One of today’s headlines: “513 people found in 2 trucks headed to U.S.” Advanced x-ray technology allowed Mexican authorities in the southern state of Chiapas to detect and stop two truckloads of illegal immigrants headed toward the U.S. The image released, intended to showcase the high-tech savvy behind this “great victory” of law enforcement, is quite striking. The shadowy silhouettes of these men and women crammed into shipping trailers bears an uncanny resemblance to another infamous image: the Atlantic slave ship of bygone centuries.
Year: 2011
Year: 1776
The cotton of the past gives way to the basic foodstuffs of the present. You, the everyday consumer of boneless, skinless chicken breasts! Who do you think removed the bones and the skin? You, the self-righteous connoisseur of fresh organic tomatoes! In lieu of pesticides, who do you think expended their labor to keep away the insects and weeds? Where do these heroes of discounted meats and overpriced vegetables come from? How did they get to California? Why did they come in the first place? Things were bad in El Salvador, no doubt. But the Latin American push accounts for only half of the equation, and the basic laws of physics indicate that there had to have been an equal and opposite reaction: the North American pull. Without their labor, what good is your iPad?
To be sure, slavery has ended. Nobody forced these men and women into these trucks, and, in fact, they willingly paid $7,000 each for their Passage, thereby ensuring that their servitude would not be “indentured” in the strictest sense. Also, there is nothing necessarily “Latin American” about today’s headline: Many of those found today in Mexico were from Asia. The West African coast of 1776 has become the Global Village of 2011. Slavery has been abolished; the Emancipation Proclamation did happen. But the toiling bodies remain, now transformed into waged laborers. A separate commonality, however, remains: the question of citizenship. Slaves were not U.S. citizens. Illegal immigrants are not U.S. citizens. The heritable Aristocracy of Citizenship returns under a new guise: Master and Slave gives way to Citizen and Wetback. The Emancipation Proclamation gives way to the Arizona Anti-Immigration Law. Oh, the shame!
From the Melting Pot to the Boiling Cauldron. The one timid sliver of justice in this cauldron is the principle of jus soli, as realized in the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. constitution: If you were born in America, you’re American. Not to say that America is the End of History or the New Jerusalem that it claims to be: There are billions upon billions of people on this planet who do not wish to become U.S. citizens. But in jus soli our noses nevertheless pick up the faint scent of a hidden universalism yet to be actualized. Perhaps the phenomenon of the so-called “anchor baby” contains within it the seed of our complete emancipation from the chains of petty chauvinism and nationality.
And, besides, you do want free markets, don’t you?
Schrades
May 19, 2011
I am but a poor aerospace engineer engaged with humanities majoring intellectuals but I’ll go ahead and chime in. I think that the argument most given against “illegal immigrants” is that they should “go through the process like everyone else did”. But few realize how restrictive the current immigration laws are. This isn’t Ellis Island where boatloads of illiterate immigrants can pour into the country in an attempt to populate the vast tracts of land in middle America. Unless you have family here or have a highly specialized skill it is nearly impossible to obtain a green card (in the 10s of thousands per year enter via a lottery)
As for companies that employ illegals. I would venture to guess that the majority of illegals living in the U.S. are employed in either very small businesses or directly as gardeners or maids or nannies or day laborers for the well off (this judgement may be clouded by my time in L.A.). To mirror Rattler’s comments it’s hard to muster contempt for rich white people; it’s much easier to blame the illegal immigrant boogeyman for the problems in our own country.
Tha Ratt'ler
May 19, 2011
oops, made a mistake. i meant :
“…the poor, brown-skinned Others, rather than their rich, white-skinned masters…”
Tha Ratt'ler
May 19, 2011
Good points, L-Mac and Cougar. As to Cougar’s question about the anger directed toward the immigrants and not at the companies that (illegally) employ them, I believe that it is a careful campaign that companies in general, with the help of right-wing media, wage to gin up anger at the brown-skinned Others, rather than their poor white-skinned masters which ensures that this remains a stunted, pernicious political debate. Moreover, if people stopped to realize that it’s not the fault of the migrants but the companies, they could conceivably trace back the complicity to themselves, the American consumer, and few are willing to be quite so honest and self-incriminating.
The Cougar
May 19, 2011
iPads are made in China, but that’s a whole different issue.
You should check out Frank Tannenbaum’s 1947 work Slave and Citizen, which looks at the differing legal status of slaves in the United States and Latin America. He argues that their legal status, combined with the belief that they are non-human, is in stark contrast to their position in Latin America. This, in turn led to their comparatively wretched condition both during and after slavery in the U.S. vis-a’-vis Latin America.
I think a similar comparison between “Illegals” in the U.S. and other countries would be pretty interesting.
One thing I find strange, though, is people’s rage is directed at illegal immigrants and not towards companies that hire them and create demand for them? I think that most of these same people, if asked if they would emigrate from the US to work if it was the only way to feed their families, would likely answer “yes!”