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California Faculty Association at CSU San Marcos |
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CFA San Marcos Statement on Immigrant Bashing During 2005, there has been a sharp rise in immigrant bashing in California. The Minutemen, an anti-immigrant group with ties to white supremacist organizations like the National Alliance and Aryan Nation, garnered substantial notoriety with their vigilante patrols on the Arizona-Mexico border during the month of April. These bigots have now announced plans to expand their operations to San Diego/Tijuana under a new name, Friends of the Border Patrol. Shamefully, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has praised the group, saying that they are doing a “terrific job.” In addition to arguing that the US should “seal the border” with Mexico, he remarked, "When the government... doesn't do its job, then the private citizens go out and it's like a neighborhood patrol." In short, the highest elected official in California openly endorses the activities of racist mobs that even President Bush labels as “vigilantes.” It is no accident that he is doing so at a time when his job-approval ratings have plummeted in response to his escalating attacks on nurses, firefighters, and teachers. This is political scapegoating at its worst. Just as disgracefully, the editors of the San Diego Union Tribune recently praised T. J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, writing, “Bonner uses a great analogy to describe the illegal immigration problem. He compares it to having mice in the pantry. He says you can yell and scream all you want, but the first thing you need to do is seal up the ‘crackers and cheese’ that lured in the mice in the first place” (May 16, 2005). In any other context, this kind of dehumanizing language would be immediately denounced as racist, but in the current climate of anti-immigrant hysteria, it passes for rational analysis in the mainstream press. This rising tide of official hate speech will inevitably result in an increase in harassment and assaults on immigrants and people of color. The responsibility for these hate crimes will belong not just to the perpetrators, but also to Governor Schwarzenegger and other public figures who endorse dangerous vigilantism and bigotry. All too often north San Diego county, the home of Cal State San Marcos, has witnessed this lynch mob mentality in action, including a July 5, 2000 violent assault on elderly migrant workers attacked by eight high school students out to “hunt beaners” (San Diego Union-Tribune, Novenber 21, 2002). Is this is the kind of “neighborhood patrol” that the governor’s glib endorsement of the Minutemen seeks to perpetuate? The eleven million undocumented immigrant workers in the US harvest the food, sew the clothes, and deliver the essential services upon which we all depend. They do so often for less than half of minimum wage, earning an average annual income of just over $15,000. These workers do not take jobs from American citizens; they contribute immeasurably to the growth and prosperity of the economy on which all of our jobs depend. At the same time, undocumented immigrants pay more than $7 billion annually into the Social Security system (New York Times, April 5, 2005). Overall, they contribute at least five times more in taxes than they use in all public services, including education. In other words, they are not a drain on state programs, they fund them. Immigrants, documented or not, should have more rights and broader access to our society, not less. The US-Mexico border is not a dividing line between two different kinds of people; it is an arbitrary partition whose purpose is to manage the flow of labor to US employers. Its real function, like that of the Border Patrol, is not to control immigration, but to force undocumented workers into a black market economy where it is extremely difficult to demand better wages, working conditions and full civil, constitutional, and human rights. The California Faculty Association at Cal State San Marcos condemns the Minutemen, the Friends of the Border Patrol, and all other anti-immigrant vigilantes. We demand that Governor Schwarzenegger renounce his support for these bigots. And we call on our brothers and sisters in the union movement to join us in defending all immigrants against the current upsurge of hatred and scapegoating. Please also read the CFA Statewide Latino/Latina Caucus response to the Governor's endorsement of the Minutemen. Click here to add your name to this statement. |
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