Discrimination with Immigrants
What? I was quite unfamiliar with the term, “amnesty” prior to reading this excerpt. To familiarize myself with this concept, I searched up the defintion for this term. “Amnesty” is an official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offenses. Since “abolition” meant the action of ending a system, practice, or institution, I reflected on how these two concepts were interrelated to each other. The difference between them is that one is granted while the other is a movement. Both of these are intertwined with our current conflicts with immigration and discrimination.
In “Amnesty or Abolition?” by Kelly Lytle Hernandez, the concepts of amnesty and abolition are assessed through the history of immigration. Hernandez begins her writing by informing the readers about the secret importation of Chinese contract workers into the US. Deemed as “coolies,” these workers were seen as “racially inferior” and were possibly even used as a replacement for African American slave labor. It wasn’t until 1862 that Congress passed the Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 which prevented further importation of these workers into the US. This would eventually be known as the “last slave-trade act and its first immigration law.” — the start of immigration policies. Hernandez goes onto speak about Frederick Douglas, an abolitionist and former slave, and his view on these new measures being taken on immigration. Douglas was fully supportive of an unrestricted immigration policy although many believed that introducing Chinese immigrants would facilitate “the slave problem.” Douglas refuted this statement by explaing that the problem was not the Chinese people, but the way that they are dehumanized and perceived as ammenities rather than human beings. It is the racism against their group that provides the notion of sustaining a current problem.
Following the Anti-Collie Act, the term “illegal alien” was created as more restrictions were placed on Chinese immigrants. “In 1882, Congress banned Chinese workers and all “lunatics, idiots, convicts, those liable to become public charges, and those suffering from contagious diseases.” In 1885, all contract workers were prohibited from entering the United States. In 1891, polygamists were added to the list of banned persons and, in 1903, anarchists, beggars, and epileptics joined the growing list. In 1907, Congress also excluded imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, unaccompanied minors, those with tuberculosis, and women of immoral purposes.” (57) The effort to keep immigrants out is very apparent with these new conditions. The usage of vague terms, such as “idiot” and “lunatics” perpetuates the strict immigration laws as these are very objective terms and anyone can be held against them solely by impression. Although these laws were supposedly aiding with “the slave problem,” it paves way for another societal conflict — discrimination in immigration. Eventually all people of Asian-descent were restricted from entering US grounds, but this did not stop other immigrant workers from migrating to the US. The situation at hand was that not all of them were entering on legal means. This would lead to the development of the term, “illegal immgration.”
The Supreme Court would eventually find the rules of immigrants migrating to the US and living there on unauthorized means. In time, the Supreme Court would come to establish immgration as a matter of “foreign affairs” (57) Additionally, they would also decide that the goverment would be able to deport foreigners at any given time. “This decision also established that “deportation is not a punishment for crime” but rather an administrative process of returning immigrants to the place where they belonged.” (57) Although this may be the case, why is it that deportation is treated like a punishment? There are undocumented individuals out there who’s worse fear is being deported back to their home country. Furthermore, immigrants are at risk for being deported if they violate US immigration laws. Therefore establishing deportation as an administerative process is not enough to explain for its effects. It is now used as threat against immgrants.
The name “criminal alien” would come into play when immigration control must decide what to characterize immigrants with a criminal record and those who did not have one. “ To defeat the image of a poor worker crossing the border without sanction, a Border Patrol supervisor instructed officers that, “whenever a criminal record exists, we use the words, ‘criminal alien,’ and when no criminal record exists, the words, ‘deportable alien.’” (62) Again this creates a sense of dehumanization for these people as they are categorized into different groups. They are molded down into these terms rather than seen as people who are seeking out new opportunities in a new land.
So What? When relating to my community partner NGS, I think it is important to be aware that many of the students attending the program come from immigrant families who have possibly faced these types of discrimination as they made their way to the US. The students could also be affected by this in their schooling as they are not offered the same educational opportunies as their peers of different ethnic groups. During my structural analysis research, I compiled information on racial inequalties of educational opportunities. There is a potential display of instutional racism within their schools that limits the students’ quality of education. Their social status may be a factor that perpetuates these inequalities, leaving them with less occasions for higher quality education.
Now What? During my research, I found an organization by the name of American Civil Liberties Union, which not only supports immigration amnesty, but a wide variety of other movements such as LGBT rights, prisoners’ rights, women’s rights, disability rights, and more. The union fights for the civil rights and unconstitutional acts against the people. Regarding immigration, the group provides current event updates in immigration stories, such as the detention system and the abuses of ICE and Border Patrol. They raise awareness about the current situations by holding organizational events and sending messages to the goverment voicing their concerns of the policies at hand. It is an organization that anyone can join and at any time and are also able to chose from a handful of movements to support.
