yet hates these people because the media puts these ideas in his head that immigrants are taking land and jobs.
America is suppose to be a great place, but the truth is they are not they don’t want to become overpopulated, so they are going to target the people who’s land they stole to begin with. There is still racism living in America and believe it or not White people in authority want to keep colored people from rising. Modern day racism.
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I know that most here won’t listen to a word I have to say because of the “I am right all the time” attitude that prevails in this country on both side. But, here’s hoping you actually want to know the truth about what is going on here in Alabama.
I was born here and have lived here my entire life except for the 8 years I spent serving this country in the Air Force. Let me tell you this; there is zero racism associated with this law. Zero. I know you don’t want to hear that and think its a lie but I assure you, it is the truth. Don’t automatically assume that everyone in Alabama is racist because of past problems with racial division. The people here simply want the laws upheld. That’s all. No more. No racism, no hate, no old school Jim Crow.
My wife is from Ecuador and we have spent ten’s of thousands of dollars in fees to the federal government so she could become a citizen. It is both illegal and unfair to allow those who come here breaking our laws to reap the benefits our legal citizenry enjoy. Sure, its not touchy feely and all that love love everyone gets everything junk. This is real life. Get used to it. You break the law, you go to jail. That’s it. Why is it so hard for you to understand this? Can’t we disagree on what should be done and leave it at that? Must you always treat Southern people as racists? Why do so when that’s not the truth?
Let the people of our good state decide what they want and do whatever the heck you want in your state. Why can’t everybody else leave everybody else alone? Do your own thing where you live. Don’t like what is going on there? MOVE somewhere that there are people who are like minded. Stay out of our business since you obviously don’t know what you are talking about when you scream Juan Crow. Please. You sound ridiculously stupid when you do that. We see right through you.
Just wanted everyone to know that there are no hard feelings. We just don’t like people telling us what to do. You have no moral superiority or right to do so. It used to be that we could disagree and leave it at that. No more. Now, if we don’t do what the coasts say, the big Fed will come and get you. Sounds a bit like Stalinist Russia to me. When you decide you want to fight it out again, just let us know where to show up you long haired communist hippies. Just kidding! How’s that for hate? It was a joke. Take it easy.
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I have things to sau about Our government. Gov. Robert Bentley have begin a new bill that if anyone harbor an undocumented immigrant, then you automaticly lose your U.s citizenship . This happened yesterday when my friend Ivana Rodriguez lost her Us citizenship because she was defend her mother from la migra. I THINK THAT this type of action is a genocidal way to destroy the Latino community in Alabama because it grew about 146%. Please repeal this law before another racial. Juan Cruz law can destroy the whole western hemisphere.
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THE CHILDREN ARE LEGAL CITIZENS!!! They have as much right as any children. If anyone could have seen my daughter’s school yesterday and seen how it has affected the CHILDREN, they would have to be heartless to have not felt the pain. Children.. legal children. Yet these wonderful people in Alabama welcomed them when they thought they were to good to go get these labor jobs. These lazy men wanted to go to school and get white collar jobs.
So yea lets let them in… let them live here a decade or so. Give them enough time to have children and let the children know what it is like to live without fear. Tell the children they are welcome here and loved. Let them play openly in the streets and earn all these awards at school for working so hard. Then when the going gets tough let’s change our minds. Lets then tell the children that because of a crime the parents commited they have to pay the price. Thank the men for the hard work keeping the state going but we don’t really need you here any longer.
Now have your child come home histerical because all the friends she has had for the last 9 years are about to be ripped away from her at one time. Every person she has grown to love and care for gone over night, never to be seen again. Yes I can say I am not completely ashamed of Alabama and I am more ashamed I ever voted republican in my life. I see now that the republican government has no compassion and not one ounce of Christianity if they could treat their own children like that.
Now I have to get ready to get my child mind off all the pain and sorrow she will be feeling coming home from a school with nothing but fear and pain.
