Who Would Jesus Deport? Response

I responded to Doug's comments/questions concerning my last post a while ago in person, but I figured I'd do it here as well in case anyone is still reading this and/or cares. Heh.

My response was two-fold: first and foremost, the goal of the post was to humanize the story of immigrants who are here with good intentions, who contribute to society, who do not merit (no one does) the term "illegal alien." I believe very strongly that one of the primary ways one gets beyond the "us vs. them" mentality that is such an obstacle to real dialogue and community-building is by getting to know the "them"--and then realizing that "they" are not very different from "us." It then becomes difficult to stereotype, ostracize, or hate on the "them"--because "they" have become real people. Case in point: I just went out for coffee with the farm manager I mentioned in the beginning of the post in question, and we spent half the time talking about our love for Manny Ramirez, and how both of us had coached U12 girls' soccer teams. We marveled at how similar our experiences had been--apparently soccer parents in Mississippi are just as high-strung as soccer parents in Massachusetts. And 11-yr-olds across the country hate running laps. Who knew?

Secondly, I think Doug's right--to a great extent, you can't legislate morality (outside of laws against things like murder, stealing, etc.). You can't make it a law to allow parents who just want their kids to have a better life to come to this country, and to keep out those who just want to milk the system. And even if you could, who would judge which immigrants have come here with "good intentions" and who are hard workers versus those who come here and abuse social services or commit violent crimes (I haven't met many such immigrants, but of course they exist)? So yes, the answer (at least in part) is to legislate economically--create more H2B temporary worker visas so that more immigrants who are already here doing dirty, dangerous, low-paying jobs that many Americans don't want to do can do so legally. Make it easier to extend or renew them. And (vitally important) create and enforce stronger oversight for employers, in order to prevent the immigrants holding the visas from being traded from company to company like so much cattle, housed 6 to an apartment, at the mercy of company dictates for everything from transportation to second jobs to cafeteria meals.

The short version, but there you have it. Legalize more temporary immigration, and oh, create more paths to residency and citizenship for those who have been paying into the system (taxes, social security) for years. Those SS $s especially are just sitting there in a separate SSA fund, never to be paid out to those who contributed them out of their hard-earned, low-wage paychecks.

Whatever happened to "Liberty and justice for all"?

Ask Yourself: Who Would Jesus Deport?

WWJD--A New Twist on a (Very) Old Bracelet Acronym.***

One of my friends here is the manager of a fruit farm. He's been in the US for five or six years; he left his family farm in northern Mexico to work here as a migrant laborer when prices for Mexican corn couldn't compete with the low, low cost of subsidized grain imported from the US through NAFTA. He is part of a generation known as "NAFTA kids" who have sought a way to make a living in the US after their small family holdings fell apart in the wake of the trade agreement. The owner of one of the farms he worked on here in Mississippi recognized his experience and talent in agricultural management, taught him English, and hired him on as her foreman. Since then he has become her right-hand man, running the farm and getting involved in the organic food movement. He is a well-respected leader in the local Catholic Spanish-speaking parish, and he has spear-headed several projects aimed at bridging the gap between the immigrant community and the local Mississippian community. Mississippi is his home--his work, his spiritual life, his friends are all here, as is his goddaughter, of whom I am the godmother. If he is deported, to what "home" would he be sent?

Another friend of mine, Mercedes*, belongs to our Mujeres Unidas (Women United) empowerment and support group, as does her mother, Elisbeta*. At 19, Mercedes is the youngest of our participants, and truly represents the "next generation" of Latina immigrant women living in this country. Her mother, in search of a job that paid enough to support her family, brought her and her siblings into the country when Mercedes was about 6 years old. In a recent Mujeres Unidas gathering, Elisbeta told us how she used to send her daughter, who spoke no English at the time, to first grade with classmates who would relentlessly tease her during recess and rub her face in the dirt, yelling epithets she couldn't understand. Each day Mercedes would come home from school in tears, begging her mother to let her move back to Mexico and live with her grandparents, where everyone would speak the same language and no one would taunt her. Elisbeta told us that she wanted her daughter to learn English and to have a better life than she herself could ever hope for, and she couldn't imagine separating her family; but 13 years later, tearing up, she says "me sentí un monstro, un monstro horrible"--"I felt like a monster, a terrible monster"--for continuing to send her precious daughter through this awful gauntlet day after day.
Mercedes grew a thick skin, however, and her language skills developed until they matched the natural aptitude for mathematics, a subject without language, which her elementary teachers had noted in her. By the time she was in high school, she spoke English with no accent; she had proven herself to be a dedicated, intelligent student, graduating with her class and hoping one day to become a doctor. Upon graduating, however, she was not able to apply to any four-year colleges or universities, because she has no Social Security number. She is currently enrolled in community college, unsure whether she will ever be allowed to pursue a higher education in the land of her adolescence and young womanhood.

