Student Says: Humanity NOT Deportation (... the PRO View Increases)

Every human deserves humanity

by Kyle Szarzynski, Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Xenophobia, like all bigotries, requires either an inability or refusal to recognize the humanity of the targeted cohort. Otherwise, our inherent altruism would get in the way, making it impossible to feel prejudice toward an entire group of people. A diatribe against the scourge of illegal immigration would probably have to be written by one of a certain race and class, and to advocate deportation would need many layers of human callousness.

Such a diatribe — so unsympathetic toward the plight of a poor, oppressed group — would look something like Sam Clegg’s in last week’s Herald.. In the piece, Mr. Clegg admits it is “unrealistic to assume we can magically whisk away the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently residing in this country.” Since we can’t just get rid of them all .. we should instead focus on those who find their way to the Dane County prison system. Deporting those who commit a crime of some sort, according to Mr. Clegg, is economical, constitutional and, most importantly, a fulfillment of the law.

Perhaps. But he forgets to reflect on the humanitarian implications — a consideration that Mr. Clegg’s worldview apparently doesn’t hold in much esteem. Deporting people who receive a DUI citation, try to organize a union illegally or steal an extra can of beans to feed the kids can only be described as quite monstrous. Most people commit crimes not because they’re innately bad, but because they’re poor — this is especially true of a group of people who are notoriously forced into the kind of employment the rest of America would just as soon forget about. Knowing that crime is the unwanted child of poverty and oppression is obvious to anyone who cares to look beneath the surface of things, and most people who are aware of that fact tend to view perpetrators of petty theft or drug offenses in a more sympathetic light. But punishing the most disenfranchised because they can’t play by all the rules is precisely what Mr. Clegg can’t wait to do.
People like Mr. Clegg have this idea that undocumented workers have less of a right to be here than the rest of us. The Puritans, after all, went through all the right paperwork before acquiring citizenship. And who does Mr. Clegg think he is? An accident of birth is a pathetic justification for arguing that he or I have more of a right to be in the United States than anyone else, and I find it despicable that anyone would lecture to the most vulnerable in our society that there are certain stipulations attached to staying here. It’s as if Mr. Clegg is telling a poor Mexican worker, “You can continue to clean the shit off our toilets, but only if you keep quiet and don’t make trouble.” Perhaps Mr. Clegg would think twice about advocating a lower status for undocumented immigrants if he would have given a thought to why so many of them are forced to come here in the first place. The effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement are estimated to have bankrupted 1.5 million Mexican corn farmers and lowered wages down to 1937 levels. American-owned “maquiladora” sweatshops have created unbearable living conditions by our standards, with people living in polluted shantytowns on wages that rarely pay for anything more than basic subsistence. Under such an economic situation, is it any wonder that so many impoverished Mexicans are willing to risk everything to come to the United States? I, for one, applaud their courage. The so-called problem of immigrant crime is a farce anyway, one with a long history in this country. Today’s Mexican criminal is yesterday’s Italian Mafioso, Jewish gangster or Irish pickpocket — all are stereotypes that apply to only a small minority within the group. While Mr. Clegg never explicitly states that such a problem exists, the very topic of his article gives credence to the Bill O’Reilly notion that immigrants are a crime-ridden bunch — an insinuation about as untrue as it is offensive. But beyond that, basic human decency should be reason enough to treat the undocumented as equals. The proposed witch hunt in our county jails will tear apart families and hurl people back into the unlivable periphery of impoverished Mexico. Deportation is ostentatiously cruel, and it is for this reason apolitical human rights groups and religious organizations — including Mr. Clegg’s own Catholic Church — from across the country are actively protecting those who are targeted. Active struggle is the only way to overcome the current wave of xenophobia; more marches, protests and strikes are needed to force open the gate of equality that is currently closed to those who don’t have the necessary papers. But for now, I commend all those who aid and abet resistance to immoral deportation orders.