This is common practice and  is excused as a way to weed out people “posing as American citizens,” or so says I.C.E. spokeswoman Pat Reilly who used to have a slightly more decorous career in the non-profit marketing sector. This cool crew not only busts in with warrants issued for very specific people, but they make full sweeps using intimidation to gain consent.  They arrest anyone with a pulse and will gladly detain you for as long as they see fit. And being as kitchen and factory workers often carry sub-machine guns, they come armed to the teeth. Just you try and resist.    

It seems they’ve actually broken enough rights these days that they got the attention of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union International, who decided to file a class-action suit against them. There is a brief article in the Washington Post about it. The UFCWU also has a series of similar articles following the case.

They bust in looking for Pablito Perez and detain 300 employees of which any number could be American.  The bottom line is that if immigrants with no documents have rights, American citizens shouldn’t have to deal with or put up with such trespasses on their rights. There is a sheet on immigrant rights posted by the National Immigration Law Center.   

 How often does this happen? Well, I.C.E’s annual report states that they arrested 863 criminals (kudos), and made 4,077 administrative arrests (whatever that means), during raids in workplaces last year. They also collected $30 million in fines–mostly from small and medium-sized companies who need the low-cost labor to compete against the corporate giants making a killing through government-backed trade agreements.  

   I should mention that it is amazing to anyone who has followed NAFTA since it’s birth in 1994, to see the two democratic candidates declaring their repugnance for the trade treaty. One of them is married to the man who drafted it–but that’s another story.  I’m linking to an AP data sheet on Obama and Clinton’s history on NAFTA, just as an FYI. 

Now, NAFTA matters because it has been the platform for the greatest Mexican emigration in history.     

Meanwhile, make sure you know your rights both as an American and as an immigrant (documented or not). 

See Tony…if I may call you that, the thing is that I never spoke about Guest Workers. Believe it or not, that term is not a reality–at least not yet. The term refers to the status that an unskilled worker would have received if the president’s plan had been approved.  But, it wasn’t approved, so it doesn’t exist.

What I did speak of was a skilled worker who has applied for an H1-B visa. These are three-year visas that can easily be renewed for an additional three years. Once you have held one for five, you are eligible for permanent residency (a green card). Once you are being processed you can get extensions for another couple of years, but by then you are likely already approved or denied residency and know what your status is. These people tend to stay long-term and are invitees of the US. So in that sense, I suppose they are guests, but they have every right and opportunity to become residents.

 Semantics aside, am not sure that I agree with the statement that “going back is the right thing to do.” If an American choses to settle abroad, nobody thinks twice about it. If some non-westerner decides to settle down in the good-ole’ USA, then they lose dignity and become burdens to society (despite the fact that most immigrants pay taxes and do not qualify for welfare or medicaid type services).

 Moreover, the point of the last argument was that denying LEGAL immigrants such as H1-b recipients or college students the right to apply for a driver’s license is a discriminatory and oppressive practice. Think of it this way: If you are a brilliant engineer hired by a firm; or a medical specialist brought into a hospital; or simply a student with a full ride to UM; why shouldn’t you have a driver’s license? Is the idea that because you have to go back in half a decade or longer you shouldn’t drive? It is almost impossible to get insurance with an international license. You can’t drive a car off the lot without insurance. You need a car to go to work. A company just hired you because they need you to do that work. Catch my drift here.

This is a law that makes more sense politically than in any realm of practicality or ethics. I have a dictionary and I also study immigration law as closely as I can.  I invite comments, but let’s keep to facts and discourse, not rhetoric and accusations. That said, thanks to everyone for reading and taking the time to post your comments. Keep them coming, I’ll post comments that disagree with my views unless they are vulgar, irrational, or simply hateful. Thanks again for reading.  

As the first month of 2008 came to a close, Michigan enacted a law that states that unless you are a citizen of the USA or a permanent resident, you cannot have a driver’s license. Immigration voice issued a press release about it, and there is also a decent article in the Grand Rapids Press.   Each has its own take. So here I am, back from months of not writing and willing to put thoughts into outer cyberspace just to create more awareness about this.     

