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America's Demand for Cheap Labor and Consumerism Created Stalemate
Phoenix, Arizona – More than a decade since Arizona legislators
began enacting laws targeted at immigrants without legal status,
the immigration situation has sharply worsened. It was in 1996,
when proof of legal residency or citizenship began to be required to
apply for a driver’s license. Since that genesis of cracking down on
undocumented immigration, the largely ineffective measures
implemented to thwart the influx of people without a permit or visa,
have fast-tracked us into a socioeconomic and demographic
apocalypse, today in 2007.
Many other laws have been enacted since then. However, no
legislation has proven effective to stop people from entering Arizona
seeking work and to earn money to send to their families in their
home countries. Laws and enforcement aimed to detect and deport
people living in the United States without legal papers have just
done that, but there has been little or no effect to stop the influx of
people.
Enforcement —both at the local and federal level— routinely detect
and deport people at a fast rate, but not faster than the economic
phenomenon called illegal immigration. Year after year, lawmakers
actively have responded to what a large percentage of Arizona
citizens see as a pervasive invasion. People who they say are not
living up to the American Dream but are instead creating a nightmare
supposedly responsible for most social ills in Arizona and many other
states.
Economic disparity in Latin American countries has significantly
increased, thus causing a continuous northbound flow of people from
impoverished regions toward the U.S. Reality is, as long as poverty
and hunger are rampant in these countries, empty stomachs will
continue to direct men and women searching for better economic
conditions into rich, more prosperous countries.
People sneaking into the United States without a work permit or a
visa do so not because they did not apply for one at a U.S. embassy
back in their countries. They do it because they did not meet the
requirements to obtain a visa: home ownership; money in the bank;
and a stable job. In other words, no visas for the neediest human
beings who want to migrate precisely because they are poor and
hopeless.
Nevertheless, in spite of aggressive legislation to fight against
people who still come without the proper documentation, America —
and Arizona— is feeding the fire that is burning in counties like
Maricopa, Pima and Santa Cruz, to name a few. Approaching the year
2008, regardless of drastic laws and measures, the influx of people
remains strong.
For many years, however, large corporations, small businesses and
private citizens have knowingly employed —and many times
exploited— immigrants who lack documents to work. Businesses
such as department stores, car dealerships, and realty companies
have also allowed these “illegals” to purchase everything, from
clothes to cars to homes, without inquiring about their legal status.
The prosperity of many of these businesses has been in part from
these men and women who are “legal” to buy but “illegal” to work.
Business owners have hired these people; they have allowed them
to be their customers. Too much and for too long. Otherwise, how do
we explain the fact that more than 12 million —and counting— are in
the country living in homes that realtors sold to them, driving cars car
salesmen sold to them, and wearing clothes they purchased from
department stores? Consumerism from undocumented people is
never questioned; their labor rights always denied.
Now, America —and Arizona— has a very serious crisis that has
erupted on the sidewalk of East Thomas Road. There, for the last
seven weeks, an economic boycott against a business —M.D. Pruitt’
s— that hired off-duty sheriff deputies to arrest day laborers has
taken place and force. But the current situation is the result of a
society that has employed —clandestinely— and accepted as
consumers the thousands of men and women who are now deplored.
These immigrants have been used and abused both as workers and
customers, and they’re as fed up with this hypocrisy as the society
that wants them all deported. Thus we arrive to an Arizona that yes,
should be fed up with the double standard of workers without a
permit being able to find low paying jobs, and consumers who
without legal status are welcomed —with “SE HABLA ESPAÑOL” signs
and bilingual personnel— as long as they spend money in American
businesses.
Latin American governments are to blame also for their inability to
create sources of employment for people who shouldn’t have to
leave their country in the first place. Economies from these countries
do little to stop their poor to leave their cities to come to a country
that welcomes them to work and consume without documents, but
not to have labor rights. They also enforce immigration laws and
deport people as well, thus creating a lack of moral authority and
effective advocacy when they want to defend their countrymen
abroad.
The U.S. federal government has tragically failed to pass realistic and
comprehensive laws that could have avoided conflicts like Pruitt’s at
a local level. No wonder why states like Arizona and cities like
Phoenix are struggling with larger-than-their-local resources can do
to fight a socio-economic Goliath, a battle they can’t win, no matter
what laws are enacted, and to try stopping the demographic tsunami
from Latin America. People continue to cross the border daily in
search of work into a country where employers have and will
continue—either because they benefit from or have to— hiring them.
Without a doubt, Federal authorities will have and need to
eventually enact a program to allow these people to do the work
they already do with documents.
So here we are today, on the sidewalk of East Thomas Road
between the stretch of 34th and 35th Streets, the epicenter of a
heated immigration socioeconomic quake in Phoenix, Arizona. A
tremble that is shaking organizers, citizens and politicians who have
been literally forced to act under the ugly scenarios seen around the
country, at the national level in reports like this one published by The
New York Times, and in videos at the local level by Barriozona.
We are angrily trying to solve a problem so emotional and
complicated for us to possibly make a significant, determinant and
fair impact on the root, the source, the core of this international and
local issue. We are as a nation as engaged and divided as
demonstrators from both sides of the narrow sidewalks of East
Thomas Road. We are as desperate for a solution as the men and
women who fled their countries in search of an American Dream that
some wonder if it still exists.
began enacting laws targeted at immigrants without legal status,
the immigration situation has sharply worsened. It was in 1996,
when proof of legal residency or citizenship began to be required to
apply for a driver’s license. Since that genesis of cracking down on
undocumented immigration, the largely ineffective measures
implemented to thwart the influx of people without a permit or visa,
have fast-tracked us into a socioeconomic and demographic
apocalypse, today in 2007.
