Our New Anahuac

I look back fondly at what the people, once organized, were able to accomplish with respect to the so-called immigration debate.  The biggest legislative accomplishment was the death of HR 4437.  The biggest moral accomplishment, however, is the realization that once the people organize their power and aim it in a unified manner, they become the most powerful force in politics.  One million Latinos in LA, two hundred thousand in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />..Dallas.. and fifty thousand in ….Houston…., were able to accomplish in a few weeks, what service agencies, The Congressional Hispanic Institute, and business interests had been unable to accomplish in months-the defeat of HR 4437…..

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For my part, I fasted, marched, mentored and organized.  I was quoted (actually misquoted) on a front-page article of the Houston Chronicle, all the while arguing that many of the tenets in HR 4437 were against human rights…..

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As the election warmed up, HR 4437 disappeared from popular thought, and Hope and Change seemed to take the place of many progressive pushes for reform.   At the same time that people were busy hoping, the conservative agenda of attrition through enforcement, known in other parts of the world as ethnic cleansing, has been taking effect…..

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Workplace raids are now common place and garner no media attention whatever.  At the same time that many people staked their hopes on the Democratic Party and on Barack Obama, thousands have been deported, and there is still no word of relief from any politician of stature, even though the country is run by Democrats.  We have now even witnessed the first workplace raids of the Obama administration…..

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It is time to reexamine the goals of the immigration movement and to focus a great-deal of attention on the issue of workplace raids.  Why?….

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First it is a proposition steeped in bad faith when politicians suggest to our community that we should continue to “hope” for comprehensive immigration reform, while they continue to alienate and to engender fear in our community with these raids.  Either give us reform now or stop the raids.  Many politicians hug us with one arm, and stab us in the back with another, as long as they do not demand an end to the raids…..

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Second, and most importantly, these raids are against human rights that stand as US obligations stipulated in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, ratified by the US in 1948.   These raids are outright illegal…..

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The Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s website boasts that in fiscal year 2008 ICE executed over 5100 “administrative arrests” at worksites (up from 4077 in 07 and 3667 in 06), while making less than 900 “criminal arrests” at these same work sites in 08.   ….

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These administrative arrests are ostensibly due only to the “unlawful presence” of these workers.  ….

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This unlawful presence is a civil, not criminal, infraction, as Tom Tancredo, one of the most virulent anti-immigration politicians acknowledged, while lobbying for the passage of HR 4437.  ….

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Herein is found the illegality of the raids.  According to Article XXV of the American Declaration, “No person may be deprived of liberty for non-fulfillment of obligations of a purely civil character.”  ….

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Since all unlawful presence arrests are a civil matter, they are all illegal, according the human rights standards agreed to by the ….United States………

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These detentions, because they deprive liberty over a civil matter, are against the law which this country has agreed to by ratification.  It is true that this country has habitually disregarded its treaty obligations.  However, in this instance, we must agitate and demand that the country live up to its word.  The consequences for failing to do so are too vast to do otherwise.  Stop the illegal raids now…..

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Hector A. Chavana Jr.