What, you might ask, is the big deal? The deal is that there is nothing but hatred and prejudice behind this law. I’m not sure what else Attorney General Mike Cox could possibly intend beyond right-wing political gain.If it were a law for the sake of security, or protection against terrorists, how does it make sense to allow people who are coming here anyway to live without any local record of who they are? If it is about protecting American jobs, then why not make a better environment for big employers to stay, not go. If it is about anything but creating yet one more stigma for an already vulnerable and exploited population within the US, why is it aimed at immigrants who have done everything right?

If it is a way to encourage legal migration, how does it make sense that someone who just paid thousands of dollars to secure a visa arrives and cannot get a driver’s license (and therefore insurance). If it is a way to keep our roads safe from those horrid “illegal” drivers, what sense is there in not granting them a way to get insurance? Even in a no-fault state where you can’t get more than $400 in non-medical damages, it is in everyone’s best interest to make it easier, not harder, for insurance agencies and police officers know who they are dealing with.  

 The idea, I think, is to keep “them” at a political distance from the political right. It is a way of saying “look, I’m a government official who will make sure that your lilly-white children will have less brown, yellow, read or black people with whom to mix. I am keeping them out for your sake.”  

 Meanwhile, we refuse to recognize that the Michigan auto industry is a walking corpse and that we need migrant workers out in the fields, in the factories, in hotels, in restaurants, in construction sites just as much as in white-collar jobs.Ok, enough with lists. I’ll give you an example. I play soccer and I’m not terrible. So, I have been invited to sub for guys that work on company teams at the indoor place where I go. The companies vary from road-painting outfits to GE’s aviation systems division formerly Smith’s Aerospace. Half of the people with whom I play are foreigners with temporary work visas (HI-B visa).

These permits are expensive to process (about $5000) take at least a year or two to clear, and require a long list of qualifications and hoops through which you have to jump to prove that no American is qualified to do the job you do at that time, and for that salary (and the salaries have to be industry averages). These are skilled workers that Michigan, the worst economy in the continental US, cannot afford to discourage from coming.

So, why do it? Well, there is a republican right in Michigan that is more powerful and wealthy than your average lobby group. And they would build a wall along the northern border if they could. Who are they? Without mentioning names, one just ran for governor and lost. Together, they own Alticor, formerly Amway, Blackwater (yes the mercenaries from the middle-eastern scandal), Blockbuster and a plethora of other companies.  They push the political right to new depths of reactionary thought. For now, one can only hope that a new president will take a more just perspective and push the nation away from a ridiculous debate based on ideas of racial supremacy and manifest destiny.

By the way, I thought Kucinich was the best presidential candidate, but I’m just one dude and it obviously didn’t happen. We will see what a democratic congress, hopefully with a democratic black man in power can do in a state with a democratic governor and the hounds of hell for a state congress. Yes, I’m disgruntled in Michigan…it snows all the time, what do you expect.

A funny immigration tribute to South Park

1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

            Judge Maxine M Chesney stopped Homeland Security from sending out 140,000 letters on Friday, which threatened employers to fire people with “suspicious” social security numbers or be subject to criminal charges. Chesney issued the restraining order in the context of a lawsuit from the worker’s union AFL-CIO. The union argued that the lists on which these letters are based include American citizens who are simply victims of clerical typos and miss-filings by Social Security bureaucrats. So, it seems that an attempt to get rid of those dreaded “illegals” might have an effect on American citizens–imagine that.  As I said in the last post, unions and immigrants are increasingly presenting a united front, which gives a clearer perspective on how this country actually works. Full accounts of this story can be found in the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Of course, the news comes as relief to the millions of people whom this would affect, but it prolongs the anxious anticipation of whether the ax will fall. Both employers and employees are biting their nails hoping for the best. We all wait in fear.

                                                              Leading Through Fear

Fear, it seems, is now the law of the land, aimed not at solving the issue of immigration, but at regaining support from the conservative right in a time when a lame-duck presidency is hurting the GOP’s chances in the 08 campaign. 

The use of fear as a political tool is not new to the world. The most cited expert on fear-based leadership, Nicolo Machiavelli devotes an entire section of his book to the stile:

“Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely….”

