A Houston Latino blogger describes himself as an immigrant rights activist. I had to look at what that meant and could not find anything precise about what an “Immigrant Rights Activist” actually believes in. Do they think that our border should be open and that anyone wanting to enter should be allowed? Do they believe that once they get past that magical line at our borders, they should have all the rights of a citizen? What do they believe people who come here illegally are entitled to?
I am an old man and smiled when I read how one immigrant rights activist felt so discouraged that she;
[My family was] deported in February of 2009. I went over 15 years without hugging my parents. That set me off in a situation where I was houseless, I was hungry, I didn’t have any resources. I had to figure things out by myself while being a full-time student at a very rigorous academy. That politicized me.
I was outraged that my family was deported. It also reflected a much larger systemic issue: expelling immigrants out of the country without accounting for how the U.S. has exacerbated poverty, inequality and violence, especially in Latin America.
I moved to Seattle to pursue my Ph.D. after Trump’s election. The anti-immigrant sentiment wasn’t new: It was just how unapologetic and cruel it was that instilled a lot of fear in me at that time and pushed me to transform that fear and anger into action. Source
I smiled because she had opportunities that I, as a citizen, did not have when I was growing up. My high school counselor advised me not to bother going to college as I would not be able to use my degree—at least not in Corpus Christi in 1966. In the 1970s, I worked at a chemical plant here in Houston where Black men could only advance to driving a small vehicle. Us Chicanos could go higher but not into the main offices. We were segregated into Black, Brown, and White. These people here illegally have educational opportunities and business opportunities that we did not have.
Do those people even know who was the primary mover here in Texas to get undocumented students admitted into public universities and pay the same tuition as Texas Residents? I doubt it; they are too busy having pity parties. Do they know that it was a Republican governor who signed that bill into law? State Representative Rick Noriega was the author of the bill.
Only 17 states offer in-state tuition for undocumented students. Texas was the first to adopt such a law when the Legislature passed the bill in a near-unanimous vote in 2001. Since then, some lawmakers have tried repeatedly to repeal it.
“Some senators call us illegal,” said Morales. “The ideas of what they believe are mostly out of misconceptions and maybe a little bit of ignorance.” Source
I have news for those who want a pity party and think it will move a large swath of American voters. It won’t. You have to do it the way that the African-American and the Chicano (Mexican-American) community did it. It took over fifty years for Blacks to get their freedom and another 100 years to get a law passed that considered them equal. But give yourself enough time, and if you find that your job can be affected by cheap immigrant labor, who knows, your views could do a 180-degree turn.
If you want change, voting is the only way change can happen, but don’t think that open borders and citizenship for anyone who manages to sneak past that magical line at the border gets the full benefits of citizenship. Amnesty happened once; it will surprise me if it happens again in my lifetime. I am in my seventies, so my life is near its end.
Here is another one for a pity party:
When President Trump announced his intention to repeal DACA in 2017, Chuck Schumer & Nancy Pelosi began negotiating keeping it in exchange for increased border security measures. (Democrats have repeatedly taken an approach that emphasizes undocumented youth as exceptional and innocent while criminalizing their parents.) A week later, while giving a speech in San Francisco, Pelosi was interrupted by undocumented youth organizers with the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance (CIYJA). They confronted her over her decision to negotiate their lives without their input with chants such as “Nothing About Us Without Us” & “All 11 Million.” The self determination of undocumented immigrants, working outside the law and outside of the Democratic Party, has helped ensure that the Dream Act — which has stagnated in Congress for nearly two decades — might one day be passed in a form that rejects the imagined binary of good vs. deserving and bad vs. criminal undocumented immigrants. Source
Keep it up, and you might find that no one in power will stand up for you. If that is what you prefer, live in the shadows.
Or do as my dad did. He used to go from house to house, convincing people to pay the poll tax, which would allow them to vote.
Heck, there is no poll tax; volunteer and go knocking at those doors to get people who look like you to vote and to vote for the Democrats. If you think that the Republicans are your friends, then you are beyond help.
The life where I grew up can be found in this paper written by a doctoral student.
Now, one of you Immigrant Rights activists, explain to me why I should take pity on you and risk that Donald Trump win because of the pity that people had for you. A Donald Trump win will send us back to the 1950s as to our rights. Why would I risk that?