This is not about immigration but about racism

[Maestro]

X-posted from GD

This is not about immigration. It is about racial profiling and racism. I know that many here at DU do not support the plight of undocumented immigrants. Many, perhaps only some, but my perception is many, seem to think that they are burdening the school system, the health care system and whatnot. However, this post is really not an immigration post. It is in fact about rampant racism. The fact is what we have occurring is an orchestrated and state supported attempt to target a certain race for deportation. I work in the school system as an assistant principal and formerly a bilingual education teacher. I have worked with documented and undocumented immigrants for years. For the most part, they are fine individuals struggling to make a living in a new country but it is better than what they left so they will accept slave wages with no benefits. They put their children in our school systems so that they may receive a quality education, learn English and one day be productive citizens. Some of you might ask, why in the world are we teaching immigrant kids especially the undocumented ones? My simple answer is that to not educate them will lead to even greater problems plus it is completely legal and schools must accept all children even undocumented ones according to this SCOTUS decision, http://tourolaw.edu/PATCH/Plyler/.

Back to what is occurring currently in the city where I work…The Irving Police Department in conjunction with immigration officials are targeting apartment complexes, setting up road blocks and checking IDs, and at times walking house to house asking for identification of individuals. If the individuals can not produce the documents necessary to prove that they are either citizens or here under the appropriate work, travel or tourist visas, they are arrested, then deported. They care nothing for families. The men usually are rounded up and sent to the border almost immediately. Family members are split apart and whereabouts of family members are not known until the deported family member can find a phone and call home usually from the Mexican border even if the person in question is not from Mexico! Families are so scared that they are pulling their children out of school at alarming rates. Please read this brief article. http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_277112315.html

Being the only administrator that speaks Spanish on campus, I have spoken to at least 10 families that have pulled some 15 children out of school only because of fear and intimidation. This is unacceptable! Are we Nazis? Where are our humanistic values of right and wrong?

I know what some of you are saying. They broke our rules and brought these problems on themselves. I do not deny that they broke rules, but my problem is the way my brainless government is trying to remedy the problem. If this is simply a legal operation rounding up undocumented workers, why are the police and immigration agents only targeting Hispanics? Why do I not hear that the police and immigration are also seeking out know areas where there are Chinese immigrants, Korean immigrants, Vietnamese immigrants, Pakistani immigrants, Indian immigrants, African immigrants. Heck, we just received a girl two weeks ago from French speaking Canada. Should we have checked to make sure she entered legally? Oh wait, she looks Anglo. No problems exist there.

The police are so bold that they set up a checkpoint in front of my school at drop-off time between 7:00 and 8:00 am several times in the last few weeks. I was caught in the checkpoints and the second time this happened I asked them specifically what they were looking for after I identified myself as the Asst. Principal. The first time I was just waved through the checkpoint. The officer told me that the police were enforcing seat-belts and child seat laws. Okay fine, but after talking to one of my parents who has now withdrawn his child, he stated that they were in fact doing that but also taking down plate numbers which they used to track people back to their homes. Many of the parents then received visits from immigration and police. He stated they were very nice, but only spoke English to them and handed them a sheet of paper which he thinks was a paper that asked for their signature verifying that only these people live at this residence. His name and his wife’s name were already on the paper. How did they get this info? The plates? The apartment manager? Why these Hispanics. Only Hispanic parents have reported these visits to me. Why wouldn’t they visit others if they are only verifying addresses?

Why am I posting this today? Well, today was the straw the broke the camel’s back. We had a group of young kids come in crying. They were all Hispanic girls and boys. Apparently on the way to school a group of special education children riding a bus and several students riding with parents to school came across a “raid” or some sort of large police car stop. The police were being rather rough with a group of young Hispanic men. They handcuffed all of them and put them on the ground face down. This could be just a stop of hardened criminals, but the bus driver reported to us, when we asked why the children were upset, that the police were doing another “round up.” He saw the immigration van parked on a side street near the stopped car and handcuffed men. The kids were all afraid that this was going to happen to their dads as well. The ironic thing is that all of the children I saw crying or upset, some as old as 4th grade, are all here legally! Our counselors have been quite busy.

Racism is alive and well. What we are seeing is racial profiling at its most obvious and obnoxious, but not many seem to care. In fact, asinine citizens who see issues as black and white have no problem with this. However, if we really want to solve this problem, we, as a country, need to stop attacking the immigrants and start attacking the companies that continue to hire undocumented workers. Building a wall is stupid and will not work plus it is yet another waste of taxpayer’s money. Large scale harassment operations like the one taking place now is not going to work either. The government needs to attack and enforce rules governing the hiring of these individuals. The only reason they come is because there is work. Hypocritically, the government attacks the very immigrants that it wants to exploit as cheap labor. I want to see huge fines imposed on Brinker International/link, on /link or on the multitude of construction and farming agencies that continue to employ undocumented workers. If you want to stem the tide of undocumented workers, stop giving them a reason to return time and time again.

In the meantime I have children to teach. The government is already making this difficult with the incredibly ineffective NCLB and now I have kids that are scared that they won’t see their parents when they get home. Pathetic beyond belief.

[Cleita]

1. We are becoming Nazis. Your essay is right on.

I'm reading Naomi Wolf's "The End of America, Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot". Among her ten steps to fascism is separating "them" from "us" by invoking them as a threat. She doesn't specifically talk about immigrants but about brown people, who are becoming criminalized just for being who they are. It's happening here just as it did in Germany and many other similar regimes.

[EFerrari]

2. Maestro, did you decide yet if you anonomize this essay?

(Is that a word?! :) )

These Nazis are targeting parents without any regard for the children. That's so disgusting.