                                                                                                             -The Prince, CHAPTER XVII

According to former Senate Foreign Relations Committee Special Counsel, Jack Blum, this tactic is not new in the United States either.

“Fear rules American politics and history, and it has done so for the last 100 years.”

If there are any doubts that this administration is using scare tactics to control the American political climate, just remember the color-coded “alert” system that was developed right after 9-11. 

“Today we are on red, severe danger, be prepared for a full-cavity search at the airport if you have brown skin or a beard.”

                                                                 Fear vs. Fruits

  Now, it is no secret that the president fancies himself a devout Christian. But, in light of what the Bible states about fear, can we really think him to be what he claims? On Fear the Bible says:

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 

2 Timothy 1:7


“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear is torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.”

                                                                                                                               1 John 4:18

So, if we are called to love and love casts out fear, then whatever causes or promotes fear is the opposite of love—call it hate, or call it bad fruits. On the fruits, Mathew says the following: 

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”               Mt. 7:15-20 

Alas, most of my friends, good devout Christians, supported the president for years on the grounds that he was Christian. He had great campaigns, and knew the buzz-words to captivate the attention of the Protestant/Evangelical voter. Two terms later, I ask, what are the fruits, and who is on the receiving end? In the immigration debate, the answer is undocumented immigrants. They live in fear, work in fear, and sleep in fear. Fear that you would turn them in; fear that I might call immigration on them; fear that the “Christian” man who leads their host country will make their persecution a national policy.

For now, the fear of Homeland Security intimidating employers into firing undocumented immigrants has been suspended. But I wonder, what is the American Christian going to do to be kind to the alien in their gates? How will we cast out their fear? How will we bear fruits of love? 

“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.   

It seems that pastors/priests and the flock of the regularly faithful have developed a more favorable attitude towards undocumented immigrants than the less faithful—so found a study by the Pew Research Center. In these pious circles, few denominations are officially proposing that the paperless be excluded from the communion of the saints. Still, a grumbling has surfaced in Christian discourse to that effect. The questions this debate poses are biblically significant: What is communion? Who are the saints? What is our responsibility towards people who have entered the country illegally?

Communion: White Bread for White Bread

            Communion, as in “bread and wine,” is a symbolic act that reminds Christians of the sacrifice Christ made on our behalf. Michael O. Emerson states that in the US, communion of the saints consists of the most segregated hour of the week (Sunday morning). The article I read suggests that this segregation is no more complex than our desire to keep worship to similar melatonin levels. That means that white bread is both what is served and who serves it in most historic churches. Therefore, it is unlikely for an undocumented immigrant to be invited to worship in the community where he/she does landscaping or childcare. However, Christ had something completely different in mind.

We cannot remain silent or be still at a time when our own brothers and sisters are scorned or threatened –for, as one member of the body of Christ suffers, we all suffer (1 Corinthians 12:26). 

The Saints: Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

            The most common faith statement in Christian churches is Symbolum Apostolorum, or the Apostles Creed, and it affirms communion of the saints as central to the beliefs of a Christian. Who, then, are the saints?

“God shows no partiality, but in every nation one who fears him and does what is right and acceptable to him”  (Acts:34-35)

So there it is, your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to be in fellowship with the fearful and obedient folk. But, are people who break immigration laws being obedient or God fearing? Taking the question at face value, the answer is no. Does that mean that they are not saints in the fold? Now that’s the rub, ain’t it? Consider that anyone who speeds, cheats on their taxes, takes unfair advantage of government benefits, does personal business on company time etc. is violating the law. So, if I can justify speeding when I am late for work, then how much more justifiable is crossing a man-made line to save your family from starvation. Fortunately, God allows me to be a saint because of what Christ did, not because of what I do. I merely accept a call and work to show my gratitude. But, more importantly, I am called to call. Whom am I supposed to call? EVERYONE. Why? Because He said so.

Questioning the Question

Is breaking immigration law obedient or God-fearing? Questioning the question itself, what is left is a myriad of possible answers and further questions. Is immigration law just? Is your reason for breaking the law just? Would Jesus do it? Would Jesus mind if I did it? The best biblical apology for immigration, both legal and not is in Church World Service’s immigration article. The blog Quo Vadis tells the story of a woman who married a man who got his residency by fighting in Iraq. He applied for her residency and was denied. She is now living without documents in the United States. It could be years before she gets another shot and nothing guarantees that she would be accepted. What is just about that?

