[Texto en español AQUÍ]

This is how I see the mess caused by the SB1070 from the outside. I must say that it looks awful even from the end of the world…

I got confirmation today that the SB1070 is a big mess. The news about the rallies hold today all over the United States managed to leak into our news despite the fact that everything here revolves around Labor Day. Moreover, the only aspect of the Latin Billboards mentioned in our local press was Ricky Martin’s words against the law, usually featured with images/info about Shakira’s visit to Arizona. And when my racist and classist country takes the time to acknowledge a problem affecting the Hispanic community in the United States you know there’s something big going on there.

A couple weeks ago I saw an interview on CNN to a man from the Arizona government (sorry, I don’t remember who he was) who complained that illegal immigration was a crime but unlike other crimes people got mad at authorities for enforcing the laws against it. He also claimed that his parents had immigrated to the United States from Italy legally and he didn’t see why other people should be allowed to do it differently. I think that what that man forgot to mention was that:

  1. His parents were able to immigrate because immigration policies were very different back then. People that in their native countries faced the same or even worse economical conditions that the ones Hispanic immigrants endure in theirs now were allowed to migrate to the United States (and many other countries including Chile) basically as cheap labor. Today, people with a financial background equivalent to the one that Irish or Italian immigrants had in their time would never be granted any kind of visa to the United States.
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  2. Many of those who immigrated 70 or 100 years ago were, as I said, allowed into the United States as cheap labor. Their working condition and salary levels were probably worse that the ones that Hispanic and other illegal immigrants have today. The difference is that those conditions were the norm back then. And although we all agree that better salaries and safe workplaces are good for the workers, the United States as a country should think about why its economy requires the labor of million of illegal immigrants to function. Because those people aren’t there just living off the air. Most of them work and work very hard.

Unless a mega catastrophe happened (*knocking on wood*) I would never, ever live in another country illegally. And I just went through an 8.8 earthquake so, trust me, I mean something even bigger and more devastating than this. It’s just that living undocumented in another country is scary and dangerous and I think you must be very desperate to do it. Wake up Arizona, it’s not something people do just because.

I don’t dare to say that I can imagine how hopeless and desperate you have to be in your own country to go through the risks of crossing one or more borders to live in another country without any kind of legal protection, usually not speaking the language and always being in risk of being arrested and deported or worse. These people leave behind their families and friends and everything they know to try to make enough money to survive themselves and meet the basic needs of their loved ones. So unless the living conditions in their native countries improve, a nazi-like law like the SB1070 would not stop people from entering the United States illegally. The New York Times has a very interesting article about it. I think you should read it:

For Migrants, New Law Is Just Another Challenge
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/world/americas/29mexico.html?ref=americas
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As said in the article (and this is something most people outside the US don’t know) illegal immigrants do not “cross the border” for free. Most of them have to pay thousands of dollars to coyotes or other kind of criminals (real criminals) to enter the US, fueling mafias and allowing all kind of human rights violations. Wouldn’t it be simpler if they were allowed to immigrate under the requirement of having X amount of money to do it? The US government would have control of who enters the country and a lot of other crimes would be prevented.

Due to they fear deportation if they call the police, crimes against illegal immigrants remain largely unreported but it’s known that i.e. hundred (thousands?) of people are enslaved in farms until they “pay off” their debts with those who help them to sneak into the US. Women are raped or held captive by prostitution rings, people die in their way into the US and there are even some who are victims of violence inflicted by law enforcement agents. You don’t need to be a psychologist or a sociologist to understand that the damage caused by these crimes can be enormous not only for the victims but for all the society. And again, why an economy needs slave labor to produce at competitive prices?

I don’t support illegal acts. We need the law and we need the law to be enforced or there would be chaos. But when you have million of people who see illegal immigration as their only possibility of survival and a country (a society, an economy) who in reality needs them to function, you don’t need to be a genius to realize that draconian anti-immigrant laws are not a real solution for the problem.

If everything said above wasn’t enough, I can’t agree with the SB1070 because it’s in the practice a racist law. Although it aims “illegal immigrants” in general I don’t see the authorities stopping Asian looking people on the streets. And are they going to stop bleach-blond people and ask them proof of residency too? I don’t think so! Because although they are probably a majority, Hispanic immigrants are not the only ones in the US illegally. There are many Chinese and other Asians living there “without papers”. There are also a large number of people coming from Easter Europe but since they are blond and blue-eyed I doubt they will ever be stopped on the street.

I also want to point out that as a person who likes to travel to the United States on vacation I feel affected by this law (and the ones like it that are rumored going to pass in different states). Many tourists not only don’t look American (whatever that means), they also speak English with an accent… if they speak English at all. This applies not only to Hispanic tourists: French, Brazilian, Japanese, Swedish, Indian tourists… we all speak with an accent. But I would really like to see the Arizona police stop a Japanese or a French tourist and question their migratory status. No doubt there would be a huge international incident if that happened. But I can assure you that more than one Hispanic tourist will be bothered without apologies. You can bet on that!

Finally, it’s amazing that a state member of a “developed country” can pass a law like this that authorizes the police to stop and question people just because. In Chile there used to be something called “detención por sospecha” (detention on suspicion) and we had to endure hell from the international community because it allegedly violated human rights. So are human rights different for Arizona? Mmmm… I didn’t think so.

So to summarize it: the SB1070 sucks. It won’t solve the immigration problem but it will in fact legalize racism. Shame on you, Arizona!