Many other laws have been enacted since then. However, no
legislation has proven effective to stop people from entering Arizona
seeking work and to earn money to send to their families in their
home countries. Laws and enforcement aimed to detect and deport
people living in the United States without legal papers have just
done that, but there has been little or no effect to stop the influx of
people.
Enforcement —both at the local and federal level— routinely detect
and deport people at a fast rate, but not faster than the economic
phenomenon called illegal immigration. Year after year, lawmakers
actively have responded to what a large percentage of Arizona
citizens see as a pervasive invasion. People who they say are not
living up to the American Dream but are instead creating a nightmare
supposedly responsible for most social ills in Arizona and many other
states.
Economic disparity in Latin American countries has significantly
increased, thus causing a continuous northbound flow of people from
impoverished regions toward the U.S. Reality is, as long as poverty
and hunger are rampant in these countries, empty stomachs will
continue to direct men and women searching for better economic
conditions into rich, more prosperous countries.
People sneaking into the United States without a work permit or a
visa do so not because they did not apply for one at a U.S. embassy
back in their countries. They do it because they did not meet the
requirements to obtain a visa: home ownership; money in the bank;
and a stable job. In other words, no visas for the neediest human
beings who want to migrate precisely because they are poor and
hopeless.
Nevertheless, in spite of aggressive legislation to fight against
people who still come without the proper documentation, America —
and Arizona— is feeding the fire that is burning in counties like
Maricopa, Pima and Santa Cruz, to name a few. Approaching the year
2008, regardless of drastic laws and measures, the influx of people
remains strong.
For many years, however, large corporations, small businesses and
private citizens have knowingly employed —and many times
exploited— immigrants who lack documents to work. Businesses
such as department stores, car dealerships, and realty companies
have also allowed these “illegals” to purchase everything, from
clothes to cars to homes, without inquiring about their legal status.
The prosperity of many of these businesses has been in part from
these men and women who are “legal” to buy but “illegal” to work.
Business owners have hired these people; they have allowed them
to be their customers. Too much and for too long. Otherwise, how do
we explain the fact that more than 12 million —and counting— are in
the country living in homes that realtors sold to them, driving cars car
salesmen sold to them, and wearing clothes they purchased from
department stores? Consumerism from undocumented people is
never questioned; their labor rights always denied.
Now, America —and Arizona— has a very serious crisis that has
erupted on the sidewalk of East Thomas Road. There, for the last
seven weeks, an economic boycott against a business —M.D. Pruitt’
s— that hired off-duty sheriff deputies to arrest day laborers has
taken place and force. But the current situation is the result of a
society that has employed —clandestinely— and accepted as
consumers the thousands of men and women who are now deplored.
These immigrants have been used and abused both as workers and
customers, and they’re as fed up with this hypocrisy as the society
that wants them all deported. Thus we arrive to an Arizona that yes,
should be fed up with the double standard of workers without a
permit being able to find low paying jobs, and consumers who
without legal status are welcomed —with “SE HABLA ESPAÑOL” signs
and bilingual personnel— as long as they spend money in American
businesses.
Latin American governments are to blame also for their inability to
create sources of employment for people who shouldn’t have to
leave their country in the first place. Economies from these countries
do little to stop their poor to leave their cities to come to a country
that welcomes them to work and consume without documents, but
not to have labor rights. They also enforce immigration laws and
deport people as well, thus creating a lack of moral authority and
effective advocacy when they want to defend their countrymen
abroad.
The U.S. federal government has tragically failed to pass realistic and
comprehensive laws that could have avoided conflicts like Pruitt’s at
a local level. No wonder why states like Arizona and cities like
Phoenix are struggling with larger-than-their-local resources can do
to fight a socio-economic Goliath, a battle they can’t win, no matter
what laws are enacted, and to try stopping the demographic tsunami
from Latin America. People continue to cross the border daily in
search of work into a country where employers have and will
continue—either because they benefit from or have to— hiring them.
Without a doubt, Federal authorities will have and need to
eventually enact a program to allow these people to do the work
they already do with documents.
So here we are today, on the sidewalk of East Thomas Road
between the stretch of 34th and 35th Streets, the epicenter of a
heated immigration socioeconomic quake in Phoenix, Arizona. A
tremble that is shaking organizers, citizens and politicians who have
been literally forced to act under the ugly scenarios seen around the
country, at the national level in reports like this one published by The
New York Times, and in videos at the local level by Barriozona.
We are angrily trying to solve a problem so emotional and
complicated for us to possibly make a significant, determinant and
fair impact on the root, the source, the core of this international and
local issue. We are as a nation as engaged and divided as
demonstrators from both sides of the narrow sidewalks of East
Thomas Road. We are as desperate for a solution as the men and
women who fled their countries in search of an American Dream that
some wonder if it still exists.
By Eduardo Barraza December 10, 2007
| Hispanic Institute of Social Issues © 2006-2011 All rights reserved. webmaster@hisi.org |
The protests on the sidewalk of
Thomas Road in East Phoenix placed
Arizona as the the epicenter of a
heated immigration socioeconomic
quake in the country.
Photo by Eduardo Barraza Photo Gallery
Thomas Road in East Phoenix placed
Arizona as the the epicenter of a
heated immigration socioeconomic
quake in the country.
Photo by Eduardo Barraza Photo Gallery
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Eduardo Barraza is a journalist and writer,
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
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