One more story: my friend Lauren* has been dating her boyfriend, Armando*, for over 2 years. Armando left his family and crossed the border in search of better job prospects--in his home city in Mexico a decent job, one that makes more than the 49 Mexican pesos (or $4.81 USD) daily minimum wage, is extremely hard to come by. He was stopped for a traffic violation--a broken headlight--by local law enforcement and thereafter detained by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an overcrowded jail, where he slept on the hallway floor for several weeks before being sent back to Mexico with a permanent bar on his passport (meaning that he cannot legally return to the US, for any length of time, even on vacation. Ever).
After long, frustrating months of trying to find a stable job making enough money to contribute to his upkeep at his parents' home, he crossed back over the border at the risk of being incarcerated for multiple years. He has been able to find a more reliable stream of work here in the construction industry; but one traffic stop for something as minor as a faulty taillight would mean that he and Lauren will never be able to live together in this, her home country, even if they decide to marry. They would have to live separately, seeing each other only when she could take extended vacation; or she would have to move away from her family, friends, and home to Mexico and hope that they find work, and he would never be able to travel back to the United States with their children to see their American grandparents.
We are used to the question of the government's right to interfere in the bedroom of gay couples; what about mixed-legal status couples? Should a government be able to legislate your right to live with your spouse? As Lauren says: "The current law negates my ability to seek life liberty and the pursuit of happiness in my own country. Something I am supposed to be guaranteed."



So which one would Jesus deport?


I don't pretend to advocate for unequivocal opening of our borders to whomever wishes to come here (although I do believe that state and national borders are human creations which have no bearing on a person's God-given human rights, or his or her status as a human being, not an "illegal" or an "alien")--and I understand the sentiment of those who where born here or who immigrated legally and who wish to see others go through the process legally, to "get in line." But the truth is that our immigration system is severely broken, and for the vast majority of those wishing to come to our country, there is no "line"--no legal way to come to this country in order to put food in their children's bellies, or to work as the seasonal agricultural laborers, meat packing factory workers, or construction workers on which our economy relies**.

Until we achieve comprehensive immigration reform--and even afterwards--it is worth considering the question:

Who would Jesus deport?


*Not her real name.

**For Mexicans and many other Latin Americans, you must have a clean immigration record and you must have a clean immigration record and be the spouse, parent, child, or sibling of an adult U.S. citizen, or the spouse or unmarried child of a lawful permanent resident, who is willing to sponsor you. Even then, the process is long and arduous, and legal technicalities often close the door to those who would otherwise qualify. (Thanks to our immigration specialist Mary for that concise explanation of a complex policy!)

***I borrowed the title of this post from an article my boss wrote for the local paper--she, in turn, borrowed it from someone else In my opinion, it's too good not to pass on.

SB 2988

SB 2988, a bill imposing felony consequences on employers hiring undocumented* workers and on the workers themselves, recently passed the Mississippi State Legislature. The bill takes effect on July 1st, at which time all entities employing over a certain number of workers will be subject to complaint-based checks on the legal status of their workers. If found to be in violation of the law, employers and employees alike could serve jail time, in addition to the current federal penalties imposing fines and deportation. The bill was written by freshman state representative Brandon Jones, Democrat of neighboring Pascagoula, a town which was significantly damaged by Hurricane Katrina and which has benefited enormously from immigrant workers' (both documented and undocumented) rebuilding efforts. The state manufacturers' association and Governor Haley Barbour both expressed strong reservations about the bill; however, Rep. Jones was able to push the legislation through on a wave of virulent anti-immigrant sentiment. Below, my co-worker's letter to the editor published in the Jackson, MS Clarion-Ledger in response to the new law.


