Shameless paradoxes, that’s one way to
describe the facts. One corresponds to the capitalist obsession of
obtaining the greatest profit in the least amount of time; the
other, to the Bush Administration’s hypocrisy and intransigence.
Both contradictions are related to the way the US treats
undocumented immigrants. At the center of all these events, related
to rising border tensions between the United States and Mexico, runs
the blood of immigrants.Golden
State Fence, a California company that built more than a kilometer
of the border wall —an attempt to curb illegal immigration into the
US from the south—, has been caught red-handed for hiring
undocumented workers after inspectors found 49 illegals among its
workforce.
They can build the wall, but not jump
it, might be the motto of the two company executives who were handed
a $5 million US fine for immigration infractions by a federal court
in San Diego. In addition to the fine, Mel Kay was sentenced to six
months home confinement, three months probation and 1,000 hours of
community service; and Michael McLaughlin was also “punished” with
six months of home confinement.
While this was happening to this
private company, the White House was making its own official
announcement, a proposal that some have called “disappointing and
inhumane.” The plan would require all 11 million undocumented to pay
$13,500 US each to begin a grueling bureaucratic process, leave the
country and handover an additional $10,000 US if they are accepted
for legalization. They would them receive Z VISAS, renewable every
three years with a $3,500 US fine and renewal fee.
This proposal is considered an even
stricter reply to the recent initiative by Representatives Luis
Gutierrez and Jeff Flake, under the title of the Security Through
Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy (STRIVE) Act, to issue
400,000 visas for workers and their families. The visas would be
valid for three years with a renewal potential for an additional
three, for jobs that US citizens don’t want, and leaving the workers
unprotected by the labor code.
The Bush team would make the
exploitation of immigrants even easier by imposing conditions that
are practically attune to modern slavery without leaving the
slightest hope for amnesty, as a Hispanic leader quoted by Notimex
warned.
The delay of immigration reform in
the United States has prompted at least 27 states to come up with
their own laws that increase sanctions against the 11 million people
who live in the US without the backing of any document whatsoever.
And if that were not enough, the Bush
proposal seeks to boost the Border Patrol by 18,000 agents, along
with more than 1,000 kilometers of fences and vehicle barriers.
All this brings us to reports on
Friday that demonstrate an alarming trend. In Green Valley, in
southern Arizona, unknown armed men opened fire in the early morning
against a truck full of illegal immigrants, killing a man and a
women, and injuring a third person. It is believed that the
immigrants were Mexicans traveling with three families from the
state of Chiapas. Who were the assassins? Volunteer vigilantes
protecting the blond purity of the race, or human contraband
smugglers getting rid of their cargo? It is almost impossible to
find an answer. Meanwhile, in the western border town of Calexico, a
Mexican immigrant was killed by a US Border Patrol with a single
shot from an M-4, the shortened version of the M-16 assault rifle.
With private initiatives and official
decisions, a wall is being built with blood and sweat