The Right to Remain Silent

           For the past two years, the US House of Representatives grappled with the US Senate on Immigration and President Bush got caught in a vice-grip trying get a plan in place–all to no avail. And yet, what strikes me whenever this issue cycles through the national political discourse, is that the only people who are not allowed to speak out–while others opine at will–are the immigrants themselves. They have the right to remain silent. They have the right to enter the country, so long as they are not caught. They have the right to work, so long as they make less than we do and act grateful. They have the right to pay taxes, but God forbid they ask for benefits. They have the right to speak, so long as it is in the privacy of their migrant camps. They have the right to be silent.Meanwhile we cannibalize them over coffee in our pseudo-intellectual machiatto musings, debating their fate with our “legal” and “real American” friends. 

“Yes amigo, you can clear  the table and smile at me in fear–my tea is cold anyhow”. 

Well, it seams that on top of the protest marches, undocumented immigrants  are learning the power of unions.  The article “30 immigrants on bikes deliver a labor revolt” in yesterday’s Washington Post, we read the story of the undocumented underworld found inside our miso soup and fortune cookies. ”You will have thirty years of hard work for substandard pay and persecution, then receive a ticket to go back home without your money.”                                                                                 -your friendly fortune cookie  

These Asian immigrants unionized and took it to the Man. Elsewhere in the country, other undocumented immigrants are organizing under different flags. One such union is Unite Here! In case you are not clear on why people argue that immigrants take jobs that nobody wants, read their front page. It tells the story of Eliazar Torres Gomes who died on March 6 2007 at the Tulsa plant of the laundry service Cintas. The article states: 

He was caught on a conveyor and dragged into an industrial dryer—where he was trapped in temperatures up to 300 degrees for at least 20 minutes. He died on the scene of trauma and thermal injuries. Cintas CEO Scott Farmer issued a press release blaming Mr. Torres Gomez for his own death soon after the fatality. Members of the U.S. House’s Workforce Protections Subcommittee led by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) called for OSHA to conduct a nationwide investigation into hazards at all of Cintas’s laundries after the death of Mr. Torres Gomez and a gruesome worker injury in Yakima, Washington. Inspectors in Washington State cited Cintas last week for a violation similar to the one that led to Mr. Torres Gomez’s death.  

Would you send someone you love to work there? Just a little food for thought to keep the discussion going.