Love Your Neighbor: from a distance?

I had a friend in College who approached a church about volunteering for them. Several of the members in that church have stadiums, libraries or schools named after them. An elder of that church took my friend to the parking lot and pointed at the people lined up at the homeless shelters and food pantries that other non-profits had set up across the street.

            “If you see any of those people wandering into the church, give them a ticket to the pantry, or a bus ticket if they need it, but make sure they don’t come in and bother the members. We have very important names in this church, you know.”

            I can see Jesus rolling his eyes from heaven at first then being tempted to pick up a whip and turn some tables. Seriously though, when I firs heard this my mind jumped to a passage of scripture I was forced memorize in the fourth grade.

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them, those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Hebrews 13:1-3

            This is one of the many references to our responsibility to foreigners/immigrants found in the bible, but the message is clear. Be welcoming!

What Other Saints Think

The only church executive whose face I could find in an online video on immigration is Peter Borgdorff, former Executive Director of the Dutch-founded Christian Reformed Church. He addresses hospitality within our gates in the context of the immigration protest marches against House bill HR4437, passed in the spring of 2006, but rejected by the senate.

            Borgdorff, however is in some pretty impressive company. The Presbyterian denomination PC (USA), with its Scottish roots, has an official statement on its site in favor of comprehensive review of immigration policies, and the racism underlying the debate:

                             Mexican immigrants reveal again our divided mind about immigration. They are told they are needed and at the same time that they are not wanted. They are regarded both as burden and benefit. Political and geo-graphical boundaries are in and of themselves part of the human social existence… However, the only boundaries Christians recognize ultimately are those established by justice and love.

            The Reformed Church of America, another historic church with Dutch heritage, has been discussing since 1983. The result was an official stance on immigration with a series of responses that favor compassionate immigration policy.

            The Evangelical Covenant Church, of Scandinavian lineage, explicitly calls its members to love their documented and undocumented neighbors coming in from other countries through an official statement.

     The Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church seeks to faithfully welcome both documented and undocumented immigrants with the love and peace of Christ as well as stand in solidarity as a people who bear good news in thought, word, and deed. The doors of our churches must remain open to all that would receive God’s saving Word.    

Historic Predecessors

            Since Christians and Jews share a common document, it is no surprise that the American Jewish Committee and the Vatican see eye to eye on several things, including immigration. The American Jewish Committee made its point in a 2002 statement reaffirming the need for generous immigration policies even in light of the attacks on September 11, 2001.

     Understanding the significance of these events, AJC recently began a process of reexamining its policy positions on immigration. Upon extensive reflection and debate, AJC reaffirms its commitment to fair and generous immigration policies, as fundamentally good for the United States and consistent with Jewish values.

            Pope John Paul II gave a message on World Migration Day, on July 25, 1995 calling the Church to consider migration from the complex reality of emigration rather than the simplified immigration arguments.            

His irregular legal status cannot allow the migrant to lose his dignity, since he is endowed with inalienable rights, which can neither be violated nor ignored.  Illegal immigration should be prevented, but it is also essential to combat vigorously the criminal activities which exploit illegal immigrants. The most appropriate choice, which will yield consistent and long-lasting results, is that of international cooperation which aims to foster political stability and to eliminate underdevelopment. The present economic and social imbalance, which to a large extent encourages the migratory flow, should not be seen as something inevitable, but as a challenge to the human race’s sense of responsibility.

            To me, at least, it seems that I would be going against half of Jesus’ teachings were I to disregard or reject undocumented immigrants. It further seems to me, that I’m in pretty good company on this imperfect side of heaven if I’m to take that stance. I understand that not everyone agrees, and that I did not quote or link to those who do not. I must say that what I found to the contrary were blogs of such hateful and often vulgar tone that I decided to keep that off of my own blog. Still, this is an open door. So, with that I leave any comments, disagreement, dissent, and hopefully civil and intelligent discourse up to you. Thanks for reading…let’s talk.