As regular
followers of Urban Wilderness well know, I typically write about natural places
in urban areas near my home or wherever I travel. This post is atypical as it
deals with a primarily human issue (although I could easily make a case that the
issues I typically write about relating to urban wilderness also are human
ones.)
Unfortunately,
the wilderness metaphor applies to the immigrant experience on multiple levels
– and it’s not always metaphorical. The still expanding wall along the Mexican
border has forced migrants to cross over through truly fearsome and too often
fatal wilderness areas. That they keep coming despite this testifies to
desperation that I can’t even imagine.
I’ve just
returned home from a week in Phoenix, ground zero in the struggle for – and
against – immigration reform and immigrant rights. I went to Phoenix to bear
witness to this struggle, to protest the draconian policies that have been
enacted since the passage of SB 1070, to be in solidarity with the victims of
these oppressive policies, and – perhaps most importantly – to listen to their
stories.
As I say in
the letter-to-the-editor that follows, I don’t believe that anyone of any
political persuasion could listen to the often heartbreaking, sometimes
uplifting personal stories and not be moved to compassion at their plight and
outrage at the injustice of the system we’ve set in motion with laws like SB
1070. I’m not talking about whether or not undocumented immigrants should or
shouldn’t be deported, although that’s an issue worthy of its own post. I’m
talking about the unconscionably dehumanizing and degrading conditions to which
they are subjected.
There is no
righteous or moral justification for such treatment of people – in any
circumstances! I cannot believe that, if they knew about them, even those who
agree undocumented people should be deported would consent to the concentration
camp privations that detainees routinely must endure. The only reason it can go
on is because the vast majority of good people in this country do not know
what’s really happening. We would not – we do not – treat animals the way
people are being treated in the detention system. For too many deportation is
far worse than being sent back to their home countries. It is a bureaucratic
jungle, a wilderness of incarceration, and a nightmare of intolerable
conditions.
Over 3,500
others joined me in Phoenix for the annual Unitarian Universalist Association
(UUA) General Assembly, this year known as Justice GA. The UUA partnered with
many local organizations, which are listed at the end. To learn more about the
issues please follow the links to their websites.
Dear Editor,
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
One of
the biggest news stories of the week is the Supreme Court's decision to uphold
the most controversial portion of Arizona's immigration law, SB 1070, a
provision that requires law enforcement to check the immigration status of
people they stop if they suspect the person of lacking authorization to be in
the U.S. Rights organizations and other opponents maintain that this
provision encourages racial profiling.
The other
provisions of the state law were struck down for usurping the federal
government's jurisdiction over immigration policies.
However,
there is a hidden side to this issue that, were it more widely known, ought to
inspire universal outrage, no matter your political persuasion or how you stand
on SB 1070. Thousands of people who have been caught up in the immigration
enforcement system have been subjected routinely to cruel and inhuman
treatment. They are dehumanized, deprived of food, water, and hygienic
facilities, and subjected to physical and psychological abuse. In the past year
alone 120 people who had committed no crime other than being undocumented died
while in the custody of our government.
If the
scope of this situation and severity of the conditions in immigration detention
centers were common knowledge it would be a national disgrace on a par with the
shameful internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Furthermore,
parents are frequently and indiscriminately separated from their children. From
January - June 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed
46,486 undocumented parents from children who are U.S. citizens. Many of the
children, too young to understand what has happened, will be traumatized for
life.
The U.S.
detains over 280,000 people per year at an annual cost of $1.2 billion to
taxpayers. Much of this money goes to a private prison industry whose primary
goal is to maximize profits for shareholders, not to maintain human rights or
provide humane treatment.
The U.S.
Constitution grants criminals, including immigrants, important
rights, but immigrants who have committed no crimes except the civil
misdemeanor of being undocumented are afforded none of these protections.
In other words, immigrants who have committed serious crimes have more rights
than the vast majority who have committed no crimes. Many of these people have
lived in the U.S. for many years, worked hard, and raised families. This
is a travesty of justice, unbecoming of a great nation and must change.
All persons who are arrested or detained should be provided with the same
constitutional and human rights protections and treated with decency and
dignity.
The
federal government must act to end human rights abuses, close down inhumane
detention centers, and discourage racial profiling.
I believe
that at heart Americans are an essentially good and moral people. I further
believe that if the truly horrifying stories of the poor people in our
country’s shadowy immigrant enforcement and detention system were heard then we
would rise up as a moral people and demand an end to the injustice and cruelty
that is being perpetrated in our name and at our expense. The soul of our
nation is at stake.
Dear President
Obama and Attorney General Holder,
I have
traveled to Phoenix, AZ from my home in Wisconsin to protest human rights
abuses of migrants and racial profiling of minorities.
Migrants whose
only crime is the misdemeanor of being undocumented are being held in cruel and
inhuman conditions in the Maricopa County "Tent City" detention
center.
Please put an
end to this shameful and un-American situation by closing down Tent City, by
placing the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in receivership, and by cutting
off the power of ICE to cruelly separate families.
No one is made
safer by policies that punish otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants,
who often work long hours in jobs that no one else wants.
I want my
federal government to implement laws and policies that treat all people
humanely, keep families together, and enable undocumented workers to obtain
legal residency.
If you would like to join me by writing to the president and
attorney general, here are the email addresses:
President Obama: president@whitehouse.gov
Attorney General Holder: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Uncharacteristically, I have no pictures of GA, but you can see the official ones on the GA flickr page.
UUA partner organizations working for human rights:
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