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Representative Filner weighs-in on illegal immigration debate
By E.A. Barrera
The Alpine Sun
At a recent pro-immigration rally,
California Representative Bob Filner was an outspoken advocate
for immigration reform.
"The people who seek to make those wanting a better
life outlaws and punish them for coming to America are the same
who will always seek to feel superior at the expense of others,"
said Filner, who marched with Martin Luther King and was
imprisoned for two months in Mississippi for his work as a
Freedom Rider in the early 1960s. "They are the same people who
will try to define their own worth by belittling others and
making others feel as if there is something wrong with them. But
the strength of a day like today and the commitment of so many
to the ideals of freedom and justice and unity will always
defeat those who want to hate and those who want to divide us."
A number of speakers and organizations echoed Filner’s
words during a forum on immigration reform at St Paul‘s
Episcopal Cathedral.
San Diego Episcopal Bishop James Mathis said the San
Diego Episcopal Church is committed to "welcoming strangers as a
matter of Christian responsibility" and said the church would
advocate for the "well-being and protection" of immigrants.
"We need to start looking at immigration from the
perspective of Jesus Christ," said Mathis. "We are all part of
the same body in Jesus. God does not distinguish his children by
racial, ethnic and geographical boundaries. To quote from
Leviticus 19:33-34 ‘When a stranger resides with you in your
land, you shall not oppress the stranger. The stranger who
resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you
shall love the stranger as yourself.’”
Mathis was joined at the forum by University of
California San Diego Sociology Professor Tomas Jimenez. Jimenez
said there was a racial and cultural element to the discussion
of immigration unique to the situation between Mexico and the
United States. He said much of the opposition to what he called
"unauthorized immigration" stemmed from fears and cultural
misconceptions about the future of the United States.
According to Jimenez, as more and more immigrants and
cultures from Latin America, Asia and other non-Northern
European countries grow, the basic concept of what an American
looks like is changing.
"The unauthorized population – and I prefer that term
to “illegal” since I don’t understand the idea of a human being
as “illegal” – has grown dramatically during the last 25 years,"
said Jimenez. "Our own current immigration laws have made it
harder for people to come here to work and then return to their
native countries.This has raised fears among certain segments of
the population that the so-called traditional character and make
up of the United States will change. But what so many fail to
understand is that this has always been the case – we have
traditionally been a nation whose cultural character changed
with new waves of immigration. If anything, what history has
shown is this new wave ends up assimilating very well into the
overall society."
In a 2005 working paper titled "Immigrant Replenishment
and the Continuing Significance of Ethnicity and Race: The Case
of the Mexican-origin Population" Professor Jimenez noted that
for the European immigrants and their children, ethnicity "and
indeed race once significantly structured daily life,
determining access to schools, labor unions, marriage partners,
neighborhoods, and their ... interactions with the native-born
population."
"Yet, with the birth of each new generation in the
United States, race and ethnicity for these ‘white ethnics’
declined in salience," said Jimenez. "Today, the ethnic identity
of white ethnics is largely symbolic, characterized by ‘a
nostalgic allegiance’ to the culture of the immigrant
generation, or that of the old country; a love for and pride in
a tradition that can be felt without having to be incorporated
in everyday behavior. Indeed, it is a consequence-free, aspect
of their social identity that they invoke optionally."
In both his paper and during a discussion on Dec. 2,
2006, Jimenez said this "consequence-free" ethnic identity
witnessed among white ethnics was formed against the backdrop of
"radically reduced" levels of immigration.
"World War I, restrictive immigration laws passed in
1924, the onslaught of the Great Depression in 1930, and World
War II combined to slow European immigration to a trickle. The
virtual cessation of European immigration meant that each
generation born after the immigrant generation came of age in an
American society that was decidedly less immigrant in character
and these American-born ethnics had less contact with
individuals who carried a "thicker" form of ethnic identity,"
noted Jimenez.
Immigrants defending America
Bush's tough approach to immigration has outraged Juan
Jose Gutierrez, president of the Los Angeles-based Latino
Movement USA.
"People are really upset," said Gutierrez in an
interview with the Associated Press. "For years, the president
spoke in no uncertain terms about supporting immigration reform
... then [his] plan comes out and people are so frustrated."
Gutierrez, whose 22-year-old nephew Marine Lance Cpl.
Jose Gutierrez of Lomita, Calif. was killed while fighting in
southern Iraq, has become an advocate for linking both the
anti-war movement and the effort to ease restrictions on
immigration.
His nephew (who according to U.S. military officials
was assigned to the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, and
killed on March 21, 2003, becoming the first combat casualty of
the war in Iraq) was an orphan on the streets of Guatemala City
who entered the United States illegally at the age of 14, by
"walking and jumping freight trains," said his uncle. He became
a U.S. citizen while on duty in the Marines.
It has been estimated that more than 40,000
non-citizens currently serve in the American military. This has
been a deliberate plan on the part of Pentagon recruiters who
have had to seek new ways to maintain enlistment goals in the
wake of the Iraq War's unpopularity. Easier paths to citizenship
for members of the military have included the ability to become
a US citizen after only one year of service.
Previously the requirement was three years. Other
changes have included a waiving of the $330 fee charged for
citizenship applications. The changes have worked, dramatically
increasing the numbers of immigrants who became citizens as a
result of military service to more than 7,000 annually.
"The war is something that affects immigrants
dramatically right now," said Gutierrez. "It's important people
understand that the anti-war and immigration movements are
connected."
Latino Movement USA and other immigrant groups have
since joined in anti-war rallies in San Diego, Los Angeles and
other cities in the United States. They have partnered with the
ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and at all
the rallies, demands have been made to both grant amnesty for
illegal immigrants, as well as end U.S. involvement in the Iraq
War.
"The U.S. thirst for money and its disregard for
people, which includes immigrants, must be halted," said Preston
Wood, an organizer for the ANSWER Coalition who has connected
the struggles for immigrant rights with that against the U.S.
war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is a coalition that seems suited for each other and
has often drawn the same people to its rallies. Both in April of
2006, as well as last March, protests for both issues drew
tens-of-thousands of people to march in downtown San Diego and
across the country. The April 2006 pro-immigration march in San
Diego drew an estimated 100,000 people. Meanwhile local anti-war
rallies in recent months (to commemorate the start of the Iraq
War in 2003) have also seen crowds in the thousands.
 E-mail
Christy Scott
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