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The man is correct. The intent of the Consititution, as demonstrated in the Supreme Court, is also to protect the minority from the majority. This attack on minorities by the states probably comes from a recent study where by 2025 whites will be the monority. I am unsure what that means as I thought all American citizens are equal and we were supposed to be a country of immigrants.
This isn’t news, except it’s the 21st century and by now America would have become color blind. This is a terrible law and as a Alabama resident I do apologize. It’s also a reason two college educated residents will depart this racist state in the next 12 months.
Attack me, but insults cannot harm me. Show me the proof this is a good law. Not possible, and this is not the first stupid law this state has passed. As I approach year 5 of living here only my keen New York style of sarcasm can respond to the wasteful and moronic laws this state has passed.
The reality is this will further discourage much needed engineers and other educated people from considering relocating to Alabama. I have yet to meet a person temporarily working here who is willing to stay. I am still unable to find a person who is willing to relocate to this state and now there are a large amount of people ready to leve this state.
The bottom line is my opinion does not matter.
It’s HB56 and the cost to this state. Should I be glad I am white? If I was a brown American citizen I would carry my US Passport.
Just like I carried my US Passport when visiting Chine, Hing Kong, Canada and Mexico,
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Mr. Huerta I enjoyed reading your article.
Until folks have actually walked the walk of being a legal American citizen, but having to abide by Jim Crow laws because they we were not considered equal, never will the likes of Jim McFarley and Alberta be able to get past their own ignorance of how immigration should be fixed.
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When I read criticism like Mr. Huerta’s, I always wonder what immigration law enforcement do they support? Or do they think limited immigration is inherently racist? Is all immigration law enforcement harsh, Draconian, etc.? If someone is against EVERYTHING, all I can conclude is that they simply condone illegal immigration. Mr. Huerta, if Latinos happen to be the people most in violation of race neutral immigration law, do you believe that makes immigration law racist? If so, how can we have a limited system at all, have any enforcement at all, without people like you shouting “That’s racist!”? How about E-Verify? All it does is catch fake ID’s. Are you against that because most of the people who use fake ID’s for employment are Latino? You need to explain what you mean by “a humane immigration policy”? From my experience, that usually translates into holding no one accountable to our immigration laws, i.e., if you can make it here, you should not have to leave.
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@Mary Sweeney
* It is true that Latinos have been discriminated against in America’s history. The point I wanted to make was that blacks have had it far worse for far longer and without a home country, culture, or language to fall back on except this one. I would also argue that the era of America’s discrimination of Latinos is pretty much over. Consider California: in the 1960 it was 70%-80% white; today’s Californians under 21 are 51% Latino and 25% white. Racist countries don’t do this.
I also think you misread me; I don’t think Latinos are a threat, whatever you mean by threat.
*I am not sure what you mean by this point. We have arbitrary rules in this world called laws. Immigration law was formed by real social consensus because we are a representative democracy. Sovereign nations can control how many people enter their borders; for America it is must as so much of the world population wants to come here, if only it were legal.
*Again I am not sure what you mean by this. If we all lived in a world without countries where humans could move around freely, this would be correct. But we don’t. We have countries and borders.
You said “if unauthorized immigrants cannot claim human rights in the U.S. or from their countries of origin, they are essentially stateless and subject to the policies of a country that does not recognize their personhood.” How many people around the world do not have adequate human rights? Billions. How are we going to right those wrongs by letting in a few million illegal immigrants?
I would also like to make a point that I believe America’s view of Latino illegal immigrants is backwards. About 9% of Mexico’s population lives in the United States. How is that good for Mexico at all? It looks to me like the government in Mexico City can dump its poor populations onto America because they don’t want to step up and make Mexico the fantastic place it could be. Not that this bad for America, but it doesn’t seem positive for Mexico to have people itching for opportunity flee their land. As long as we do not enforce our laws, Mexico will not have to confront the lack of opportunity in its own borders.
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Alvaro Huerta, thanks for the post.
@ Joe McFarley: Are you the one who is kidding? Whether or not one approves of the play on words in the post’s headline, it’s important to recognize a few basic points regarding the anti-immigration laws:
* Latinos have a long, long history of U.S. intervention, imperial takeover, racialization, and segregation. If you don’t know this and imagine Latinos as some recent “threat,” then the burden of learning is on you.
