Immigration legislation, supported by both the Congress-controlling Democrats and George W. Bush, is heading for a showdown on the Senate floor today. Even with the White House and the majority of Congress in favor, the odds don’t look good.
Senate Republicans control more than 40 votes and can thus filibuster the bill to death and probably will. Instead Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will probably pull the bill, signaling its defeat.
Various amendments to the immigration bill would provide a path to citizenship for Mexicans – this isn’t really an “immigration” bill, it’s a Mexican immigration bill – who have been here for a given period of time, two years in one version, four years in another. As there are an estimated 12 million undocumented Mexicans living and working in the US, approving either version would add millions of new citizens in a short period of time.
Republicans, who are blocking the immigration legislation, are the party of corporate interests in Congress. If millions of now-undocumented Mexican workers were to become citizens in the next decade, it would mean industries like meat-packing, construction and agriculture (for all intents and purposes, an industry), which now hire many undocumented workers, would be forced to pay workers – Mexican and native-born – higher wages. The employer could no longer intimidate workers by threatening to call immigration agents. Labor unions might be able to organize the workers in those industries, giving the moribund labor movement a new lease on life.
Beyond that, there’s racism, the shameful center thread in the fabric of American life. Latinos are one of the most numerous ethnic groups in the US – even without an immigration bill, Latinos are already or soon will be the determinative political bloc in a number of states. The European descendants, who vote in Republican primaries and who’ve ruled those states since they killed off the Native Americans or drove out the – ahem – Mexicans are not happy at prospect of losing a century of hegemony. The New York Times reports senators of both parties are receiving death threats – based on racism – should they vote in favor of the immigration bill.
In the face of Republican resistance to opening America’s southern door even a crack, I’m left to believe Republicans don’t know much about Mexicans, because if they did, they wouldn’t be so virulently anti-Mexican immigration.
Mexicans are family oriented. A Mexican Sunday afternoon often means a group stroll in the park, with parents attentive to well-behaved children. Mexican teenagers are high-spirited but polite and ready to assume the responsibilities of adulthood a decade earlier than their gringo counterparts. Mexicans are hard working. No more testimony is needed on that point than the presence of the 12 million Mexicans among us, who traveled a thousand hard and dangerous miles to take the most backbreaking jobs available.
Mexicans are culturally conservative. They’re modest in dress and practice Christianity in an unabashed and public manner. Many Mexicans, like many American Republicans, frown on homosexuality and would not extend civil rights to gays and lesbians, if they had a say in the matter. Mexicans are, for the most part, everything conservative pundits say they’d like America to be – so why don’t those pundits want to add Mexicans to the American family?
At the same time, why would the Democrats – who right-wing talk shows portray as God-hating servants of the “homosexual agenda” – want to extend citizenship to millions of Mexicans who will vote Republican in 20 years? (Mexican would probably vote Republican in five years, if the Republicans didn’t treat them so poorly.) Truth is, many Democrats, particularly from red states, are not supporting the immigration bill. It’s not on their short-term interest. Democrats, who do support the immigration bill, are also more likely thinking about short-term political gain than they are about right and wrong. Democratic politicians have no more long-term vision than their GOP counterparts.
Legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX) once said, “Every once in while you do something because it’s the right thing to do.” Emphasis on “every once in a while.” I can’t imagine politicians are doing the right thing for the right reason, but giving Mexicans in the US a path to citizenship is the right thing to do. The twenty-first century will be one of mass migration, now because of the ravages of globalization on local economies, soon because of the ravages of global warming on local climates. Both are the results of the past century of exploitation and consumption by the developed countries of the Northern Hemisphere. In the decades ahead, our past decisions will literally be coming back to visit us.
Mexicans Are…
Immigration legislation, supported by both the Congress-controlling Democrats and George W. Bush, is heading for a showdown on the Senate floor today. Even with the White House and the majority of Congress in favor, the odds don’t look good.
Senate Republicans control more than 40 votes and can thus filibuster the bill to death and probably will. Instead Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will probably pull the bill, signaling its defeat.
Various amendments to the immigration bill would provide a path to citizenship for Mexicans – this isn’t really an “immigration” bill, it’s a Mexican immigration bill – who have been here for a given period of time, two years in one version, four years in another. As there are an estimated 12 million undocumented Mexicans living and working in the US, approving either version would add millions of new citizens in a short period of time.
Republicans, who are blocking the immigration legislation, are the party of corporate interests in Congress. If millions of now-undocumented Mexican workers were to become citizens in the next decade, it would mean industries like meat-packing, construction and agriculture (for all intents and purposes, an industry), which now hire many undocumented workers, would be forced to pay workers – Mexican and native-born – higher wages. The employer could no longer intimidate workers by threatening to call immigration agents. Labor unions might be able to organize the workers in those industries, giving the moribund labor movement a new lease on life.
Beyond that, there’s racism, the shameful center thread in the fabric of American life. Latinos are one of the most numerous ethnic groups in the US – even without an immigration bill, Latinos are already or soon will be the determinative political bloc in a number of states. The European descendants, who vote in Republican primaries and who’ve ruled those states since they killed off the Native Americans or drove out the – ahem – Mexicans are not happy at prospect of losing a century of hegemony. The New York Times reports senators of both parties are receiving death threats – based on racism – should they vote in favor of the immigration bill.
In the face of Republican resistance to opening America’s southern door even a crack, I’m left to believe Republicans don’t know much about Mexicans, because if they did, they wouldn’t be so virulently anti-Mexican immigration.
Mexicans are family oriented. A Mexican Sunday afternoon often means a group stroll in the park, with parents attentive to well-behaved children. Mexican teenagers are high-spirited but polite and ready to assume the responsibilities of adulthood a decade earlier than their gringo counterparts. Mexicans are hard working. No more testimony is needed on that point than the presence of the 12 million Mexicans among us, who traveled a thousand hard and dangerous miles to take the most backbreaking jobs available.
Mexicans are culturally conservative. They’re modest in dress and practice Christianity in an unabashed and public manner. Many Mexicans, like many American Republicans, frown on homosexuality and would not extend civil rights to gays and lesbians, if they had a say in the matter. Mexicans are, for the most part, everything conservative pundits say they’d like America to be – so why don’t those pundits want to add Mexicans to the American family?
At the same time, why would the Democrats – who right-wing talk shows portray as God-hating servants of the “homosexual agenda” – want to extend citizenship to millions of Mexicans who will vote Republican in 20 years? (Mexican would probably vote Republican in five years, if the Republicans didn’t treat them so poorly.) Truth is, many Democrats, particularly from red states, are not supporting the immigration bill. It’s not on their short-term interest. Democrats, who do support the immigration bill, are also more likely thinking about short-term political gain than they are about right and wrong. Democratic politicians have no more long-term vision than their GOP counterparts.
Legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX) once said, “Every once in while you do something because it’s the right thing to do.” Emphasis on “every once in a while.” I can’t imagine politicians are doing the right thing for the right reason, but giving Mexicans in the US a path to citizenship is the right thing to do. The twenty-first century will be one of mass migration, now because of the ravages of globalization on local economies, soon because of the ravages of global warming on local climates. Both are the results of the past century of exploitation and consumption by the developed countries of the Northern Hemisphere. In the decades ahead, our past decisions will literally be coming back to visit us.
© Mark Floegel, 2007