Guest Column
It’s Not Really About Immigration, Is It?
- By Marta Donayre
- New America Media
- Jun 08, 2006
I’ve developed a pet peeve lately. I get antsy with statements like “I have no problem with legal immigrants, it’s the illegals that I have a problem with.”
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Marta Donayre |
Phrases like this raise the hair on the back of my neck. How can someone on
the street tell the difference between an undocumented alien and me, a legal
resident?
Is it through my English-language skills? I don't think so. I've met
undocumented immigrants with far better English than mine.
Could it be the way I look? But I've known way too many blond, blue-eyed
Latinos and non-Latinos who are undocumented.
Maybe it's because I act more "American" than recent immigrants? Nope. There
are undocumented immigrants who seem like they were born and raised here.
They've absorbed American fashion and ways much better than I have.
There's really no accurate way to tell the difference just by looking at us
or listening to the way we speak.
To really figure it out, an inquisitor would have to open my wallet to see
my green card, which I'm required to carry with me at all times. It looks
pretty much like a driver's license, but with a much thicker magnetic strip.
If I were to lose it, I'd be in very serious trouble. The thought of losing
my wallet terrifies me.
The mere thought that this piece of plastic differentiates me from someone
so many deem unwanted, exploitable and deportable lets me know how
vulnerable I am. At times I imagine what it must've been like for a freed
slave to lose his or her freedom papers, or to have someone take them away.
Deportation is nothing like being sent to a plantation to be whipped and
exploited, but I can't help but imagine an empathy across time for those
freed slaves. I too need to carry my "free to live in the U.S." card with me
all the time. I also risk losing it, having it stolen, or snatched out my
hands.
Ironically, my green card provides little protection in an anti-immigrant
environment, because people and authorities DO judge your legal status often
by your looks and accent, no matter how inaccurate these standards are.
At a Mother's Day event in San Francisco, I heard a woman tell her story.
She was a naturalized American citizen, in her 60s, married to an American,
and she was nearly deported to Mexico. She wasn't even Mexican. Her
near-deportation was caused solely by the fact that she was a Latina. As a
full-blown citizen she wasn't protected from deportation. She's not alone.
A decorated war veteran told me that when he was 12 years old, immigration
authorities came out of nowhere and seized a friend he was playing with and
speedily deported him to Mexico. Unable to speak Spanish, with no money and
no family in Tijuana, the American-born Latino child had a really hard time
contacting his family and returning home. He was lucky his experience didn't
end tragically.
These stories were a rude wake-up call for me. If U.S. citizenship didn't
protect these people, having a green card won't protect me either. Which
brings me back to the question, how do they know by looking at me if I'm
here legally or illegally?
Should I wear a green rectangle on my clothing? During World War II Jews,
Czechs, Polish people, political enemies, criminals, gays and lesbians, men
and women who "defiled" their race and religious minorities had to wear
identifiable badges in concentration camps.
Should I now visibly identify myself as "legal" in order to protect myself
from our current state of immigration fascism? How else would they know not
to deport me?
In reality, the green badge will protect me just as much as citizenship has
protected my friends. The reason is that this hot debate is not really about
immigration status but about race relations. If one is brown, one is
unwanted. This is why there is a well-documented history of the deportation
of Americans to Mexico.
This is why I shudder when I hear people say that it is not "legal
immigrants" that they have a problem with. From where I am standing, the
"problem" is with all of us.
It moves me to hear anti-immigration advocates arguing that it's unfair to
me, a legal immigrant, that lawbreakers cut in line. I appreciate your
indignation on my behalf, but if I weren't able to see right through this
"divide and conquer" tactic I would be inclined to believe that you're
really concerned about me when you're not.
Sorry guys, your tactics won't work. You're not pitting this immigrant
against any other. After all, it's not really about immigration, is it?
Marta Donayre, a co-founder of Love Sees No Borders and member of the
Leadership Council of the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition. She can be
reached at www.martadonayre.com or
www.loveseesnoborders.org.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)