* “Illegal immigrants broke the law” is a tautology and a pernicious statement. Unauthorized migrants break the law by being unauthorized: but it is the law that refuses to authorize them. A law that, until the mid-twentieth century, explicitly held racial quotas for immigration (now replaced by “countries of origin” quotas). The law is contested politics here, not borne by any real social consensus or goal of justice (such as, “let’s all agree that murder is a crime”).
* Human rights are not limited to civil rights: if unauthorized immigrants cannot claim human rights in the U.S. or from their countries of origin, they are essentially stateless and subject to the policies of a country that does not recognize their personhood.
–I’ll stop here so as not to distract from the main post.
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You have got to be kidding. Do not insult the struggle of blacks in the south struggling for freedom for hundreds of years by calling this immigration law Juan Crow! Equating this immigration fight with the Civil Rights Movement doesn’t work. Latinos have their own countries, language, cuisine, music, and culture; blacks had to fight for their civil rights right here in America. And because of that fight, Latinos enjoy what blacks won. America is not violating immigrants’ civil rights; illegal immigrants broke the law and need to be deported. The truth is that the majority of immigrants who do not follow immigration law are Latino, so any attempt at enforcement will have to involve Latinos.
Even if we get true immigration reform passed, we will still need to enforce that law, which will by necessity ‘target’ Latinos.
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Joe,
Your comment offered nothing constructive. Obviously you think Juan Crow undermines the struggles of Blacks during the Jim Crow era, which is fine. However, to say that “America is not violating immigrants’ civil rights” is just a fantasy. To stop every other person who looks Latino near the border to determine legality violates everyone’s rights.
“illegal immigrants broke the law and need to be deported. The truth is that the majority of immigrants who do not follow immigration law are Latino, so any attempt at enforcement will have to involve Latinos.”
That statement is abhorrent. In Washington D.C. 75% of young Black Americans are likely to spend time in prison. By your logic we should bypass civil liberties and immediately assume the nearest black person is guilty. Do you see a problem with this?
Moreover, your statement stresses the current situation as though it has no history. If Latinos arbitrarily move across borders without papers, then my statement could be interpreted as Blacks are simply predisposed to crime. These are just insane fantasies you find on Fox News. Historical context explains why Blacks are incarcerated. Rather than censure someone trying to diminish the racist agenda against Latinos, perhaps you could instead do something productive like try to understand the historical context of why Latinos are likely to be here illegally or why the Mexican economy is in awful shape? NAFTA is a good place to start researching.
Lau
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I agree with you that “to stop every other person who looks Latino near the border to determine legality violates everyone’s rights.” However, I disagree with you that enforcement of immigration law has to do this. Laws targeting employers of illegal immigrants, or laws requiring police officers to check the immigration status of everyone they arrest would be effective, but be immune from discrimination because everyone would be checked, not just people who fit a stereotype.
I do not see the connection to Washington DC and the high crime rate among blacks. I said that immigration enforcement will involve Latinos because Latinos are the vast majority of illegal immigrants (around 75%). But that doesn’t mean I advocate discrimination. We need to enforce our immigration laws in ways that do not discriminate, but it is unavoidable that Latinos will be affected disproportionately.
Taking a global perspective, Mexico’s economy is not in awful shape. They are very close to becoming a first world nation. The HDI is high, and the average income is higher than most of the world. There is a developed electrical grid, good water management, and abundant natural resources. With these advantages Mexico should be a prosperous country.
I believe that when people are struggling for opportunity inside Mexico, instead of fighting for opportunity at home, many people immigrate to the US. Instead of protesting, they immigrate to the US. 9% of people born in Mexico live in the US, and this drain of people to the US is terrible for Mexico. The birth rate of Mexico is declining and they will need young people in the future. And the government of Mexico is not being receptive to the plight of its people.
I would just like to add that I do not have a racist agenda and I do not like Fox News.
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