Anti-immigrant bill may hurt our state's economy

The Mississippi Legislature has passed the Mississippi Employment Protection Act, a very costly and ill-advised anti-immigrant bill that makes it a felony to work undocumented, punishable by one to five years imprisonment.

There was a worker shortage after Katrina because of a severe lack of housing and other services. Immigrant workers slept in pup tents, in their cars and on the open ground. Conditions were harsh but the immigrant work force endured them and played a vital role in cleanup and recovery.

Today, in spite of the influx of foreign workers, Mississippi's unemployment rate (5.9 percent) is the lowest it has been in seven years. Whose employment needs protection?

Imprisoning violators will cost the state about $17,000 per inmate per year. If only 100 workers are convicted, that will cost $1.7 million a year. Add the cost of law enforcement and prosecution, and the cost goes higher.

Many immigrants send money home, but they still spend a large part of their earnings on rent, clothes, food, tools, cars, gasoline and utilities. That creates jobs and pours a lot of money into the Coast's economy.

Other cities and states have found that driving out the immigrant community damaged their local economy. A Sept. 25, 2007, article in the New York Times ("Town rethinks laws against illegal immigrants") details how the town of Riverside, NJ., suffered economically from its anti-immigrant ordinance, leading to its repeal two years later.

A May 6, 2007, Associated Press report in the Washington Post ("Attempts to curb illegal immigration prove costly") shows that many cities now face the mounting legal costs of defending anti-immigrant laws against constitutional and other legal challenges.

Finally, there is the damage to Mississippi's reputation, once again showing ourselves to be anything but "The Hospitality State." Perhaps that will be the highest cost of all.

MARY TOWNSEND
Hispanic/Latino Ministries of the United Methodist Church, Gulf Coast Mississippi

*As human beings can neither be "illegal" or "alien," "undocumented" is the most accurate term to describe immigrants who do not have permission to live or work in the United States.

The Point

Three new posts for your blog-reading enjoyment--check 'em out!

One of the neighborhoods in our city is called The Point. Located on the tip of a peninsula, The Point is the epicenter of the fishing, oyster & shrimping industries, which since the early part of last century have been dominated by immigrant communities. From the 1880s through the 1970s, it was European immigrants, particularly French and Croatian; although large portions of these communities lived in such poverty that in the 1920s they inspired the creation of the outreach mission I worked for last year, names like Desportes, Reynoir, Gollott, & Gillich now grace street signs, seafood warehouses, and mayoral campaigns all over the city.

The next wave of immigrants arrived in the early 1980s. Vietnamese refugees, "boat people" resettled after the Vietnam war, settled on The Point, taking to the shrimp boats like fish in water (sorry, couldn't resist). Two decades later, these once-feared and ostracized "aliens" have become an integral part of our city's diverse community, running grocery & convenience stores, operating restaurants, and managing whole shrimping fleets. Hurricane relief and solidarity organizations geared towards the Vietnamese community have sprung up since Katrina, and many, though not all, businesses have reopened (among them my very favorite sandwich shop down here, Le Bakery, which makes scrumptious tofu-carrot-cuke-daikon po boys from French bread truly worthy of the name). These days it's not uncommon to drive through The Point and spot a Vietnamese lady unconcernedly hard at work in an expansive garden, sheltered from the sun by a conical rice paddy hat.


The Vietnamese Buddhist temple...


...cheek to jowl with the Vietnamese Catholic church:


Where I get my spring roll paper and my soy bean pudding:


Mmmmmmmmmmmm:


The resilience of these communities and the way they have been gradually, but in the end wholly, embraced by those who've come before give me hope for the current influx of Latin American immigrants who are working hard to take care of their families and contribute to society, just like my ancestors, and yours, did. Latin restaurants, tiendas, and worship services are already thriving; maybe one day some of the clients with whom I work or the friends with whom I attend mass will feel comfortable working their own gardens in broad daylight, free of fear and welcome members in the community.